but close ....
City of Newcastle -- Council Meeting of March 5, 2013
Newcastle Police Chief, Melinda Irvine, could easily be cast as the Sheriff of Mayberry and not notice a great difference between Newcastle and that fictional North Carolinian town, but if Deputy Barney Fife could be catapulted from the old "Andy Griffith Show" to this small city, he might want to find an extra excuse or two to stay back in the office and guard the "menacing" town drunk.
Chief Irvine gave a report to the Newcastle Council on crime in Newcastle, and the general essence of her report and statistics were that Newcastle's crime rate is relatively low for a city of this size, around 10,000 population, and has remained more or less steady for the past five years. The most significant increases in crime since 2008 were burglary, larceny, and thefts from vehicles. Burglary, however, especially jumped since '08 to more than double. Larceny and thefts from vehicles showed increases. Thefts of actual vehicles, however, declined since '08. Violent crime in Newcastle is very low. The number of incidents of violent crime in Newcastle has been in the single digits for every calendar year since '08 with the exception of 2010, but even that year showed only 13 reported incidents of violent crime, with aggravated assault accounting for about 2/3 of those. There have been no murders in Newcastle during this 5 year period. Chief Irvine said that a burglary ring was recently broken up by police, but that repeat offenders could or have posed a problem after serving their time in jail. Irvine also said that Newcastle needs a full-time detective to work on cases and extra patrol officers (Newcastle currently has a part-time detective).
In other Council business, Washington Dept.of Transportation Toll Division Director, Craig Stone, gave a report to the Council on the I-90 Tolling Project. Stone basically said that Interstate 90, between I-5 and I-405, will be tolled for the dual purpose of managing traffic and providing funding for the construction of State Route 520 from I-5 to Medina Project. He also stressed the environmental review that must take place, which he says will include outreach to affected communities. Councilman Gordon Bissett implied that community equity was being disregarded as far as this project is concerned, questioning why I-5 wasn't being tolled and implying that the political powers in Seattle had significant impact on decision-making in this regard. Stone didn't seem to disagree much, but said that questions of equity were being evaluated. After noting that mostly non-city residents drove on it and the high impact on the city's budget, Councilman Bill Erxleben asked Stone if Coal Creek Parkway could be tolled? Stone replied, basically, that there was nothing that says that Newcastle can't toll Coal Creek.
City Manager Rob Wyman reported that Parks Commissioner Peggy Price resigned. Price was at the center of controversy during last month's contentious Parks Commission meeting. Wyman received statements of commendation for his work in managing the city from a number of council members, and an almost 4% pay raise. Councilman Bill Erxleben was especially pleased that Wyman's expertise saved the city a bunch of money after a road repair financial crisis, but he also was the only councilmember that directly criticized Wyman at the meeting. Overall, however, Erxleben said that Wyman was a good manager. The Council, generally, praised Wyman's staff hires as excellent and Wyman received a unanimous de facto vote of confidence via the pay raise vote.
This Council's general non-enthusiasm, to put it kindly, for so-called affordable housing was on display, again, as Councilman John Dulcich wanted Community Development Director, Tim McHarg, to review it for the Comprehensive Plan, and it didn't appear as though in the pro-active, pro-affordable housing sense.
Planning official, David Lee, told the Council that only 13 of the 25 legal requirements for the Comprehensive Plan have been met by the city. The Council and Lee seemed to agree that these statutory requirements should be the minimum standards for the Plan.
Council candidate, Mark Greene, requested that the Council, for environmental reasons, ban plastic bags (shopping) and styrofoam (packaging), as he noted similar bans enacted by Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, regarding the former, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, regarding the latter. Greene said that cities and towns, generally, needed to be more aggressive in mandating recycling reforms, reminding the Council of the gigantic waste dump in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
[revised in March of 2013]
