Come this summer in Woodinville, it won’t just be wineries such as Chateau St. Michele reaping the fiscal harvest of concert crowds drawn by the unbeatable combination of smooth Syrah and samba, or Cabernet and cool jazz. The Woodinville City Council is set to give final approval Tuesday night to a resolution green-lighting beverage sales by local wineries and breweries at the city’s revamped summer concert series in its landmark Wilmot Gateway Park. Through it runs the Sammamish River Trail which is used by bikers, joggers and walkers and connects to the Burke-Gilman trail.
Collaboration in Civic Spheres
Archive for the ‘Parks/Recreation’ Category
Woodinville to OK local wine, beer sales at city park concerts
by Matt Rosenberg April 2nd, 2012
Shoreline parks smoking ban survey draws pointed views
by Matt Rosenberg March 19th, 2012
With a planned discussion of a recent citizen survey and a presentation of what could be the final draft of a new ordinance, the Shoreline City Council March 19 is poised to move one step closer to a scheduled vote March 26 to ban all tobacco use in all parts of all the city’s parks and other city outdoor recreation spaces. Enforcement would be voluntary, by parks patrons, not police, and city costs for signs would range from $3,000 to $5,000. Although almost 70 percent of respondents in the online survey supported the proposed blanket smoking ban in Shoreline city parks facilities, comments varied widely. In a special information packet on the policy, for the council’s review March 19, city staff provide the survey results including a broad sampling of residents reactions; while also sharing the proposed final draft of the smoke-free parks ordinance.
In the non-scientific survey accessed at the city’s Web site, ban opponents argued that smoking is legal, not very harmful outdoors, and that peer-to-peer enforcement would be risky. Among their comments:
Connected Seattle city worker stayed on payroll after felony
by Matt Rosenberg March 7th, 2012
In a ruling issued this week a state appeals court upheld the convictions for first-degree perjury, and gross misdemeanor counts of stalking and cyberstalking by a then-City of Seattle Parks and Recreation Department employee named Andre L. (Luis) Franklin, now 30. The case stemmed from what the appeals court ruling details as a sexually-themed online vendetta by Franklin against another city parks worker, a woman with whom he had been romantically involved.
But the story goes deeper. Although Franklin was placed on leave in late 2008 after the victim notified city personnel authorities and parks officials understood him to have admitted the cyberstalking; public records show he somehow landed another city job – as a painter for Seattle Public Utilities earning $57,464 base pay in 2009 and $63,739 gross pay in 2010. Though public records confirm he was paid for a full year’s work in 2009 as painter for SPU, Public Data Ferret has learned he did not actually begin working at SPU until December of 2009. In addition, his defense attorney Steven Witchley of Seattle confirms Franklin is currently employed in a temporary position as a solid waste inspector for SPU.
Shoreline Mulls Smoking Ban In City Parks
by Matt Rosenberg January 24th, 2012
Shoreline plans to roll out an online survey of residents in the first quarter of 2012 to help officials decide if it should join a growing group of Washington jurisdictions which ban use of tobacco products in their parks and sometimes other outdoor public spaces as well. At a city council meeting last night, members considered as a study item a detailed information packet including a city staff memo on the policy-making process and written presentations from King County – which is taking a regional leadership role in promoting smoke-free public parks. A key provision identified by city staff in the packet is that there is no money for extra enforcement. That would depend on hoped-for effects of signage and enforcement by local parks users and any police or parks staff who happened to observe violations while conducting other work tasks.
Bald eagle viewing on Skagit River starts Saturday
by Leif Hansen December 12th, 2011
Starting this coming weekend of December 17 and 18 and through January 29, visitors can again witness one of the largest wintering populations of bald eagles in the lower 48 states descending upon the Skagit River’s supply of salmon. Providing assistance will be volunteers from the Skagit Eagle Watchers Program hosted by the US Forest Service. Three viewing stations with off-highway parking along North Cascades Highway 20 provide spotting scopes and binoculars to help you see the birds up close, at Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport, Sutter Creek Rest area (milepost 100 on Highway 20) and the Marblemount Fish Hatchery. Look for the yellow signs. Beforehand, you can view a special map which shows the sites and get background on Skagit River wildlife. Call 360-856-5700 for more information.
Removal from Endangered Species List
In 2007, the bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list in the lower 48 states. According to a national bald eagle survey conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, breeding pairs of eagles in the lower 48 have continuously increased from 1963 to 2006. The same study showed an increase in breeding pairs in the state of Washington from 398 in 1990 to 848 in 2006.
Bald eagle in Skagit River Watershed/U.S. Forest Service
Resting in Washington, Nesting in Alaska and Northern Canada
The migratory eagles are coming to the Skagit River from as far away as Alaska and Northern Canada. “During the peak times of the winter you could be looking up and see several hundred eagles in a single day,” says Forest Technician and Eagle Watchers Program Field Coordinator, Tanya Kitterman. “Normally we count 300 [eagles] a day on average. It’s fun to go out every week to the same places and see the eagles and what they are doing. There was one day we saw 700 eagles.”
