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EDITORIAL | Make sure you see a doctor on a regular basis, even if you feel fine [3]
Police | Man arrested for drinking at Houghton MUSIC | Pianos in the Park program comes to downtown Kirkland [4] FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2015 Beach Park [5]
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
Neighborhoods prepare for National Night Out events Houghton neighborhood focusing on disaster response BY TJ MARTINELL tmartinell@kirklandreporter.com
A
s cities across the state celebrate National Night Out on Aug. 4, one Kirkland community in Houghton will be preparing for emergencies in a simple
way - by getting to know each other. According to Houghton resident Margaret Bull, her neighborhood will hold its fourth block party as part of National Night Out, an annual community-building campaign to promote police-
community partnerships. Bull’s neighborhood will have a potluck along with a visit from a fire truck and police car. The event will allow residents to get more acquainted while discussing safety issues with the officers. The intent of the block
parties, however, is not just to create more awareness about crime, but to spark cooperation and communication. Having participated in a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program, Bull said she has attempted to raise more awareness in her community about emergency preparedness,
which for a while proved difficult. “I make a big deal about inviting, but sometimes people don’t answer the phone if they don’t know you or the email goes into the junk folder,” Bull said. One of the biggest problems, she said, is that people don’t know who they live
next to, which meant when she initially tried to introduce herself some were wary of answering the door. “A lot of apartments, a lot of young people aren’t friendly,” she said. “A part of the problem is latch-key kids. They were home alone and wouldn’t open doors to [ more NIGHT page 4 ]
City Council approves ballot measure for ARC funding BY TJ MARTINELL tmartinell@kirklandreporter.com
If Kirkland residents want a metropolitan park district (MPD) to fund the Aquatic and Recreation Community Center, they will have the chance to approve it this November. The Kirkland City Council approved an ordinance placing a proposed MPD on the November ballot during its July 21 meeting. The MPD would be used as a funding mechanism for the ARC. The city recently completed a site analysis of Christ Church, one of the possible sites for the ARC, with an estimated construction cost of $56.7 million. This price does not include the purchase of the land. Under the proposed ordinance, the MPD’s boundaries would be the city limits, and the council would act as the governing body. An MPD is a junior taxing district that, instead of a fixed amount raised, sets a fixed tax rate that all property owners pay per $1,000 in assessed valuation (AV), with a maximum rate of 75 cents per $1,000 AV. The initial levy rate for the ARC is estimated to be $.25 per $1,000 AV. The council also approved an ordinance that authorizes the city manager to enter into an interlocal agreement with
the MPD if it is approved by the voters. The interlocal agreement would allow the city to run the district directly. The board would approve the district’s six-year budget, which would be updated annually and include a public hearing prior to adoption of the annual budget. From the perspective of many in the city, the MPD is the most practical way of funding the ARC after searching for both locations to place it, as well as ways of paying for the associated costs. With many of the costs still uncertain, the MPD would enable the city to raise as much as needed to cover the final bill, while a bond measure would raise a specific amount and require more certainty as to the final bill. Councilmember Dave Asher said during the meeting that the MPD would also provide a sustainable means of maintaining the ARC in the long-term, calling it “probably one of the smartest moves we’ve made.” “If you look at aquatic facilities and other types of facilities that have been in place for a long period of time, a number of them are going away, because they didn’t have an enduring, sustainable funding mechanism.” Councilmember Shelley [ more ARC page 2 ]
The annual Kirkland Classic Car Show invaded downtown last weekend and car enthusiasts from around the region enjoyed the free event. DEANNA ISAACS, Kirkland Reporter
A classic show for Kirkland car enthusiasts BY DEANNA ISAACS Reporter newspapers
Downtown Kirkland opened it’s parking spots and shut out normal traffic last weekend to ensure that the Kirkland Classic Car Show was a triumph... no not a Triumph car, but a triumph of auto-shows. The Kirkland Classic Car Show, organized by the Legends Car Club and the Kirkland Downtown Association, drew people from near and far, all for the chance to showcase their vehicles and meet and greet fellow enthusiasts. “My Brother and I found it on Craigslist. It was in pieces and we put it together, did all the work on it, got it
running, made everything work,” said Jeff McCracken, who was showcasing his labor of love, a Plymouth, at the show. “Then we took it all apart and did all the body work on it. They also rented a paintbooth and did the paint job, only getting outside help for the upholstery. They even put an automatic transmission in the vehicle, by making the stock shifter the new automatic shifting knob, and put in power steering to make it easy to handle on the roads. “The trunk was done up by Interior Renovations, which is a friend that I went to school with who has an interior shop right here in Kirkland,” McCracken said. “It’s all homebuilt.”
For them, car culture is about getting in there and doing the job right with the helping hands of friends and family, and returning to where they came from. “I was born down here, right in Kikland, at the old hospital that was right down the street,” McCracken said. “It’s kind of neat; it’s not the same town anymore, it’s changed a lot but it’s a nice town.” With such an amalgamation of vehicles, it was hard for some to not get whiplash; something from nearly every year and most makes or models. There were even some newer vehicles, though heavily modified. [ more CARS page 4 ]