Olympus or Bust

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of July 30, 2013 

The Newcastle City Council was in session for a rare daytime meeting as councilmembers passed a major infrastructure project and a plat plan for Laurel Ridge.

The Council, by a 5 - 1 vote (Mayor Rich Crispo dissenting), passed a pavement overlay and rehabilitation plan -- in other words, improving and fixing city roads -- for a cost of about 1.7 million dollars, including Schedule C (roads around the Olympus neighborhood) which they decided to add this year, by a 4 - 2 vote (Crispo and Carol Simpson dissenting), instead of delaying until 2014.  Simpson warned that doing too much in one summer could heavily block transportation in parts of the city, particularly during the school season, but the majority wasn't buying her argument.  Going by past statements in previous meetings, Mayor Crispo's views about road fixtures seems to be on the budget cautionary side more than his Council brethren, as he has implied that the continual anxiety or hand-wringing about roads in Newcastle is a bit overdone.  A sentiment that Councilwoman Simpson shares, but apparently not as much as the Mayor given her affirmative vote for the overall plan. 

The plat plan for Laurel Ridge was approved by a 5 - 1 vote (Carol Simpson dissenting).

Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen was not present for this session of Council, and thus the six-person instead of the usual seven-person votes.

[revised on 8/2/13]

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified.

Greene's Community Service

Mark Greene is hoping to peel off at least one or two endorsements from Newcastle City Councilmembers.  If you are one of those Newcastle City Councilmembers who support Mark, and happen to be reading Northern Pacific Report, please, contact Mark through e-mail or phone as soon as possible (Mark must turn in his voters' pamphlet statement, soon, and would like your endorsement on it).  Thank you!

Mark Greene's community service through Democracy in Election Process (helping citizens with voter registration, civic affairs and legal matters) and listening to the political concerns of Newcastlers should be of some benefit in this election for City Council, Position No. 6., between Greene and John Drescher.  The ballots will be mailed out in mid-October, your vote will be much appreciated.  Thank you!

[revised on 7/24/13]

Note: the previous post has been updated and revised on 7/25/2013.

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified.

Council Meetings Should Be at City Hall If At All Possible

Council meetings should be held at the regularly scheduled time and place if at all possible (by the way, the public school auditorium in Newcastle where some town hall meetings by various public officials are held is much closer to a bus line than the golf club if more space is needed to accomodate a larger audience).   Next Tuesday, July 16th, is the same date that a regular Council Meeting would ordinarily be held at City Hall, but the only apparent reason that it is being called "special" that same day is due to its irregular location and time, not accessible by mass transit.  Public meetings, without at least some unusual or unforeseen circumstances in mind, should be available to the greatest possible audience.

[revised on 7/25/13]

Working on Energy Project

Council Candidate Mark Greene stayed home yesterday from his usual outings to City Council meetings to work on his local energy proposals that he intends to make sometime this summer in front of the Council.  This included reading and writing down ideas for his upcoming speech. 

Several days ago, the issue about lawn signs noted in a previous post ("Council Approves Funds For a Full-Time Detective") was resolved as the City Manager helped by looking into it.

[updated on 7/5/13]

Bellevue Impedes Pedestrians' and Bicyclists' Right-of-Way

Who knows when a motorist must suddenly and unexpectedly become a pedestrian?  Such as when the vehicle just doesn't run for any number of reasons, like engine problems or a flat tire.  However, if a motorist must become a pedestrian on Coal Creek Parkway near the Coal Creek Culvert Replacement Project, that prospect just became considerably more risky, if risky at all before, as of July 1, 2013, if not a day or a few days earlier than that, due to a seemingly arbitrary decision by the work management there to pull in concrete slabs so close to the fence -- on the officially closed walkway (sidewalk) side -- that it is virtually impossible to walk through. So what would a person trying to navigate that area do besides walk in the street, which is dangerous, or try to walk on top of the slabs (can't figure out which one is more dangerous, but both sound like risky prospects)?  Not long before or on July 1, there was enough space between the slabs and the fence for a person to safely walk through, but that is no longer the case.  To officially close off a relatively short portion of the street to pedestrians at all (and it appears to cut off bicyclists, too) seems arbitrary in and of itself, considering the logistics of the project and that no motor vehicle of any size is similarly impacted, but that's really a side argument to the point that somebody may need to use an officially closed walkway in an emergency situation.  There should a very good reason why that should be hazardous, but there doesn't appear to be one.

[revised on 7/13/2013]

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.]