Tonight’s meeting took place in the lodge. It’s fairly cramped in the Maple Room, if you haven’t been in there before for a council meeting. I used to wonder why the council didn’t just hold meetings in there, but it’s difficult to see presentations, speakers, and all of the council members at the same time.

Here’s what the council talked about tonight:
1) Puget Sound Regional Council presentation (traffic + transit)
2) Neighborhood Reinvestment Program (grant money)
3) Suburban Cities Association Transportation Issues Discussion (more transit)
4) City Manager’s Report, Lobbying Update (money from the state)
5) Good of the Order (open mic for council members)

MOST INTERESTING – Item #2
The most interesting ended up being #2, the Neigborhood Reinvestment Program. If you don’t know, the NRP is a grant money program where neighborhoods can submit proposals for improving their area.

Glacier Valley II wins the grant money sweepstakes, and gets $15K from the city to enhance their playground. They are also contributing over $11K of their own money.

What made this the most interesting was the discussion of the Lake Wilderness Preservation Association’s proposal for two dog stations. The stations would hold plastic bags for dog owners to pick up poop with, and would have two garbage cans next to them.

That started off a lengthy discussion of dog poop among the councilors, and how people collect it, such as:

1) Dog owners need to bring their own bags, and why should the city provide them.
2) The cans shouldn’t be next to the bags, since dogs aren’t likely to poop next to the cans.
3) But if we only provide bags, dog owners might just toss the poop bags into the bushes
4) Why would dog owners bother to pick it up in the first place only to toss it in the bushes
5) Just put in more cans, and dog owners can bring their own bags
6) Who is going to pay to replace the bags (LWPA said they would)
7) There could be potential liability for providing these stations
We already have dog stations in the park, so what is the difference in liability (I’m assuming that if the LWPA replaces bags with ones that aren’t safe, maybe the city gets sued, since the LWPA is just a volunteer organization).

It wasn’t really resolved, other than asking the Parks people to look into it further.

OTHER ITEMS SUMMARY
#1 – Puget Sound Regional Council report
The presentation was a brief review of the Transportation 2040 plan. As you might have guessed, they have various plans for solving traffic issues (different levels including more highways, more buses, more transit, bike paths, etc). You can read the executive summary online at http://www.psrc.org/projects/trans2040/alternativesexecsum.pdf

#3 – Suburban Cities Association Transportation Issues Discussion
Glenn Smith and Noel Gerken spent some time talking about this group. They meet with other suburban cities to talk about their transportation problems. To an outsider, it seems more like a gripefest about how the smaller cities are getting screwed. You can read more about their public policy decisions online at http://www.suburbancities.org/public_policy/index.shtml

#4 – City Manager’s Report – Lobbying Update
We’re lobbying for money from the state. What we’re lobbying for isn’t entirely clear from the minimal discussion. From the tone of their voices, we’re not satisfied with what we’re getting. Hopefully, this can be made more clear in future meetings.

#5 – Good of the Order
National Night Out will now be in our neighborhoods, rather than one big park event at Lake Wilderness, due to poor attendance.

Ryan Ryals (me) had complained about the golf course restaurant in the public comments section, and how we need to assemble a citizen advisory committee made up of restaurateurs and entrepreneurs to make recommendations. Council will get a report on June 8th discussing the restaurant issue and its money problems.

**** I know these are really long, but I’m still working out the best format for these summaries. Bear with me, and please send me your suggestions for improvement!