The sale of the West End Building to Yakima Products closed on Friday afternoon, 8/21. A portion of the upper floor is being leased back for the staff and contract engineers of the Lake Oswego-Tigard Water Partnership. The challenge of moving out quickly was met in a great example of inter-departmental cooperation. Parks & Recreation had the most to move, but Police, Records, Engineering, Library and IT all had their own material and equipment to deal with. Getting Palisades School ready and then handling the logistics of the move required a lot of support from Facilities and IT. There is still work to do. But all in all, it was a smooth move, and I thank all the staff who made it happen.
Thirteen Lake Oswego residents submitted applications to be appointed to the City Council position vacated by Karen Bowerman. At their September 1 meeting, the Council will select a shorter list for interviews, tentatively scheduled for September 8.
The Street of Dreams is wrapping up. Meeting the Homebuilders' tight timeline for building the subdivision and homes required a tremendous amount of work on the part of Engineering and Planning & Building staff. The Police Department helped minimize neighborhood complaints about traffic and parking. Bonnie Hirshberger produced an excellent four-page brochure on city services and amenities that was scooped up by visitors. Megan Phelan served as overall troubleshooter before and during the show. The offsite parking lots and shuttle service (including the downtown trolley) seemed to work very well, and in spite of the thousands of people who attended the show, there were very few problems.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the LUBA decision which in turn affirmed the decision of the City Council to approve the development application for Block 137 (the Wizer block). Several departments will be involved in one way or another with this project. Sid Sin is providing overall coordination of the staff effort. September will see the beginning of activity on the site; PHK development has created a web site on the timeline for the project at http://timeline-lo137.com/
As in other cities, our City Council will need to make some decisions on the sale and growing of marijuana. The Council will have a preliminary discussion of the issue on September 1. Under recently-adopted state legislation, an outright ban (if the Council is inclined in that direction) must be approved by voters. Beginning in October, medical marijuana dispensaries will be allowed to sell recreational marijuana, but that's a moot issue for us, since for the time being the dispensaries are not allowed in LO.
The Northwest has been hit with a number of serious wildfires. In the wee hours of Friday 8/21 our Fire Department put out a brush fire in Waluga Park (see the Council Digest post). It was of course on a much smaller scale than the fires in forests, but still a reminder that we are fortunate to have the resources (skilled firefighters and a reliable water supply) to prevent a brush fire from turning into a major catastrophe.
Congratulations to all our colleagues who participated in the Hood to Coast race!
