Friends of Marymoor Park

March 24th, 2011 Meeting Summary

-- see also the February 24, 2011 meeting summary

These notes were taken by Christina Merten - thanks, Christina!

Introductions: Norah Gaynor (King County Parks), Christina Merten (FOMP Board Member, Marymoor Community Gardener's Association),  Greg Helland (FOMP President, SODA), Herb Bone (FOMP Board Member, MAR/C,  Jack MacKinnon (Marymoor Community Gardener’s Association), Ella Elman (EarthCorps).

Tree Survey Update – Peggy Gaynor, Landscape Architect has been working with EarthCorps on the tree plan for the Park.  EarthCorps reviewed the plan with Norah earlier today.  The group reviewed the aerial photos and transparency overlay of potential planting plan for the park.  This will be one part of the overall report that EarthCorps will be providing next month.  The other parts are addressing the invasive issues.  The report will need to identify short, medium, and long term priorities. 

One item the group discussed was when plantings should occur in the park.  The report should identify appropriate times for planting and coordination of volunteers because volunteers generally are coming out in the summer (this is not optimum planting time).  EarthCorps will add notes to the report on appropriate planting season for recommended plants in the planting and maintenance section.

Peggy will be doing a cross section for each typical area of recommended planting.  A GIS intern will be working on the project mapping each tree from the tree survey.  A big thanks goes out to Evergreen College for their donation of time with this intern. 

Historical area had a planting plan done in 1995.  Current drawings on file at the park are too small to read.  Norah will be looking to see if there’s larger plan set somewhere.  EarthCorps will make some general recommendations for the historical area, but won’t be coming up with a specific cross-section or planting plan; however, they will write-up a maintenance recommendation for this area. 

Report should include a summary of what additional work is recommended.  The group discussed how the report and data would be presented to FOMP.  Receiving information electronically would allow for data management and FOMP could work on translating the information in the report into usable format for different user groups and that work would then count toward our matching grant requirement. 

EarthCorps is on track for presentation of report at the April FOMP meeting.  The report will go out the week before the meeting for review.  Public meeting will hopefully be held by mid-May.  EarthCorps has the appropriate language and labels for the grant requirement of acknowledgement of funding source. 

Grant was for planting activities, not actually buying the plants.  With the produced report we will be able to use that for applying for grants for actual vegetation purchase.  Olmstead Group is a nonprofit in the Seattle area that would be a possible source for grant funding for the Historical area.  The Olmstead brothers were involved with Mansion development plan at one point in time; however, the plan did not get implemented. 

CIP/Project Updates:

1.       Birdloop – The dirt piles are going away and Ella will work with Norah on a seeding list for the area once the ground is bare.  The blackberry is also going to be removed and Audubon will work on acquiring plants to create a bird friendly shrub habitat in this area.  FOMP will be considering donating funds to acquire plants for this area.  New Marymoor Way signs identifying birdloop are up.  More will be going up in the near future. 

2.       Maintenance & Art Barn – Painting will start once weather clears up. 

3.       NE Marymoor Way Paving – Money is there to pave the rest of the road, but it is not in bad shape, so maybe the money could be used elsewhere.  The stretch of road between the last speed bump east to the toll booth is not the best.  The members felt the road was in good enough shape at this time.  Stripping would still go forward for the remainder of the road, the overlay would not need to be done.  These funds could be used for more deteriorated asphalt areas in the park. FOMP recommends re-allocating the funds for road re-surfacing to other areas of the park that need newer asphalt. 

4.       Garden Loosestrife – On hold until Spring.

5.       Community Garden – compost delivery will be beginning soon.  Gardeners have been advised that they need to move it into plots as soon as possible. 

6.       Boathouse project – They’ve been completing the utility work.  The next major project listed on the website to be completed in March was the turn lane, but it hasn’t been started yet. 

7.       East Lake Sammamish Trail – Issaquah portion bids came in low, so they will be able to pave it earlier than originally scheduled. 

8.       Interpretive Lot (Lot G) Improvement ideas – Ideas from FOMP meetings and meetings with Audubon reps:

a.       Remove invasives

b.      Smooth out humps from the dirt piles into one lookout mound

c.       Install split rail around perimeter allowing nose-in parking

d.      Camouflage brush and material bins

e.      Unpaved/compact surface for ADA path to top of lookout from Birdloop kiosk

f.        Include ‘express’ paths to top to discourage trail cutting

g.       Spray mound with native grass mix

h.      Place existing granite pieces on mound for informal seating

 Next Meeting:  Thursday April 28, 2011, 7:00 – 9:00pm. Marymoor Art Barn.  

These notes 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.