Lakewood Schools Honored For Hoops Championships, Tillicum Housing Cleanup and more

• Council to honor Lakes and Clover Park High School Basketball champions
  

Lakewood City Council will take a moment to honor their two high school basketball championship teams at 7 p.m. on Monday in the Lakewood City Council Chambers.
Friends, families, and fans of Clover Park and Lakes High are welcome to attend.

Click for game coverage of Lakes and for coverage of Clover Park.

• Multiple agencies help clean up house in Tillicum:

A house in the Tillicum area which had been the source of several complaints due to a large amount of trash and discarded items piling up in the yard has been brought to a successful conclusion. A joint effort between code enforcement, building department, Health Department, and the Lakewood Police Department, resulted in the trash being removed, an illegally-occupied motor home being removed, and the house which is in foreclosure being posted as unsafe to occupy due to lack of utilities.

The house had been an illegal residence to a number of people with criminal
backgrounds, who have now moved on.

• Employee of the Quarter awards for Willie Gardner and Svea Pitts

The quarterly employee recognition reception on March 16th, special recognition
for the guiding principle of “Service” was given to Municipal Court Specialist
Willie Gardner and Lakewood Police Senior Office Assistant Svea Pitts for their attitude and professionalism in providing service to the organization and the community.

• Parks and Recreation and Community Services Department volunteer support

The Lakewood Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department uses many volunteers and partners to support city projects and events. In 2010,
the city benefited from almost 12,300 volunteer hours. This included boards
and commission members as well as volunteers working at community clean up
events and on Eagle Scout projects.

When calculated at a rate of $14 per hour (the state standard) the city received more than $172,000 in volunteer support, which doesn’t include the cash, supplies and in-kind services that come with many of the volunteer groups.

• EFN honors PD and Chief’s wife for “Substantial Collection Effort:

The Emergency Food Network presented an award at its March 16th recognition
at University of Puget Sound to the Lakewood Police Department and Police Chief Bret Farrar's wife Cindy Salazar for the exceptional effort associated with the food drive to commemorate the first anniversary of our four fallen officers’ death on November 29th. In a few days, more than $31,000 was contributed and over 24,000 pounds of food donated to combat hunger in our area.

• Emergency Management briefing to Clover Park School District:

Clover Park School District Superintendent Debbie LeBeau hosted a briefing of her leadership team on March 14th regarding emergency management and preparedness. Lt. Steve Maurer, Community Safety Resource Team staff and the city manager participated.

Puget Sound Energy Upgrade Notices sent to property owners

The Community Development Department recently sent more than 670 notices to property owners regarding a proposal by Puget Sound Energy to upgrade a
segment of their electrical transmission and distribution system between the
northerly city boundary behind the B&I shopping center and the existing
Gravelly Lake Drive substation on the southwest corner of Washington Blvd. SW 83rd Ave SW.

The system will be upgraded from 55kV to 115kV. Property owners along the proposed alignment were notified of the project. The proposed alignment runs along Durango Ave SW, Lakeview Drive SW, 111th and 112th streets, Gravelly Lake Drive and Washington Boulevard SW. The project will require the issuance of a conditional use permit from the city.

The City’s hearing examiner will hold a public hearing for the project at 10:30 a.m. on April 20 in the Lakewood City Hall Council Chambers. Click for a news story about the project.

• Lakewood Organization of Concerned and Active Landlords holds monthly meeting
  

The Lakewood Organization of Concerned and Active Landlords held its monthly meeting on March 15th. This meeting focused on emergency preparedness. CSRT staff Dawn McGinnis encouraged attendees to enroll in the CERT training, and provided handouts on disaster preparedness checklists and Pierce County Alert program.

The LOCAL will be soliciting donations for disaster kits. The emergency kits will be in conjunction with National Night Out. The goal is to provide one kit per apartment/mobile home family and to continue to add supplies throughout the year. LOCAL landlords and managers will now include the disaster preparedness checklists with their move-in information for new tenants.

To donate supplies, contact McGinnis at 253-983-7854. LOCAL meets from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every third Tuesday at the Lakewood Police Department.