Manchester Community Council

PO Box 173

Manchester, WA  98353-0173

“it’s a great place to live…”

 

Draft Minutes for MCC meeting of 9/27/05

Action Items:

1)      Bob Ballard to arrange for a speaker from the County at our 10/25 meeting to address the permitting process.

2)      John Winslow to take names of members willing to serve on a nominating committee and those interested in holding office.

 

Minutes:

The meeting was called to order by President Bob Ballard at 6:31PM in the Manchester Library.  Bob welcomed the 30 people in attendance and then read our Mission from the Bylaws.  John Winslow announced the names of our most recent new members, Dave Hopkins and Corny Kucius.  There was no guest speaker planned for this meeting. 

 

Business meeting:

Review and approval of the past meeting’s minutes: The minutes of the 8/23 meeting were discussed.  John Winslow said that J. Quartermass had requested a correction to one word in the minutes attributed to him.  The specific word mentioned by Quartermass, “only” was not actually in the minutes, but Winslow said he knew that he meant the word “alone” was intended to be deleted from the sentence and will make that correction. 

 

Correspondence: There was no new mail received.

 

Reports:

Treasurer: In Carol Kowalski’s absence, John Winslow gave her report.  The current balance is $772.15  There are still several outstanding dues payment checks written to MCC, which cannot be cashed until we open a bank account in that name, which should occur soon.  There is approximately $205 in expected expenses prior to year end.  In order to proceed with the necessary documentation to open a bank account, John called for a motion “to form under WA State to be a non-profit organization.”  A written motion to that effect was submitted by Ron Rada.  After a brief discussion, the motion was approved unanimously.  Paid membership currently stands at 63.

 

Sewers Sub-Committee: Ron Rada said that LID#8 is in the engineering phase and should be completed by approximately February 2006.  The LID#9 public meeting is tentatively scheduled for November 3^rd at the Long Lake Community Center.

 

Crime Prevention Sub-Committee: Bud Larsen gave a quick review of recent speakers at his Thursday morning meetings.  The speaker at this week’s meeting will be developer David Hopkins. 

 

Old Business:

            John Winslow reported on the Manchester Clean-Up Day.  The event is scheduled for Saturday October 8 in the Library Parking lot from 9-2PM.  Events include:

·               Adopt-A-Road clean-up of Alaska and Colchester, coordinated by Debbie Trudeau (871-6114 if interested in volunteering). 

·               Hazardous waste collection of fluorescent light bulbs and NiCad rechargeable batteries.

·               Manchester-wide garage sale; we’ll be publicizing local garage sales for a small donation.

·               Used clothing donation collection-only clean, gently used clothing, going to local charities.

·               Used book donations – going to help support the operation of our little library in Manchester!

·               Information booths on 2Good2Toss, Clean Kitsap, Composting, and Noxious weed handling.

·               Refreshments to encourage and celebrate our successes in helping Manchester to Clean-up in a responsible way!!  A bake sale had been planned, but subsequent to the meeting it was learned that the Health Department wouldn’t allow this.

·               Carol Kowalski has been coordinating advertising for the event.  A partnership was formed with the Independent for reduced cost advertising and funds were solicited from the group to help offset the cost.  Kitsap Solid Waste will also contribute to the advertising cost.  A special thanks to all our donors!!

Wanda Larsen reported on the proposed Candidates’ Forum which was scheduled for 10/6.  Of the seven potential participants, only two were willing/able to participate, so as a result, the organizing group decided to cancel the event and inform the League of Women voters of the cancellation.  Wanda said “Port Commissioner candidates Jim Thompson and Dave Kimble chose not to participate in a forum.  Manchester Water District incumbent Commissioner, Steve Pederson confirmed attendance gladly, his position is unopposed.  Position #3 SKF&Rescue Commissioner D.J. Darla Hartley will be out of the country but could send a representative to read her statement.  Position #3SKF&Rescue Commissioner, Gerald Preus is out of the country; he stated that the information in the voters’ pamphlet is adequate.  Position #5 SKF&Rescue incumbent Commissioner, Phil Golnick confirmed that he could attend.  Position #5 SKF&Rescue commissioner candidate Phil Seratt did not respond to the certified mail invitation.”

John mentioned that he understood that Wanda had $35 in unreimbursed expense for delivery of certified letters to the potential participants.  A motion was made and approved to reimburse Wanda for the expense.  A hearty thanks to Wanda, JB, and Mary-Cathern for their efforts in attempting to organize this event with the League of Women voters.

