Mill Creek Drainage Meeting Tuesday, February 10th

We’re getting together to talk about the Mill Creek drainage

with City of Kent staff, due to the recent water over the roadways. Your input is important so we can work together on these main issues that affect our neighborhood.

Please join Mayor Cooke, Mike Mactutis, Environmental Engineer Manager and myself at City Hall on Tuesday, February 10th at 6:30pm.

We will explain what we are doing to improve drainage, timeline for future improvements, WA State Department of Fish and Wildlife polices and then explore strategies.

Please see the attached flyer. If you have questions, please feel to call or email Mike Mactutis at 253-856-5520 or myself. I hope to see you there.

Memorial Park Neighbors

We’re getting together to talk about the Mill Creek drainage with City of Kent staff, due to the recent
water over the roadways. Your input is important so we can work together on these main issues that affect our neighborhood.


Don’t miss this gathering of your neighbors

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
6:30 p.m.
Chambers East and West
220 Fourth Avenue South

AGENDA ITEMS INCLUDE:

1. Welcome Mayor Cooke
2. Mill Creek Drainage
1. What we are doing to improve drainage
2. Timeline for future improvements
3. WA State Department of Fish and Wildlife polices
4. Exploring strategies
3. Meet your neighbors

Toni Azzola
Neighborhood Program Coordinator
Office of the Mayor
220 Fourth Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
253-856-5708

Flooding of Mill Creek

From the City regarding recent flooding:

The Earthworks Park Dam did work as it is intended. The most significant amount of rainfall that we received was on Wednesday and the dam was holding back water that evening. The rainfall let up around midnight and the dam was drained out by morning. The storm event was a large one, but not extremely large, which is why the dam didn’t completely fill, and why it drained out before morning. The dam improvements that were done this past summer will serve to hold additional water during larger storm events such as the twenty five to one hundred year events where we would receive three to four inches of rain in a 24 hour period. The local rainfall this past Wednesday, Jan. 7th was approximately two inches.

The Dam does not, by itself, control the flooding on Mill Creek. There is a larger dam on the top of the hill which also holds water, and the City’s Green River Natural Resource Area along the Green River also holds flood water from Mill Creek during storms. These facilities were functioning during this storm as well.

The City does have areas of improvement needed in its flood protection system. Changes over the years in land use and environmental regulations have created many of these needs, and the City has recently adopted a new Drainage Master Plan with capital improvement projects to deal with those. Much of the flood protection work in the Drainage Master Plan is focused on Mill Creek, including enlarging the Upper Mill Creek Dam, enlarging and restoring the Mill Creek channel through the valley and improving the Green River Natural Resource Area to function more efficiently during storm events. These improvements, many of which are very significant in size, will be going into construction over the next ten years with the highest priority going first.

The Mill Creek neighborhood supports the installation of traffic circles!

December 2008 was a memorable month for many reasons. In addition to the heaviest snow accumulation in 2 decades, it was also the month the Mill Creek neighborhood voted on whether or not to install two traffic circles in the neighborhood. For the past year, many neighbors have worked with the city’s Residential Traffic Calming Program (RTCP) conducting studies, making phone calls to other neighbors, attending meetings and volunteering their time and energy toward determining an appropriate traffic calming technique for the area. Ballots were sent out in early December and returns were tallied throughout the month. The neighborhood voted in favor of installing the traffic circles.

In general, traffic circles are very effective in moderating speeds, can have a positive aesthetic value, reduce collisions at the treated intersection, and can calm two streets at once. Traffic circles influence drivers upstream and downstream from the device by creating a visual impression, real or imagined, that a street is not intended for through traffic. Emergency vehicles can maneuver around traffic circles but they have no effect on local access.

Engineering design is underway and the actual construction of two traffic circles on Jason Avenue North between James Street and Smith Street should start in late spring or early summer, barring any complications.