Written by Click HERE for the notice about tonight’s public hearing on the temporary closure of Duvall.
Council Chambers, City Hall, 7:00 PM
Washington Sheriffs and Police Chiefs would like your input about gangs
Dear Rentonites-
The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs would like your input about gangs.
You have an opportunity to provide testimony on Monday, December 10th, from 6:00-8:00 PM, at 10910 8th Ave South, in Burien. Your input will be used to help form strategies and policy regarding gangs and gang-violence. Your observations from Renton (whether positive or negative) would be of assistance to this team.
As an alternative, you can print the form below, and mail in your input to the team.
Here is the email I recieved on this topic, with an invitation for YOU, the community of Renton (and other South King County communities)
Thanks,
Randy
Read more about this, and see the detailed invitation and input sheet, by clicking here
Arctic piano delivery service
It’s Murphy’s Law… as soon as we load a piano to deliver it to a friend, it starts snowing.
Kari Kopnick begins documenting her family’s transition from King County to Renton
Kari Kopnick, above right, is part of the 17,000-person Benson Hill annexation area. Kari has agreed to document her experiences in transitioning from life in King County to life in Renton. I promise you will enjoy her writing style. This is her first installment.
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Here it is December. Finally. For me November was one of those months where you put your head down and charge through everything without even looking up. Whew, so glad that’s over. So, here it is, December, I have a little time to breathe again, and hey, today there was a beautiful snow fall! What a great time to go for a walk in my neighborhood. I hadn’t been for a nice walk in a month.
I headed out the door. The snow was falling, my kids had been out in the snow and had a great time. It was my turn. As I walked up the hill by my house it was almost twilight and the some of the neighbors had holiday lights on their houses that were starting to turn on as I walked past. It was so pretty! As I walked my thoughts wandered to what happened in the month I worked straight through.
“Hey! I know one really big thing!” I thought as I walked past the neighbors with a 20 foot tree decorated just like the tree Charlie Brown chose. “We’re really part of Renton, now!” That’s right, the most intense local election I’ve ever followed happened in November and now my Benson Hill neighborhood is really a part of the City of Renton.
So, I wondered, what does that really mean? I mean, yes our schools don’t change and our water services are still provided by the same folks. When we call the police they’ll come faster that the sheriff could, that’s great. And our taxes will go up a couple of lattes worth every year, sounds worth it. Come on though, what does it REALLY mean!?
I know; cheaper admission to Henry Moses Pool on those super hot days in the summer. OK, that’s good, that’s really good. But what else? Well, at Renton River Days we get to stand proud as real City of Renton residents. No more cousins from unincorporated King County! And our streets will be maintained, our zoning enforced, and what used to be a struggle to figure out who to call (stray dog? King County or Renton?) is no longer a question. We’re part of Renton. We’re Rentonites.
I like that. Rentonites. Very cool.
And the walk was excellent.
(above) Two of Kari’s sons enjoy the December 1st snowfall
Holiday Tree lighting at the Piazza
Our beloved Renton Piazza boosters put on a wonderful, bright, and snowy event at the Piazza yesterday.
Santa Clause came down for the kids, bands and carolers provided music, and the crowd was warmed up against the unusually cold night with hot apple cider provided by the volunteer organizers.
Jim Medzegian, the president of the Renton Piazza Team, did a fantastic job coordinating the event, and making it special for all in attendance. I would like to name his many dedicated volunteers, but I don’t want to leave anyone out, so I just wish to say that I really appreciated all their hard work.
I ran into councilwoman Marcie Palmer at the event, who was there with her lovely family, including her professional-photographer husband Gary.
Gary and Marcie provided me with these wonderful pictures from the event!
Thanks Gary!
Santa and his helpers arrive!
Artistic shot of the Piazza, showing the snow. (Thanks Gary Palmer for the great pictures!)
Santa entertains the kids
Marcie Palmer and her two boys (her husband is behind the camera!)
Me (on the right), with my son Andy and his girlfriend Amy
Duvall Avenue Closure; the latest news!
The city staff have studied all of the concerns raised by the public and the council, and have summarized their final recommendation into a nine page issue paper which was released yesterday. You can read the issue paper by clicking Here
We asked the city staff to prepare this comprehensive issue paper at last week’s Transportation committee meeting on this topic. We felt like the complete set of factors and considerations about Duvall needed to be available to all of us (including council) prior to tomorrow’s city council meeting.
What was not clear prior to our Wednesday meeting, was that even if Duvall was “open”, it was going to have to experience numerous temporary closures because of fifty seperate utility trenches that have to be dug across the roadway. This is due in large part to the fact that all of the electric utilities are being undergrounded (yay!), but that makes trenching across the road necessary everywhere that wires used to cross it from above (to hook up homes and other buildings). Also, trenches are necessary for sewer and water connections…so drivers would have experienced delays, metal plates across the road, and lots of rocks and gravel everywhere.
Most significantly, the in-Renton widening of Duvall would take two years (500 work-days) with Duvall open, and one year (250 work-days) with it closed. This is important, because the Newcastle portion will be open in 18 months; when the Newcastle stretch of Duvall is complete, driving that portion will be SWEET (two lanes each way). But if Renton still has six months to go, Renton would be the center of a big mess.
In summary, the Council Transportation Committee (made up of Marcie Palmer, Don Persson, and me) have made numerous suggestions to mitigate the risks and impacts from closing Duvall; with these mitigations, we now feel that it is probably appropriate to close the road for the construction period.
Here are the primary mitigations:
To protect the school kids:
We will post a police officer at Sierra Heights during school arrival-departure hours, to ensure that posted spreed limits and other driver safety requirements are consistently observed.
We will not allow trucks on union during the school day (other than school buses).
We will re-stripe Union avenue, to add a third lane…a long dedicated left turn lane, into Sierra Heights parking lot, such that parents and bus drivers will not have to wait in the queue of drivers making their way to Bellevue on the peak AM hours.
We will add a temporary stop sign at the school if it becomes necessary.
We will encourage traffic to detour on 148th and May Valley Road in preference to Union Avenue, by way of signage, an preferences at the intersections of 95th, May Valley Road, and Duvall.
To make it manageable to drive to Bellevue:
We have reviewed detailed modeling of drive times, and found we can get people to Bellevue as quickly with these detours as we can by keeping Duvall open, through the use of preferences at the intersections of Duvall, May Valley Road, and SE 95th. This is because the choke-point on the trip to Bellevue will be the one lane that Newcastle has open, across the bridge (under construction) and through the construction zone. This one-lane will move slowly, so traffic in Renton will be backing up during peak hours whether or not we have Duvall open. With Duvall closed in most of Renton, we can mark a free-turn onto the open portion of Duvall (without a stop sign) at either 95th or at May Valley Road, whichever works best to get drivers onto Duvall. This is expected to work as well as keeping Duvall “open”, especially since it would be subject to closure during the 50 trenching operations mentioned above.
Other changes:
We will add an imporved left turn pocket (refuge pocket) for drivers truning left out of Summerwind onto highway 900 (Sunset). There is sufficient width, such that re-striping, and safety turtles will make it possible to get a long protected center lane to assist left-turning school-buses and automobiles.
So, in one year in Renton, and 18 months in Newcastle, Duvall will be open with two lanes, and traffic on 148th and Union will drop to lower levels than either road has experienced in years. The new, wider Duvall will accommodate over twice as much volume as before, and make the commuter short-cuts on Union and 148th largely ineffective and unnecessary.
Because of all of the above issues, the $ 3,000,000 savings is not even the biggest factor. It’s possible we would chose to close Duvall in any case, just to realize the time savings.
As always, I value YOUR opinion on all this! So please feel free to share your comments!
Renton Reporter Survey
My wife is trying to get though the Renton Reporter survey (earlier discussion here). She is determined to win the $3000 so she can take the family to New York to see some productions on broadway that we are interested in. 🙂
Her complaint is that only about ten percent of the survey asks about the paper’s news content, and the rest is all marketing demographics.
Some of the questions are kind of leading too, in a funny way,….like this one!…
“Including groceries, what percent of your shopping dollars are spent outside of the South King County Area?”
Another good question was “which of the following animals do you own”, and one of the choices was an “alpaca”. We’re talking detail here friends! (We used to have llamas, but alpacas were a bit too exotic for us)
Still, filling out the survey is probably a good thing to do for those who can find the time. It seems like she has spent about 35 minutes on it so far, and she still has a ways to go.
And our local paper is important to our community, so we should do our best to make it better.
Clam Lights at Coulon Park
Clam Lights at Coulon Park
On Friday, Nov. 30, Ivar’s Clam Lights at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park begins. A ride on Santa’s Covered Wagon, holiday entertainment, and the Parade of Boats kick off the holiday season. The fun starts at 6:30 p.m. with the official lighting ceremony at 7:20 p.m. Clam Lights runs through Jan. 1.
Elections office coming to Renton this weekend
Here is the story about the elections office move to Renton, from today’s PI.
King County WA Elections offices move to Renton
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE — King County Elections will close its office at the King County Administration Building in downtown Seattle and Boeing Field next week to move to a new facility in Renton.
The move will begin this weekend and continue through December.
The 94,000 square foot facility is a redesigned, two-story building.
Elections officials say it will improve the security of ballots and vote counting.
The new facility is designed to accommodate present and future requirements, including vote-by-mail. It will function as a regional voting center when the county goes to all mail voting in August 2008.
A low-stress Thanksgiving
Observations from North Renton….
Here is a beautiful comment I received from a North Renton reader.
We Agree . . . Renton is Beautiful . . . .
A walk along the Cedar River as you watch the salmon, the many herons, ducks galore, an occasional bald eagle(!!) and a beaver or two enjoy what the river has to offer . . . .
A crisp fall evening as the lights from Renton Memorial Stadium fill the night, along with the roars of the football and soccer crowds . . ..
The smell of fresh vegetables and herbs at the Renton Pea Patch . . . .
A stroll along the Cedar River Trail . . . .
A gathering of friends and neighbors at the Piazza for a farmers’ market . . .
Little League and softball games at Liberty Park . . . .
A quiet reading at the main branch of Renton Public Library . . .
A noisy day at Clayton Scott Field as you watch Boeing’s jets fly away . . .
The Landing . . . The Landing . . . . The Landing . . .
Welcome to North Renton. Renton’s Finest Neighborhood.
We’ll see you soon, because we truly are the “Heart of Renton.”
We live in a beautiful city….
Whether you live in a classic century-old tradition home downtown, or near the shore of Lake Washington, or down by the Cedar River, or in a highland plateau neighborhood, on one of our many view hillsides, or in a 1950’s era neighborhood just like mine, there is beauty all around that is unique to the Northwest.
This is a photo looking down my street yesterday.
We have so much to give thanks for.
A happy, funny meeting last night :-)
Last night’s council meeting was very productive, and a lot of fun for the council. While we accomplished much serious business, some confusion and miscues left all of us laughing….at one point so much so that Marcie Palmer was nearly in tears, and most of us had a difficult time uttering “aye” during a roll-call vote.
We all seemed to share equally in the goof-ups that lead to the laughter. Council President Toni Nelson was sitting in for Mayor Keolker, but Toni occasionally missed her cue when someone asked for the floor by stating “Madam Mayor.” When this happened, Toni would silently look at whoever was speaking for a few moments, and then suddenly remember that she was in-fact madam mayor. At which time she would laugh, and we would all laugh with her. Don Persson thought he would be helpful by referring to her as “Madam Toni,” which cracked us up even though it was a practical solution. We had a complicated docket of resolutions, ordinances for first reading and advancement to second reading the following week, ordinances for first reading and advancement to second reading last night, and ordinances that had been read before but required a second reading last night. At one point, I tried to help Toni with the order, only to realize I was giving her bad advice and mixing her up further, which led to another laugh. At one point, Toni called for a roll-call vote, and then proceeded to read the roll herself, a task that the clerk typically does. She made it though just fine, with nobody saying anything about it, but laughed out loud when I whispered a reminder to her that she could leave that to the clerk. After that, several members mixed up one another’s names, and made some other amusing comments. Once we were all laughing, the laughter itself made us laugh harder. When roll-call voting, I watched as one colleague after another struggled to say “aye” when their turn came up because the were laughing too hard for the words to come out. Since I was last, it was most difficult for me…it was not easy to compose myself enough to vote audibly.
Through all the laughter, we managed to get a lot of important business done, and we had a nice time doing it. We set the property tax rate for next year (1% increase over this year), we took some zoning actions, voted to maintain the current driveway width standards, selected next year’s president and president pro-tem, and took care of other miscellaneous items. For as long as I have known her, Toni Nelson has always done a nice job of managing council meetings. For the council members, and the audience in attendance, this meeting was a productive, nice, upbeat session after a difficult campaign season.
Renton City Codes online; does not appear to be anything about helicopters
A well-informed reader of this blog commented that all city codes are available (by a third-party firm) online at this site here I suppose I should have known this, but I have been relying on the old fasioned method…big hefty binders at my council desk.
Anyway, this link is great, and I will add it to my main menu.
I have performed a serch on “helicopters,” “helicopter,” and “heliport” and only got one hit: in the definition section under aircraft.
Other than that, the code appears to not speak about zoning for helicopters.
If anyone knows differently, I would love to get your input.
Thanks!
Information and Email about the proposed construction closure of Duvall
Click here for more information about the proposed Duvall closure, from the City of Renton Website.
And below is an email where my council colleague (And Transportation Committee chair) Marcie Palmer directs our City Transportation Administrator to your concerns expressed on my blog. READ MORE »
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