Monthly archives for October, 2006
Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze
Oct31
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
Images from the Carpinito Brothers pumpkin patch and corm maze in Kent! Their two mazes have a total of over 4 miles of confounding trails! My family had a great time there on Saturday.
IKEA Performing Arts Center first “Got Skills? Prove It” Event
Oct30
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
IKEA Performing Arts Center is hosting a series of events to showcase our great local talent. Local Band “Amorous Cactus” took center stage and rocked the house. The event was supported by the Renton Youth Council, and I had the privilidge to MC this premier show of the series.
Andy Corman
Jake Goltiani
Kenny Corman
Cathy Corman, band mom!
Coyotes are trying to eat your cats and dogs!…
Oct28
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
In Today’s Seattle Times there is an important warning about the local coyote population. Coyotes are kind of cute, in their wild-doggy sort of way, but many pet owners do not realize the threat these wild animals pose to their cats in particular. Cats that have been raised with dogs are actually in the most danger, as they have generally become accustomed to the behaviors of domestic dogs and are taken completely by surprise when a meandering coyote suddenly charges and lunges at them on your street after dark.
Renton’s coyote population is rising, and many of my residents have noted that Renton sounds like the Arizona prairies on some evenings after dark. Howooooooo……
You can spot areas in Renton with high coyote populations simply by looking at the telephone poles….the more signs you see for lost kitty’s, the more coyotes there are. Raccoons also are a threat to cats, but they are less likely to attack them, and when they do they will leave the body for the very sad family to find. Coyotes, on the other hand, take the body back to their den, and leave their grieving owner posting reward signs for their lost kittys….too sad.
Renton animal control has come across dens with the remains of up to 50 kitty-cats, sometimes with collars and tags in the mix!
What can you do?
First, please do not hurt or harass the coyotes. This may get you in legal danger and physical danger.
Here is a list of steps from today’s Seattle Times…
To keep coyotes away
.. Keep pet food and water inside.
.. Keep cats inside.
.. Keep wild bird seed elevated and in feeders designed for birds, and clean up spilled seed from the ground; coyotes can either be drawn directly to the seed, or to rodents drawn to the seed.
.. Keep fruit trees fenced or pick up fruit that falls to the ground.
.. Minimize vegetation near children’s play areas to avoid attracting rodents and small mammals that will in turn attract coyotes. Keep clusters of shrubs, trees and other cover and food plants away from buildings and children’s play areas.
Source: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
And here is the Complete Article…..
Saturday, October 28, 2006 – Page updated at 12:18 AM
Pets vanish as Seattle’s coyote sightings increase
By Tan Vinh
Seattle Times staff reporter
Coyotes’ local habitat is shrinking.
At first, the stories sounded like playground lore .. coyotes snatching house cats around Beacon Hill neighborhoods in the middle of the night.
But then Tub, Teenie and other felines weren’t coming home at night. More than the usual number of fliers about missing tabby and Siamese cats began showing up on utility poles and community bulletin boards.
By summer, reports of sightings were becoming frequent on community e-mail listserves and at neighborhood crime-watch meetings in this South Seattle community.
In late July, resident Tina Miller said, two coyotes mauled and killed the family’s beloved 3-year-old cat in her backyard. Two weeks later, Miller said, her son saw a coyote trying to snatch a stray cat near her house.
“It was traumatizing,” Miller said. “We had no idea there was such a big problem with coyotes.”
So nice….HCA is back in our Neighborhood program!
Oct16
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
I received this note from Terry Persson today, along with similar notes from Inez Peterson and City Hall. This is great news. Our Neighborhood Program’s split with Highland Community Assocication (HCA) was stressful all around….its sooo nice to see a reconciliation.
Randy for your information. The HCA is now Officially Recognized. Worked with Norma for about an hour this morning, and all is well.
