Neary-Sighted

The original home of Lakewood's Tacoma County and Golf Club was actually what we now call South Tacoma; they only moved to Lakewood and American Lake a few years after their founding. That's one of many reasons to look forward to a new book in the Arcadia series, South Tacoma. There are sure to be interesting tidbits about our area that will be new information to almost all of us.

Arcadia is the same company that published the Lakewood history book. I know you have read the book that Steve and I worked on cover to cover so many times the pages are probably illegible from fingerprints. So here's something new to enjoy. The book will actually come out on Oct. 8. Author Darlyne Reiter proudly invites you to these events:

October 8; 7pm ~ Tacoma Historical Society meeting (Tom Stenger presentation) at the downtown library (1102 Tacoma Avenue South). The book will also be available for purchase at the Historical Society Exhibit Center at 747 Broadway anytime after October 8.

October 13; 1:00-3:00 ~ Brown’s Flowers (4737 South Tacoma Way). Brown’s welcomes you to meet the author and enjoy refreshments on a Saturday afternoon. Brown’s will have the book for purchase beginning October 8, as well as afterward.

Good for Darlyne. Everyone who seeks to mark the history of our area deserves congratulations. I'll put the Amazon link to the new book here, but of course you might want to consider getting a copy from a local business or historical society to support them.
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One unfortunate thing about Lakewood is that we are not brimming over with forums at which you can hear from all candidates at once. So I wanted to share news and registration info about the regular chamber election forum. It will be a rare opportunity to hear from all six of us, assuming everyone shows.

Lakewood Chamber of Commerce
General Membership Luncheon
Thursday, October 4, 2007

11:30 - 1:00 p.m.

Great American Casino

Cost - $20.00 pre-paid -- $30.00 at the door
(Cost is set regardless of attendee’s acceptance of a meal)

Call 253.582.9400 to reserve your seat no later than October 1, 2007

Program:

The Race for Lakewood City Council

All Candidates have been invited to attend our luncheon to provide insight on what they think about doing business in Lakewood and their vision for the future.

The lunch sponsor is Puget Sound Energy.
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Suddenly, there is a lot going on in terms of meetings. I guess it is because everyone is back from summer vacation season. As just one example, the parks board's first discussion about street ends at lakes will be tonight at 7 p.m. in City Hall.

One set of meetings is often neglected, but is always interesting. These are the meetings at which the Lakewood City Council sketch out the budget for the coming year. These meetings usually set the record for low public attendance. And yet they are arguably the most important meetings of the year. I thought last year's budget missed the mark, and voted no. I am not apologizing; it's very well known around town that the city is way behind on cracking down on junked properties. Anyone who attended last year's budget hearings could have known last fall that this would happen in 2007. And that's just one example of how much is at stake.

Speaking of that, if you followed last year's discussion, you know that we had a lot of fuss about how many police officers should be assigned to each neighborhood patrol district. If you have strong feelings about that subject, can you send me a note? I may need your help making the point to others.

Anyway, this year's budget hearings will be held on the second floor of City Hall. One thing that City Manager Andrew Neiditz is trying this year is a thematic approach, instead of just having departments line up in random order. The meetings will all be at 6 p.m.:

Wednesday,
October 3
Introduction/Overview
Administration
• Finance
• IS
• HR
• General Services
• Executive
• Council

Monday,
October 15
Public Safety
• Police
• Court
• Legal

Wednesday,
October 17
Development
• Community Development
• Economic Development
• Public Works

Monday,
October 22
Development
• Parks
• Capital Projects
• Lodging Tax
• Grants

Monday,
October 29
Review

If you are interested in a particular topic, please come on by. These meetings are where the important decisions get made.
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First of all, I wanted to let you know that the Lakewood Museum is welcoming a new exhibit. In fact, it is welcoming a couple of them. Judging from my recent short volunteer stint, it looks like we are remodeling. I am not entirely sure what the exhibits will look like, but I got a big kick out of these guys who seemed to show up out of nowhere in the middle of the museum. I'm looking forward to where the museum folks will put them and how they will explain them, because when I was volunteering I just kept looking over there and hoping these guys did not come to life. They look kinda tough.

