MAYOR’S NEIGHBORHOOD ADVISORY COMMISSION
“JUST SO YOU ARE AWARE”—Information of Interest
Dear
Friends and Neighbors:
We
look out for each other in many ways, too.
Some ring bells, fill boxes, buy gifts for charity. (A private donation
this year has made December admission free at the Children’s Museum.) Others
make sure a student away from home or a neighbor alone has a place to go for
dinner, or, when we have a “White Christmas,” that their walkway is cleared of
snow. In
In
the coming year, we will be asking more of our citizens as we launch “Forum
2006” to update our neighborhood plans and engage our neighborhood residents
more fully in thinking and planning for the future of our community. But as 2005 comes to an end, we express our
appreciation for your gifts of time and good works for your neighborhoods and
our community.
May
you all enjoy peace and good cheer and our community’s holiday spirit!
Mayor Mark
Council has authorized a 2006 budget allocation of $500,000
for improving public processes related to growth issues, especially those
needed to accomplish updated neighborhood plans in a timely way. The Mayor
expects this initiative to address many of the concerns that have been
expressed by the public and elected officials during the past year as the City
Council, Planning Commission, Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Commission and
staff worked on the City’s Comprehensive Plan.
The funding is to be used for the following public process elements:
v Ensuring on-going public consideration of the city Comprehensive Plan;
v Facilitating a neighborhood-led process to update neighborhood plans and integrate them into the city Comprehensive Plan;
v
Partnering with
v Stepping up efforts to inform citizens about what city government can realistically do to manage growth and the trade-offs associated with alternative growth management philosophies.
Thanks to the ad-hoc task citizen force who met with Mayor
Asmundson and Chief Administrative Officer Malcolm Fleming to develop these
ideas. This group includes Joan
Beardsley, Barbara Ryan, Tris Shirley, Iain Davidson, Ken Hertz, Michelle Long,
Mike Mcauley, Ted Mischaikov and Bill Hager.
Whew! After 13 work sessions and two public
hearings, the City Council has completed initial review of all the chapters of
the update to
Check the city’s
website after December 19 and write your comments to Bellingham City Council,
v In January we will install Luke along the 1300 Block of Railroad Avenue (three on each side
of the street)
v Later this spring, LUKE pay
stations will be installed in the 1100 Block when
Additional LUKE information: LUKE
Questions & Answers ; LUKE Automated Pay Stations ;
Parking
Questions & Answers
Parking Rate Changes
We remind you that
parking rates and fines will increase
v
Hourly
parking rates increase from $.25/hour to $.50/hour.
v
Parking
enforcement —Monday-Friday from
v
Fines
for meter infractions increase from $5.00 to $10.00 with no early pay discount.
v
All
other parking infractions increase from $10.00 to $20.00.
v Rate increases for monthly permit parking
varies.
For more information on our
parking services email parksmart@cob.org.
|
|
We
wanted to give you an end of the year update on the accomplishments of our
Public Works Department.
We
have completed:
v
At Meridian Street at Horton Road we
installed a fully-actuated
traffic signal to alleviate congestion and provide for citizen safety
v We have completed various water
quality improvement projects for the
§ A large vault with storm water
filters on
§
The construction of Water Quality
Swales on one section of
§
At
v
On one side of Chuckanut Drive Roadway from
v We are getting good reports on
the effectiveness of the new Cordata/Westerly intersection roundabout. This improves the flow of traffic,
allowing for more capacity.
v We are finished with work on Squalicum
Creek Culverts. This maintenance and repair work to
four groups of deteriorating culverts that cross under
v We also have completed Squalicum
Creek Bank Rehabilitation work.
These bank protection measures from the first culvert below West
Street to where creek comes back to Squalicum Parkway helps prevent the eroding
away of Squalicum Parkway.
v
We’ve done considerable Overlay Program work including pavement repair and
restoration of streets identified by pavement management program (see specifics
in earlier issues.)
v We have repaired an important
but deteriorating culvert under Old Lakeway Drive to prevent damage to
v As the final phase of
v
Citizen safety: We have
installed new street lights and bike lanes for safer pedestrian and cyclist
access to WWU and other high volume foot and bike traffic areas.
