We held our annual elections, and after five years of service, Kari Quaas stepped down as chair. Here is the new leadership for Northwest.
Chair: Holly James
Vice Chair: Shelley Whitkop
Treasurer: Russ Kasselman
Treasurer Intern: Kari Quaas
Council of Neighborhood Rep #1: Tim Knopf
Council of Neighborhood Rep #2: Brian Hennessy
Council of Neighborhood Alternate: Holly James
Then, Neil Anderson gave a wonderful presentation on the History of the Mills. Lots of good memory stirring slides, and some surprises. Watch the video above for his presentation.
Finally, Mary Fosse, City Councilmember from District 1 provided an update.
March 17, 2022 meeting with Deputy Mayor Nick Harper
This may have been our last Zoom meeting after two years of the pandemic. It is our plan to gather at Everett Community College in our old haunt, Whitehorse Hall Room 105 on Thursday, April 21. We are glad to have been invited back by John Olson from the college.
Kari thanked the volunteer crew for putting up the signs at Drew Nielsen Park on Saturday, March 12, 2022, and then welcomed our guests, Nick Harper, and elected official David Simpson. Port of Everett Commissioner.
Tim Knopf, Jeff Hardy, Kari Quaas, and Joni Smith after the sign installation honoring Drew Nielsen — March 12, 2022
There was a robust discussion of current events, finances, and plans for the new year.
Citizens are welcomed to attend or watch the State of Everett presentation with Mayor Cassie Franklin on Thursday, March 31, 2022. It will be held in person at Angel of the Winds Arena.
The annual matching amount has been reduced from $2000 to $1000. Applications are due March 7th. The Steering Committee will work out the numbers.
It was decided that we will send a formal letter to the City to express our frustration at the reduction of services, and opportunity, for the neighborhood system to function.
Treasurer’s Report
We have $10,500 in the bank, and $400 in PayPal. We are grateful to our donors who help us maintain things like Zoom, Constant Contact, storage, and provide money so that we can do projects that better our neighborhood, and grow community.
Our monthly meeting featured special guest Eileen Simmons from the Evergreen Arboretum and Gardens; and Sergeant Terpening from the Everett Police Department. We also had a council update from Paul Roberts, and a Port update from David Simpson. We closed with the soon to be new sign for Drew Nielsen Park, and our holiday lights plan for December 4.
For the October meeting, we had a late change of guest from Mayor Franklin to Kimberly Shelton from Everett Parks. We heard more about the updates to the recreational and open space plan the city is working on. You can provide your feedback here. Also, we got an update on the Colby Trees (aka the London Planes), and various parks throughout the city.
Holly James provided an update on Drew Nielsen Park. We have a new partnership with Pilchuck Audubon Society to build our habitat friendly space.
Paul Roberts and Scott Murphy provided updates from City Council including future budget planning.
On September 16, we welcomed fall by gathering outside at Drew Nielsen Park on our standard Thursday at 6:30 pm. We got to meet some new neighbors, hear about our plans for the park and the information board, and be together. It was a nice time.
About 28 folks gathered this night, including a youngster, and a few dogs, too. We mainly discussed the park planting and clean up event set for Saturday, October 2 from 9am to 1pm led by Holly. Also, Tim gave an update on the park information board featuring descriptions of Drew Nielsen, the park’s namesake, and the Northwest Neighborhood.
Our next meeting will be back on Zoom with guest speaker, Mayor Cassie Franklin, on Thursday, October 21 at 6:45pm. If you have questions you want to ask her, please email those in advance to Kari, who will forward them on to Nichole with the City.
The June 17 meeting focused on summer safety including a discussion about the racing and loud cars that hang out at the marina and cruise beyond the speed limit through our neighborhood streets. The short answer is to call 911 to get the incident logged. Patrols increase when we tell them that something is wrong. Don’t hesitate to make a report.
