Newcastle Neighborliness

Since living in Newcastle since '05, I find that Newcastlers are generally neighborly, as they are doing things that often would be the purview of the city: volunteering for various community projects, programs (including my Democracy in Election Process program), and city commissions, picking up litter along non-residential roads and sidewalks, as I often do myself, sweeping up leaves even in areas where there is not an obvious residential dwelling, and doing civic things in general that contribute greatly to our town and wider community.

- Mark Greene, Candidate for Council
Update: the first part of this essay, since transferred and revised, has been put in the "Memoirs and Poems" part of our overall blogs.

[revised on 7/29/13]

Uncostumed

City of Newcastle, WA  -- Council Meeting of June 18th, 2013

Penny-pinching (except for roads), lame-duck Councilman Bill Erxleben, who thinks council salaries are not low enough from the already minimum wage salaries, or even the sub-minimum wage set for Positions 5, 6 and 7 next year,* was fresh back from a back-to-back meeting hiatus with a review of a play called "City Council Meeting" (the meetings in Newcastle virtually never announce why a councilmember is absent, such as for illness, vacation, a death in the family, etc., only that a member is excused, so N.P.R. doesn't know the reason for Erxleben's absences, and therefore nothing is inferred, here).  Erxleben went on to say that the play was drawn from actual City Council meetings from around the nation, and that the tone of the meetings, by and large, were dry, drab and dull.  Arguably, Newcastle's only councilmember with a bit of charisma and theatricality, Erxleben implied that council meetings in general needed to be spiced up to attract more attention and civic involvement by the community.  Mayor Rich Crispo, in response to Erxleben, joked sarcastically about "costumes," but the meeting he presided over last Tuesday evening was duly uncostumed and about as dry a meeting as attendees are accustomed to (at least, the first 2 hours of, according to a source, a 2 1/2 hour meeting).

By 7 - 0, the Council unanimously passed a Transportation Improvement Program by Public Works Director, Mark Rigos.  Financially speaking, the plan has a $400,000 hitch to it, according to Finance Director, Chris Olson, a shortfall not expected to take place until the year 2019, which concerns project T-028, which concerns sidewalks and bikeways on Newcastle Way.  The plan for this year includes a number of pedestrian and road programs, which includes engineering studies on geologic hazards, traffic hazards, speeding and intersection evaluations, among others.

Snow removal was brought up as part of a discussion about sidewalk maintenance.  There was some back and forth, among the Council, City Manager Rob Wyman, and Community Development Director, Tim McHarg, about who was responsible for removing snow on city sidewalks in front of private property in the event of a major snowfall, and the consensus seemed to be that both the City and property owners were responsible, although not equally, with the onus mostly on property owners (City Attorney Dawn Reitan cautioned the Council against being one-sided in favor of the City having very much less or no responsibility).  Property disputes between neighbors also came up for discussion, but if there was any contention among the councilmembers about any of these issues, it wasn't readily apparent at this very agreeable, "uncostumed" meeting.

*Note:  Council Candidate Mark Greene agreed with Councilman Erxleben about last year's vote to reduce salaries of councilmembers, but for different reasons.

[revised on 6/21/13, 8:00 P.M.]

Spring Lull Over

As some readers may have noticed, N.P.R. had a little end-of-spring lull from posting from the 6th of June to now, and our page views suffered as a result, going from over two thousand views per 30 days to around 1600, today.  Remember, it's very important to Council candidate Mark Greene's anti-annexation campaign for supporters to pass the word through social media and old-fashioned word-of-mouth about this blog (URL: http://commonsnorth.blogspot.com).  We need to make this blog popular in Newcastle with your help.  Thank you.

[revised on 7/11/13]

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.

400 Tens From 400 Citizens For a Green Earth

The election for Newcastle City Council really has only one race this year, between me and my opponent, so once again, in politics, it's a contest between The People and The Establishment.  I hate to say this, but that doesn't bode particularly well for my campaign, because the Establishment, writ large, despite their poor record, manages to dazzle enough people with glitz and gloss to win almost every election, to the point that The People have become practically demoralized and are hardly trying to win elections anymore, however, I am still trying.  The Establishment has pulled us into debacles from everything to nuclear waste contamination at Hanford Reservation to, among many other crises, the gigantic, Texas-sized waste dump in the Pacific Ocean that few of them even care about, let alone do anything about.  However, humanity will ignore the pollution and devastation of the great oceans of the world to our detriment (as the title of this blog infers, this is especially not incidental to this area), which is why we must begin to win elections and form policy.  It starts with The People running for local councils such as what I'm doing, then moves up to the state and national legislatures, and on and on.  A victory in Newcastle, and other small victories here and there (other American towns and cities), will be the necessary incremental small steps to recapture the greater commons and the environment.

I have agreed, through the auspices of the Public Disclosure Commission, that my operating budget for this campaign will be no larger than $5,000.  With 400 Newcastle and nearby community citizens (or from any state in the nation) sending me $10 each, that will account for 4/5 of that ($4,000), with the last 1/5 as a buffer in which some larger and smaller contributions could fill and to ensure that not one penny in campaign operations will go over $5,000.  I wlll use this money for signs, buttons, fliers and general campaign paraphernalia.  One of the side panels of this blog will show how many tens have been received and how many are left to go to reach 400.  The checks should be made out to Mark Greene for Council, P..O. Box 612, Belle., WA 98009. Thank you!

- Mark Greene

[revised on 6/1/2013; 1:35 P.M.]

Greene to Unveil Green Energy Proposal

Council candidate, Mark Greene, will detail an energy proposal and plan for the city at the early-July council meeting.  Greene would like Newcastle to take from the example of Lund, Sweden and start a geothermal plant to help residents save on energy costs and possibly start the city on the road to the green energy center of Washington state, where "green" companies would be given a big welcome by City Hall.  Greene envisions two or three small office buildings being built in Newcastle where a consortium of innovative green energy companies would set up shop and thus contribute to the economy of our city, including jobs for our residents.  The contents of Greene's speech will be written on Northern Pacific Report a day or two after the meeting.