January 10, 2014 [9]
www.federalwaymirror.com
Council sets legislative agenda during breakfast event From staff reports
The Federal Way City Council met with local legislators to set the city’s legislative agenda for the upcoming session during a breakfast meeting on Wednesday. The city’s agenda focuses on priority areas of transportation infrastructure and service, economic development and fiscal health and public safety. The city will focus its efforts on the following legislative items and funding requests and work with other stakeholders and lawmakers to support legislative action on these items:
• Complete the Triangle Project: Federal Way supports funding of $114 million to complete remaining phases of the “Triangle” interchange: Interstate 5, State Highway 18, and State Route 161. Project components will include ramps connecting southbound I-5 to SR 161 and South 356th Street, northbound I-5 to eastbound SR 18, reconstruction of the I-5/SR 161 undercrossing, and restoring the Weyerhaeuser Way connection to SR 18. The project is essential to Federal Way’s economic development, and will improve access to local businesses, while enhancing freight mobility for Port of Tacoma traffic. The project is also important for safety and is expected to reduce collisions over 50 percent at a societal cost savings of up
to $600,000 annually. • Transportation infrastructure funding: The Legislature is expected to consider a major statewide transportation funding package. The city is advocating for inclusion of the Triangle Project, as well as I-5/S. 320th and I-5/SR-509 improvements. • Metro Transit funding: In 2011, the state Legislature authorized a temporary funding source for King County Metro to mitigate revenue shortfalls related to the recession, while the Legislature developed a statewide transportation funding package. The funding measure expires in June. Without replacement funding, Metro has indicated that up to 600,000 service hours will be eliminated systemwide, including significant service cuts in Federal Way.
munity Center (FWCC) in such instances. “There are different kinds of shelters, I talked a little bit about warming and cooling shelters, as well as what’s called a dormitory shelter,” he said. “A dormitory shelter is a 24-hour operation for if folks are going to be there over the course of a day or multiple days, and you provide for them holistically.” Roe said the city’s criteria for a warming shelter is if the temperature reaches 32 degrees or below. In that case, the FWCC is typically designated a warming shelter, where essentially anyone is welcome to use the center to warm up for however long they feel they need. For the dormitory shelter, three criteria need to be met for the city to consider opening up the FWCC for that kind of use, Roe said. “The first is … tem-
perature, (the second) is displacement of population, as we had in the significant power outage,” Roe said, referencing the snow/ice storm that left much of the city without power for a number of days in early 2012. “And then last but not least is precipitation, snow and ice conditions present in the community.” When it comes to the dormitory shelter need, Roe noted that the city has a memorandum of understanding with the Red Cross. Using the FWCC to shelter the homeless, especially when the Red Cross and King County Emergency Management are involved, can be problematic, Roe said. “As we set up the Red Cross shelter at the Federal Way Community Center, there were numerous homeless folks who participated and took advantage of the shelter,” he said. “I
Transportation
Mayor Jim Ferrell (center) speaks with local legislators during an event Monday, when the Council set the city’s legislative agenda for the upcoming 60-day session. Also pictured is Sen. Tracey Eide, D-Federal Way (right) and Rep. Roger Freeman, D-Federal Way (left). Chris Carrel, City of Federal Way
Economic development, fiscal health
• Restore local liquor revenue sharing to historic levels. • Restore Building for the
Arts grant.
Public Safety
• Increased sentencing for felony attempts to elude police. • Fully fund the 2013
Metal Theft Prevention legislation. • Effective local framework for legalized collective gardens and marijuana sales.
Council reviews city’s response for cold weather events by Greg Allmain gallmain@fedwaymirror.com
With Federal Way and Western Washington experiencing their own deep freeze in December, Councilmember Susan Honda asked for a report back on the city’s policies and procedures for sheltering residents and the homeless during such cold weather events. Director of Public Works Carrie Roe gave the report during the Council’s meeting on Tuesday. Roe said the city has two plans in place, one in which facilities can be designated as a warming center, or can be set up as a temporary overnight shelter, depending on the severity of the weather and its effects on the city. Another factor is how these policies relate to agreements the city has with Red Cross and the use of the Federal Way Com-
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received a call at my home during the course of that shelter, and the King County Emergency Management person and Red Cross director told me they were going to shut down the shelter. I listened for about three minutes, and then interrupted and said, ‘The last time I checked, that’s a city of Federal Way shelter, and a city of Federal Way facility, and we’ll decide when it will shut down.’” Roe noted that about a day later, the temporary shelter at the FWCC was shut down, and there were some issues with the homeless who had shown up. “I tell you that story because we didn’t make a decision based on the homeless, we made a decision based on need, and it was the right thing to do,” Roe added. In the most recent cold snap, Roe said New Hope Community Church made
its facility available as a dormitory shelter. One of the challenges in communicating with the homeless community, he noted, is that they don’t have access to a phone, Internet or other forms of communication. In this instance, Roe developed a flier informing readers that New Hope was a temporary shelter, and he worked with the Federal Way Police Department to have patrol officers hand the fliers out to any members of the homeless community they may have encountered during their shifts. “One individual … he didn’t want help, so we tried not to be overly aggressive and be proactive in that regard,” Roe said. He noted that the city has always tried to defer to community service based/ faith-based organizations in the community when it comes to these particu-
lar needs, citing the Red Cross’s issues with housing the homeless. There’s a part of the city’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan specifically titled “Severe Cold Weather Protocol for Religious/Faith-Based Organizations.” “We have a significant number in our community, and many of them have the desire to help,” he said. Roe noted that this particular initiative lost some steam after its original creation because of staffing cuts in city government, leading to a lack of awareness in the community about the initiative. “I believe it’s viable and we should put some energy behind it … I’d like to encourage us to rejuvenate that program and to focus some funds to the agencies/ organizations in our community who are willing to step up and help,” Roe said.
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