Around Town

  • Sue Waldburger<br>Enterprise writer
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 6:53am

The wheel deal

A public hearing on the proposed skateboard park in Edmonds has been scheduled for the Dec. 6 meeting of the Edmonds City Council.

On Nov. 29, the council will hear a presentation by the Skate Park Work Group, which has been researching and making recommendations on the project.

In their Nov. 16 meeting, members of the Edmonds Planning Board, in its capacity as the park advisory board, voted unanimously to support a modular concrete skateboard park at the downtown Civic Play Fields. Leading the opposition charge have been nearby residents concerned about noise and vandalism.

Humps trump bumps

When is a bump a hump?

According to Darrell Smith, Edmonds traffic engineer, traffic professionals often uses the word “hump” when talking about those large, road-spanning speed bumps used to “calm” traffic on city streets.

Edmonds posts “speed bump” signs, though, even though it doesn’t, for liability purposes, install the smaller humps also known as bumps.

Stay tuned for an explanation of why we have to “calm” traffic rather than just plain slow it down.

Right this way

The Edmonds City Council didn’t take kindly to a gated fence across an unopened public right-of-way portion of Eighth Avenue S. between Alder and Walnut streets.

Almost before the ink dried on the council’s unanimous vote Nov. 15 to allow the public unhindered access to the right-of-way, the latched gate across it that was erected by an abutting property owner was removed by a city work crew.

Council members also terminated proposed vacation action on the strip of land flanked by two private driveways and declared that a public right-of-way is, by golly, public.

Friend in deed

As of last Monday, $4,180 in gift cards for hurricane survivors in Edmonds’ adopted cities of Bay St. Louis and Waveland, Miss., were mailed from our city to theirs.

The cards were donated by area residents through their church, dropped off at fire stations, sent to City Hall or purchased with a donation from Edmonds’ sister city of Hekinan, Japan, reported Linda Carl, senior executive assistant to Mayor Gary Haakenson. Cards still are being accepted. Another batch will be mailed in early January.

Because the needs of those rebuilding their lives one roof, photo album and fry pan at a time change constantly, gift cards are ideal, Carl said. Due to their proximity to the devastated seaside communities, Target, Wal-Mart, Lowe’s and Home Depot are suggested card sources.

For more information call the mayor’s office at 425-771-0247.

Have an item for Around Town? Contact Sue Waldburger at 425-673-6525 or e-mail at edmonds@her-aldnet.com.

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