Council Approves Funds For a Full-Time Detective

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of June 4th, 2013

By a unanimous vote of 5 - 0 (Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen and Bill Erxleben were absent), the Newcastle City Council voted to approve funds for a full-time detective (Christy Marsalisi)
for the Newcastle Police Department.  Police Chief Melinda Irvine told the Council that this would be a good step to take after she made a summary of the responsibilities of a detective and noted an overall increase in crime in Newcastle over a period of years, particularly an acute increase in burglaries.  The current part-time detective would now be phased into full-time over a period of about 6 months, which means she should be a full-time member of the Newcastle Police Department on or before New Year's Day, 2014.

By a vote of 4 - 1 (Carol Simpson dissenting), the Council approved a resolution for a public participation and work plan for the Comprehensive Plan (now, called Newcastle 2035) update as recommended by the Planning Commission.  Simpson's reason for dissenting appeared to be on a technical point, not on the general resolution.

Other business discussed or scheduled for the June 4th agenda was the 2014 - 2019 Transportation Improvement Program as introduced by Public Works Director, Mark Rigos, and the evaluation of a proposed sidewalk extension on 129th Avenue.  [N.P.R. did not stay for the entire meeting.]

At the beginning of the meeting, during public comments, Lee Strom asked the Council to look into the possibility of having bike lanes on 88th and 89th streets similar to those on Newcastle Way and 116th street

City Manager Rob Wyman said he would look into the matter of Council Candidate Mark Greene's lawn signs being taken down, unauthorized, and apparently, according to Greene, by a certain work crew.

[updated on 6/6/13, 1:00 P.M.; revised on 7/16/13]

Earthquakes and Washington

This topic for N.P.R. was totally unplanned until an airing of "Inside Olympia" was showed on the TVW cable station, today, but they had an interesting show to remind us that we live in an earthquake zone of the world, sometimes referred to as the Pacific Rim of Fire, and that all of us should be prepared for a possible natural disaster emergency.  Particularly worrisome is the possibility of a great earthquake (N.P.R. can't recall the exact term that was used) as opposed to the "shallow" earthquake of 2001 that caused havoc in Washington, though few casualties.  They said the great earthquake could happen anytime, from now to 500 years from now, and that everybody should have an ample supply of food and water in reserve.  N.P.R. doesn't feel experienced enough to make any technical suggestions, but everyone should research for themselves and have a plan on where would be the best place for immediate safety during an earthquake.  Every city in Washington should have some kind of earthquake and/or tsunami preparedness plan at the ready.  By the way, "Inside Olympia" (channel 23) does a lot of re-runs within the same week, so this particular show might still be airing, and is probably on the internet as well.