Kirkland Library Meeting Room
Laura Lee Pritt
called the meeting to order and provided agendas and copies of the minutes
from our last meeting.
Don Winters updated us on the new Peter Kirk Day, being held for the first
time this year on February 15. Mr. Kirk was the founder of Kirkland and
some of his relatives still live in the Puget Sound area and have loaned
memorabilia for display at the Kirkland Arts Center the week following the 15th. Don
also mentioned that the Kirkland Heritage Society is trying to raise funds for
the renovation of the historic church on the Waverly site.
Dave Ramsay,
Kirkland's City Manager, was our special guest. Dave updated us on the
state of the city and upcoming projects. Dave mentioned the Downtown
Strategic Plan which outlines a vision for downtown Kirkland. It's not a
"master plan" in that specific blueprints have not been drawn
up. Right now it is a concept that has no funding, but gives
direction. The "Downtown Action Team" is continuing to study
and promote these concepts for improving the downtown area. Parking is a
big issue in town and Dave thought a new parking structure would be
unavoidable in the future. One possibility is the corner of Central and
Lake, where a current parking lot, which is unattractive at the main
intersection in town, could be replaced with a nice retail building with
parking above and/or below, possibly with public/private partnering. A
new transit center will be necessary downtown and 3 sites have been suggested
in the vicinity of the existing center on 3rd Street. All three may have
flaws, unfortunately, and other options are being examined.
Dave said
that the Wednesday Market has been very successful in Kirkland.
Dave
mentioned Totem Lake and how there are new owners of the mall with plans to
upgrade. The Totem Lake area provides 30% of Kirkland's sales tax
revenue, compared with 6% for downtown. Evergreen Hospital has big plans
to double in size and become the "Mayo Clinic of the
Northwest". The Parkplace renovation is on hold for the near
future, but the theater has been remodeled and is even showing foreign films
now in addition to normal fare. There apparently will not be a new
hardware store at Parkplace in the near future, as Jim Lauinger, who had been
contemplating opening one in the old pharmacy building, instead will become
one of the new owners of Parkplace Books, along with Rebecca Willow and Mary
Harris. The bookstore will be expanded and upgraded in the future.
The
"big white ship", which was brought into Moss Bay Marina to act as a
breakwater, will be replaced with a real breakwater once all the regulations
are satisfied. Dave thought the ship will probably be gone in 1 -2
years.
Bob Strernoff, a long time Kirkland resident and chair of the Park
Board was our next speaker. Bob updated us on several park projects in town --
the Waverly site, which is a plan in wait of funding, and Marina Park, which
will have a new restroom built, approximately at the site of the current
Argosy ticket kiosk. Bob also mentioned that Kirkland is in dire need of
more sports fields for our kids and this is a high priority of the Park Board.
Meeting
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