Friends of Marymoor Park

February 26th, 2003 Meeting Summary

-- see also the January 2003 meeting summary

Greg Helland called the meeting to order at 7: 00 PM.  Other FOMP Board members present: Herb Bone & Bill Illi. King County Park Board representative present: Norah Gaynor.

Concert update.

Norah Gaynor presented the following: The first announced concert will be on Tuesday, August 5th, 2003. The music artist will be Norah Jones, a mellow, low tone, blues Jazz Blues singer. She is said to have earned 5 or more Grammy awards. This performance is already sold out. The full concert schedule will be announced May 3rd. 2003.

There will be a maximum of 5000 tickets available for any event.

There are 3 areas to be used by the concerts.

1. The presently planned concert area
2. The Mansion
3. The picnic area.

Fireworks for Friday night, the 4th of July.

Due to the budgets this year, there will not be the same number of events supported as in the past. However, the Redmond City Council voted to defray the costs of the fireworks. There will be no other entertainment provided for as in the past years. Norah Gaynor said that the Park is planning to provide a small number of things as long as the costs are limited.

Parking.

Norah said that there would be a fairly solid parking plan by the next FOMP meeting the 26th of March. There has been a total of approximately $50,000.00 parking permits sold as of this date. 800 permits were sold through the group plan of which SODA took 500. The offices have been open to sell passes on the weekends because of the demands.

Groups may purchase a block of at least 20 six-month passes for $ 45.00 a pass. The groups then can sell those to their members for $50.00 each if they want to. For more detailed information go to the following web site: WWW.METROKC.GOV/parks/news/012403parkfee.htm.

As of this date, Marymoor is the only KC Park that has paid parking. The money received goes to off set the cost of all of the parks but most of the money does in fact go back to support Marymoor Park.

It is anticipated that the gate entry/exit system will be in effect by September 1st. 2003.

All people bringing cars into the park, at present, are on the honor system to either have their passes or pay their $1.00 fee. There is some random parking fee enforcement. For those who are only coming into the park to drop off or pick up people there is no fee expected. Not certain how this will work when the gates are installed.

Community Gardens

Several members of this group were present and a quite concerned about the increased costs. They will be looking for possible grants to help defray the new fees, which will, of course, include the parking fees. This year’s cost is a flat $50.00 per garden plot plus the parking fees. The cost of the water needed for the gardens is quite high since the park does not have its own water source and must get it through the City of Redmond. King County Parks pay one half of the water cost and the Community Gardens will handle the rest. King County Parks must pay a 20% surcharge on top of the regular fees for water. The plan suggested is for the Garden people to organize so that they can more effectively meet their needs. If there are those that can suggest grant sources for this group, you are asked to contact either FOMP or King County Parks and Recreation. This group needs help soon since they will need to be planting their gardens in the near future

The proposed driving range:

This project is now on hold due to financing problems.

Other Business

Greg Helland reported the following items:

The Urban Forestry Program is going well. FOMP received a $37,500.00 grant for the project. 800 trees have been planted so far and another 300 or so need to be planted. Mulch has been put down and fences have been built. Two more volunteer work parties are needed. The next scheduled one [previously reported incorrectly as March 15] is Saturday, APRIL 5, 2003.

The grant that was for recycling of PET containers has been profitable. $5000.00 has been paid and 35 cubic yards was collected.

FOMP granted $450.00 for the design work for the flower garden area to be developed on the east side of the mansion.

FOMP has $11,000.00 left in its bank account. If some one needs a project funded, please submit the Grant request forms.

We thank Greg for all of the work it takes to keep on top of all of these projects.

Reported by Bill Illi, FOMP board member.

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.