Summary of comments received at the Neighborhood Meetings held in October & November 2010

During October and November, 2010, six neighborhood meetings were held throughout Carnation.  Two Councilmembers attended each meeting.  The purpose of having these meetings was to get feedback from citizens, in an informal setting, about their opinions, views and thoughts about our community, local government and issues that need to be addressed.

The City Council has reviewed all comments made during those meetings.  Taken together, there seems to be a general consensus that there are five major areas that need to be worked on: 

1. Speeding enforcement at numerous locations; 
2. Drug usage enforcement;
3. Create a successful business core by involving local businesses, citizens and local government;
4. Nuisance abatement of junked cars/weeds/trash; and
5. Increased and better communications with citizens.

The Public Helath & Safety Committee (Councilmember Fred Bereswill and Councilmember Stuart Lisk) and the Community Development Committee (Mayor Lee Grumman and Councilmember Mike Flowers) will be meeting within the next few weeks to determine how best to spend our limited staff time and resources for increased emphasis on speeding enforcement, drug enforcement and nuisance abatement.  The Utilites & Public Facilities Committee (Deputy Mayor Jim Berger and Councilmember Fred Bereswill) will be meeting with the School District to discuss school bus routing through the City and usage of certain city streets.

The City Council and staff will be discussing long term efforts and strategies through which our local businesses, city government and citizens can work together to enhance the economic vitality of our community.  There are no quick fixes and results will probably not meet everyone’s expectations.  However, through open communication and sharing of information, we can begin to address the issues over which we have some control.

Update 01/26/2011: 
PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY COMMITTEE - NEIGHBOR MEETING REPORT
The City Council Public Health & Safety Committee met on January 25th to discuss issues brought up during the various neighborhood meetings.  As a result of that meeting with police officials and City management, the scheduling of officers in Carnation was tweaked to provide coverage in the early morning hours for traffic enforcement on Tolt and Entwistle.  Plans are also being made to have several community meetings with Police officers and management concerning drug enforcement and crime prevention.  In addition, weekly and monthly police reports concerning traffic enforcement, DUI, felony arrests, etc, will be made more publicly available.

Update 01/28/2011:
UTILITIES & PUBLIC FACILITES COMMITTEE - NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING REPORT
The City Council Utilities & Public Facilities Committee met on January 27th with representatives of Riverview School District to discuss issues brought up during the various neighborhood meetings.  As a result of that meeting, the School will issue directives to bus drivers to not use streets such as Spilman and Reitze.  Many children walk on these streets to and from school and the streets were not built to have heavier vehicles such as buses drive upon them.  Anyone with concerns about school transportation issues should contact Jenny Bullard, RSD Transportation Supervisor, (425) 844-4537.