Friends of Marymoor Park

July 25th, 2001 Meeting Summary

-- see also the June meeting summary

Quick Find:
Grant Requests
Projects
Special Events
WOMAD
Community Gardens
Other Business

Grant Requests

Greg Helland reiterated that the FOMP board has approved $700 for a pressurized water tank and $500 for a traffic counter, but has tabled the request for $6000 for the LitterVac.  All three of these proposals came from Karl Kostel.  There have not been any further developments vis-à-vis these grants, nor has Karl provided any further information regarding the LitterVac.  More details on them can be found under Grant Requests in the May meeting summary.

Bobbi Wallace presented a proposal for FOMP to partner with KC Parks in an application to the King County Solid Waste Department for money to purchase and install an Inground Waste Management System in the park.

The Inground Waste Management System consists of impermeable cylinders of plastic planted in the ground. Above ground, these look like garbage cans.  Inside the cylinder is a single, large, thick plastic bag supported in a liftable harness.  These cylinders would replace garbage cans around the park. Each one has a capacity far, far greater than a regular can (the cylinders have a 3-4 cubic yard capacity equivalence - they are not really that large, but they are self-compacting). A hoist and trailer system is needed to remove these bags.  Due to the very large capacity, they need to be emptied much less frequently.

The benefits of these are as follows:  (1) The above-ground appearance is better than the existing cans.  (2) The cans are less susceptible to vandalism and damage because of their permanent anchorage, locked and latched lids, relatively small counter-weighted opening, and built-in fire suppressing design.  (3) The cost to empty these is reputed to be substantially below the cost of emptying cans because of their much larger capacity.  Figures of 80% fewer man-hours involved in garbage collection for the same amount of garbage are mentioned in the literature. (4) These cylinders (and a larger version as well) may allow a recycling system to be implemented at Marymoor.  This is a core piece of the grant request. (5) Using the hoist system avoids the potential back injuries associated with lifting overfull garbage bags.

The proposal calls for FOMP to be the lead grant applicator, and to possibly contribute some money (each cylinder costs more than $1000, the hoist and trailer are around $8000).  KC Parks will contribute labor and equipment for installation.

Projects

Norah Gaynor gave a rundown of various projects at Marymoor:

The lake platform "dock" replacement (actually, reconstruction as a new pier) will be starting July 31, and should be complete within a month.

Clise Mansion roof replacement begins 8/6, with 60 days allowed for completion.

Softball fields 3, 4, and 5 are being reconstructed currently.  Target date for reseeding is the 3rd week in October.  These fields should be ready for play by June 2002.

The new grass soccer fields near the velodrome are supposed to be being worked on currently.  They also have a seeding target date of late October, and should be play-ready in early summer, 2002.

All-weather soccer field #4 is almost ready.  The contractor is still trying to get the crown of the field into the correct configuration.

The Recreation Office (the formerly green little house near the mansion) has been nicely renovated and repainted (it's now in a gray/brown scheme).

There is a new handicapped-accessible path connecting the mansion, recreation office, and new restrooms.

Paved aprons at the entrances to the two large gravel parking lots have been completed, which should cut down on grading needs.

CIP (capital improvements) has allocated funding for at least one new restroom, following the strong support in FOMP for replacing the old bunker-style facilities.

Special Events

Norah is still working with the Luis Palau Festival to see if they can be hosted in 2002.  Following the strong statements of concern expressed in the last FOMP meeting, Norah is trying to see if an earlier date is feasible.  One possibility would be the weekend of August 3-4.  This would require coordination with the movies-in-the-park.

The Heritage Festival was declared a success, with great weather and increased attendance.  The Parks System received many positive comments regarding the Civil War reenactment.

WOMAD

Meg McHutchinson, from The Workshop, was again on hand to answer any questions from FOMP concerning this year's show.  Thank you Meg.  Here's some of what she noted:

  • The Kids' Workshops should be really great.

  • Sound monitoring is in place, with computer-automated monitoring at the Willowmoor stage.  Neighborhood monitoring will be available upon request; a monitoring unit will come out to neighborhoods with complaints and take sound-level measurements (2 one-minute readings 20 minutes apart).  The Workshop will be following Seattle sound codes, since theirs are the most concrete.

  • The addition of a Peter Gabriel solo set at 8:00 p.m. Sunday has caused some schedule reworking.  The 10:00 p.m. end time for Sunday will still be the goal, but they have a variance allowing them to run as late as 10:30.  Meg expects they will actually be over at 10:15 or 10:30 p.m.

The phone number to contact WOMAD directly during the event for inquiries, to report any problems, or to register noise complaints is 425-882-8843.

Community Gardens

They are looking for a source of grant money to redo the paths and water system in the gardens.  Possible sources recommended were the City of Redmond, and the water utility department (DNR) of the City of Redmond. Greg Helland suggested they might want to look into building a well.  According to Greg, wells with maximum capacity less than 5000 gal/day require minimal permitting and have no water rights issues.  This would allow non-chlorinated, non-ionized water to be used on the gardens, and would provide a drought-resistant water source.

Other Business

Greg Helland, as SODA representative, put out a reminder that salmon-season closures of the dog swim areas will go into effect August 15, running though November 15.  One dog "beach" will be closed completely, the others will allow only modest access to the water.

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.  

 

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