Thanks for the help…
Terry Persson
————– Forwarded Message: ————–
From: “Norma McQuiller” <nmcquiller@ci.renton.wa.us>
To: <tpersson@comcast.net>
Cc: <angelSandel@aol.com>, “Alexander Pietsch” <apietsch@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Suzanne Dale Estey” <sdaleEstey@ci.renton.wa.us>
Subject: HCA Application
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 18:40:50 +0000
Dear Terry,
Congratulations on the Renton Highlands Community Association becoming an Officially Recognized Neighborhood under the City of Renton Neighborhood Program.
Because HCA has met the eligibility requirements, based on your application and by-laws, you will have the opportunity to enjoy the many benefits of the program.
Per our conversation, it was reassuring to know that we have the same commitment for Renton: promoting a positive communication and building viable partnerships between the HCA and the City.
As an officially recognized organization HCA will receive a city liaison to work with your association, eligibility for funding for neighborhood grants and picnics and have contact information about your association on the City’s web site.
I look forward to working with you in the future to continue to make Renton a great place to live.
Sincerely,
Norma McQuiller
Neighborhood Program Manager
City of Renton
425-430-6595
Fax 425-430-7300
Burlington Northern/Dinner Train discussion on Wednesday Morning
Oct16
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
The Burlington Northern Right-of-Way finally comes before our city council Transportation Committee this Wednesday morning, Oct 18, at 9:00, at City Hall (7th floor, council conference room).
The public is invited to watch the discussion, and I will be there with two of my council collegues to review the city’s options. We may also be able to accept a small amount of public comment, but we would not be able to take very much testimony because of the meeting format and time alotment. Mostly, this will be our last-best opportunity to determine whether the city can and should take any actions to block the abandomnent process that will end the run of the dinner train.
This meeting is being held as a result of a motion I sponsored two weeks ago (see my email below)
—–Original Message—–racorman
From: Corman, Randy
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 4:06 PM
To: Julia Medzegian; Citizens to Council Via Clerk
Cc: Jay Covington; Kathy Keolker
Subject: Severing the Burlington Northern Line at Wilburton
Tonight I plan to move that we place the subject of the severing of the
Burlington Northern Railroad track at Wilburton into the Transportation
Committee for review. It appears that the federal abandonment process
will probably be initiated within the next month, and all parties
(including Renton) will have 45 days to respond. Given that we have
hundreds of industrial acres on this track that will be severed from the
rest of the Eastside by lack of a single bridge over I-405, and given
that the track is currently in active use, I feel that council should
take a pro-active involvement in this topic. I believe that the
abandonment process gives us more rights and leverage than we have
discussed, and we owe it to future generations to deliberate this issue
carefully.
I have coordinated with the Transportation Committee chair about this,
and she is supportive of bringing this into her committee.
Thanks,
Randy
The Landing Website is online
Oct11
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
I’m posting this email to you because I know this new Landing website will be of great interest to many of you. However, I am not taking comments on this article, as the Landing is has been appealed to City Council and under the rules of “Quasi-Judicial Preoeedings” I should not engage in dialogue on the topic prior to the hearing.
From: Natalie Quick <nquick@feareygroup.com> [ Save Address ]
To: rcorman@ci.renton.wa.us
Subject: The Landing Community Website has launched!
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 16:15:31 -0700
Hi Councilmember Corman,
Hope this email finds you well. We wanted to let you know that we’ve officially launched The Landing’s community website, which you can view online at The Landing Website
The site is dedicated to bringing Renton residents up-to-date information on everything related to The Landing. From updates about construction progress and tenant announcements to the latest news and information regarding the appeals from our neighbor to the south, this is the place to go for all of the facts.
The homepage is set up in a blog format so community members can instantly access new information, log their views and opinions and even send a message directly to Westfield. Once there, the community can access all media coverage and get updates and information on events.
You can also go to the “Get Involved” page and sign up for regular updates and place your name on a list of supporters of the project.
Please feel free to forward this information to those in the community that would like to stay informed on what’s happening at The Landing. And, as always, if you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to phone or email me.
Best,
Natalie Quick
Yay! Great council meeting last night! Thanks council!
