The West Point Citizens Advisory Council was convened by King County Councilmember Larry Phillips in 2002 to discuss appropriate ways to spend nearly $5 million of King County funds that had accumulated in an escrow account that was set up as the result of a legal settlement in the early 1990s. 5 different advocacy groups had petitioned King County over the construction of the County’s West Point Wastewater Treatment Facility. The issue was the presence of 3 digesters that were located on property within Discovery Park and owned by the City. The Settlement Agreement called for the deposit of $1 million into an escrow for each acre of property. The County was given until 2010 to find an acceptable technological alternative for the digesters, or pay the City for the acreage used. Since 3 acres were involved, $3 million was deposited and held. By 2002, the County had decided that no alternative was going to be available, and hence, decided to begin the process of the transfer of funds.
The Settlement Agreement stipulated that the funds be used for the betterment of Discovery Park. Larry Phillips formed the West Point Citizens Advisory Council from a group of citizens named to represent the 5 advocacy groups. These were 1) the Friends of Discovery Park, 2) the Washington Environmental Council, 3) the Magnolia Community Club, 4) Puget Sound Water Quality Defense Fund and 5) Legal Advocates for Washington.
The Council met from mid 2002 through mid 2003, with a final Recommended Project List produced in June of 2003. Here is the list:
1 – Greater 500 area - $1 million
2 - Building 653 demolition - $250k
3 – Chapel demolition - $250k
4 – Nike building demolition - $1 million
5 – Historic District work - $100k
6 – North Forest Road removal - $350k
7 – North Meadow restoration - $50k
8 – Bird Alley restoration - $50k
9 – Rhododendron Glen restoration - $50k
10 – Visitors Center habitat enhancement - $250k
11 – maintenance tractor replacement - $150k
12 – Endowment fund - $500k
13 – Contingency fund - $800k
Possible uses for the contingency fund (#13) were to include renovation of the lighthouse buildings, wetland improvement or creation, Schuerman Creek restoration and North Bluff Restroom upgrade.
This list of recommendations was presented to the Board of Park Commissioners in Sept 2003. Public comments were received. They voted to make some changes to the list. First, the Chapel and Annex demolition was deferred with the $250k initially budgeted for that project transferred to the Contingency Fund. Second, they recommended to specify $600k from te Contigency fund to the Lighthouse restoration. The Board of Park Commissioners made these recommendations to Superintendent Ken Bounds, who in turn made his recommendations to the Mayor.
As of January 2005, use of the WPCAC funds has been tabled because of the agreement reached between the City and the Navy over the Capehart parcel and the historic housing units. I’ve detailed that issue in another posting. Briefly, the City has proposed that $2 million of the WPCAC funds be used towards the $9 million total the City has committed to pay the Navy as part of the agreement to obtain the Capehart parcel. The balance will be raised from federal, state and county sources. Obviously, the loss of $2 million will dramatically change the listing above. Larry Phillips will be re-convening the Council in the near future to work up a new project list. Which projects will stay and which will be dumped? Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment