Norah Robinson, King County Parks; Michael Hobbs, Eastside Audubon, FOMP Secretary; Laura Hall, Marymoor Community Gardener's Association, FOMP Board; Shane Berry, AEG Live (Marymoor Concerts); Glenn  Eades, neighbor; Kelly Stevens & Jim Hill, have business NE of Marymoor; Brian Tosh, neighbor on 51st St.

2) TOPs Tennis Facility

Soil testing being done now to determine wetland delineations. Proposal shows 12 indoor courts with an exercise room, locker rooms, restrooms, parking for 80 cars. Would be managed and operated by TOPs organization – they currently operate a smaller facility nearby. They provide scholarships for low-income students. TOPs are working on this project under the auspices of the Community Partnership Grants.

Glenn expressed his feeling that this is an outdoor park, and this is an indoor facility that could go in any developed area. He stated that should not be built here. That area should remain open space. “There’s a place for everything, and this is not the place for that.” Michael stated that he completely agrees with Glenn. Michael added that transportation access is also a major issue – adding 80 cars trying to get into or out of the park on top of existing heavy park traffic would be a problem. Norah says there will be a traffic study as part of the planning, assuming the proposal continues to be

Brian expressed the counter argument. He’d really like the facility here, he feels that tennis is underserved except for people who can afford membership at expensive private clubs. [TOPs current facility allows courts to be booked by the hour at rates similar to the Robinswood courts.]   He believes their busiest times would be during the off-season for other park uses, with highest demand in the winter.

Laura says that the MCGA people are against the project. They felt that very few low-income people would actually be served. This is not a geographic location with notable low-income populations to be served. Public transit access is non-existent. Parking and access are difficult here. This facility could be much better located elsewhere; it doesn’t leverage open green space, it destroys it.

Michael suggested that something like lacrosse fields would be a more appropriate. Norah countered that traffic issues would be the same whether it was fields or a tennis facility, at which point Michael opined that maybe Marymoor Park is already full – “no vacancy”.

3) CHOMP!

Norah handed out flyers for this Eat Local sustainable living fair.  CHOMP! will be held Saturday, August 20th, and there will be a Dinner in the Park at 6:00 p.m. on Friday the 19th.

The Dinner in the Park is presented by PCC Natural Markets and CityArts.  Its a five course family-style dinner prepared by local chefs using produce and meats from King County Farms.  It will be co-hosted by King County Executive Dow Constantine and Leslie Mackie, Chef/owner of Macrina Bakery.  There will be musical entertainment and a short speaking program.  Estimated attendance is 250.  This is a ticketed event, $100 per ticket, with free parking.  Proceeds benefit a local non-profit, FEEST, which is a weekly youth-run dinner program that engages young people at Evergreen and Chief Sealth High School on issues of civic and social justice, food security, cultural expression, and community development.

The CHOMP! festival, presented by PCC Natural Markets, will feature such programming as:  Bike Work's Bike Rodeo, learn what it takes to be a farmer with Farmer for a Day activities, learn earth skills at Discover CHOMPlandia, create innovative sustainability solutions at CHOMP!tank, see live cooking demonstrations with local food vendors at the Community Kitchen, buy locally produced ingredients at the Farmers Market, bring your broken stuff to be repaired at the Repair Cafe', and be entertained at the Folklife Stage and at the Pea Patch Stage.  Attendance of 5000 is expected, and it FREE, with $5 parking (or you can use the continuous shuttle service from Overlake Transit Center).  Directly precedes the Fitz and the Tantrums concert, part of the Marymoor Park concert series.

4) CIP/Project/Facilities Updates:

a) Birdloop – Interim replacement of crumbling pavement walk with crushed gravel is “in discussion”. No firm plans yet, but Norah hopes for September.

b) Noxious weeds – Weed crew will be spraying for Garden Loosestrife along the trail, and by boat along the north edge of the river. Will also spray for Purple Loosestrife at the same time, though there wasn’t much Purple found.

c)  Community Gardens – Vandalism has been found to be being done by extended family members of a gardener.  They’ve also had problems with theft of poppies (of the variety used to make heroin, though there’s not nearly enough of the plants to make any drugs).  MCGA is working on handling these, and other similar issues.  Eagle Scout project will work on part of the fence that separates Snag Row from the Pea Patch.  HopeLink gardening is focusing on tomatillos, onions, peppers, potatoes, etc., and not so much on heavy zucchinis.   Pathway work will wait until fall.

d) Marymoor West boathouse project – Work is nearly complete.  Still to come is the connector path betwen the new boathouse and the old boathouse pad (located where the construction trailer was, and following the route of the old footpath leading to the back of the old boathouse).  Some additional cleanup is necessary as well.

e) Willowmoor Floodplain Restoration Project – The King County Flood Control District Executive Committee hosted a meeting in Bellevue on June 6th at which they were briefed on the design alternatives developed through the public stakeholder process.  On June 20th, there was a motion passed to go forward with 30% design of a split channel , along with investigation of a seasonally adjustable weir that would give direct control over lake levels.  See http://www.kingcountyfloodcontrol.org

f) Shop yard fencing – Temporary fencing has been delivered and will be installed soon. This will also also allow them to test out configurations, in case they decide to go forward with Cultural Resource test holes necessary for permanent fencing.

g) Dudley Carter Sculptures – Grant request submitted to 4Culture – decision in September. Total cost for restoration and repairs is around $23000 to treat 5 sculptures.

5) Other

• Shane announced that if there are projects needing volunteers, let Shane know, and he’ll spread the word to AEG staff (~75 people who are eager to help).
   
• Michael announced that 3 - THREE ! -  new bird species have recently been seen at Marymoor for the first time:  Rock Wren, a species that typically can be found in Eastern Washington, American White Pelican, a species that has been increasing in Eastern Washington, and has shown up unexpectedly in large numbers in the Puget Sound area this year, and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, a bird normally found only in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.  I believe this is only the 2nd time a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher has been seen in King County.  [And August 2-4th, another new bird, Red-shouldered Hawk, appeared.  It was a species we've been expecting to show up sometime, as they are seen in King County about annually at places very much like Marymoor].  These bring the Marymoor Park bird list up to 233 species!