Blockwatch initiates OPERATION ID Program

The Kent Police Department has provided our Blockwatch Stickers as part of their Operation ID program. Operation ID is a burglary prevention program that involves marking property with your Washington State identifier number (your driver's license #). Engraving your property can deter burglary and theft because it makes the items more difficult to "fence", pawn, or sell. It also assists police and prosecutors charge and convict burglars if stolen property is identified in their possession.

Operation ID has two parts:

1. Part One: Mark your valuables with your Washington State Driver's License number - Remembering to mark a "WA" at the front of the number and "DL" at the end of the number so that it cannot be altered. This makes your property easier to identify and should be given to police. Do not use your Social Security number and do not engrave valuables such as heirlooms, paintings, or antiques.

2. Part Two: After you have marked or engraved your property, contact your Blockwatch Captains to obtain your Operation ID decals. The 3" x 4" decals with the Operation ID logo can go on front windows or near any entrance. When you display an Operation ID decal near your front door you are announcing that your valuable property has been marked and will be difficult for a burglar to pawn. I also have 1" x 1" stickers that can be placed on the back of your stereo, TV, or property that provides a visible sign to a burglar that your property has been marked. These decals can also be displayed on vehicle windows.

If you are interested in participating in this program and would like stickers to display, the Kent Police Department has asked me to ask you to commit to engraving or marking at least 1-3 items. If I have enough people interested in engraving their property, I will purchase a small engraving tool and a few invisible ink pens for our Blockwatch that members can check out to engrave their property. I think that displaying the stickers are also a great way to deter potential theft and also lets potential burglars know this is a Blockwatch neighborhood with others nearby watching for suspicious activity! Besides, I now have a giant package of these stickers taking up space in my office! So, come and get your stickers!

Traffic Study Update - Jason Ave N & Clark Ave N

The Transportation Section conducted their traffic study of Jason Ave and Clark Ave the last week of August and first week of September. They are going through the data and we should know more in a few weeks on the results and what the next steps will be. (Source: VP H. Thomas)

Kent Historical Society Annual Dinner & Auction - Oct 6 - 530pm

The Kent Historical Society is holding its annual dinner and auction at the Kent Senior Center on Saturday, Oct. 6 at 5:30pm. This is the main fundraiser for the nonprofit historical society and museum. Tickets are $35 each and reservations may be made at the museum by calling 253-854-4330.

We would appreciate it if you could notify all the neighbors of this event. We enjoyed meeting everyone so much at the Neighbor's Night Out.

Thank you,

Linda Van Nest, Director
Greater Kent Historical Society

Our Council is Officially Recognized by the City of Kent!

On Tuesday evening, September 18, 2007, the officers of our Neighborhood Council as well as several members were present for the official recognition of our council by the City of Kent. During the September City Council Meeting at City Hall, our group was presented with an official certificate of recognition.

President Amy FitzPatrick was asked by Mayor Suzette Cooke about the reasons motivating the formation of our group. Amy responded that we as a neighborhood felt the need to join our efforts in making our neighborhood a better place to live as well as provide a vehicle for neighborhood residents to address concerns regarding safety, crime, traffic, and more. Councilwoman Elizabeth Albertson also stepped down from her seat to stand with us during our recognition.

Thanks to everyone for their participation! Now the hard work begins as we work to define our group's future goals and work to fulfill them.

Neighborhood Council Recognition on Tuesday, September 18th @ 7:00pm

Please plan to attend the next City Council meeting on Tuesday, September 18th at 7:00pm. Our neighborhood will be given a Certificate of Recognition by Mayor Cooke to formally recognize Mill Creek Neighborhood. Everyone from our neighborhood attending will be ask to come to the front of the Council Chambers. This is the next exciting event for our neighborhood to take advantage of. Congratulations to everyone and thanks for everyone's hard work up to this point! Please let us know if you have any questions.

