Weather keeps city crews busy
February 3, 2012
Public Works employees slept in City Hall overnight during storm
By John Jensen Griffin Cour, a Newcastle resident, catches some air off of a snow pile near Newcastle Elementary School during the snowstorm that created havoc for city staff members for more than a week beginning Jan. 15.
While most Newcastle residents endured the brunt of January’s snow, wind, ice and consequential debris from the comfort of their own homes, five members of the Newcastle Public Works maintenance crew weren’t so lucky.
Despite 16-hour shifts, equipment malfunctions and no covered space to put chains on vehicles, Public Works Director Mark Rigos said the city staff “did an exceptional job under the circumstances.”
Mutual Materials eyes potential redevelopment
February 3, 2012
Nestled back from a short, paved driveway off of Newcastle’s Coal Creek Parkway, the now defunct Mutual Materials brick plant still looms large.
Covered awnings still protect masonry products and other materials, stacked more than 10 feet high on pallets, from the rain.
A small stream meanders by the closed chain link fence gating its entrance and a quiet has essentially blanketed the plant since it shut down its day-to-day operations last spring.
But now a different kind of work is going on here — work that might lead to redevelopment of the site that would impact the city of Newcastle for years to come, a fact not lost on Mutual Materials executives and shareholders, Mutual Materials President Joe Bowen said.
“Given the sense of pride that we’ve had about what we’ve done there, we just want to make sure whatever the result of that property is … that we’ll be able to look back at what goes in there and still have that sense of pride,” he said. “The community of Newcastle has been very, very gracious to us for years. It’s important that we give this the consideration that this community deserves.”
CCUD hikes water, sewer rates
February 3, 2012
Increase is due to rising water costs from Seattle Public Utilities
Newcastle residents can anticipate increases as they open their water and sewer bills this month. The Coal Creek Utility District Board of Commissioners adopted new water and sewer rates for 2012 at its Jan. 11 meeting.
The new rates take effect this month.
The average single-family household will see its monthly water bill increase $4.48 and monthly sewer bill increase approximately 80 cents in 2012, according to the district.
Water rates are scheduled to increase 12 percent in 2012 — with more than half of that increase due to the higher cost of water purchased from Seattle Public Utilities.
Water rates will continue to increase by 6 percent in 2013 and 3.25 percent in 2014.
Sewer rates are scheduled to increase 4.5 percent in 2012 and 2013 and 3.5 percent in 2014.
Those percentages also apply to the district’s commercial, irrigation and multifamily rate classes.
U.S. representative meets with local leaders, constituents
February 3, 2012
Although congressional redistricting doesn’t shift the city of Newcastle’s representation from the 8th to the 9th Congressional District until 2013, U.S. Rep. Adam Smith says he’s already prepared to make his case of focusing on the still-sluggish economy, job growth, and needed tax and education reform to his new constituency.
The congressman — whose district now spans the area south and east of Seattle, including Newcastle, Federal Way, Renton and Bellevue — met with about 75 local government officials, business sector representatives and Newcastle residents at an informal gathering at Newcastle’s City Hall on Jan. 14.
While the physical boundaries of his district may change, the regional focus of his work — which includes supporting higher education and technical colleges to teach skills needed to maintain manufacturing and other skilled-labor jobs — will not, he said.
By Christina Lords U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (left) speaks with members of local and regional government and members of the public at an informal meeting at Newcastle City Hall in the Newcastle Professional Center on Jan. 14.
“There is nothing there illogical at all about my representing Newcastle, Bellevue, Mercer Island, the central district, the international district,” he said. “It fits perfectly with the issues that we’ve been working on.”
Smith’s district will become the state’s first majority-minority district, with more than 50 percent of the district’s constituents made up of racial or ethnic minorities.
The U.S. must continue to remain viable in the global market of manufacturing and technology-related jobs, especially when those sectors continue to expand rapidly in countries like China, Smith said.
“When you think about this economy, when you think about people who are desperate for jobs who have been unemployed for two years, and they don’t have the right skills to match … we have to fix that,” Smith said.
Technical and community colleges must receive adequate funding that allows students to be workforce-ready with applicable skills within one or two years, he said.
King County sheriff’s deputies receive cardiac arrest equipment
February 3, 2012
Local public health officials said equipment and training for King County Sheriff’s Office deputies to respond to cardiac arrest could mean the difference between life and death.
King County Emergency Medical Services, a division of Public Health – Seattle & King County, plans to distribute 53 automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, to deputies interested in the training. Trained deputies can then be dispatched to a cardiac arrest call alongside emergency medical responders.
