SLSA Meeting Notes - April 7, 2003

These are the first meeting minutes for a meeting of the new inter-neighborhood group.
I've created a new email list which can be used to distribute meeting announcements, agendas, and minutes. You are on this email list, either because Gary sent you the agenda, or because you were on the Annexation list last year. If that is a mistake, please let me know, and I will take you off. For now, Gary Thede is setting up meetings, and I will take minutes.

Attendees:

Gary Thede - Sammamish Beach Club

David Bangs, Thomas Marquis and Shelly Birkwood - South Cove

Mary Victory, Roland and Jeanie Jonasen - Meerwood

Dick Souslin - Meadowbrook Point

- Our first topic of conversation was "What do we call the inter-neighborhood lobbying group we are forming."

Thomas Marquis suggested "South Lake Sammamish Association" or SLSA - to be pronounced "Salsa" - as in hot sauce. Others suggested "South Lake Sammamish Community Association" - and people really liked having the word Community. Then the more specific "Southwest lake Sammamish Community Association" was suggested. In the end, we went with "SLSA" because it is easy and catchy to say "Salsa" instead of reciting a bunch of letters.

The area we represent is Issaquah's Greenwood Point Annexation Area, because we have some existing cooperation and group identity, and a shared future. The neighborhoods we want to include are the same ones listed on the annexation web site ( www.issaquahweb.org/neighborhoods.htm )

- Each Homeowners Association or neighborhood should have a designated representative to SLSA, but can send multiple people.

- We should meet roughly quarterly, and Gary Thede will set up the next meeting. He would like to invite a King County Police official or Roads Department representative or both to discuss speeding and road maintenance.

- The group will provide a forum to talk about issues that effect all the neighborhoods, and provide a uniform voice where necessary. We don't have any plans for a formal organization.

- We didn't pick any issues, but the following common issues were mentioned: Annexation, Speeding, Road Maintenance, Freeway noise wall, Future of local parks, Sidewalks on W Lake Sammamish Parkway, Trash in vacant lot near at 192nd and W Lake Sammamish Pkwy.

- For now, nothing will change: People are already working on Annexation, Speeding and Road Maintenance issues. Perhaps, in the future, new strategies and agendas will come out of this group.

- The purpose of the group is NOT to be a thorn in the side of government officials. Our approach should be to build positive relationships between the neighborhoods, and positive relationships with the government officials and employees who serve us.

- The group will also serve as a way to just chat and trade information between neighborhoods:

::Mary Victory shared Meerwood's progress in getting locking mailboxes installed in their neighborhood.

The locking mailboxes are free, but the Association is paying a contractor $75 per cluster to have them installed. What a deal! Sammamish Beach Club has already had the locking mailboxes installed, and South Cove has submitted an application. The post office has a limited supply, so neighborhoods wanting access to free locking mailboxes have to apply to the post office soon.

::Sammamish Beach club will have a locking mailbox for Association Mail. The address on the box will be an existing house address with the letter "A" appended. This will allow the association to avoid paying $200 a year for a P.O. Box rental, and will avoid trips to Issaquah to pick up the mail.

::Gary Thede had a copy of the Sammamish Beach Club newsletter. They have a new business advertising section where people with businesses pay money to have their business cards reproduced. Gary reported that residents of Sammamish Beach Club pay $50 for a business card size ad. Residents of the Annexation Area pay $75, and outsiders pay $100. They have four newsletters a year, in which they can sell such ads. They sold 22 ads for the spring newsletter, and hope this goes a long way in paying for neighborhood capital improvement costs. David and Gary agreed to exchange newsletter subscriptions, so that neighborhoods can more easily learn what is going on in surrounding neighborhoods.

::Gary also shared that the county had many rough spots in our roads fixed lately, but with the rainy whether a lot of new road damage is occurring. David Bangs reporting that "Alligatoring" is occurring on his street, in all the places the county didn't already patch. Alligatoring refers to a weblike set of cracks. If unchecked, it evolves into "Spalling", where individual chunks become loose. This quickly turns into widespread potholes. We need to keep working with the County on road repairs.

I wanted to thank all of you that were able to attend our organizational meeting for the newly-named South Lake Sammamish Association, or SLSA, pronounced like salsa. For those that were not able to attend, we hope that you are able to make it to the next meeting. I believe that we have the beginnings of a group that can be a positive resource for all of our associations and a great way for all us to constructively communicate and share ideas on common issues and needs.

David Bangs has generously offered to send out notes from the meeting and we have agreed to meet quarterly. Please feel free to distribute the notes via email or in your community newsletters. Our goal is is to have a representative from each organized association and apartment complex attend to truly represent the entire geographic area. Additionally, anyone from your area that wishes to participate is more than welcome to attend.

I will work to get out an agenda for our next meeting in June - if you have suggested topics, please forward them to me at your first opportunity. See you at the next meeting.