Shoreline City Council Meeting June 17, 2013

Notes from Shoreline City Council June 17, 2013

By Devon Vose Rickabaugh

World Refugee Day

Mayor McGlashan presented a proclamation honoring World Refugee Day on June 20. World Refugee Day was established by the United Nations to honor the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homes under threat of persecution, conflict and violence.

Mayor Keith McGlashan presents the proclamation
to ICHS Foundation Director
Photo by Devon Vose Rickabaugh

“The City of Shoreline has long recognized the richness and value brought to our community by refugees and immigrants. It has also supported services these families need in order to adapt to their new country and community. International Community Health Services (ICHS) is currently constructing a new community health center slated to open in the fall of 2014. ICHS chose Shoreline as a site because we are both home to many immigrants and refugees and because the location on Aurora provides ready access to those living nearby. In addition to this new and needed service, the City of Shoreline provides funding to the Center for Human Services and the Refugee Women’s Alliance of Washington who both support refugees. In observance of World Refugee Day this proclamation recognizes the day in the City of Shoreline and honors the courage, resilience and determination of refugees and the organizations that support them.” 

Ron Chew ICHS Foundation Director received the proclamation.

Capital Improvement Program

The council spent this meeting listening and responding to the update of the 2014-2019 Capital Improvement Program (CIP). The City is required to annually adopt a six-year Capital Improvement Plan. This plan is broken into four funds – General, Facilities Major Maintenance, Surface Water and Roads.. City Engineer Tricia Juhnke explained  the key projects and their estimated cost in each of these areas. Since all of the projects will not be funded the council members discussed  projects they thought were high priority.

Finishing the Aurora Corridor between 192nd and  205th  was one of the first priorities for most of the council members. Juhnke said that the last bid that came in was higher than the available budget. She said staff recommends allocating an additional $500,000 to $1 million to adequately fund the project.

Council member Hall said “I think we are systematically underfunding road maintenance”. He said he didn’t think the resurfacing product used last was holding up and he wanted road maintenance to be a higher priority than sidewalks. Council member Eggen wanted to know what projects won’t get done when others have higher priority. He said street lighting is a safety issue and “traffic circles a waste of money.”

Most of the council wanted the city staff to pursue buying Cedarbrook School property when the school district sells it. Also the council wanted more information on the “Kim” property adjacent to Paramount Park and to hold off on the Jackson Shortplat located south of Paramount Open Space.

In addition to pipe repair and replacement, The Boeing Creek Basin Plan identified Hidden Lake sediment dredging as particularly challenging. With the heavy storms like the ones in November and December of last year the $50,000 allocated for annual maintenance went up to $275,000. Staff recommends developing alternative strategies to managing Hidden Lake dredging to avoid the current situation in the future and reduce this and unpredictable expense to the utility.  Council member Salomon suggested letting it fill up with sediment. Mayor McGlashan asked the staff to look into what effect letting the sediment build up would have on the storm water control facilities in Boeing Creek Park. Hidden Lake is supposed to be maintained as a natural habitat, a staff member said.

City Manager Julie Underwood and city staff will write out a list of projects and costs to be further discussed on September 16th.  A  public hearing will be held on November 4th and the council will adopt The Capitol Improvement Program on November 28th.