By Rep. Mike Cooper and Rep. Ruth Kagi

“What’s good for the arts is good for the economy.” -New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter In these tough economic times, many communities around our state are hurting. Businesses are laying off workers and delaying important investments in hopes that the economy will turn around soon. Unfortunately, when one business starts to struggle, often many other neighboring businesses are harmed as well.

However, in Edmonds we have a tremendous opportunity to reverse this effect – by investing in the Edmonds Center for the Arts.

A few years ago, a group of community leaders sought to designate the original Edmonds High School as a state historic structure. The group considered various options for preserving the school, eventually agreeing to turn the facility into a multi-purpose arts center. The plans for the facility include renovating its auditorium and gymnasium, both built in 1939, preserving rehearsal space, providing new meeting rooms and modernizing the stage and sound systems to accommodate many different users.

Edmonds is home to numerous artists and arts organizations including a regional symphony and youth orchestra, three ballet schools, a professional ballet company, two theatre groups, and a dozen artists’ cooperatives. Several of these organizations – the Olympia Ballet Theatre, the Cascade Youth Symphony and the Cascade Symphony – are among the current organizations housed at the school, which has already been renamed the Edmonds Center for the Arts. Many other groups within this thriving arts community are eager to use the new center once it’s completed.

Using a mix of public and private funds, the project has already secured half of its funding. In Olympia we are now working to pull together another significant piece of the investment, ensuring that construction will begin on schedule. Though we have yet to approve a capital budget plan at the Legislature, the $2.5 million request from the Edmonds Public Facilities District is a top priority for Edmonds-area legislators.

But the beneficiaries of this facility will not be artists and arts enthusiasts alone. Once completed, the new Edmonds Center for the Arts is expected to create 25 new jobs, attract more than 45,000 visitors annually, generate revenue for state and local governments and infuse millions of dollars annually into nearby restaurants, hotels, cafes and other businesses.

As the Edmonds Public Facilities district has stated in advocating for the plan, the prime objectives behind the project are “to provide a performing arts facility for community and regional arts groups and presenters, to preserve a well-regarded historic structure, to provide education opportunities and a place for people to gather, and to enhance the cultural life of the community and region.”

This is truly a win-win opportunity for the Edmonds community. We thank all of those who helped bring this project together and will do our best to ensure that the state does its part to support the Edmonds Center for the Arts.

Rep. Mike Cooper, D-Edmonds, chairs the House Fisheries, Ecology and Parks Committee. Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Lake Forest Park, chairs the House Children &Family Services Committee.

We soon could be planning a monorail for suburban areas if a group called Citizens for King County Monorail has its way.

Although the group is seeking to get a King County initiative on the ballot, the measure could also benefit Snohomish County residents if the plan ends up bringing a station to Aurora Village, where a monorail line could connect with Community Transit buses.

Two weeks ago, the group filed an initiative with King County to establish a board to develop plans for suburban monorail lines and plans to pay for them.

If language in the initiative gets legal OK from county officials, supporters of the project, who talk of building a 59-mile monorail line across and around Lake Washington, will have 90 days to gather 45,000 signatures to get the measure on the November ballot. If voters countywide then vote “yes,” a suburban monorail commission would be formed. That 11-member group would have two years and $8.8 million to draw up designs for the system. It also would decide on a tax scheme, including whom should be taxed.

The final plan would then go to voters in another initiative.

It probably would emphasize lines along existing highways.

Supporters estimate that a suburban monorail would cost about $5 billion and could take commuters from Bellevue to Seattle in 19 minutes and from Bellevue to Renton in 15 minutes. They have given no hint of how the lines would reach the northern areas of the county.

They say the lines could connect with the planned Seattle monorail and with Sounder trains and the proposed light-rail line.

The lie of college athletics

“I swim the 200; I study sociology. I grind out laps; I cram for exams. I swim nationals. I take finals; and when I’m done I’ll be ready.

There are 360,000 NCAA student-athletes, and every one of them is getting two educations.”

– announcement on NCAA tournament broadcasts

Such announcements present an ideal of college sports that is certainly true at Division III and other non-athletic-scholarship colleges but not at big-time schools.

At the big-time men’s basketball powers few players graduate, and many colleges offer as few sports as possible.

