Page 2 | Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Thrift | FROM 1 attention when making changes to the building or the surrounding park. Fifteen attended a similar session earlier in August. Cindy Goodwin, director of Mercer Island Youth and Family Services emphasized that the city wanted to hear from neighbors about the plan. “We are not glazing over the impact of this on the neighborhood,” she said. “Nothing is a done deal.” The city plans to expand the shop to take full advantage of its potential of the store to generate money to pay for Mercer Island’s Youth and Family Services department. YFS offers city residents assistance with counseling, (including students at Mercer Island public schools), housing employment, and youth and crime prevention programs. YFS also operates the food pantry at Luther
Burbank Park. “The Thrift store is all about Youth and Family Services,” Thrift store coordinator, Suzanne Philen said. The shop helps pay for the services they offer. The shop now grosses about $1.25 million each year,” she said. The city hopes to improve access and traffic flow into and out of the store and on S.E. 34th Street, while making it easier for people to drop off donations as well as shop. They want to mitigate the impact of the store on the park and on the pre-school play area in the park next to the north side of the building. They want to improve the appearance of the front of the store and be able to display and sell more goods inside the building. They want to make it an attractive part of the Mercerdale neighborhood. “We have heard from the community about noise and traffic, especially along
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King County Council to finalize pick for 41st District Rep on Sept. 9 By Reporter Staff
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Thrift store employee, Michael McCormick, right, helps Islander Christine Poythress unload her car at the shop on Sunday, Sept. 1. McCormick noted that despite the already crowded sidewalk, it was a ‘slow day’ for donations which usually pile much higher on the canvas carts. S.E. 34th Street,” Goodwin said, adding that many have also expressed support for the expansion plans. In order to fully utilize the space within the existing building, plans call for the slanted roof on the back of the store to be raised to free up more space inside on the second floor and a new addition to be built next to the back of the store. “The whole footprint of the (existing) store will be made available for retail,” said Steve Sutherland of the design firm Johnson & Sutherland. The new space will be used for volunteers to sort and process donations. Some 140 volunteers work at the store each year. About 60 of those are regulars,
coordinator, Philen said. The volunteers are a community in and of itself, Goodwin said. “We want to make sure we keep their needs in mind, too.” The changes will free up all of the space in the existing building for selling the donated goods. Other plans include adding a separate driveway along 78th Avenue S.E. for drop-offs in the back of the shop and moving the large dumpster at the front. About sixty cars a day come to drop off donations. Peter Johnstone, who lives in a condo across 78th Avenue S.E., talked about the impacts of the proposed doubling of the existing parking lot and a drive-up lane of off the northbound
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lane of 78th Avenue S.E. He and another condo resident said they definitely heard the trucks who come to haul off the dumpsters at different hours. Other comments from Mercerdale neighbors included the desire to keep the store “as it is,” not to enlarge the space at all and to keep it less “profit-oriented.” More than one felt that prices at the shop are too high. Another stated that she felt, commercial enterprises belonged in the Town Center not in a residential area or a park.
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The King County Council will vote on a replacement for 41st District Rep. Marcie Maxwell on Sept. 9. Maxwell resigned her seat to take a position on education with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s staff. Prior to the vote, the Council will meet on Sept. 4 to interview the three top candidates nominated for the post by a vote of Precinct Committee Officers of the 41st District Democrats on Aug. 21. The three nominated are David Ellis of Mercer Island; Mercer Island City Councilmember Tana Senn, and Bellevue businessman, George Pieper. To read the Mercer Island Reporter story about the process and the nominees, go to www. mi-reporter.com. The first meeting will be held at 9:30 a.m., Sept. 4, in Room 1001 in the King County Courthouse at 516 Third Avenue in Seattle. As of press time, the Spet. 9 time had not been set. To find out the time for the Sept. 9 vote, check www.mi-reporter.com.
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