I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and introduce TCA’s newly elected officers and at-large board members – as well as provide a brief overview about what our board’s engaged in, including an unprecedented opportunity to apply for rather large King County flood control grants.
In 2022, seven positions were open and included President, 1st Vice President, Secretary, and four new board members. According to our by-laws, these positions are two-year terms which are staggered with the offices of Membership Vice President, Programs Vice President, and Treasurer along with six at-large board members whose positions will be open for election in 2023. This helps to provide continuity in the overall board over time.
2022 Election Results
In this election, which ended on April 27, 2022, the following were chosen: Dan Keefe, President; Roseann Barnhill, 1st Vice President (last term, board member at-large); Jeff Laufle, Secretary (last term, 1st Vice President); members at-large are Richard Newman (last term’s Secretary), Jonathan Frodge (position rerun), and Mark Mendez and Art Rudnicki (new members). The 2021 election saw the board increase in size from 10 to 16 members, the maximum number per our bylaws. Sadly, we lost one of the new members, Gene Brandzel, to cancer and another, Garret Munger, resigned. This left two positions open, which happily were filled by Mark and Art.The remaining officers and board members whose positions will be up for election in 2023 include: Ruth Williams, Membership Vice President; Judy Olson, Programs Vice President; Gary Olson, Treasurer; with the following at-large board members: Dass Adams, Jessica Yellin, John Lombard, Muriel Lawty, Annie Fanning and Tom Cunningham.
The current board contains a bundle of diverse talent including: aquatic and plant ecologists, hydrologists, chemists, land use specialists, business owners, grant writers, realtors, naturalists, and communications experts in marketing and advertising.
2022–2023 Projects, Goals and Aspirations
During 2022 and (hopefully) post-pandemic times, we faced unusually high pressure on our watershed ecosystem because of residential and commercial development. This pressure is pushed by the obvious need to provide more housing for Seattle’s growing population. Since there is little open land to build on, the main solution is to build up with four- to six-story apartment complexes. These developments are especially prevalent in the areas adjacent to light rail stations such as those at Northgate and 145th Street, which are both within the Thornton Creek watershed. This has ramped up our concern for potential degradation of the watershed, leading us to break with past practices. We have formed a Land Use Committee and played an active roles in the appeals of two projects very near Beaver Pond Natural Area. This is different from our preferred role as partners in impact mitigation for the Thornton Creek ecosystem. We recently supported appeals to two SDCI (Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections) permits to build apartment on the old Kindred Hospital site (near 5th Ave NE and NE 106th St) and a permit to upzone for the existing Park at Northgate apartment complex across the way. Being late to the game in one case, we were unsuccessful at turning back either permit decision but left our stamp that we are an entity to be dealt with for any development within the watershed.
Going forward, we recently embarked on a great opportunity through the very earnest encouragement of our King County Council representative, Rod Dembowski, and his flood control group flush with Federal dollars, to submit grant applications for two problem areas. One is where the South Fork flows under NE 105th St and 8th Ave NE adjacent to the Beaver Pond Natural Area (BPNA); the other being on Little Brook Creek, a tributary to the north branch of Thornton Creek, in the vicinity of NE 137th St and 32nd Ave NE. With the primary goal to control flooding, ancillary benefits at the 8th Ave/105th St location would include improved passage for salmon as well as upstream/downstream migration of BPNA wildlife, especially beavers. For Little Brook, the main benefit would be to alleviate the threat of flooding to several adjacent first floor apartments and associated parking lots. Additional benefits for the 8th Ave area, which is part of SDOT’s designated greenway, would be the provision of safer pedestrian passage along the very narrow stretch of this street between 105th and 106th with a boardwalk parallel to 8th Ave on BPNA itself. This whole process would involve the cooperation of SPU, SDOT and Parks; a challenging task but we are confident that they will join in because of the court-mandated requirement to remove artificially created salmon barriers and other overall benefits. The grants could total well into six figures.
As we go for these “legacy” projects, we will continue with our ongoing programs with Gary Olson leading our E. coli stream monitoring, along with school education sessions, and special programs such as the Little Brook community event on June 12. Also, Gary, with the help of Mark Mendez, heads up our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Judy Olson will continue to provide interesting programs for our public meetings, while Dass Adams, following on the success of last year’s program, will schedule and conduct Thornton Creek walks. Roseann Barnhill will keep stormwater, rain gardens and bioswales connected and share her expertise on these watershed improvements. As Membership VP, Ruth Williams will continue to be the primary contact for Membership; she is also ever vigilant on tree preservation, development plans, and other land use issues. Jonathan Frodge will lend his stormwater and limnology expertise as needed and help with grant proposals. Jeff Laufle will not only cover the secretarial duties but also provide valuable fisheries and regulatory assistance. Jessica Yellin will assist in keeping our grant applications on track. Muriel Lawty will continue to monitor neighborhood issues, including Little Brook flooding. Our Knotweed Knockout Program remains alive under the guidance of John Lombard, who is also our lead on monitoring progress on the 125th St Floodplain Project and contributing vital updates to our blog. Richard Newman will continue to lead the Communications Committee (supported by Annie Fanning and Art Rudnicki) to streamline our means of communicating with each other as well as the broader populace. Then there is me, Mr. President, who will try to keep all these cool cats in line.