Transportation Master Plan Meeting- September 26 @ 7:00 pm in the Kent City Council Chambers

We would like your help with the Transportation Master Plan. Would you please join us on Wednesday, September 26th at 7:00 pm in the Kent City Council Chambers. 220 Fourth Ave South, Kent. TMP is a long-range plan that will serve as a roadmap for the City and we need your help! It includes all the modes of transportation, like walking, biking, mass transit or car. This will be used to increase mobility, reduce congestion and make it easier to get safely around Kent. Please see the attachment.

If you or your neighbors are interested in attending, please call me or email me with your confirmation by Tuesday, September 25th. Thank you for your help in making our City a better place to live.

Click to view a PDF of the letter from the City Transportation Engineer.

Toni Azzola
Neighborhood Program Coordinator
City of Kent
Office of the Mayor
Direct: 253-856-5708

* Please let one of the Officers know if you'd like to attend so that we can RSVP as a group to Toni. Thanks!

City of Kent Blue Recycling Bins Come to Some Kent Parks

As a pilot project, the City of Kent has ordered blue recycling bins to be placed at some of the parks throughout the city. The Parks Department has asked Toni Azzola to see if the Neighborhood Councils would help in determining other parks to place these bins in the future. Below is a link that tells you more about the program and has a quick survey for your input.

http://www.ci.kent.wa.us/parksplanningdevelopment/bluebin.asp

These are just a few that will start in September. Look for the new recycling bins at:

• Van Doren's Landing Park
• Three Friends Fishing Hole
• Russell Rd. Park
• Kent Memorial Park
• Service Club Ballfields
• Wilson Playfields
• Riverbend Golf Course
• Green River Natural Resources Area

Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the recycling bin placements in our neighborhood!

August 14 Meeting Summary

Please see below for notes on our August 14 Neighborhood Council Meeting as well as reminders for future meeting dates. Our next official Neighborhood Meeting is scheduled for the evening of Thursday, October 18th. Please let NgocDzung Smith (253-373-0500) or Vice-President Heather Thomas (253-277-3281) know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks.

Meeting Summary
The following items were addressed in order to continue moving forward on our Council Application with a goal of being officially recognized and certified by the City of Kent by the beginning of September. Please note that Toni Azzola, the City of Kent Neighborhood Council Neighborhood Program Coordinator, and Ron Harmon, City Council Member, also attended our meeting.

Discussion and Voting of Bylaws
The attending group discussed the differences, advantages, and disadvantages of each of the three versions of the bylaws.

• It was noted that Bylaw A included a board of directors and Bylaw B was similar but did not contain the board of Directors. Bylaw C was based on a much more simple bylaws being used by a different City of Kent neighborhood council.
  
  
• N. Smith also brought up that several members had brought up concern that Bylaws A and B contained verbage outlining the requirements for voting in membership dues in the future. She also mentioned that several members wanted to have meetings on Thursdays rather than Tuesdays.
  
  
• C. Climans brought up the advantage of using amendment clauses for membership dues and voting guidelines to prepare the council for situations if evolving membership did want to institute dues or amend the bylaws.
  
  
• Another resident brought up the advantage of using a Board of Directors as a governing body that might contribute donations or ensure the success of projects. S. Bersaas mentioned that in her past experience, it was difficult to sustain the membership and success of a standing committee and found that it was more successful to solicit volunteers on a project basis rather than expect committee members to commit to such long periods to be on a Board or standing committee.
  
  
• After discussion, present membership voted. Final results were postponed to allow for absentee members to votes via email or phone.
  

Officer Elections
At the beginning of the meeting, only two members had submitted their names for Officer positions.

• Because of the lack of candidates for Secretary and Treasurer, members Doug Scharnhorst and Michael Johnson volunteered to assume the positions, respectively.
  
  
• Present membership voted. Final results were postponed to allow for absentee members to cast votes via email or phone.

Previous Business

• Neighborhood Traffic Control Program Heather Thomas reported that she had contacted the head of the program to inquire the status of the application placed 2 years ago. When the application could not be located, Heather refiled a new application and received notification that a traffic study would commence on Jason Ave N soon. Traffic study would include a traffic counter that should track vehicle speeds, types of vehicles and volume of traffic. Heather was also told that the City was aware of the high volumes of traffic on Jason Ave N. A resident on Clark Ave N requested that Clark Ave N also be added to the traffic study due to a lot of similar traffic issues.
  
