Upper Bear Creek UAC Meeting Minutes

Date: January 29, 2002
Time: 7:35 - 9:00 PM
Location: Sunrise Elementary School, Redmond, WA
Board Attendees: Geoff Clayton, Nancy Stafford, Mary Filkins, and Peter Lamanna
King County Attendees: Marissa Alegria, Kathy Lambert
Community Attendees: Wendy Walsh

Nancy began the meeting with introductions of UBC members followed by announcements. The Department of Transportation Road Services Division is creating a Community Advisory Group composed of citizens from the unincorporated area and they are looking for volunteers.

The Service Awards were then announced.

1. Cottage Lake Elementary PTA received $1000 for its Outdoor Classroom project. Woodinville Adult Day Care Center received $500.
2. Girl Scouts received $1000. Denise Snow was present to thank the council. She said that 90% of girls are from the Woodinville area. She went on to described the various activities the girls do in their Day Camp i.e. camping, outdoor cooking, fire building etc. She also said to use her as a point of contact for community activities.
3. Woodinville West Little League received $2000. They will be using the money for portable pitcher mounds.
4. Northshore Soccer League received $1500. Dave Shipway was present to thank us for the award. The league is involved in field development projects in Snohomish County, King County and with private individuals. They will apply the award to fund these projects. They currently have somewhere between 5600 and 5800 kids. They no longer recruit because they do not have enough space. Dave is interested in adopting a King County park.

Nancy stated that the council is working on formalizing our award process. The goal is to keep the funds in the community.

Councilmember Kathy Lambert, District 3 was then introduced by Geoff. She is the Chair of the Regional Water Quality committee. Geoff mentioned BrightWater and its possible siting at Route 9 and the possibility of mitigation being applied to a recreational area there. Kathy asked for open issues to be presented. Geoff mentioned a few that are important to our area. Kathy thanked us for our involvement in the UBC UAC. Kathy is also the Vice-Chair of Law and Justice Services and is working with Sheriff Reichert. Louise Miller left her the equestrian package. It has a good start. Kathy told Marissa to go home this evening because of the snowy weather. Incorporated area parks will be closed before unincorporated area ones due to the budget cuts. Kathy would like to see us adopt a park. She is checking on the requirements, for instance liability, and working on a plan so that if any park closures happen here we are ready. There will be a 41 million dollar budget deficit that will require cuts in services. King County will need to be more efficient and have groups provide services. Parks has been merged with DNR and there have been changes, Kathy had list. Kathy has an email broadcast of what is going on. If you are interested, send her email. Her aids are Matt Pruitt (scheduler, overall problems), Gene Laughlin (transportation, public health), Russ Carlson (city manager from California, water, budget). Kathy is local to the area. She lives on Education Hill. Terry Lavendar and Geoff talked about how hard it is for volunteers to do work in county parks. Kathy explained that there is a state union law that prohibits other workers from coming in and doing government tasks. Wendy Walsh asked that news from Kathy's office also appear in the Woodinville Weekly. Kathy has the largest district in area size. One resident mentioned that law enforcement is 80% of the budget but we have very little enforcement. English Hill has hired an off-duty county officer to patrol. Wendy asked if Kathy would be at the community center. Kathy will not. She will instead be in the Woodinville City hall. They have offered her free space. She will rotate her office days thru Snoqualmie, North Bend and Woodinville.

Next, King County Roads Division, Aileen McManus, Senior Engineer, and Wei Huang, Senior Engineer presented on roads projects in the Sammamish Valley along NE 124th Street. a. 124Th St Signal Interconnect. Located between SR 202 and I-405 (across Sammamish Valley) in partnership with City of Kirkland and WSDOT. Aileen works in the Traffic Section. She had a handout summarizing the project. The goal is to coordinate the traffic signals from 100 Ave NW to SR 202 in order to reduce travel time by 25%. This is less costly than widening the road. King County is the lead on the project. They have scheduled to advertise the project for a consultant by the end of March. Construction is expected to begin the end of May. Fiber optic cable will be used for 100th Ave to Willows Rd and wireless from Willows Rd to SR 202. Fiber must be laid from 116th St to Willows Rd.
b. NE 124th St Phase II: reconstruction of intersection of SR 202 and NE 124th St to provide northbound right turn lane and a five-lane section of NE 124th. Wei expects the plan to be done mid-April and construction to start in July. They need a permit though to build a bridge over the slough. They will construct the south side of the bridge first. They will also relocate the section of stream that runs along the south-east section of the road so its flows into the slough. If they can get the permit and start in July they should be finished sometime during the fall of 2003. They won't work in the winter because of sediment runoff. Attendees doubted the sensibility of the project if they could not add a northbound right-turn lane on 124th S and a longer south-bound, left-turn buffer. The wetland on the northeast corner poses a problem.

Mary presented the treasurer's report to me. Besides the above award disbursements, $61.20 has been spent on stamps and $22.00 on the Sunrise Library Rental for tonight's meeting. Nancy Stafford was reimbursed for $500.00 used to establish the checking account. There is currently a balance of $2,216.80 in the account.

Next meeting will be Tuesday, February 12, 2002, 7:30 PM at Norm's House on Cottage Lake.