Everett Council of Neighborhoods

Council of Neighborhoods Meeting Minutes March 23, 2015 Meeting was called to order at 4:05pm. Agenda and minutes of the previous meeting were approved. Attendance: Citizen Comments: Dean Smith, Port Gardner, spoke on behalf of Snohomish County Train Watch. The group sat at train tracks for a full week, a year ago to count trains. The group counted 15 oil trains and 24 coal trains in one week. They will do the train watch count again this year, April 19 – 26. Dean is planning a practice evacuation on April 25. Feds, state and city aren’t doing much to protect us. Several explosions have occurred in north America, and could happen here. Not much we can do about it, BNSF doing rail improvements but can’t stop the slides. Choosing several blocks in Port Gardner and Bayside to leaflet and ask people to voluntarily vacate area and meet at school district admin building on Colby Ave. Train watch group will meet tomorrow night, library auditorium, speaker and plans will be made for train watch practice evacuation. Jackie Minchew introduced Jaye Lill, who is new addition to Lowell neighborhood. She is helping plan and promote the Lowell Days event. Vibrant Friendly and Healthy is theme. 150 Years history book about Lowell will be available. David Dilgard is going to be presenting at Lowell church this coming Saturday. Lowell Days event will be called the Lowell Promenade. Three separate event areas, Lowell Park, car show, BBQ, family games, Bark in the Park, Lowell Park to downtown area. Car shows on street, demonstrators, booths, authors. Prizes will be awarded for costumes. She asked reps to help get the word out, recruit local authors, vendors, all ages well. Scavenger hunt. Monday March 30 is kickoff – come pick up registration at Firewheel Coffee house. Speaker will give info to presenters to build businesses. 6pm- 7:30pm. Mayor Stephanson: Unable to attend, Mayor is in Washington DC. City Council Liaison: Council President Scott Bader – County courthouse on everyone’s mind. City is in negotiations with County on Parking. Possible plan to lease parking from city, city would build parking structure. Budget – first city budget amendment on April 8. Also will hear info for the upcoming 2016 budget. City continues to monitor legislature, not able to predict what will happen. State legislature may balance their budget with funds that would otherwise come to cities. Transportation and WSU funding requests are pending. Pat McClain and others continue to monitor. Most significant item this coming week is American Public Transportation Association peer review of transit agencies that took place. Peer reps met with Councilmember Bader and Gipson. Eager to hear report this week Wednesday. George asked about item 6 - Human Services funding. Consensus was not to raise annual amount, but Mayor mentioned need to repackage the funding. Deborah reported on Streets Initiative process. Parking for courthouse – Andrea raised concern about demolition of Hodges building, and the rest of buildings on block. Councilmember Bader responded that county is looking more broadly than that block, but within 500 feet of court house. That distance reaches our parking lot on this city block. Bellevue consultant study was pre-courthouse. City process and public discussion would take place before acquisition or decision. Question -- Very quiet about Foss Maritime – is there any activity on that? Councilmember Bader responded the city is in holding pattern, hoping courts will resolve issue about covering property with topsoil. Still interest on part of Foss to move forward. City Reports: Website Update - Meghan Pembroke – communications director, presented update on city website – working on it since Sept last fall. Getting positive feedback from city staff and community now that is has launched. Website works better for staff, easier to update. Excited that site is mobile friendly, such as laptop, mobile phone, tablets, etc. “Notify Me” is being implemented as new tool, sign up for notices. Analytics are now available on backside of site. Now city can adjust based on figures. Easier to navigate, search function actually works. More e-pay options coming in the future. Request Tracker not fully implemented yet but it will allow on line complaints. Community Voice – allows city to post questions, public can post questions, conversation, staff can post comments, clarifying questions. Ability to send newsletters via the website. Something to consider for future. Community Events – on line calendars – groups can post events. Submit an event. Moderated. Neighborhoods pages include events calendar. Animal Shelter and Parks have more elaborate pages and flexible with content. Ask Wendy for help with Neighborhoods pages, if it is a general issue, contact Meghan Pembroke. Michael asked about Meghan’s leave – 3 months – Sarah will be main point person. Steve raised about super menus and pinnable (pages stay open). Victor asked about Notify Me, and calendar is one of things that can set up notification. Neighborhoods are encouraged to use their own websites to post their own information. Parks – Paul Kaftanski – director – Update of Department’s comprehensive plan. Parks Open Space Plan. In 2010 plan was adopted. On file with state, have to submit updated plan every 6 years, in order to get state funds grants. Need to update plan by November 2015, adoption in December. Included in update– review vision and mission statements, updated goals and objectives, assess demand for services, updated inventory for what parks provides, and what other providers in community offers. Analytical process, produce plans for public review, then goes to city for adoption. In a data collection phase currently, interviewing staff and will conduct email survey of everyone within city of Everett. Using Survey Monkey, fill out to get pulse from community. Analytical process, 6 public workshops Sept/Oct/Nov to be held at Everett Station in Weyerhaeuser Room, and at south precinct. Comprehensive Plan does not include Parks element, but by city policy, it gets included into city comp plan, chapter 9. Include in city’s comp plan update. Hard copies