January 22, 2003 Meeting Summary

Friends of Marymoor Park

January 22th, 2003 Meeting Summary

FOMP Finances

Greg Helland announced a contribution of $860 from Starbucks Coffee's "Starbucks Make Your Mark Volunteer Program". Thanks!

The FOMP bank account now has almost $20,000, but that includes money already earmarked for the NAPCOR recycling grant and for the Urban Forestry Grant work.

At a FOMP board meeting in December, an expenditure of $480 was approved to help pay for landscape design work for a garden area on the northeast Clise Mansion lawn.

The Concerts at Marymoor

Dave Latrell gave an update on the 2003 concert series.

Construction is getting underway in Willowmoor Meadow on the temporary stage structure, the two berms, fencing, and other associated items.

Six concerts have already confirmed, including some "big names" which will be announced later. Expect at least a dozen or more concerts this summer.

While some concerts will be mid-week due to scheduling, most ("90%") will be Saturday or Sunday, with 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. being typical hours. ALL shows will have a strict curfew of 10:00 p.m.

There will be 600 actual (reserved) seats situated right in front of the stage. The remainder of the 5000-person capacity will be general admission lawn seating. Parking is included in the ticket prices. Approximately 2200 cars are expected for each concert, and they will be parked on the grass athletic fields east of the venue.

Setup for concerts will include one or more semi-trucks with equipment. They will park at the north end of the South lot, usually the morning of the concert.

Questions were asked about noise. Dave stressed that there will be a noise limit of 100 dB at the mixing board. The speaker system is a downward facing system with some auxiliary speakers. The stage will face northeast. The system is designed to supply good sound to an audience of only 5000, and Dave firmly believes that under normal conditions, sound should not be a problem in neighborhoods. However, local climate conditions on any given night may cause all sound to travel further than normal.

More information can be found at http://www.concertsatmarymoor.com/

Parking Fee Implementation

The parking fee goes into effect February 1. Interim honor-system parking with fee boxes will be in place. Passes are available for $50 (good through August 31, 2003).

They should be available in the Maintenance building. Parking passes may also be purchased by mail or phone and paid by check or Visa, Mastercard or Discovery Card. Information can be found at http://www.metrokc.gov/parks/news/012403parkfee.htm

Groups can buy packs of 20 passes for $900/pack ($45/pass) for resale to their members. Unsold packs can be returned. This can make a good fundraiser for user groups which feel they can sell at least 20 passes.

An automated parking system with pay-as-you-leave gates is at least 6 months away. When the automated system is installed, the fee boxes will be moved to other King County parks, and parking fees will be instituted at those parks as well.

Monthly passes will not be available at this time. Their eventual availability will depend on the choice of automated technology. Same goes for future availability of discount single-visit pass bundles.

Bobbi defended the practice of having all park users pay for parking even if they pay other fees. There is general support for this broad fairness, but Jim and Judy Trockel, from the SODA group, raised the concern that dog owners will pay for parking but will forgo SODA membership, assuming that they were already paying for the dog area by paying for parking. Marymoor neighbor Barbara Dickson expressed concern that people will park in the neighborhoods and walk in to avoid the parking fee.

Community Gardens

The Community Garderners are up in arms, because the costs, including parking, have skyrocketed over 2002. Where they used to pay $33/plot, they now must pay $150 ($50/plot plus 2 6-month passes to allow year-round gardening). Many say they will not return. Gardeners want parking fees to be covered by the plot fees. They pointed to the 1200 lbs of fresh vegetables donated to the Redmond Food Bank in 2002 in begging for relief.

They point to Bellevue and the South 47 gardens in Woodinville, which offer plots for far less than the combined plot+parking fee at Marymoor.

The Parks system believes water costs exceed revenue even at the new higher plot fee levels. Also, with staff cuts, King County Parks no longer has a Gardens coordinator.

Bobbi Wallace from KC Parks wants to meet with Garden representatives to try to work out some kind of deal which will allow viable continuation of the Community Gardens. Possibly some grants may be available or other deals my be worked out.

Tree and Natural Area Replacement Project 2003

I've just put a description of this project elsewhere on the FOMP website. On Martin Luther King day, 38 people planted about 800 trees and plants. There will be additional planting days in February, possibly including Feb 4, 8, and/or 22. All planting must be completed by March 15.

SODA will sponsor one day of volunteer activities, and they will be installing fencing that day as well. Our thanks go to Home Depot for providing fencing materials to SODA at cost for this project - a huge savings!

More information on planting dates will appear on the FOMP website when they are firmed up.

Clise Garden

At the November meeting, Karl Kostel presented a funding request concerning the Clise garden. As noted above, the FOMP board approved $480 for design work, but had questions before deciding whether or not FOMP should fund installation.

Steve Elliot, who manages Clise mansion, and Bobbi Wallace answered these questions. The garden, which in some ways will restore the northeast corner of the Clise lawn to its early 20th Century appearance, will also feature a gazebo suitable for wedding purposes. In general, the new garden will be closed to the general public any time the mansion is being rented out during good weather (35-40 days/year, usually both weekend days all summer), but will be open to all the rest of the time.

Questions involving the funding request are apparently moot, however, as the garden installation will be paid for out of capital improvement funds.

Next Meeting - Wednesday, February 26, 2003.

These notes were made by the webmaster, Michael Hobbs, and they do not constitute an official record of the meeting. They may have inaccuracies and omissions. If anyone has any complaints about the content of these notes, they should direct them to Michael Hobbs at fomp@marymoor.org, and he will endeavor to correct them.

Problems, comments, suggestions? Email the FOMP webmaster at webmaster@marymoor.org