Friends of Marymoor Park

May 23rd, 2001 Meeting Summary

-- see also the April meeting summary

Quick Find:
Special Events
WOMAD
Grant Requests
Other Business

Special Events

Norah Gaynor announced two additional events for Marymoor in June.

WOMAD

This year's WOMAD festival is being produced by WOMAD with local production by The Workshop.  Meg McHutchinson, from The Workshop, came to the meeting to answer any questions from FOMP concerning this year's show.  Here's some of what she noted:

• There will be more workshops, with more connection with the local community.  She'd like ideas for connections with Eastside artists/projects/communities that might be developed.

• Kid activities will be more culturally connected and for the whole family.

• Access to the grounds will revert to having two main entrances, one at the northeast corner, and one at the east side, with a third gate, mostly for VIP and handicapped accessibility, located northwest of the Clise mansion.

• The famous flags will again adorn the Mainstage meadow.

• Camping will move to fields 7, 8, and 9, the fields immediately north of the Interpretive Lot.

• The 3 stages will be in approximately the same locations, with the same basic setup (i.e. the Mainstage in Willowmoor meadow with stage facing NNW, a second smaller stage west of the mansion with the stage facing East, and the third stage inside a tent, south of the second stage).

• The Mainstage lawn will be opened up to provide more space for audience.  The Beer Garden will be moved back, further from the stage.

• Programming hours will be 4-11 p.m. Friday, Noon-11 p.m. Saturday, Noon-10 p.m. Sunday.  Festival grounds will open 2 hours prior to programming.  Mainstage programming will be scheduled to end at 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday to ease the festival closure rush.

• There will be more frequent shuttles from the University of Washington.

• Traffic will be routed to use the usual SR520->W.Lk. Samm Parkway->West Entrance route into the park.  Metro busses will use the SR520->51st St->W.Lk Samm Parkway->West Entrance route.

Anyone interested in being a vendor at the market areas or food areas should contact Julie Beers at The Workshop, (206) 297-6801.  Anyone interested in being a volunteer should contact Tara at the same number.

Concerns were raised as follows:

• Drinking and fireworks in camping area.  Meg assured us that there would be clear rules and beefed up security to make sure that the camping area does not get out of hand.

• Sound spillage into nearby neighborhoods.  This is being addressed in multiple ways:

  • The Mainstage will have raised speakers which are more directional than the system used in previous years.

  • Contracts with the artists all require adherence with sound standards

  • The second stage will have a reworked sound system with cloth baffles

  • There will again be noise level monitoring

  • Bobbi Wallace will contact OneReel to try to acquire the neighborhood sound data from previous years so that the county can compare noise levels of large, loud events.

• Drinking water availability - last year there were insufficient hoses and fountains for refilling water bottles, etc.  This concern had already been passed on to The Workshop, and will be addressed.

• Handicapped Parking capacity - last year they ran out of handicapped parking spots.

• There was a complaint that Metro busses running down 51st St. were exceeding the speed limit last year.  The hill there runs through a residential neighborhood and is VERY steep with a T-intersection at the bottom.  Meg will relay the concern to Metro Transit.

Grant Requests

Last month, Karl Kostel, Marymoor Facilities Manager, applied for three grants from FOMP.  Greg presented these at the meeting to solicit discussion and concerns prior to the Board's votes on these requests.

1. $700 for a pressurized water tank.  The county has 1 million gallons/day of reclaimed water available from their Renton treatment facility.  This water can be trucked to Marymoor in large trucks. A small, mobile tank that fits in a pickup truck would allow this water to be available where it is needed within the park.  Reclaimed water is approved for watering, garden use, wetting down baseball infields, powerwashing, etc.  It is not considered potable.  This tank would be pressurized to allow long hoses to be connected with good flow.  It would make reclaimed water available for use in the Community Gardens, which could be very important if drought conditions limit the use of municipal water supplies.  The only concerns raised were that the grant request has little details about the tank itself (most egregiously, it doesn't state the tank capacity).  There was fear that Community Garden demand would overwhelm the size of the tank.

2. $500 for a Traffic Counter.  This would pay for one of those weatherized boxes with counting equipment, using hoses across the roadway to detect car travel.  The county would match this grant with a second unit.  The County does have a limited number of traffic counter units available, however they charge a high rental to the Parks system for their use, and they are often unavailable.  The Parks department feels that continuous year-round monitoring of traffic levels would be an invaluable management tool.  There was support within FOMP for these units as a means to provide objective data on park usage and increases in park usage.  Bobbi mentioned that the $500 price tag may be low; Karl is having trouble finding the unit he wants available from the usual suppliers.