Equipped deputies arriving first at the scene of a cardiac arrest can start resuscitation and deliver the initial defibrillator shocks and, as soon as emergency medical responders arrive on the scene, they can take over resuscitation duties.
Officials announced the initiative Jan. 4.
Parks Commission seeks input on the future of parks, city recreation
February 3, 2012
Updates to PRO Plan will enable grant opportunities for city
The city of Newcastle’s volunteer Parks Commission is reaching out to residents for feedback as it looks to update the city’s parks section of its Comprehensive Plan — a document that could shape the city’s park space and recreational aspects for years to come.
Parks Program Manager Michael Holly said the commission will conduct four to five online surveys asking questions about what residents would like to see in the city’s recreational future to better shape the city’s Park, Trail, Recreation and Open Spaces Plan, a major component of the Comprehensive Plan updates.
The PRO plan encompasses guidelines for environmental stewardship, park design, natural planting, trail systems and other recreational elements.
“Having recreation available to all types of community users is a part of this process,” he said. “The PRO Plan is the driving force behind what we do.”
The feedback will guide the commission’s recommendations to the City Council, Holly said. The commission hopes to have its PRO Plan complete within a year, he said.
“A long-range plan is important,” Holly said. “Not necessarily everything you want to do gets done within the next year. It does provide sense of direction, and maybe the direction has changed since the last time you looked at the plan. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you need to get a sense of what’s important to the community.”
The updates also have financial implications for the city, he said.
Broker certified as home marketing specialist
February 3, 2012
Newcastle resident Greg Lussier, of Choice One Realty Group and Better Properties Real Estate, has been awarded the Certified Home Marketing Specialist Designation from Martha Webb, the woman credited with launching the staging industry.
Brokers have recognized Webb’s designation across the country as one of the best real estate marketing certifications available.
Lussier has achieved professional certification as a home marketing specialist.
“The CHMS designation is about much more than staging a home,” Lussier said. “Rather, it is designed to give brokers the insight and tools necessary to put a seller’s property first in line among the properties buyers will consider.”
The CHMS designation is a marketing course, with an emphasis on finding ways to present a home that attracts the best buyers at the best price for sellers, Lussier said.
Lussier is a member of the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce and is active with the Newcastle Historical Society.
Learn more about Lussier by going to www.newcastlehome-resource.com.
State of the City address set for Feb. 8
February 3, 2012
As a part of the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon series, Newcastle Mayor Rich Crispo will deliver the State of the City address at 11 a.m. Feb. 8 at Tapatio Mexican Grill.
Lunch for chamber members is $20, and $25 for nonchamber members. The lunch includes food, tax and gratuity.
Attendees are asked to RSVP by emailing info@newcastlecc.com.
Neighborhoods report suspicious activity
February 3, 2012
Multiple neighbors saw two males Jan. 24 in the backyards of houses along 127th Avenue Southeast between Southeast 73rd Street and Southeast 74th Street near the Newport Woods and East Donegal neighborhoods, according to a release from Newcastle Police Chief Melinda Irvine.
When confronted, the men ran away through other yards, the release stated.
The Newcastle Police Department checked houses in the area and did not find any homes broken into near the location.
Residents in the neighborhood are encouraged to report break-ins or suspicious activity by calling the nonemergency dispatch number 206-296-3311 or reporting it online at www.reporttosheriff.org.
Newcastle mom wins IKEA’s Stuff the Bug Contest
February 3, 2012
There is no such thing as a free lunch, but Newcastle resident Angela Weber often attends IKEA’s free Monday morning breakfasts with a group of friends.
That’s how she found out about the Stuff the Bug Contest.
But on one trip in particular, it paid off big.
“I thought it was really fun to see a VW bug stuffed with toys,” she said.
Donna Buck (left), president of Ladies Auxiliary for Post No. 1 of American Veterans in Tacoma, and George Hight, of the Marine Corps League Pierce County Detachment 504, tell Newcastle resident Angela Weber how the IKEA soft toys will be used by Pierce County Sheriff’s Department deputies.
The yellow classic Beetle was stuffed with soft toys to promote IKEA’s Soft Toys for Education campaign.
IKEA held its annual Soft Toys for Education campaign from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24. Since 2003, the IKEA Soft Toy campaign has donated $47.5 million to UNICEF and Save the Children — a contribution that has provided access to education to about 8 million children in nearly 40 countries.
For every colorful soft toy purchased at stores throughout the U.S. during the contest, IKEA donated $1.30, or the equivalent of one Euro, to UNICEF and Save the Children’s global projects designed to improve children’s education.
People were invited to guess the number of soft toys inside the car.