My daughter’s Division III college in Southern California follows the ideal, offering about a dozen sports each for men and women, all full of students who meet high academic standards and not only graduate but go on to graduate and professional education.

She recently told me about competing in a track meet with Cal Tech, perhaps the most selective college in the country. Cal Tech, I’m told, requires each student to participate in a sport. That’s truly making sports part of a college education. Many Cal Tech students have no high school sports backgrounds; so the college needs to have JV teams.

I once ran on a relay team on a non-scholarship college track team. I’m proud that the team’s record still stands, but I’m also proud that the four of us hold at least six graduate and professional degrees. I know that we all truly got two educations.

I read in my college’s alumni magazine of a current player becoming one of the school’s all-time top five basketball scorers, The magazine noted that the other four were a physician, a lawyer, a university professor and a corporate CEO. For them, one of the NCAA’s announcements was true: “Every time we step on the floor, class is in session.”

I don’t think that’s true at major basketball and football powers, where few graduate and many that do are in the easiest majors.

If the major basketball schools were serious about the educational value of sports, they would spend the money they earn to offer more sports and to sponsor junior varsity teams.

Evan Smith is Enterprise Forum editor.

The NCAA basketball tournament games are on television again. News about the Mariners is all over the newspapers. It’s windy and rainy one minute and sunny the next. It must be spring in Edmonds! Another reminder for me that spring is here is the annual potluck dinner of the Floretum Garden Club. The event is held in March each year, and my wife and I are fortunate to be guests at the culinary delight.

Whenever I am asked to offer any remarks at gatherings, I typically save time for questions. It seems that one question always pops up at this time of year: “What can the city do about vegetation growing into and over sidewalks?” This question is an important one because we are a “walking” community. Many people move here just because they like to walk, and Edmonds is very accessible to walkers.

Take this as your reminder to make sure your sidewalk is accessible to walkers, joggers, and kids on bikes. We live in such a lovely community; it should be enjoyable to walk, not a full-scale adventure when we set foot outdoors. Another recent caller to City Hall asked about a vacant property that was cleared some time ago but has sat empty since and weeds are growing rapidly. We have asked the property owner to go in and clean it up.

Public safety funds

The City Council is currently looking at the possibility of sending a proposal to you, the voters, on a way to protect our police and fire departments from further budget cuts. As I have said previously, we are in danger of a repeat of last year’s cuts if no new revenue sources are found. One of the messages that was heard loud and clear from the initiatives in the past couple years is that voters want more say in how their tax dollars are spent. They also want to be able to vote on tax increases. You may get that opportunity this year.

City election update

During the past three years, I have urged you to become more involved in the election process for local offices. Here’s an update on early activity for those positions. Incumbent City Council members Dave Orvis and Richard Marin have announced their intention to run for re-election and as yet have no opposition. As I’m sure you know, Council President Dave Earling is giving up his spot on the Council to run for county executive. Two candidates have announced their desire to fill his shoes; they are Al Rutledge and Mauri Moore. The remaining Council position up for election this year is held by incumbent Councilmember Lora Petso, and she is being challenged by Peggy Pritchard Olson. I recently announced my plan to run for re-election and as yet have no opponent.

Terrorism response

My staff and I have spent a significant amount of time in meetings discussing terrorism and our response to its possibility. Our focus has been on how to inform you of where you can obtain information on preparedness. You will find information on Channel 21 and the city’s website www.ci.edmonds.wa.us that can help you in that regard. We also have an informative bulletin in the main reception area in City Hall.

We have plans in place for the city if and when a specific credible threat to Edmonds is identified. We continue to urge you to be observant of your surroundings and report anything out of the ordinary to 911. You are the eyes and ears of our community. You will be the first to notice something strange or unusual. The object of terrorism is to strike fear in our hearts. We need to stay calm, sensible, and alert.

Thoughts and prayers

Finally, the war in Iraq is a world away, yet it’s as close as our television sets. No matter where you weigh in on the conflict, one thing is certain: lives are at risk. There are families here in Edmonds who don’t know if they’ll see their loved ones again. It must be frightening to watch the war on television knowing that at any minute you could see a family member. Let’s keep our armed forces and their families in our thoughts and prayers.

Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson writes a monthly column for The Enterprise.