Oct 18, 2017 | Vol. 12 | No. 42
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 City Launches Communications Survey
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Click here to take the City's communications survey
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The City of Mercer Island has only one half-time staff position dedicated to communications and engagement work. In order to make the best use of this limited resource, and serve you better, we are conducting a brief survey online about the most effective ways we can communicate with the community.
How do you get your Island news?
What other tools would you suggest?
How are we doing overall?
The survey will be open for two weeks, through November 1. Thank you in advance for helping us keep in touch and please invite your friends and nieghbors to take our survey too.
Take the survey now at this link!...
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City Council Finalizes Settlement Agreement With Sound Transit
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A Sound Transit light rail visualization; click to read the City's full news release
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Last night, at its October 17 regular meeting, the City Council unanimously voted to finalize its acceptance of a package of mitigation measures first offered in May 2017 by Sound Transit and valued at just over ten million dollars. The financial settlement terms remain unchanged from the original proposal and are intended to offset the impacts of light rail construction and operation, and also to partially compensate for permanent impacts to local traffic patterns, including the loss of access to westbound I-90 from the Island's only 4-lane arterial (Island Crest Way).
These measures include key community-identified priorities such as:
- Traffic/safety enhancements, and first/last-mile solutions to access transit
- Commuter parking both during and after the East Link construction period (2017-2023)
- Bus-rail integration measures that site the bus pickups/dropoffs on North Mercer Way as they are today; no major bus facility will be built on 80th Avenue SE; a roundabout for bus turnaround is possible at 77th Ave and NMW. The City received a letter from King County Metro in support of these terms.
Since June, the City has been exploring various potential pathways to address the above list of priorities, and a tentative November 7 Study Session before the City Council will present the latest findings on first/last-mile solutions, commuter parking at the South Luther Burbank Parking Lot, and other topics. The City continues to collect local traffic performance statistics in order to make data-driven decisions about traffic mitigation measures to ease congestion and improve safety.
Read the full news release here
Visit the City's webpage for helpful commuting information |
Telephone Town Hall on City Budget a Great Success
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Click here to visit the City's Financial Challenges webpage
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The City enjoyed a great turnout last Wednesday night, October 11, for its first-ever "Telephone Town Hall" discussing with residents how best to balance the City's budget. We called over 4,500 residents with an invitation, and 265 people chose to join us at 7:00pm.
"Thank you for all the great questions, it was a very useful exercise for all involved and we hope very informative for listeners," said Julie Underwood, City Manager. If you missed the call, you can now listen to the full
audio (58mins) on the City's YouTube Channel.
Staff conducted several polling questions that night with interesting results:
- About 2/3 of respondents feel the City provides "about the right amount of services"
- However, people are split on how to pay for them: about half would be willing to pay more taxes to maintain those services, while half would rather see services cut to balance the budget.
Note that the poll was not scientific, as the respondents were self-selected, and may not represent the views of the entire community; click here to view full polling results.
To view the all the financial questions asked via the web or telephone during the one-hour call, including those that we didn't have time to answer, please click here. Based on this successful experiment, the City plans to hold a second Telephone Town Hall in March 2018, to discuss additional financial questions.
View our updated list of Financial Challenges FAQ.
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City Expands EV Charging Options
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The City Hall EV chargers see a wide range of vehicles daily;
click to learn more about EVs in Washington
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Acting on a two-for-one upgrade offer from its vendor, the City recently upgraded its oldest charging unit (8 years old) at the Mercer Island Community and Event Center (MICEC), and added an additional unit at City Hall.
The new equipment from ChargePoint adds capacity by allowing two vehicles to charge simultaneously from the same station, using separate cords, both capable of delivering power at 240volts. At this rate, a current model Nissan LEAF can be filled up (i.e. 80 miles of range) in about four hours.
The upgrade means the City now has five 240volt stalls and one 120volt stall at City Hall, and two 240volt stalls at MICEC; all City charging costs $1/hour. The MI School District has also recently expanded its charging equipment, and other private business offer charging in Town Center too. View a map of options.
As of June 2017, there are 373 registered battery-powered EVs on Mercer Island, up from 156 just three years ago, according to the State's Department of Licensing. |
Island Businesses to Host Annual Trick-or-Treat, October 31
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Click to learn more
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For the ninth year, over 60 businesses in the Town Center and South Mercer Shopping Center are inviting ghosts, goblins, firefighters, princesses, devils, zombies and other characters to a walking trick-or-treat event. They'll be handing out treats on Halloween, Tuesday, October 31, from from 3:00-5:30pm.
Participating business will have a poster of a Jack O' Lantern in their window and there will be a list of candy stops available on the Chamber of Commerce website and at the businesses; don't forget to stop at Aljoya and explore their haunted library!
Trick-or-Treaters are asked to bring a non-perishable food donation for the City's Food Pantry. Look for the food collection boxes at Banner Bank, the Chamber office, C Michele, Au Courant, and MI Martial Arts.
For more information or to sign up, contact the Chamber at (206) 232-3404 or info@mercerislandchamberofcommerce.org
Read up on safe Halloween tips from the MI Fire Department.
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