Oct10
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
We resolved several important issues last night. We successfully chartered the Highland Citizen Advisory committee with a good cross-section of representatives, which seemed to meet with satisfaction from most parties. In addition, we passed a motion requesting the Administration to confirm that HCA now meets the criteria to enter back into the city’s neighborhood program. Considering HCA is one of Renton’s oldest, largest, and most active community associations, I believe this renewed formal relationship will be a relief for citizens and city employees alike.
The Highland Citizen Advisory Committee had their first meeting this morning, so they are now off and running! I wish them all the best as they work toward developing the plan for rejuvenated Renton Highlands.
The best part is, the council took all of the above actions unanimously, which left spirits high all around. Thanks council! What a great night.
Oom Pah Pah… (Renton Highlands)
Oct08
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
One of my favorite broadway musicals has always been Oliver the Lionel Bart adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic Oliver Twist. (My wife and I even made a point of seeing this show performed live in London a few years back.)
One of Bart’s catchiest and most memorable musical numbers is Oom-Pah-Pah. Here are some of the lyrics and the chorus…
…If you’ve got the patience,
Your own imaginations
will tell you just exactly what you want to hear:
Oom-pah-pah! Oom-pah-pah!
That’s how it goes,
Oom-pah-pah! Oom-pah-pah!
Ev’ryone knows…
They all suppose what they want to suppose
When they hear oom-pah-pah
I noticed my lovely wife singing this tune as she made coffee this morning, and the lyrics struck me as very relevant to our efforts to keep the highlands revitalization moving forward.
It seems to me that parties on all sides of our highland controversy, including both elected officials and citizens, are letting their imaginations tell them exactly what they want to hear about one another’s agendas and motives. Heck, I’m even doing it too, and I have open lines of communication to both sides of this dipute.
I’ve recieved sooooo much email this weekend about the Highlands Advisory Committee that I know we will all have to make a special effort to make this committee a success. I have a few ideas, and I will try to implement them, but after that I need to ask everyone to pull together on this.
Membership:
There are seven councilmembers, and I think they hold seven different ideas about the perfect composition of this committee. As I stated publically at last week’s Committee of the Whole, I would personally like to see us lean toward inclusiveness. However, there is another perspective that anytime you form a working committee too many members can bog down the committee’s progress.
Having said this, for those of you in the community that would like to see more HCA representation, I believe I MIGHT be able to get council support for adding one more HCA member. If I do, it probably won’t be unanymous and I will really have to push to get the votes. The HCA member who was next on P&D Committees list is Sandel, because of her long history of leadership in the highlands and her constant involvment in city meetings on this topic (including her presence at the P&D committee meeting where the advisory committee was being defined).
Taping of the Meetings:
This subject is a bit trickier than taping Council Meetings or Planning Commission Meetings, both of which I always advocate strongly for. Planning Commissioners, City Council Members, and the Mayor are all public servants with authority, and Open Public Meetings act supports complete openess of their actions. So government taping and distribution of the above meetings is the best way to go in my book.
Update on 10/11/06: Renton citizen Inez Peterson posed this question to the State Attorney General’s office, and she recieved a response which clarifies that taping of this forum is permitted. Read part 1 of the official response here …and part 2 here. This information is being forwarded around city hall.
To make any progress here, we will all have to try to ignore the usual music that begins whenever we talk about the highlands…:-)
Oom-pah-pah! Oom-pah-pah!
Ev’ryone knows…
They all suppose what they want to suppose
When they hear oom-pah-pah
Last night’s quake…
Oct08
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
My dear mother in California never misses news of an earthquake. I think she even keeps the National Seismograph Network in her internet favorites!…perhaps this is pretty sensible when living just over some hills from California’s famous San Andreas Fault.
Anyway, like clockwork she emailed me about yesterday’s earthquake near Mount Rainier. Here is what I wrote back on the subject….
____________________________________________________________________
Hi Mom! Yes, I totally felt this quake! I was sitting on my couch with my laptop computer, reading emails about the latest controversy at city hall, and I started feeling like I was jiggling around as in an airplane. I called “earthquake” to Cathy and my kids, but most of the kids had been rough-housing and didn’t notice it. I began to wonder if I had been simply feeling the floor thump from the kids, until I saw the news.
