Concerns About Neighborhood Councils Expressed

Some North Side neighborhood leaders have expressed uncertainty about how new neighborhood councils approved by the Spokane City Council will fit with the existing network of steering committees.

“How many meetings can one person go to?” asked Sandy Smith, chair of the traffic committee in Nevada-Lidgerwood. Smith and others said they have questions about duplication in the new councils and its potential time commitment.

Fourteen Spokane neighborhoods have steering committees, which were originally set up to allocate federal block grants to various projects such as paving, housing rehabilitation, and recreation.

The city has approved boundaries for neighborhood councils, but the existing community development areas remain intact.

The new neighborhood councils will especially be important for areas of the city without strong steering committees, said Molly Myers, assistant to Mayor Jack Geraghty.

The steering committees can essentially reformulate themselves as neighborhood councils, and there will be a procedure for doing that after Jan. 1, if the neighborhood council concept is included in the city’s 1996 budget.

The neighborhood councils would become the umbrella groups, while such issues as public safety, growth management, traffic and community development allocations could be handled by committees.

“It’s not like they have to reinvent the wheel,” Myers said of the established steering committees. She hopes, however, the councils will reach out and involve a whole array of residents who are not now participating.

“The whole emphasis is to get beyond what already exists,” she said.

Couplet concerns

Residents of the Emerson-Garfield neighborhood heard a presentation on the long-range plans for the Monroe-Wall-Post traffic corridor if a new bridge on Lincoln Street is built.

The proposed $23 million bridge, still being challenged in court, would replace the aging Post Street Bridge.

If built, it could carry northbound traffic through the area. Monroe would carry southbound traffic.

Residents are concerned how far into north Spokane such a couplet would go. One option takes it as far north as Francis Avenue.

“What we have in several years is another Ash-Maple corridor coming to our neighborhood,” said Darlene Becker, chair of the neighborhood steering committee.

But city traffic planner Don Ramsey said current plans are to stop the couplet at Boone Avenue or Sharp Avenue. There, a crossover would carry northbound traffic back to Monroe. A study on the best place to make that connection is pending.

Traffic patterns from the new Arena will play into that decision. The need for a full couplet to Francis no longer exists because Ash-Maple is carrying more traffic now that the toll over the Maple Street Bridge is gone. And, there is less commercial activity downtown than 10 years ago, Ramsey said.

At this point, he emphasized, extending the couplet any farther than Sharp or Boone “is not the city’s intention.”

Keeping in touch

Nevada-Lidgerwood was the first neighborhood to form a volunteer courier service. Indian Trail was the first with its own independent newspaper.

Now, Emerson-Garfield has a home page on the Internet.

It features not just news about the neighborhood but links to City Hall and library information and comes courtesy of Eaglenet, a small North Side firm that provides Internet service.

For more information send e-mail to: emergar@soar.com

Mark your calendars

The Greater Hillyard Business Association has set Oct. 7 as the date for its annual fall yard sale along Market Street. The event is open to business owners and the public.

Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The cost of a 10-by-10 booth is $10. For more information call 489-5001.

, DataTimes