Dick Asche reported on the meeting with developer Bill Palmer by reading Peter Clarke’s summary as follows; “Both developers’ reps were at the meeting, but Bill Palmer offered the most cogent information.  Hopkins had not even selected an architect as yet, so the sketch of which the locals have become so enamored, with its "Nantucket" aura, is really just an "artist's concept" as yet.  (I anticipate certain difficulties in its realization.)
  Bill Palmer produced a significantly altered site plan, to a certain extent the result of having met with Kitsap DCD.  Backout parking onto Colchester has been abandoned in favor of internal circulation, with a buffer strip separating commercial traffic from the roadway.  The building has been moved east to the setback line to accommodate this change, and northward enough to provide ramp access to the underground parking at the south end, with a dogleg at the SE lot corner.  Service traffic will no longer be accessed from Main Street but here.
  The absolute 35-foot height limit has been accepted, and probably a single low slope roof, with perhaps eave setbacks at unit plan setbacks, will be substituted for the sawtooth profile we have seen up to now.  Circulation to the condo units will be via exterior walkways on the west side; I cautioned Mr. Palmer to avoid the downscale motel look.
  The local attendees did not ask for any defined timetable, but the Palmer effort seems to have moved way ahead of Hopkins'.  They may more to add to this.  Peter Clarke”

It was mentioned that no public hearings are planned on this project since they are within the current building code (subsequent to this meeting, I heard David Hopkins state that there has been enough feedback to the DCD by the community so that they may indeed schedule public hearings).

A member of the audience requested that we get a representative from the County to address us next month on the permitting process so we can better understand the system.  Bob Ballard agreed to arrange this.

The Partnering with Outside Agencies group has a meeting planned with Commissioner Jan Angel on 9/28 to discuss the MCC’s relationship with the County.  Facilitator Debby Trudeau outlined their plans to engage with Commissioner Angel and hear her thoughts on our relationship with the County.

 

New Business:

We had hoped to have Bill Shaw review action by the Village commons group on formation of a Downtown Design review committee per CZ-4 of the Manchester Plan, but Bill was not in attendance.

A new member asked how he could find information on the difference between the MCA and the MCC and what we were specifically doing to pursue Article 3 of our Bylaws.  President Ballard said that he felt we needed to focus a little more on our mission to work with the Manchester Plan and be prepared to provide input to the County during their review of the Plan, expected in the next year.

We were reminded that our annual elections are to be held at our next meeting, per the Bylaws, and a nominations committee is needed.  No one attending was willing to commit to participation in a nominating committee.  John Winslow agreed to take the names of members for a nominating committee and for those interested in holding office.

Dick Asche reported that the lawsuit on the Bloomquist project was still in the courts.

Ron Rada and Mary-Cathern Edwards reported on the organizational meeting of the Manchester Historical Society.  Fifteen people attended the meeting and had lots of historical stories to tell.  The next meeting is being planned for mid-October where they will identify long-term families and plan means to record personal history narratives.

At that point, President Ballard suggested that the Action Groups convene and discuss how the Manchester Plan applies to the plans of each group.  When we reconvened, the groups made brief reports;

The “Revitalize Downtown” group came up with these points:

1.       Maintain the small town charm & quaintness that Manchester currently offers.

2.       Preservation of spectacular views of Puget Sound & preservation of residential views.

3.       Maintain & enhance the high quality of life as well as the quality of the natural environment.

4.       Support a village center that acts as a community center with businesses & services that provide and enhance basic needs.

5.       Revisit residential & commercial zoning (CZ-1,2,3,4,5).

6.       Strengthen the boundaries between commercial & residential properties to protect the residents’ property for the future.

The Historical group noted that we need to start our own journals now to remember what’s going on right now.  We could enlist college students from Olympic College to record oral histories…possibly high school students as well.

Ron Robinson observed that the Action Groups members seems to vary considerably from meeting to meeting, so perhaps we should consider having journals for each group stored in the Library to maintain continuity.  Also, he suggested that we should have a standing committee focused on review of the Plan, developing proposed changes, and interfacing with all other groups.  Finally he felt we need to maintain a facilitator from the Executive Board on each Action Group to insure continuity and reporting of issues to the entire membership.

There being no other discussion from the floor, Chairman Ballard adjourned the meeting at 8:37PM.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday October 25th at 6:30-8:30PM in the Manchester Library. 

Bob Ballard and John Winslow will jointly develop an agenda for our next meeting for distribution with the reminder, several days before the meeting.  At this point the tentative agenda includes a guest speaker from the County (Jan Angel or Eric Baker) to address the permitting process.  If you have any additional items for the agenda, contact John Winslow prior to October 14th.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

John Winslow, Secretary-Manchester Community Council