Police contract cheaper than expected for 2011
June 3, 2011
The city’s police contract with the King County Sheriff’s Office came in under budget for the year.
In late 2010, the sheriff’s office estimated that the contract for 2011 would cost the city about $1.46 million. The final contract cost came in $37,000 under budget.
There will be no changes to the level of service for the year.
City awards contracts to build 116th sidewalks
May 6, 2011
Renton firm Delta Excavating Inc. will build Newcastle’s sidewalks on 116th Avenue Southeast from Southeast 84th Street to Southeast 88th Street.
The City Council unanimously voted to award the contract to the firm, which presented the cheapest bid to the city for the project.
The firm will complete the work for $173,400. The city’s contract engineer estimated the cost of the project to be $310,000. Construction will start later this spring or this summer, interim Public Works Director Steve Roberge said. The project will take less than two months to complete.
The City Council reviewed three design concepts for the project in August 2010, and it chose an option that calls for concrete sidewalks, curbs, gutters, driveway ramps and pedestrian ramps compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The design also calls for enhancements to storm water drainage, minor landscape improvements, retaining walls and a 12- to 15-foot driving lane. It will not have a bike lane, but the wide driving lanes — one to four feet wider than most — will give some room to bikers.
The council also considered cheaper and more expensive design options.
Sidewalks are also to be built on 116th Avenue Southeast from Southeast 80th Street to Southeast 84th Street. The council has not yet approved the sidewalk design for that stretch of road.
Councilman Sonny Putter to retire
April 11, 2011
UPDATED — 4:10 p.m. April 13, 2011
Councilman Sonny Putter announced April 11 that he will not seek re-election this year, ending his 17-year stay on the City Council.
Sonny Putter
Putter was elected to the council in 1994, and he was re-elected in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007. He also served as mayor from 2000-2001. Putter sits in Position 4 on the council.
Putter said he decided not to run for re-election based on the direction the council is taking the city.
“We’ve got a less collegial, more corrosive atmosphere on the City Council,” he said. “Going forward, I didn’t think I could make a difference.”
Council members Lisa Jensen, Steve Buri file for re-election
April 1, 2011
UPDATED — 1:45 p.m. April 4, 2011
Councilwoman Lisa Jensen and Councilman Steve Buri have announced they will seek re-election this November.
Jensen and Buri, whose terms expire at the end of the year, each announced the news in March. Jensen sits in Position 1 and Buri sits in Position 3 on the City Council.
All council positions represent the entire city.
Steve Buri
Lisa Jensen
Councilman Sonny Putter’s and Councilwoman Carol Simpson’s terms also expire at the end of the year, but they said they had not yet decided whether they wanted to run for re-election.
Jensen and Buri were both first elected to the council in 2007.
Jensen said she filed to continue making Newcastle an even better community.
“I believe Newcastle is a great community for a lot of reasons, but it’s the people that make it special,” she said. “I believe that Newcastle has a great future, and I want to do my part.”
She said she also wants to continue encouraging community involvement in events such as Newcastle Days, and maintain communication between city government and residents.
Jensen said she feels the biggest issues facing the city are budgetary. She said the city still has significant challenges ahead when it comes to living within its means.
Newcastle city staff to see salary, benefits changes
April 1, 2011
The city’s 21 employees will soon see their salary ranges get a little larger, their merit pay changed, vacation time capped and cost-of-living raises scrapped.
Reductions in employees’ healthcare coverage, approved last fall, will also be permanent.
The Salary and Benefits Committee recommended the changes, and the City Council unanimously approved them Jan. 18.
The changes to salary ranges had been overdue, said Councilwoman Lisa Jensen, who chairs the committee. Previous policies dictated that the committee re-examine salary ranges every three years, but it had not done so for about five years.
By Dona Mokin
The committee compared Newcastle salaries to those in similar cities, averaging the high and low salaries elsewhere to make up Newcastle’s new salary ranges.
The new salary ranges — which widened on both the high and low ends — will shift to reflect trends in cost of living, and will take the place of annual cost-of-living adjustments that employees had received each year.
Celebrities to come to Newcastle in June for golf tournament
April 1, 2011
UPDATED — 2:30 p.m. April 1, 2011
A crew of celebrities will take to The Golf Club at Newcastle June 27 for the fifth-annual Jim Mora Celebrity Golf Classic, event organizers announced in March.
The Jim Mora “Count On Me” Family Foundation is organizing the event, which raises money for Special Olympics Washington, the Boys & Girls Club of Bellevue and other local children’s charities.
The 2010 tournament raised more than $211,000, and the money benefited 17 charities.
