A friend took this photo today as a black bear stopped by her back yard in Newcastle. It seems like bears are getting more common in our area.

The Renton Reporter recently ran this interesting story about a beaver knocking out electrical power at the Landing.

I have not seen any photos of the Landing incident, but it reminded me of this previous close call on the east airport access road in 2008. In this earlier case, a power line and a road were both in jeopardy.

Beaver damage to a Cottonwood tree near the Renton Airport in February 2008

Boeing 737 Airplanes line Renton’s Clayton Scott Field as they are readied for final test flights and delivery to customers all over the world

Renton City Hall was abuzz tonight as Renton City Council put it’s formal approval on a new airport lease agreement with the Boeing Company.

The agreement covers a new 20 year lease term, followed by two ten-year options. The agreement comes after Boeing and Renton real-estate experts have been finalizing details for many months. Per the agreement, The Boeing Company will pay a market-based lease-rate plus a through-the-fence airport access fee for Boeing-owned property. The lease payments will increase through the term of the lease following the consumer price index, adjusted with market appraisals every 6 years.

The more complex lease terms revolved around the buildings that Boeing currently owns on the property. The buildings will convert to Renton City Ownership, per a turnback agreement in the old lease, similar to buildings owned by other leaseholders at the Renton airport. The maintenance and future upgrades of these buildings is the subject of additional lease language.

Like all lease money collected at the airport, all the funds will be used by Renton to operate and improve the airport.

Residents of Renton and our region should celebrate this commitment by the Boeing Company to the Renton facility. The company annually delivers many billions of dollars of airplanes out of it’s factory here in Renton. Our community gets thousands of high-value jobs from Boeing’s presence, along with tax revenues and generous contributions to local charities. The 737 is astoundingly popular– we’ve recently been told that the 737 airplanes on order today would stretch about 47 miles if they were parked nose-to-tail.

General aviation users have an additional reason to celebrate. Boeing’s presence at the airport ensures the airport’s long-term viability, and gives the FAA plenty of reason to keep investing in it.

This is on top of today’s national news that Boeing is increasing it’s 737 production rate in Renton starting in 2012. Today’s picture looks bright for Renton’s aerospace sector.

This agreement helps assure general aviation users that Renton’s airport is viable long-term

Boeing has several buildings on Renton airport property, including a state-of-the-art aircraft paint hanger. The new lease ensures these building will continue to function to their highest and best use.

I’ve always loved this little number from Guys and Dolls.

A new Facebook group has recently sprung up, called “City of Renton; Behind the Curve on Prostitution” Here is a link.

The new group is sharing information about suspected locations of prostitution activities, and pushing for increased resources to combat them.

We do take prostitution crimes very seriously at city hall. While some may mistakenly believe that this is mostly a victimless crime, there is actually a great deal of sexual/physical abuse and human trafficking associated with it. In addition, violators run down neighborhoods and set-back economic development efforts.

I’ve addressed this in previous journal entries, such as this one here

The city has been addressing prostitution in a number of ways. Our police have been raiding locations where the crime occurs, and arresting prostitutes, their pimps, and their customers. More recently we’ve been testing some new tactics such as contacting all the parties with financial interest in real property where this crime occurs, such as mortgage holders (banks), to let them know when their properties have become sites for prostitution and subject to police actions, code enforcement actions, or other litigation; we are working with these stakeholders to get repeat-offenders evicted from their locations and from our city.

We are open to any other ideas on how to combat this problem, and perhaps some will come from the new Facebook group.

By now, most people in the area are familiar with the GREAT news that the risk of flooding from the Howard Hanson Dam has been diminishing. As a reminder, the abutment of the dam was leaking; I described it in detail in the photo-journal entry here .

The Renton Reporter covers the most recent development in this story here . Thanks to hard work from many, many people, Senator Murray was recently able to secure 44 million dollars to install a temporary fix to the dam to prevent flooding in the near term. Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers is working on designing a permanent fix that will cost about half a billion dollars.

These developments are enormous for the security of our region, as a flood in this area could have done many billions in damage and immense human misery.

Our own Mayor Denis Law represented us expertly to help obtain this money. He was back in Washington DC a couple weeks ago meeting with numerous federal agencies, elected representatives, and White House staff to help obtain money for the interim fix. Public officials from all levels in our region were there with him, and their solidarity and good planning helped us get this funding and avoid catastrophe.

Senator Murray speaks at a recent news conference announcing the procurement of 44 million dollars for the interim repair of Howard Hanson Dam. (Renton’s Mayor Law is standing on her right side.)