3. $6000 towards a ATLV 4300 LitterVac from Tennant Company.  See: http://www.tennantco.com/products/product.asp?brand=Tennant&product=littervac&id=409.  The Parks System would match the grant to pay the balance.  This device appears to be able to use vacuum suction to clean up litter off of lawns and trails.  It would be very useful in cleaning up picnic areas, and of course to clean up after large events.  It was noted that it would be particularly suited to cleaning up after balloon tosses and after the dog shows (dog hair mess).  Concerns were raised about noise and emissions.  Since this machine would cut down on the need for backpack blowers, which are particularly noisy and polluting, it may be an improvement.  Bobbi mentioned that this machine would free-up maintenance personnel currently busy hand-cleaning after events.  The other major concern was the price.  FOMP currently has around $9000 available, with another $3000-$4000 coming in this year.  FOMP has not made any attempts to do any fundraising, and there are plenty of opportunities.  FOMP has never had to turn down a grant request due to lack of money.  Still, $6000 is a large amount of money in relation to the annual FOMP budget.  There were also questions raised about the unit itself: how is it powered (battery? gasoline? propane?), how loud is it?, does it come with a warranty?.  The FOMP Board will investigate more. [After having done some research, I believe this unit is powered by a 28 HP liquid-cooled Diesel engine.  Other things to consider are leasing options, and reconditioned models]

Other Business

Mike Eddy sent out an email to FOMPList concerning his proposal to rework the anti-commuter gates in Marymoor.  For those who haven't seen what he sent, I'm including it here:

From: Mike Eddy To: robert.nunnenkamp@metrokc.gov
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2001 2:53 PM
Subject: Marymoor barrier proposal

Hello Robert, here's an idea for removing the existing gates and putting in new barriers. I think it addresses all concerns:

1. Motorists can not use the park for a thoroughfare. 2. Bicycle commuters can use the park roads and not endanger the safety of those on the pedestrian path during rush hour. 3. Legitimate soccer, rugby, climbing rock, velodrome, and other park users can access their parking lot from the west. 4. If the "Gates Closed" sign is up motorists can turn around in the parking lot from either east or west.

The existing park diagram from Norah with proposed barriers is at http://meinnovations.com/me/MarymoorGates.gif. A close-up is at http://meinnovations.com/me/MarymoorBarriers.gif. The new barriers will consist of removable bollards and a fixed guard rail, or some combination of the two. The existing gates will remain open at all times and the bollards that bisect the parking lot will be emplaced during rush hours. The bollards will bisect the entry to the parking lot running north-south and seal off the east parking bay running east-west in the south and north-south in the north. We may have to put yield signs on the road so people entering the parking lot queue up while waiting for those in the parking lot to exit.

If people don't have objections to this, I can see if I can get a copy of Karl's aerial photo to put it to scale. I think the width of the parking lot entrance is about 25' wide east-west and 55' long north-south. I believe standard bollard placement is 5' on center.

And from his cover note to FOMPList:

What else needs to be addressed in this proposal besides cost? Please let me know via email what concerns you have so I can address them and get estimates. Please print this out and discuss at the meeting if you feel it's necessary.

This concept has consensus backing from both the Advocacy Committee of the 5,000 member Cascade Bicycle Club and the Redmond Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee.

Bobbi Wallace handed out a packet of information concerning King County's plans for handling a drought situation.  This includes definitions of drought-response stages, and a detailed enumeration of how water use in the Parks, system including at Marymoor, will be handled at each stage of a drought emergency.  Currently the county is operating at the "Voluntary" drought response stage. 

Bobbi Wallace gave a heads-up for a new proposed plant nursery to grow native willows and possibly cottonwoods for use in revegetating the slough reroute project.  This would be located west of the slough approximately opposite the weir.  The willows and possibly cottonwoods would be grown as a source of cuttings.   Upon completion of the revegetation projects, the nursery would would be allowed to grow wild.  More information will be presented at the next meeting.

Michael Hobbs gave an update on birds at Marymoor - First, a report of the success of nest boxes installed in the park (many are being used by Tree Swallows and Black-capped Chickadees).  Second, a report on the success of the Barn Owls nesting at the northwest corner of the Community Gardens - one baby fledged (though still clueless and being fed by the parent(s)), one baby still down-covered.  (Michael forgot to mention that the two Red-tailed Hawk nests located across West Lake Sammamish Parkway from Marymoor each have at least 2 downy young). And thirdly, he reported on the May 16th Marymoor Big Morning, in which 5 teams started in 5 different locations, birding 5 different routes, starting at 6:30 a.m.  A total of 69 species were noted (equaling the cumulative total list from the 7 previous years for the third week in May, and expanding that list by eight species), including the first report of Western Bluebird for the park ever (as far as is known).  This will become an annual or even semi-annual event.

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.