Northwest Salmon; Vital to Bald Eagles in Western WA
Nestled in the Mt. Baker- Snoqualmie National Forest, the Skagit River is the only river system in Washington to host all five native salmon species. Kitterman said, “The eagles that we’re looking at in our program are migratory and are coming down to the Skagit to feed on salmon in the winter time. The eagles aren’t nesting here, they’re nesting in Northern Canada and Alaska and they’re coming down here specifically for the chum run that we have in the Skagit River.”
Kitterman is unsure what this year holds. “Chum numbers are low this year and we don’t know how many eagles are going to show up.”
Human Interruption
Human activity can also play a factor in the number of eagles in the area. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, bald eagles can be deterred by pesticides, interference with feeding patterns at gravel bars, and other human disruptions. However, the eagles in Washington are usually non-nesting and have grown accustomed to a certain amount of respectful human presence. Kitterman said, “the eagles that are down here are kind of used to being around people. We teach people to not approach the gravel bars while they’re feeding.”
Last season alone there were 5,525 visitors that came to see the migratory eagles along the Skagit; and 7,200 visitors in 2009-2010.
Map of North Cascades bald eagle viewing areas/U.S. Forest Service
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North Creek Forest conservation gets big boost from Bothell
by Matt Rosenberg November 14th, 2011
A community-driven and grant-funded effort to preserve a forest for recreation, conservation and environmental learning in the heart of suburban Puget Sound has received a big boost with the City of Bothell okaying a purchase from the Boy Scouts of America for 35 acres of the North Creek Forest, straddling the border of King and Snohomish counties on the side of Maywood Hill just west of Interstate 405. The sylvan swath is within walking distance of 9,000 students at eight different schools, including the University of Washington-Bothell, Cascadia Community College, and public and private elementary, junior high, and high schools.
North Creek Forest includes another 29 acres held by other owners, which conservationists also hope can be acquired, and is home to 34 nesting bird and nine mammal species, nine wetlands, seven streams and an uplands coniferous forest. Pending an environmental assessment of the property to be completed by December 15, and with a land sale closing deadline of December 31, the initial purchase can now proceed following the unanimous approval of Agenda Bill 11-210 last week by the Bothell City Council at a regularly scheduled meeting.
The bill authorizes the city to complete a $450,000 purchase and sale agreement with the Boy Scouts plus $10,351 in closing and acquisition costs for 35.66 acres comprising the northern portion of North Creek Forest. The land buy is funded by a series of grants the city was awarded with much of the legwork done by two local groups, Friends of North Creek Forest, formed only last February, and the longer-standing Help Our Woods. Awarded to the city were a Snohomish County Conservation Futures grant of $200,000, a Washington State Department of Commerce grant of $193,987, a King County Conservation Futures grant of $33,182, and another $33,182 from the King County Proposition 2 Park Expansion Levy.
Surveillance Cameras Coming To King County Parks
by Matt Rosenberg November 11th, 2011
Frustrated by years of continuing vandalism in the parks and natural areas it operates, King County has quietly announced it is seeking bids for surveillance cameras to watch over some of those facilities. Next Thursday November 17 is the revised deadline for formal responses to a request for bids to provide, install and train personnel in the operation of four new surveillance cameras per year for the next five years, at an estimated annual cost of about $28,000. Although the original bid request didn’t specify where the cameras would be used or what for, potential bidders wondered, and so in an addendum the County specified that “the security camera systems will be used primarily to monitor various King County Parks facilities to prevent theft and vandalism.”
City will remove race-based graffiti at Seattle Parks boating facility
by Matt Rosenberg September 29th, 2011
Only last month, after 12 years and a $3 million public-private fundraising effort, the George Corkery Family Boating Center re-opened at the City of Seattle’s Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center at Stan Sayres Memorial Park along Lake Washington Boulevard in Seattle’s Mount Baker neighborhood. Our fellow Seattle Times news partner The Rainier Valley Post reported on the milestone. It’s a great, community-driven improvement to a government-owned site that’s a hub for aquatic recreation in boating-mad Seattle and a focal point every summer for the iconic hydro races of SeaFair.
It’s now unfortunately also the site of some ugly graffiti which blames “white people” for a U.S. “terror-hate” campaign in Iraq.
In a reference to the U.S.-led war in Iraq which began in 2003, graffiti over the men’s room urinals adjacent to the just-upgraded facility proclaims in blue magic marker, “terror-hate by White People in Iraq.”
Told of the graffiti, Seattle Parks and Recreation Department spokesperson Dewey Potter said it would be removed. She stated, “hate crimes come first. We’ll take care of this as soon as possible.”
UPDATE, 9:41 a.m.: Potter emailed to say that a work order has been sent and the department will get the graffiti “removed immediately.”
Race-based graffiti in men's room of Seattle parks department boating facility in Mount Baker neighborhood/Matt Rosenberg