By Shannon Sessions
For the Herald
LYNNWOOD — A lot of things have changed since Sept. 11.
For the Lynnwood City Council and Mayor Mike McKinnon, individualized enhanced disaster preparedness has moved to the top of their priority list.
While public safety in general has always been important for Lynnwood, preparing citizens to help themselves during the first 72 hours of a major disaster is one thing the council has added to their top priority list for 2003, said Jim Smith, the council’s president.
"It’s important, in this time, for us to be sensitive to current needs such as the enhanced disaster preparedness for individuals," Smith said.
The goal is to inform people how to help when public safety agencies would be otherwise overwhelmed with other emergencies.
The council will discuss strategies and details for this and its other top priorities with the staff at a special meeting scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at the Hampton Inn &Suites in Lynnwood.
Another new priority for the coming year is enhancing the police department.
"I think that its important to realize that this is a fluid document — always being revised, and the council is doing a good job with it." Smith said
At their annual retreat in March, the council and mayor reviewed a proposed priority list. At that time, they removed revising the level of service for parks and recreation as a 2002 priority.
Instead, city officials are dealing with it so whoever replaces retired parks and recreation director Bill Evans can do this, Smith said.
Shannon Sessions is the editor for the Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace editions of the Enterprise Newspapers you can call her at 425-673-6531 or e-mail at sessions @heraldnet.com.
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