We also heard directly Mateo an RN and NW neighbor about the impact of one of the negotiating pieces – staff at Providence Hospital paying for parking. Likely, it would mean more cars on the street. Remember, blocks of residents can petition the city to have parking time limits on their blocks utilizing parking permits. It’s up to them to file for such a change. Email the neighborhood with any questions. You can pick up signs to support the healthcare staff at 1607 Rockerfeller Ave from Matt’s house.
We also had a spontaneous report from our State Senator June Robinson on the historic and productive legislative session.
We hear from Everett City Councilmember Paul Roberts about the budget, Rethink Housing and Transit updates, and progress on the Climate Change Action Plan including Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure.
Emily shared that there is a summer reading program with the library and netbooks and wifi/hotspots can be rented for three weeks at a time via the Everett Public Library. More information here.
Also, this was the last meeting until September. We’re taking the summer off!
Kari shared the various events happening in Northwest this summer and we hope to see people out and about, vaccinated and masked if needed for the environment.
June 23rd – ribbon cutting for new fishing dock near the Mukilteo Ferry Terminal.
Thanks to Tyler Chism with the City of Everett for sharing about summer events like Sorticulture, the Fourth of July, and more! We also welcomed our new Everett City Council Liaison, Brenda Stonecipher.
We chose a date for the first Mother of All Garage Sales committee meeting and we’re a go for 2021 on Saturday, August 7th! Registration information coming soon.
Our meeting was held Thursday, April 15 at 7pm. We held elections for our Northwest Neighborhood Association leadership.
The results of the elections are as follows:
Chair – Kari Quaas
Vice-Chair – Holly James
Secretary (aka Scribe) – Kari Quaas
Treasurer – Russ Kasselman
Council of Neighborhood Representative – Tim Knopf
Council of Neighborhood Representative – John Sweeney
Council of Neighborhood Alternate – Kari Quaas
Thank you to all of them for their service to Northwest Neighbors!
Kari reported on a successful Easter Egg Hunt at the three parks – Legion, Grand Avenue and Drew Nielsen. We may split it up for future years to keep the crowds down and enjoy our neighborhood.
Paul Roberts provided a city council update in place of Brenda Stonecipher. The work on the budget for 2022 has begun.
Kari shared that Jerry Smith had passed on April 4 (Easter Sunday) and we heard reflections from long time neighbors Holly, Jackie and Tim about Jerry’s influence and care of Joni.
Tim provided an update on the Council of Neighborhoods.
We heard lots of updates on upcoming events and brainstormed ideas for the next two meetings including mental health and an event update from the city. Kari will reach out to speakers.
Misha provided an educational update. Secondary school will be starting up next Monday! High school students will also return for hybrid learning.
Our March meeting was held on Thursday the 18th. We heard an update from Ryan Bisson on Rethink Transit and Commissioner Tom Stiger and Cat Soper from the Port of Everett. We also heard from Paul Roberts, who filled in for our City Council Liaison report, a Council of Neighborhoods update from Tim Knopf, and we went over plans for this spring and summer.
Ryan Bisson : Online Survey: https://rethinket.participate.online/
Meeting: March 25th at 1pm, Director Tom Hinkston, and Roland Behee will be doing a Facebook Livestream about the transit plan.
April 5th is the end of the survey collection.
Red Cross Homes Made Safer info: https://www.redcross.org/local/washington/about-us/our-work/home-fire-campaign.html
Cat Soper - Port of Everett : Thank you all - my contact info here if you ever have Port questions - catherines@portofeverett.com or 425.388.0680
Patrick Hall : www.downtowneverettwa.org/donate
We voted to donate $250 to the downtown Everett planter program.
We did a straw poll for the Mother of All Garage Sales and people are interested in making it happen for August 7, 2021.
Finally, we will be doing a modified Easter Egg Hunt at all three of our parks – Grand Avenue, The Bluff at Legion and Drew Nielsen. Details here – https://northwesteverett.org/events/
Modified Easter Egg Hunt happening Saturday, April 3rd at 10 am SHARP! Ages 1-10 welcome.
