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.
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