will be at library, other city offices and parks buildings. JT asked about who requires comp plan updates for parks. Parks grant eligibility with state requires updates. JT asked if this is a useful exercise – good to take pulse of community on frequent basis, to re-affirm direction or tack and go in different directions. Michael asked about Paul coming to talk to neighborhood meetings. Paul will be available to talk about Parks comp plan. Tom thanked Paul for his efforts, doing good job with limited budgets. Paul responded that after 9 years at Parks, there is tremendous support from community, partner with neighborhoods. Can’t do it without city council and mayor support. Audience question – anti drug campaign in Seattle includes park programming as drug prevention effort. Paul responded that parks staff are involved and help with prevention, but hard to make correlation with services, and prevention. Michael asked about potential for community center at Silver Lake. Not currently any plans for project development given funding, not in the cards at this time. Priority at Thornton A. Sullivan Park will be boardwalk around Silver Lake, water access is priority. Question about accessing federal funds to upgrade ADA access? Curbing, ramps and stuff. Paul suggested Everett Transit Paratransit use to get to parks. Not all facilities are ADA accessible. Federal dollars for parks and rec facility is practically not available. National government does not provide much for parks communities. Apryl Hynes – Let It Rain program – Power point presentation. This is the umbrella program for rainfall stormwater management. Rain Gardens program: 13 rebates for rain gardens in north Everett last year, in combined sewer area. Offering 25 rebates this year. Tomorrow night, presentation to learn about program at Legion Hall at 6pm. Public Garden tours – April 25 - Washington Oakes is meeting location. Expanding city-wide. Rain Barrels distirbution – offering 1 day sale events at Public Works, $55 at cost. Make Your Own Rain Barrel events – April 30 $40. Need to elevate barrels. Good to watering smaller flowering potted plants, not so much for watering lawns. Downspout Disconnect Program – NW Sewer M, North Grand, north Everett locations. Snohomish Conservation District does the work to make the disconnection to happen. Boundaries – north of 41st street, map for combined sewer area. Offering free gardening workshops and classes – natural yard care series, less use of pesticides, May 6 and May 13. 5:30-7:30pm. Tour of rain gardens last year - Andrea noted that rain gardens seemed to inspire neighbors to upgrade their yards as well. Helps create more energy behind it, Car Wash Kits – system to reduce car wash water goes down drain in south end non combined storm drain. George asked about data being collected on impact of program. Teamwork: Social Practical reminder – session on social media for neighborhoods Comments on Streets Initiative effort – urged to call 911 about homeless people. Nominations Committee – only one person has responded so far. Dennis and Andrea both plan to run. Neighborhood Reports: Bayside -24 attended – Crime report, block watch, Williams Comp plan rezone attracted a lot of people. Cancelling Easter Egg Hunt. Group is focusing on Maggie’s Park improvements. Cascade View - Met on March 16 with 6 in attendance, speaker was Eric Hicks from Everett Fire. He spoke about Smart 911. Helps firefighters know what to anticipate issues in household. Police report given from Officer Soderstrom, who stayed for whole meeting. NextDoor.com discussed Delta – 19 people attended. Leadership discussed. Evergreen – np meeting Glacier View - did not meet Harborview Seahurst Glenhaven – 31 people, David Dilgard was guest speaker. April 4th Easter Egg Scramble, and parade, 10am. No April meeting, Parade on Seahurst Avenue. May 16th Yard Sale Lowell – Met in Feb and in March. No police report in March. Special events coming up for Lowell Days and Promenade. Focused on book launch and Lowell Days. Northwest – 38 -40 people. Had police report provided by Sgt Braley. David Dilgard, historian, was guest speaker. Pinehurst - had meeting on Feb 24 with police reports. Teen confrontations at Lions Park of concern, and discussed 75th street shooting, 14 year problem now settled. Block watch group working on area along 75th. Police caught person, 2 counts of murder charged. Planning presentation on Jazweick property 500 houses. Fundraiser for bikes to be distributed. Boys and Girls Club trying to get bicycles out to poor kids. Port Gardner – Had police report, over 30 people. Kevin Fagerstrom, code supervisor. Long presentation but informative, about all the places people had questions. Brian Sullivan attended meeting, moved into neighborhood, is running for office but wasn’t there to campaign. Riverside – 16-17 people attended. Sgt. Braley spoke. Zsofia Pasztor presented info on gardens. She is working with North Middle School gardens at NW corner of school behind QFC. Discussion of 1 year plan, and 5 year plan for neighborhood. South Forest Park – Two people came from DOT to discuss I-405 toll lane plans. DOT willing to come speak to other neighborhoods. Toll will be from I-5 to I-90. Kate Elliott, 206 390-3137. Elliottkate@washdot.gov Valley View – met on St Patrick’s Day, 16 attended. Police report provided. John Petersen Parks, spoke about overview of Parks system, gave an interesting presentation. Drainage on Broadway issue related to development of Jazweick property. New little free library at Sunrise and Panaview. View Ridge – 20 attended. David Dilgard talked about Morgan Park, and also about history of aviation in Snohomish County, including barnstorming and Boeing history. Announcements: None Top 5 Items to report: Practice Evacuation Event – train count also, April 25 Library event 6pm, main library City Council - Budget amendment April 18 City website – promote it to get info about city and neighborhoods Parks comp plan update and survey monkey Let It Rain – rain gardens tours, at Washington Oakes, rain barrels Social Practical March 30. Meeting adjourned at 6:00pm. Next meeting on April 27 Minutes prepared by Wendy McClure