Mayor Brett Gailey was our virtual guest on Friday, April 10th. Club Meetings are now virtual meetings until further notice using Zoom. A shout out to Don Iverson for working with the Mayor to reschedule his City Priorities presentation.
The Mayor has lived in Lake Stevens since 2004. He and his wife have five children with another one on the way. The Mayor, has been a policeman in Everett for the past 21 years and currently works patrol in the city. He is a Lt. Colonel in the Army Reserve and had two tours in Iraq. His Reserve time is spent in Pearl Harbor where he participates in the Pacific intelligence area while on Army Reserve time in Hawaii.
The City Priorities start with creating a team. The City is working on a Civic Plaza concept involving the Sno-Isle Library; Lake Stevens Sewer District; Court House, Council Chambers, a regional Court with Snohomish Superior Court and the Snohomish Conservation District. The goal and bottom line is to move forward preferably with partners. Currently working on identifying space requirements and particular needs while combining the City and Sno-Isle parcels on Chapel Hill. Define a broad RFP to find an design/build/lease back partners. Leave room for developers to add additional 55+ housing or retail in the area.
Working with Monroe on a traveling Judge concept. Once the City Hall is moved, the next step will be to allow the city to repurpose the current location with more additions to North Cove Park such as restrooms. Frontier Heights Park is currently undergoing complete renovation. Other improvements to the Park System in the City is Davies Beach security, Working with the County on the transformation of Cavalero Park with the new Skate Park to focus on sports facilities, repurpose the current Dog Park to a multi-use sports field and support County Council/Sno Co Sports Tourism, continue the development of the Powerline Park from 8th St SE to 20th St SE and eventually develop a park at the site of the old City landfill on 131st Av NE.
Other decisions include repurposing City Hall, hold off on the downtown plan, move the library (temporarily) to the current Police Building and work on the museum. Annexation of the eastside and southeast areas of the UGA with a vote on Annexation this year. Work on a Transportation Benefits District and partner with Community Transit are just part of the City Priorities. Critical to the city is staffing for planners, police department, parks maintenance, an events coordinator and a communications specialist. Also part of the process is analyzing the current IT systems used by the City through creating a efficient common operating picture through GovTech/OpenGov/Granicus.
Another major effort by the Mayor and City Staff is assisting with private development such as continuing the working relationship with Costco, assist planning and permitting of 20th St. SE projects, working with the property owners of Sound Salmon Solutions for future long term development of the property on Vernon Rd as well as Frontier Village shops.
Thank you Mayor for fantastic overview of the City's Priorities going forward.