The Celebration of Youth is a community event and a free dinner showcasing local youth and their talents, skills, and leadership. Performances include music, arts, and spoken word pieces by the Music Innovates Program, The Community School’s Peer Assistance & Leadership Program, Youth for Christ’s Resiliency Project, and the West Central Youth Development Life Skills Program.
This year the WCCC is also presenting the First Annual Louise Stamper Excellence in Service Award to a youth in our community. The award commemorates the work and neighborhood advocacy of Louise Stamper, who passed away one year ago.
If you’re on Facebook, you can RSVP to the Celebration of Youth here.
Admission is free to this all-ages event and fundraiser, which features free massages and health screenings, seminars and giveaways, as well as a raffle and an affordable ($6) lunch.
Around 75 vendors took part last year. They generally wind through the whole first floor and lower level of the center, and they represent services and businesses from all fields: home care, retirement living, legal services, computer assistance, moving services, hearing, energy savings. real-estate and financial planning, and lots more.
During this year’s event, the Corbin Senior Center will once again be offering half-price annual membership for new members. That’s just $13 for individual membership and $18 per couple! Membership gives you access to all the Corbin Senior Center’s facilities and first dibs on their tours and activities — plus a range of discounts at all these great area businesses. Anyone over the age of 18 can be a member.
The Spokane Police Department leadership team meets monthly to discuss the latest crime trends, significant arrests, and investigations. These meetings are called Compstat Meetings. Tomorrow (Wednesday, February 17) the public is invited to watch that process starting at 9:30am at the Fire Training Center (1618 N Rebecca).
During this Compstat briefing you will see SPD’s efforts to address crime, quality of life issues, and community outreach efforts made in the prior month. Also included in the presentation will be crime hot spots that were identified and efforts taken to address crime in those areas, significant arrests, and any other significant events or investigations that impacted Spokane in the previous month.
The Precinct Captains, Investigative Captain, Assistant Chief, and other SPD leaders will be in attendance providing reviews of the past month’s crime trends. This is an excellent opportunity for our community to see firsthand what their Spokane Police do on a regular basis to keep citizens safe and to reduce crime in Spokane.
Please note that certain ongoing investigations may be left out of the presentation due to the sensitive nature of the information surrounding the event.
Compstat reports are posted on the City website every week for public viewing.
This is a brief recap of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council (EGNC) meeting that took place on February 10, 2016.
Patrick Striker, the Executive Director of the Spokane Community-Oriented Policing Services (Spokane C.O.P.S.) program gave common-sense advice about preventing crime. Some of his tips included:
Do not leave anything tempting in a vehicle, such as a laptop bag, regardless of whether or not it contains valuable contents. As jackets can also be used for covering valuables, that may also be tempting to a criminal.
Get to know your neighbors so you can identify unusual activity or vehicles.
Report anything suspicious you see by calling Crime Check at 456-2233, even if you don’t expect the police to act on it. Incidents have to be logged to establish crime patterns and focus police patrols.
If an incident is happening right at the moment, call 911.
When criminals see more activity and oversight in a neighborhood, such as with an active Block Watch, they are less confident in committing crime.
Kathy Armstrong and Patrick Striker of Spokane C.O.P.S. speak to the neighborhood council
Patrick also noted that code violation complaints can be submitted through a C.O.P.S. Shop, so all of the documentation can be recorded with the Shop as the source to keep you anonymous. If you do file directly with Code Enforcement, you may check a box on the form to remain anonymous if you feel threatened.
Kathy Armstrong of the Spokane Police Department reported on the Department of Justice Reform Recommendations, with forums bridging the gap between law enforcement and the community. The DOJ works together with the reform committee. Officers go through Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) to handle individuals with mental health issues. In addition to 40 hours of CIT, officers have also gone through training with Spokane Mental Health. There is additional training planned with World Relief to educate officers on the cultures of those who are immigrating into Spokane.
Jonathan Mallahan of the City of Spokane’s Division of Neighborhood and Business Services (currently called the Office of Neighborhood Services) reported on the upcoming organizational changes at the City. He stated that there will be no reduction in the workforce during the reorganization of departments, which is scheduled to take place on March 1, and that many of the current departmental duties will be brought into closer alignment. Many of the questions that were brought up following Jonathan’s presentation were related to Parking Services, so an additional speaker will be invited to a future neighborhood council meeting to address that topic.
A call went out for volunteers at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market for the 2016 season. Several members stepped forward to assist and share responsibilities.
The new Neighborhood Notification Ordinance, which currently notifies the EGNC chair and vice chair of the applications for construction projects, was discussed along with recent training sessions on the issue. Neighborhood Notification is intended to keep residents apprised of what is happening in terms of neighborhood development and will give them some voice in the process. Anyone will be able to sign up for permit and land use alerts within a certain distance from their property.
Traffic-calming requests are due by the March 9 EGNC meeting and will be put forward for approval at that time.
Laura Schlangen reported on the Corbin Senior Activity Center. Beth Daniels is the new administrative manager and will be responsible for tours. The Movin’ and Groovin’ Fair will be on March 5. The Parks Department has decided not to give financial support to the center’s elevator project.
Jay Cousins reported on the recent Community Assembly meeting. The main issue was a prolonged discussion regarding the ongoing funding of citywide sidewalk projects. Because so many decisions are pending, there will be no sidewalk projects in 2016.
The Land Use Committee, which Barb Biles attended, discussed the impact of high-volume housing at Indian Trail, but there were no issues discussed that would impact Emerson-Garfield.
Jonathan Martinez reported on the Rental Housing Stakeholders Group. Concerns regarding landlord-tenant issues will be presented at the YMCA corporate building on Boone and Monroe on February 23 at 3:30pm.
The West Quadrant Tax Increment Financing Committee (WQTIF), represented by Megan Kennedy, did not have a quorum for the past two meetings. The main focus in our neighborhood with the committee is North Monroe. An additional position on the committee is open, so please consider serving.
Carlie Hoffman reported on topics discussed at the recent meeting of the citywide Pedestrian, Traffic and Transportation (PeTT) Committee. The Washington State Department of Transportation may provide counters to measure bikes and pedestrians if the City can find funds for installation and maintenance. The City is also currently working on updating the Transportation chapter of the Comprehensive Plan.
Following its customary January hiatus, the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council resumes its monthly meeting schedule tomorrow (Wednesday, February 10). It starts at 6pm in the Corbin Senior Activity Center Center (827 W Cleveland).
There are two guest speakers this month: Jonathan Mallahan of the City of Spokane and Patrick Striker of Spokane COPS. Jonathan will be speaking about the reorganization at City Hall and what that means for neighborhoods. He’ll leave time to field questions and address some of the concerns we had when the news was announced. Patrick will talk about crime prevention and what’s new at the area COPS Shops.
Further discussion items include finding much-needed volunteers for the upcoming season of the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market, a brief distillation of what we’ve gleaned from the recent Neighborhood Notification trainings, revisiting the EGNC bylaws and job descriptions for the executive members (e.g., chair, vice chair, secretary), plus reports from all our neighborhood reps on committees across Spokane. And there’s always room on the agenda for additional topics if you have one you’d like to add.
If you have a tablet or a smartphone, please help keep our printing expenses low by downloading the materials as PDFs:
Owing to everyone’s busy schedules, we do our best to stick to a strict 90-minute meeting. It helps us keep discussion on topic if you familiarize yourself with the issues on the agenda beforehand.
Everyone who has a stake in Emerson-Garfield is welcome, so we look forward to seeing you tomorrow! Feel free to RSVP to the event on Facebook or on Nextdoor.