  
• New curb for resident At a previous meeting, a resident complained that flooding on Temperance resulted in flooding on her property because she had no curb on the road to redirect flood/rain waters. Resident reported that she received a contact number from Toni Azzola for someone to contact in the city and attempted to contact this person, but never received a return call. A couple weeks later, resident noticed a new curb on property.
  
  
• Offensive Restaurant Parking Lot Lights At a previous meeting, a resident complained that the parking lot lights at the Wendy's were pointing directly into his home on Clark Ave N. He noticed a few weeks after the meeting that though the lights still were offensively glaring, that they had been adjusted and weren't quite so offensive as before.

New Business

• Request for Projects/Issues A sheet was sent around to solicit ideas for possible projects/issues to be addressed by our Neighborhood Council. If you would like to submit a project or issue idea, please contact Heather Thomas at 253-277-3281.
  
  
• Schedule for Recognition with the City of Kent In order to be on our schedule to be recognized by the City (and ready to apply for grants, etc), our application needs to be completed and submitted to Toni Azzola by August 25. The application will then be reviewed by the City of Kent Legal Department and submitted for approval at the September 10th Planning Committee Meeting. If everything goes according to schedule, ALL MEMBERS should plan to attend the September 18th City Council Meeting at 7pm for the official recognition of our neighborhood council.
  
  
• Next Meeting Our next Neighborhood Council Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 18th, at 7pm.
  

2007 Election Results

The results of the Election are in! We had 22 voters and the exact results are posted below. It was quite a close race for the bylaws, but Bylaw C pulled ahead with 10 votes against the other two bylaws. If you would like a copy of the bylaws, please contact NgocDzung Smith at 253-373-0500 or click here.

As for our officers, without candidates for Secretary and Treasurer, Doug Scharnhorst and Michael Johnson graciously volunteered to fill our Secretary and Treasurer positions respectively. Please see below for our Officer Roster. If there are any questions regarding the election results, please contact NgocDzung Smith at 253-373-0500.


Neighborhood Council 2007 Officers

President: Amy Fitzpatrick
Vice-President: Heather Thomas
Secretary: Doug Scharnhorst
Treasurer: Michael Johnson

Data	Total
Count of Bylaw A	6
Count of Bylaw B	6
Count of Bylaw C	10
Count of Pres: Amy Fitzpatrick	21
Count of VP:Heather Thomas	21
Count of Sec: Doug Scharnhorst	19
Count of Trea: Michael Johnson	20

Map Boundary Votes - The Results Are In!

To determine our neighborhood boundaries, two different options were put to vote since our last meeting. Voting concluded July 15 (although a few stragglers were also included). With the majority of the votes for Map Boundary B, we have now voted in the boundary map (shown below) for our council.

Neighborhood boundaries are always amendable, but for now, this is our working boundary. Future correspondence and flyer distribution will now include homes and businesses as shown on the map below. Vote results are also posted below. Please contact NgocDzung Smith if you have any questions. Thanks.


BOUNDARY MAP VOTE RESULTS

Map A - 3 Votes
Map B - 10 Votes
Stay with original map - 2 Votes

By-Laws Proposed by the By-Law Committee

Please click on the link below to download a PDF version of the proposed By-Laws. The committee shall present the By-Laws to the membership at our neighborhood's National Night Out event on August 7th. Paper copies will be available for review. Please contact Chris McClimans at 253-852-6525 or NgocDzung Smith at 253-373-0500 with any questions or concerns. Thanks.

Click to view Proposed By-Laws Version A. (Longer and more comprehensive)

Click to view Proposed By-Laws Version B. (Shorter)

Click to view Proposed By-Laws Version C. (As short as we could make it!)

June 14 Meeting Summary

Please see below for notes on our June 14 Neighborhood Council Meeting as well as reminders for future meeting dates. Our next meeting is tentatively schedule for the evening of Thursday, August 16. Please let me or Heather Thomas at (253-277-3281) know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks.


