(Welcome Wallingford Neighborhood Council President Mary Heim to these pages. She will be contributing directly to Wallyhood, including both notes from the Council meetings, like this, and other thoughts and issues as she pleases.)
The monthly Wallingford Community Council, WCC, board meeting was held Wednesday February 3rd at the Good Shepherd Center. A small but committed group of community members were present to talk about some pretty serious issues facing Wallingford and Seattle as a whole. As with most community issues, more thoughtful voices and ideas in the conversation will move us forward. We need to come together to work on the answers to these questions:
Wallingford Community (AND?) Senior Center (WCSC)
- Boomers are approaching retirement in a completely different mindset than previous generations. They are reluctant to embrace the old senior center model so there is recognition that strategic planning for how to deliver and support aging in a community needs to be done.
- Does the way forward for senior services include adding all age and intergenerational programming? Could be, you can be part of how the WCSC transitions from traditional senior center and help define a new sustainable model.
- What about the use of the WCSC space by the community? Are there compatible users that would be interested in space rental to expand the community use and access? How do we identify those programs? Is this a way to incubate programs that are emerging from the community center planning currently underway?
Featured Guest Stella Chao, Director Seattle Department of Neighborhoods
- Mid-year budget cuts last year were made to staff in order to keep the DON grant funding for communities whole. More cuts coming.
- Ms. Chao encouraged community groups to apply for grants that build community capacity. With critical budget deficits projected past 2012, communities need to be more self reliant as city programs lose funding and are scaled back.
Next Wallingford Community Council meeting:
March 3rd, 2010
7:00 – 9:00 PM
Good Shepherd Center
4649 Sunnyside Ave. N
Seattle WA
Featured guests, 7:30-8:30 segment, are from Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle Department of Planning and Development. They will update the community on the status of the North Recycling and Disposal Station remodel and discuss the next phase of the planning process. Representatives scheduled to attend:
- Bill Benzer, SPU
- Nancy Ahern, SPU
- Tim Croll, SPU
- Lucas DeHerrera, DPD
Please forward any specific questions for the panel to [email protected] as they will be taking questions after the presentation.
April Featured Guest: Councilmember Mike O’Brien
This is a good rundown of the meeting — with all the new contributing writers, Wallyhood has definitely become my main source of community news and events. Great job, guys!
Just curious what it might mean for neighborhoods to become more self-reliant, and if there’s a Wallyhood group that already applies for neighborhood grants. I’ll definitely keep reading to find out how budget cuts continue to affect our little slice of heaven.