LICTON SPRINGS COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of Community Meeting, September 16, 2009,
NSCC Conference Room 1B2311

NOTE: This was our first meeting in NSCC Conference Room 1B2311.1 Everyone found the new location and with just a couple of glitches (door to lobby locked; conference room door locked), we held our meeting. The conference room is quiet (!!) and the chairs comfortable. It’s a good location for our meetings.

Directors Present:
Jerry Owens, Tom Meyer, and Ellen Beck.

Board Representatives Present:
Ken Thompson (Liaison to North Precinct) and Kathleen Braden (List Serve).

Visitors:
Bruce Kieser (Facilities and Plant Operations Director for North Seattle Community College), Kathy Package, and Jean Wirch.

Jerry Owens called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and we had introductions around the table.

Minutes:
The June 17, 2009 minutes were approved as presented.

NEW BUSINESS:

Land Use/Zoning
Jerry has been to two pre-meetings on Northgate overlay zoning changes. He said they seem to be sensitive to our concerns.

Northwest District Council
Jerry reported that road projects had been approved in our District, but none of the projects are in our neighborhood (unfortunately).

Uses of List Serve
Kathleen Braden asked if the List Serve should be used for police bulletins and/or emergencies. With the recent incident at the College, she did forward a request from the police for homeowners to turn their outdoor lights on, because they were searching in the neighborhoods. Discussion followed. It seemed a good use of the List Serve to forward emergency information.

City Orchard
Kathleen reported on a new organization that wants to map all the fruit trees in the City. There was interest in learning more about this organization.

Future Topics
Future meeting topics were discussed. Ellen Beck suggested that we have someone come to explain ranked choice voting. She had read a special to the Times advocating ranked choice voting for King County.2 Discussion followed. It was also suggested that we invite the mayoral candidates. We can’t endorse political candidates, but we could have both of them come and speak at a meeting. Both suggestions met with approval.

Halloween
Ellen reported letters requesting donations had gone out to the usual recipients for this year’s Halloween in the Park. This is the one event that LSCC sponsors in the neighborhood. Discussion followed. It was agreed that if additional monies were needed, the LSCC would provide funds. We didn’t have financial records at the meeting, but in past year’s LSCC has provided funds.

Clean & Green Seattle
Ellen reported that our Licton Springs e-mail received a message from Rene Murry, with GAIN North, and an attached flyer for an October 17th neighborhood cleanup. It is from 9:00 a.m. to noon and folks meet up at the Music Center of the Northwest, 901 North 96th Street. The flyer was passed around.

Inquiry Re
Land Ownership. Ellen related about another message to our LSCC e-mail from a woman inquiring about a piece of land that wraps around from North 86th Street along Meridian Avenue North and then up along North 85th Street toward the freeway. Ellen passed the information request along to Dave Barber, who works with the City. Dave’s response, included an attached map which showed the land belongs to WSDOT and SDOT. Dave, and we, would like to see our “tax dollars to be used to maintain these kind of areas.” The map was passed around.

OLD BUSINESS:

NSCC Update.
Bruce Kieser reported on North Seattle Community College. The College is working on their 25-year plan, which the City Council must approve. He told us that they have not yet been able to schedule the required meeting with the Department of Neighborhoods.

He gave us a handout about the Integrated Resource Center. “The IRC project is targeting a LEED Silver certification to fulfill the State of Washington mandate” on sustainability. Bruce told us the College is, in fact, “shooting for LEED Gold.” The contract has been signed and the winning bid was 25% under the contract amount. Work will commence on Monday, September 21, 2009, and be finished in January 2011 (16 months later). The cost is $19,871,465.

When the IRC is completed, bus routes will be changed to go by the IRC because of the requirements of handicap accessibility.

Enrollment during the present economy is up as people enhance their training and retrain. The College is growing programs and numbers of students, while at the same time being forced to cut back their budget.

NSCC spends the least to run/maintain the College. While NSCC needs to update and renovate the College, there are 23 colleges that are in a worst condition. NSCC’s maintenance crew is very good.

Bruce reported the Day of Caring had been a success with a lot of grounds projects worked on. He said their goal is to remove all English ivy from campus. It is not native and is a noxious weed.

North Precinct. Ken Thompson reported on the North Precinct. Discussions continue about relocating the Precinct, which was designed for a maximum of 117 officers, but for a long time has been above that number. Presently, there are more than 200 officers assigned to the North Precinct. Of course, in the present economy, there are no funds for relocating the Precinct.

The October meeting of the North Precinct Advisory Council is planning to have the Seattle mayoral candidates as guests. The Advisory Council meetings begin at 7:00 p.m. on the first Wednesday of month. Their meetings are now held at NSCC.

Land Use/DPD
Tom Meyer reported that he has continued to scan the DPD website since April for projects happening in our neighborhood. There have been only a few commercial projects, including the College. Otherwise it has been just alterations to single homes.

Tom said he was curious as to why the cell tower did not “pop” up for construction/ land use. He will research this.

Newsletter Articles
Tom suggested that we have an article on the “Police Beat” about the recent incident at the College involving a homeless person. Bruce said NSCC doesn’t allow homeless encampments on campus, and sweep the grounds weekly. If anyone is found, they are given notice and if they don’t move out, they are evicted. The Public Information Officer for the College is Carol Summers and she prepared news releases about the incident. We could possibly receive copies of her news releases for an article.

We could also have a follow-up article about the dog incident at Licton Springs Park.

Our next meeting is Wednesday, October 21, 2009.

The meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Ellen M. Beck, Secretary