Love Randy
_____________________________________________________________________
And here is today’s Seattle Times Story
Quake near Mount Rainier registers 4.5; no damage reports
A light to moderate earthquake was widely felt in Western Washington about 7:45 p.m. Saturday. Police in Pierce, Snohomish and Pierce counties had no reports of injuries or damage.
The magnitude-4.5 quake was centered 17 miles north of Packwood, Lewis County, or about eight miles east of the Mount Rainier summit, said Tom Yelin, a geophysicist at the University of Washington seismology laboratory
Yelin said the quake’s size was relatively uncommon for Western Washington and that the quake was about 2 miles deep. He said it probably was not related to volcanic activity on Mount Rainier.
There were two small aftershocks late Saturday, and Yelin said small aftershocks could continue for a few days but likely would not be felt.
The Nisqually earthquake on Feb. 28, 2001, was magnitude 6.8 and was about 27 miles deep. It injured more than 400 people and caused more than $2 billion in damage. It was centered near Olympia.
Remembering and Commemorating Marge Richter
Oct06
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
The city will be unveiling a plaque in the Piazza on Saturday, at 10:00, to commemorate a very important and beloved Renton citizen.
Click here to read more about Renton’s remarkable Marge Richter!
Why I advocate for Highlands and HCA members
Oct04
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
I’ve been asked why I seem to stubbornly and consistently advocate for Highland residents and Highland Community Association members in their issues with our city.
Here are a few reasons I continue to advocate for them…
(1) Renton residents, including HCA members, have elected me four times to represent them
(2) I recieve a salary to advocate for all the people who elected me
(3) I have always been an advocate for neighborhoods, and this one happens to be mine
(4) I have worked successfully with HCA for many years
(5) I often agree with HCA and other highlands residents’ views on proposed zoning changes
I hope this clears things up!
Randy
P.S. This is not at all new. I’m in my fourth 4-year term. To get a better picture of my long history advocating for neighborhoods, please read this Seattle Times story from almost exactly ten years ago concerning the Winsper neighborhood (opposite end of town)… READ MORE »
Open Letter to our Great Firefighters in the City of Renton
Oct04
2006
Written by Randy Corman
2006
Written by Randy Corman
Dear Fire Department Employees (every single one of you including the Chief),
Some of you have had the extreme misfortune of innocently walking into political cross-fire between the Mayor and the Highlands Community Association. Because of the lingering distrust between these parties, every email, invitation, interaction, RSVP, etc is viewed with extreme suspicion right now.
I, and the other members of the City Council that attended the HCA Picnic, are absolutely confident that you had the very best intentions for the Highlands Community, the city overall, and to your employer as you managed your events calendars on September 23, the day of the HCA picnic. I feel that any further review of your actions is a waste of money, as it seems painfully obvious to me that there were conflicting directions and expectations being transmitted down to you from elsewhere in city hall. I am also confident that Sandel Demastus of HCA acted in good faith and with due-diligence as she scheduled the firefighters visit to HCA’s wonderful picnic.
Thanks for your continued excellent service to our community.
Randy Corman
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Dear Community-
At this point, there is only one simple thing missing, and that needs to come directly from the Mayor, not from the firefighters.
If the Mayor is not surprised that Renton firefighters missed the picnic, she should be honest about that, and accept responsibility for any role she had.
If she regrets that Renton Firefighters missed the picnic, she should say so, and apologize to the citizens of HCA.
Regardless of how people felt about our former Mayor Jesse Tanner (a personal friend of mine), you could count on honesty and candor from him. He would have said something like…”you bet I cancelled the firefighters visit to your picnic…I don’t recognize your association and I don’t even like you that much…” or he may have said…”Nope, it was not me, but I can’t say I really care” …or “No, I didn’t cancel it. While I disagree on our politics, I won’t micro-manage my department and I won’t disappoint kids.” And everyone would have believed him.
By comparison, Mayor Keolker’s management approach shifts the blame, questions, and hurt feelings to members of her staff who do not need or deserve it. While Jesse could be a bit loud sometimes, Mayor Keolker’s silence feels deafening by comparison.
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