Month: May 2011

I said goodbye to Mom today

Written by Randy Corman 5 Comments

Photobucket

My Mom died peacefully today after a three year battle with Alzheimer’s. She has been surrounded by family in her final days, and I got to hold her as she passed. She was a fantastic Mom, Grandma, and Great-grandma and it’s been very difficult to say goodbye to her.

Here is some more information about her, and some recent photos of her.

Mary Ellen Corman May 7, 1936- May 26, 2011

Livermore resident Mary Corman died peacefully 26, 2011, at the age of 75. Mary was born and grew up in rural Kansas. She graduated from University of Kansas, where she met and married her husband Gary Corman in 1957. They moved to Livermore in 1960, and she has lived in Livermore for the past 51 years. Her husband of 38 years, Gary Corman, worked at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
Mary was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Livermore since 1960, and served as a church deacon as well as in many other volunteer roles. She was active in the Livermore arts community during the 1960s and 70s, and her creative works included paintings, illustrations and photography. She worked many years as an illustrator for religious and educational publications.
Mary turned to computers for her artwork beginning in 1983, and was active in online communities for over two decades until she was diagnosed with lewy body dementia in 2008.
While raising her children, her home was always teeming with neighborhood kids and pets.
Mary is survived by four children: Roger Corman, of Santa Rosa, CA; Brenda Gallardo, of Livermore; Randy Corman of Renton, WA; and Sharon McLeod of Livermore. Mary is survived by her two brothers Ken Roger, of Renton, WA and Jerry Roger of Tulsa, OK. She is also survived by her two sons-in-law and two daughters-in-law, 12 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren. She is predeceased by her husband Gary Corman.

Here is a little more information about my Mom and Dad.

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Mayor Law supports more time to consider downtown library decision

Written by Randy Corman 4 Comments

Council
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 4:28 PM
Attachments:

From: Denis Law
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 1:47 PM
To: Denis Law
Cc: Jay B Covington
Subject: Downtown Library

Dear Councilmembers,

Following weeks of debate and recent developments, I want to propose that you consider postponing any decision regarding the location of a new downtown library.

Given the importance of this topic and the impact of this decision to everyone in our community, I believe it is important that all our councilmembers be present and participate in the library debate and ultimate decisions. Councilmember King Parker will miss next Monday’s Council meeting due to a business trip, and Council President Terri Briere will be out of town the following week. In addition, some of our councilmembers have expressed their desire to have additional time to seek input from a broader base of our community, beyond those who have expressed their view at recent Council meetings.

Yesterday, we rolled out a comprehensive downtown safety initiative that includes additional police officers, rigorous enforcement, cameras, lighting and more in downtown Renton and the Transit Center. Unfortunately before we could implement this program and put these strategies in place, we had a gang-related shooting in downtown last night. Postponing this decision will allow us to fully implement this plan, which we believe will dramatically improve the sense of safety in our downtown area.

We are confident that there will not be any significant impact to the library decision if we decide to take some additional time to study it further and get additional public input. However, we do recommend moving forward with the design and financing of the Highlands Branch.

If you agree with this option, I also recommend that you delay the second reading of the bond ordinance and your decision on the Inter-Local Agreement.

If you feel this idea has merit, it needs to be discussed in an open meeting on Monday. I wanted to send this to you now so you would have a couple days to consider this option.

Denis Law
Mayor, City of Renton
1055 S. Grady Way, Renton, WA 98057

Downtown Renton library plan continues to divide the community and council

Written by Randy Corman 20 Comments


Many residents are saying they are not ready to replace the iconic downtown Renton library

At last week’s meeting of the Renton City Council, we had a spirited discussion about the proposal to build a replacement downtown library at the former Big 5 Sporting Good’s site next to the Piazza. This session was covered well by the Renton Reporter in this article here . Following last week’s meeting, Council has continued to receive significant email and citizen comment about the downtown library location. A few days ago we received a 43-page petition titled “Save our Library.” The hundreds of signatures on the petition were collected from library patrons during the past week. Email comments seem to be about five-to-one against moving the library.

As I said at last week’s council meeting (and discussed in a previous blog entry here ), I think we should be patient, and gather all the facts and input we can, in making the final decision about the downtown library location. I would be happier to see us first complete the proposed new Highlands library, building it to the proposed size of 15,000 square feet (increasing it from it’s current 6000 square feet.) Once it is completed and in operation, citizens could more easily evaluate whether the size would be sufficient for downtown (which is proposed for the same square footage.) Furthermore, having the Highlands library built to full size would minimize inconvenience to residents when the downtown library is worked on, regardless of whether it was moved or renovated.

Completing the highlands library first would also give us the time to complete another critical part of the plan– what to do with the building over the river if we move the library. The mayor and council have indicated that we intend to save and re-purpose this building, but the plan is not yet developed. Since there is no use defined, no one yet knows what the upgrades would cost to support any viable new use. We’ve been told that refurbishing this building to continue its long-term use as a library would cost close to ten million dollars. A reasonable assumption is that any other use would cost nearly as much, or perhaps even more, depending on how much activity was planned.

For example, the existing library is load limited in it’s central section where it spans the river (it can handle about 60 pounds per square foot), and this central section is therefore used for low-load purposes such as tables, chairs, and computer work stations. This use generates much less load than it would as a reception hall where hundreds of people could be dancing in rhythm. Ultimately, we ought to know the proposed use and the cost of retrofitting before we commit that we will re-purpose this building.

The consequences of failing to come up with an acceptable and affordable use could be severe. If the building gets labeled as abandoned, or falls into disrepair, there could be numerous agencies (Federal government, State Fisheries, Muckleshoot Tribes, etc) pushing Renton to demolish it. And demolishing it would not be cheap– many expensive permits would be required, salmon-migration dates observed, and contractors paid. We’ll have to keep the building maintained and in some type of use, with the heat and lights on, to prevent this fate. This could take us many years. I won’t feel comfortable promising citizens that we are keeping the building until this plan, including the funding, is worked out.


The above is the header page of a 43 page petition, with up to twelve signatures per page. The petition submitters have said that they are gathering more signatures daily.

I’ve included two examples of recent emails we have received below, one in favor of moving the library, and one against.

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