§
More street lights on
§ A bike
lane on
§
Pedestrian crossings at intersection of
Our current construction projects:
v
We need additional water storage to provide service and fire flow to
the Cordata area and the industrial area east of James Street so we are constructing
a new water tank on King Mountain we call the Kearney Road Reservoir.
v In order to provide for backup
pumping and pumping in power outage so that we can prevent overflows into
v We are
installing a pump station at the existing water tank location at Sunset
Heights to solve pressure and fire flow
deficiencies on top section of South Hill
v
Improvements to the Oak
Street Sewer Pump Station are in their final stages and include measures to
handle greater holding capacity and protect against sewage overflows that could
enter
v Railroad Avenue –
v
Repairs to the
If
you missed the fabulous Bellingham Bagpipe band last Sunday, put some of these
other activities on your family’s calendar:
All programs, (except Children’s Museum programs) take place in the 1892
Old City Hall Rotunda Room.) Thanks to
an anonymous donor, admission to the Children’s Museum is FREE.
Saturday, Dec. 17,
Children’s Museum
Sunday, Dec. 18,
Tuesday, Dec. 27,
Celebrate
Celebrate
Wednesday, Dec. 28,
Celebrate
Celebrate
Thursday, Dec. 29,
celebrate
Thursday, Dec. 29,
Celebrate
Friday, Dec. 30,
Celebrate
Friday, Dec. 30
Celebrate
Saturday, Dec. 31
Celebrate
.
Celebrate
CABIN FEVER RELIEVED AT
The Library
Unless
we are forced to close by severe weather conditions, our library is there for you
and your family to enjoy during those short days of winter and winter school
vacations.
Come
in, browse, read, use our computer resources, check out some videos, DVDs
or
books on tape. For your children,
Bellingham Children's Library has lots to choose from:
For Older
Readers:
v Inkheart by Cornelia
Funke Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that
her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can “read” fictional
characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force
him into service. By the author of The
Thief Lord; the sequel Inkspell (for Young Adults) was just released.
v For fans of the
Series of Unfortunate Events, the
latest, The Penultimate Peril, just arrived. Go on-line or phone to put your name on the
hold list.
v The Field Guide Book 1 in the Spiderwick Chronicles by DiTerlizzi,
Tony and Black, Holly. Three siblings
discover an old book with pictures of fantastic creatures in the spooky old
house in which they live.
v Beyond the Deepwoods Book 1 in the Edge Chronicles by Stewart,
Paul. Thirteen-year-old Twig, having
always looked and felt different from his woodtroll family, learns that he is
adopted and travels out of his Deepwoods home to find the place where he
belongs.
For Middle
Readers
v The Little
Gentleman by Pearce, Phillipa.
A young
girl's dull life is transformed when she meets and befriends an extraordinary
talking mole that likes to be read to and tell of his own past exploits
throughout the centuries.
v The library has
multiple copies of the 2006 Sasquatch and Young Reader's Choice Award
nominees. Look for them in the special
display. Titles include:
v Kensuke's
Kingdom by Morpurgo, Michael. When Michael is swept off
his family's yacht, he washes up on a desert island, where he struggles to
survive--until he finds he is not alone.
v The Mayor of
v The Man Who
Went to the Far Side of the Moon by Schyffert, Bea Uusma. A biography of the astronaut, Michael Collins, who
circled the moon in the Apollo 12 space capsule while his colleagues Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the lunar module and walked on the moon.
v Check out the biography
collection for other fascinating lives.
For Younger
Readers
v Look for some
of these authors who write silly stories or great bedtime read-alouds:
Karma Wilson, David Shannon, Eric A. Kimmel and Jonathan London
Come in out of the wind and rain to one of the many regular story
times at both the Central Library and Fairhaven Branch. Make thank-you cards on December 29th
at 10:30 at our annual Note of Thanks program. For times and information visit our website www.bellinghampubliclibrary.org
or phone 676-6864.