Celebrities who attended last year’s event included Super Bowl champion football Hall of Fame inductee Marshall Faulk; five-time NBA MVP Bill Russell; NBA Hall of Fame player and coach Lenny Wilkens; former Seattle Mariner Jay Buhner; former NBA players Detlef Schrempf and Slick Watts; and Hall of Fame NFL player, five-time Pro-Bowler and three-time Super Bowl champion Michael Irvin.
The tournament is free and open for the public to attend, although those who wish to participate must pay a fee. Organizers will announce this year’s list of attendees in early May.
Work plans approved for 2011 planning, parks commissions
March 4, 2011
The City Council approved the 2011 Parks Commission and Planning Commissions work plans with a 7-0 vote at its March 1 meeting.
Drafts of the work plans were first presented at the Feb. 15 joint City Council, Parks Commission and Planning Commission meeting.
This year, the Parks Commission will review the city’s comprehensive plan — which details the city’s vision — updating the parks, recreation and open space portions. The city needs to update its comprehensive plan every six years to be eligible for state grants. The plan has not been updated in eight years.
The Parks Commission will also discuss ways to increase recreational opportunities, possibly through collaboration with the Coal Creek YMCA and Regency Newcastle.
The commission will take an active role in community events once again this year, as well as in Newcastle Days. In the third and fourth quarters of the year, the Parks Commission will create a draft of trail construction standards and a public art policy.
The Planning Commission will review the city’s community business center for the first and second quarter of the year.
It will discuss issues such as the city’s restriction on drive-thrus, the city’s 75-foot building-height limit and floor-area-ratio density requirements.
The Planning Commission will work on the review through the second quarter of the year. In the second and third quarter, the Planning Commission will discuss possibly allowing greater used of impervious surfaces in the city’s mixed-use development zones north of Lake Boren and northeast of the Newcastle Golf Club Road and Newcastle Way intersection.
It will also discuss allowing more impervious surfaces in open spaces, such as in the site of the future sports park north of Southeast 95th Way. City code states that only 2 percent of open space may contain impervious surfaces, such as asphalt pathways and parking lots.
In the third quarter, the commission will also propose amendments to the city’s comprehensive plan and discuss extending the city’s developer stimulus program, which delays development fee collection.
In the fourth quarter, the commission will perform its annual code cleanup and update its code regarding communication infrastructure.
The Parks Commission is a nine-person advisory body to the City Council that works on issues regarding city-owned parks. It works on park planning, park design, park construction, park and facility development, renovation, trails and paths, recreation programs and special community events, according to the city’s website.
The Parks Commission meets at 6 p.m. the second Wednesday of each month in Council Chambers, 13020 Newcastle Way.
The Planning Commission provides advice and makes recommendations to the City Council regarding the city’s comprehensive plan and development codes. It meets at 6 p.m. the third Wednesday of each month in Council Chambers.
Parks and Planning Commission meetings are open to the public and have opportunities for public comment.
Council to hold special meeting tonight to consider moving City Hall
February 7, 2011
UPDATED — 4 p.m. Feb. 7, 2011
The City Council will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. today in Council Chambers, 13020 Newcastle Way, to consider moving City Hall to the second floor of the Newcastle Professional Center, 12835 Newcastle Way.
The meeting is open to the public, but there will be no opportunity for public comment.
The City Council voted 4-3 at its Feb. 1 meeting to allow City Manager Rob Wyman to sign a lease with the Newcastle Professional Center. If Wyman signs the lease, the city would need to move to the 7,500-quare-foot space by the end of the year. The move would cost about $250,000.
City council gives green light to dog park
February 4, 2011
Funding to be discussed this summer during budgeting process
The City Council voted 6-1 at its Feb. 1 meeting to move forward with building a dog park at the future sports park site on Southeast 95th Way.
The city will add the park to its capital projects and discuss funding when it begins work on the 2012 budget this summer.
The Parks Commission recommended to the council at its Jan. 12 meeting that an off-leash dog park be built at the future sports park site. It also noted that the council’s recommended budget of $25,000 would not be enough to build and maintain an off-leash park.
A park constructed at the future sports park site would likely be one or two acres, temporary and atop the grassy mound at the center of the site. It would need to be moved when construction begins on the sports park. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2016.
The future sports park’s design calls for a one-third-acre, off-leash dog park on the east end of the property.
City adopts state energy code
February 4, 2011
UPDATED — 11:15 a.m. Feb. 4, 2011
The City Council unanimously voted at its Jan. 18 meeting to adopt the 2009 Washington State Energy Code, which is mandated by state law.
The code sets efficiency requirements for new and remodeled buildings.
The new code requires that ducts be tested for efficiency when a furnace is replaced, that certificates of energy features are posted near electrical panels for new buildings and that air leakage is tested in new homes. It also sets requirements for insulation installed in floors and attics in new homes.
