Licton Springs Neighborhood

LICTON SPRINGS COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Minutes of Board Meeting:
January 18, 2005
NSCC President's Board Room

Directors Present:

Liz Kearns, Debra Willendorf, and Ellen Beck.

Board Representatives Present: Ken Thompson (North Precinct Representative); Kay Mesirow and Melissa Coiley (Emergency Preparedness Committee Heads).

Visitors: Jocelyn Freilmyer (Open Space Seattle 2100 member and a University of Washington Landscape Architecture student), Jean Wirch, and Tom Meyer.

President Liz Kearns called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. Introductions were made around the table.

Liz explained that Jerry Owens was not at our meeting because of being at the State of the Neighborhood Summit at City Hall. Jerry is president of the Northwest District Council.

Minutes: The November 16, 2005 minutes were approved as presented.

Treasurer’s Report: There was no Treasurer’s Report.

NEW BUSINESS:

Open Space Seattle 2100
Jocelyn Freilinger told us the mission of Open Space Seattle 2100 was to design Seattle’s Green Network for the next century. She said that they were looking at watersheds and where they have been altered, 103 years after the Olmstead Brothers designed a park/green space plan for Seattle. She encouraged us to attend the upcoming Green Futures Charrette to be held February 3 and 4, 2006.

Discussion followed about the Licton Springs neighborhood and Licton Springs Park, including problems because of dirty runoff coming into the Park wetlands to remove non-native reed canary grass that would take over if left alone.

Jocelyn said she would be working on Open Space Seattle 2100 until March. She hoped there would be a review document completed by then. If there is not, someone else will be taking over what Jocelyn is working on.

Pedestrian Overpass at 85th and Meridian
Liz read an e-mail from a longtime resident in the community living at North 86th Street. The resident wondered whether anyone had ever suggested building a pedestrian overpass over North 85 th at Meridian Avenue North. The resident has seen many people over the years crossing North 85th at Meridian instead of walking down to the crosswalk at Wallingford. An overpass could provide for a much safer crossing of North 85th.

This was discussed. Unfortunately, funding is very tight in the City and it is doubtful whether funds could be found for such a project in the near future.

Bob Ferguson Town Meeting . Bob Ferguson is holding his first town meeting of 2006 on Tuesday, January 31, 2006, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. at Meridian Park Elementary School. The town meeting will focus on emergency planning. Kay Mesirow and Melissa Coiley said that they would be able to attend the town meeting.

OLD BUSINESS:

Emergency Planning Meeting
Kay and Melissa reported on the plans for the upcoming meeting focusing on Emergency Planning. They also had questions. Discussion about our March 15, 2006 meeting ensued. The cafeteria has been reserved. It was decided that the meeting would go from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. SDOT needs one and a half hours for their presentation. There will be questions after the presentation, so time needed to be allotted for that.

It was questioned whether we needed to have refreshments and a microphone, and if a microphone, what type. A stationary microphone was thought best. We will have cleanup responsibility and need to find out from NSCC personnel how to do the cleanup, what their system is.

The potential number of community members attending was discussed. Kay reported that she had estimated from census records that there were 10,000 people living in Licton Springs. It was suggested that we could perhaps get pre-addressed mailing labels from Bob Ferguson.

The entities within the neighborhood to be invited/informed were discussed. They include: the Fire Department, NSCC, North Precinct, City Light, Oak Tree, Northwest Hospital, Aurora merchants, and Wilson-Pacific (Seattle Public Schools).

Having a signup sheet was suggested, as well as methods to get people to sign in. It was suggested we have people sign in on cards. Jocelyn suggested we could have the sign in cards used for a raffle drawing. This would make people want to sign in! She suggested the prize could be a first aid kit or crank radio. Both these items are needed in case of an emergency.

We do have a credit at the UPS Store for making copies.

Liz volunteered to call Neil Hanson of SPD regarding block watch.

It was decided to not plan our second “follow-up” meeting on emergency planning at this time. SDOT has follow-up meetings planned after their initial presentations.

Crosswalks on 100th
Liz gave an update on crosswalks at 100 th she had received from J.C. Clapp. Ms. Clapp met with Megan Hoyt from SDOT and was told that plans were currently being drafted to make extensive pedestrian safety improvements on College Way between and including 97th and 100th Streets. The plan should be done and ready for community input and approval this spring. Due to the budget cycle, it probably won’t get built until next year, or possibly 2008.

Sidewalks on 100th
Shauna Walgren, SDOT Community Outreach person, told Liz they hope to get the drainage issues worked out by the end of February and the project underway this spring. Ms. Walgren said that we might see people painting lines (once we have dry weather). That will indicate they’re close to commencing work.

Newsletter
Anyone with articles for the Newsletter should send same to Debra Willendorf.

Our next meeting is Wednesday, February 15, 2006.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,