Meeting Summary
The following items were addressed in order to continue moving forward on our Council Application with a goal of being officially recognized and certified by the City of Kent by the beginning of September.

Neighborhood Council Name
The attending group has decided to move forward using the name “Mill Creek Neighborhood Council”

Neighborhood Council Boundaries
It was debated on whether or not to include:

1. Both sides of Summit Ave N which is one street East of Alvord (our current cutoff). This addition was requested by City of Kent Councilwoman Elizabeth Albertson who lives on Summit and would like to join our Council.
   
   
2. Include some of the homes North of James Street from Prospect East to Hilltop. (Our current cutoff is Prospect.)

The boundary decision will be put to a vote with the existing Neighborhood Council members. The two map options have been sent out via EMAIL for you to review and vote. Votes must be emailed or phoned in to NgocDzung Smith (253-373-0500) by July 15.

Neighborhood Council Bylaws
i. A committee was established to review the sample bylaws provided by the City of Kent. This committee will meet to recommend a set of bylaws appropriate for our group. These bylaws will be voted upon at our next Neighborhood Council meeting (tentatively set for Thursday, August 16, 2007).

ii. Committee members are: C. McClimans, T. Hainer, W. Kohler, D. Hardy, S. Bersaas

iii.The complete set of sample bylaws will be sent via EMAIL to the Neighborhood Council members for review prior to the committee presentation. Please let me know if you do not receive these bylaws or need a hard copy.

Neighborhood Council Elected Positions
i. As a neighborhood council, we must elect 3 members to the following Officer positions: President, Vice-President, Secretary & Treasurer.

ii. We are currently accepting names of anyone who would like to run for any of these offices. Please email or call me with your information and for which position you would like to run. A list of candidates will be sent out via EMAIL at the end of July. We will run the election on August 7 at our Neighborhood’s National Night Out event. Results will be announced at our next meeting on August 16. If you can not attend on August 7 and would still like to vote, please contact me before that date to cast your ballots.



Potential Future Projects
During the course of the meeting, the following topics were brought up as potential future projects or goals for our neighborhood.

Temperance Street from Clark to Kennebeck
i. Request the City to help with clean up and restoration of this area. Issues affecting this area include drainage, vagrancy, a rickety bridge, illegally parked cars, etc.

Homes on Temperance
i. Homes on this street are affected by flooding when ever there is flooding or overflow from upper streets. There is no curb or existing barrier to prevent these waters from invading the lower homes.
Mentioned was Aqua Fence as a solution to annual flooding of Mill Creek (info@aquafence.com).

Mill Creek Student Volunteers
i. It was suggested that we form a committee to establish to volunteer projects for their student volunteer programs such as cleaning up the creek area.

Vendor Committee
i. It was suggested that we form a committee to communicate and work with businesses in our Neighborhood Boundaries to deal with issues that are caused or are related to their doing business in our community. Examples of issues are trash removal, lights in the business affecting homeowners, traffic concerns, etc.

Neighborhood Beautification
i. Some sample ideas included a neighborhood park, signage for our historic neighborhood, planting trees along our streets, sidewalks, speed bumps or traffic calming solutions, etc.



NATIONAL NIGHT OUT – TUESDAY, AUGUST 7 6pm- 8pm
The "24th Annual National Night Out" (NNO), a unique crime/drug prevention event sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch (NATW), has been scheduled for Tuesday, August 7, 2007. We cordially invite you to be a part of our NIGHT OUT 2007.

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT is designed to:

- Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness;

- Generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime programs;

- Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; and

- Send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

Our Neighborhood Night Out is tentatively planned as a Dessert Potluck to be held in the Museum Parking Lot (pending permission). Please SAVE THE DATE!

Map Boundary Selection - PLEASE VOTE

As we discussed during our Neighborhood Council meeting on June 14, please find attached 2 maps defining different boundaries for our Neighborhood Council. Please review these maps and vote on which one you want to see used. Keep in mind that our boundaries are always amendable. Please vote by July 15.

NEIGHBORHOOD MAP – Option A

NEIGHBORHOOD MAP – Option B