Shoreline staff is making progress on studying Ronald Bog and the Thornton Creek Floodplain as indicated in a presentation they gave to the City Council last week.
The council also listened to one longtime Shoreline resident’s reaction to news of the Shoreline/Lake Forest Park Enterprise shutting down at the end of the month. Some council members remarked it is a sad loss but when asked to use their influence to postpone the closing, some council members seemed unmoved.
Closing the Shoreline/Lake Forest Park Enterprise
Shoreline resident Richard Johnsen said he was shocked when he read the Sept. 30 edition of the Shoreline/Lake Forest Park Enterprise that included an article announcing the edition will close by the end of the month.
Johnsen asked the council to appoint a councilmember, namely Ron Hansen, to persuade The Herald to postpone closing the Shoreline/Lake Forest Park edition until January.
“Shoreline residents depend on it for their news and events,” he said. “Sometimes there’s news in the Enterprise that doesn’t come out in the (Seattle) Times.”
Hansen did not acknowledge Johnsen’s request. Instead he said that he likes the Beacon and reads the Edmonds edition.
“Hopefully they would cover south county,” he said.
Johnsen said he wanted to thank former Enterprise publisher Jim Hills for starting The Shoreline Week during the mid 1990s. The weekly was later bought by The Herald.
That weekly paid attention to Shoreline residents and events while The Seattle Times ignored Shoreline, he said.
Johnsen said the idea to merge all of the Enterprise editions into one weekly newspaper is long overdue.
But Johnsen said he disagreed with the decision to close down the Shoreline edition.
“I realize the marketing and business situation is calling for it, but it’s a mistake,” he said.
Councilwoman Janet Way said it was too bad The Enterprise was choosing to pull out of Shoreline.
Way said she does not know what will fill the void, and the city will have to wait and see what comes along.
“It will leave a vacuum,” she said. “It was a resource for our residents.”
Ronald Bog/Thornton Creek Floodplain
City staff has studied a residential area notorious for flooding, the Ronald Bog area, and have completed a handful of projects designed to mitigate flooding in that area.
The area south of Ronald Bog has been the location of flooding after storms, most recently the December 2007 rainstorm. Approximately 20 homes have been impacted by floods.
Last year, staff pitched solutions to prevent futures floods in their area after a number of homes were flooded during a rain and snow storm that occurred a decade prior.
To control the impacts of 50- and 100-year storms, staff have completed projects and identified funding sources, namely Federal Emergency Management Act grants, to protect residents from future storms.
Drainage projects included in the Thornton Creek Basin Plan and the Flood Plain Designation Project came to approximately $2.3 million. These projects were paid for through public words trust fund loans.
Mitigation projects at Ronald Bog included, replacing street drainage on the west side of Corliss Avenue North between 171st and 172nd streets, removing three culverts along Corliss Place with fish-passable boxes.
Staff is also working on projects for the Cromwell Park Surface Water Enhancement Project to offer flood relief to the northern branch of the basin.
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