I'm fairly certain these swarthies are not related to part of the exhibit, which appears to be a loan from the state history museum about the beginnings of Washington Territory. It will be fun to watch the exhibit go up.

Meanwhile, I have a couple of things you might enjoy. First, I wanted to post this clip from a recent Business Examiner about the history of Lakewood.

Second, I wanted to show you my first draft of a tri-fold brochure that highlights the major museums of Lakewood. it's very much a draft, so your comments would be very welcome. I think it will be very handy as people go from one museum to another.
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It finally occurred to me to upload a great video that the Comcast production team worked on last year about Lakewood's 10th anniversary as a city. We produced it to show during the Comcast Outdoor Cinema at SummerFEST last year, but it did not get shown around here much otherwise. So we put it on YouTube - you will find the link at the end of this post.

At this writing, if you call up the page you see a freeze frame of City Manager Andrew Neiditz with his mouth open before the video itself starts to play. YouTube did that automatically, and for Andrew's sake I am going to try to figure out how to put a new still image there!

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the video. You see all sorts of new video stars: Mayor Claudia Thomas, campaign chairs Andie Gernon and former Mayor Bill Harrison, Lakewood Police Chief Larry Saunders, Lakewood Parks Director Mary Dodsworth, and of course Andrew.

My personal thanks to production manager Ed Hauge here at Comcast for his hard work on this video last year.

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Last night came some super-good news. As you probably know, Lakewood only established its own police department a couple of years ago. Before that, we had contracted with the county for police protection. It is traditional for the groups that represent rank and file peace officers to endorse candidates in elections. Four years ago, when I first ran for office, I got the endorsement of the sheriff's guild and was pretty darn proud of that.

If I can get the endorsement of people who risk their lives every day for us, that's pretty darn meaningful to me just even on a personal level. And in that same vein, I was proud to get the endorsement of the Lakewood Firefighters' Guild four years ago.

That brings us to this year. I'm proud to say this year and last night, the new Lakewood police guild endorsed my candidacy. So that brings my list of endorsers to the Lakewood Police Officers' Guild, the Master Builders Association of Pierce County, the Lakewood Firefighters' Guild, and the Tacoma-Pierce County Association of Realtors.

What it means is that my candidacy has the endorsement of law enforcement and of business. I'm pretty proud of that. The expression of support makes me feel good - and again, I'm talking personally and not politically - about what I've been doing for four years.
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Quietly, a major statewide event is shaping up for Tuesday in Lakewood, and you are invited.

The commander of Fort Lewis is among those who will speak before the 2007 Freedom Walk. These walks are being organized throughout the country; but to the best of our knowledge, this is the only one in Washington state. The ceremonies begin at 5:15 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial by Lakewood City Hall. Then, about 6, we will all begin walking a mile around the Lakewood Town Center.

There will be much to think about as we all walk that mile.

According to The Suburban Times here in town, The Department of Defense organized the first America Support You FREEDOM WALK in 2005 as a tribute to the Pentagon victims and their families, Pentagon employees and volunteers who were there to help on September 11, and for our men and women in the military.

From the official Web site:
Freedom Walks will be occurring across the nation – a day for reflection and uniting citizens behind a commitment to never forget the lives lost and to honor our past and present military service members and veterans.

There is more information about this new national tradition, only in its third year, at the Freedom Walk web site.

So here is the information very relevant to you: Participants should register in advance; Register for the Freedom Walk in Washington at this link.

Most folks who read this blog probably know where City Hall is, but just in case, here are directions to Lakewood City Hall.

Meanwhile, many questions about the event and its organizers are answered through a Frequently Asked Questions file on the Operation Homefront Web site. You will see for example that t-shirt pickup will begin about 4, though it's understandably not clear if the supply of t-shirts will last.
And hey, did I mention that you should register in advance at this link?


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