Community Fund grant awarded to city for summer events

We are pleased to announce that the Mercer Island Parks & Recreation Department is the recipient of a 2015 Mercer Island Community Fund grant. The generous grant of $8,500 will help support funding of the Mercer Island Arts Council’s Mostly Music in the Park, the annual Summer Celebration parade; The Pirates Return, and the award winning Adventure Playground at Deane’s Children’s Park. These events and programs are free to the community, with donations welcomed. The Community Fund is a vital partner to the Parks and Recreation Department, and with their financial support we can continue to offer these free events & programs to our community. On behalf of the Parks & Recreation Department, we thank the Community Fund for their continued support.

The Parks and Recreation Department is gearing up for another fun summer. Have you registered for summer camps yet? The Gary Payton Youth Skills Basketball Academy is returning by popular demand, on Aug. 25-28. Register now at www.eliteyouthcamps.com. If you would like to make a donation to your Parks and Recreation Department, go to www.miparks.net to donate through PayPal, or call the Community & Event Center at 206-275-7609.  Thank you!

Diane Mortenson

Superintendent, Mercer Island Parks and Recreation Department

PSE: Multiple studies done to justify Energize Eastside project

In a recent letter to the editor, representatives from two neighborhood groups requested additional studies to prove the need for the Energize Eastside project. PSE and independent consultants have conducted multiple studies that all point to an urgent local need for the project, making additional studies unnecessary.

Energize Eastside – a project to build a new electric substation and higher capacity transmission lines – is driven by local growth. The existing electric system serving the Eastside area had its last major upgrade 50 years ago. Since that time, Eastside population has grown almost eight times, and that growth is expected to continue. Between 2010 and 2040, the Puget Sound Regional Council predicts Eastside employment to grow 73 percent and population to grow by more than a third. This drastic growth requires a robust electric system that can support it.

The most recent independent study was commissioned and funded by the City of Bellevue. Just like similar studies before it, the independent study concluded that there is a local need for the Energize Eastside project. In addition, the study included thorough analysis of various generation levels and connections with other regional utilities, and the results did not change.

We understand the Energize Eastside project will bring change to the community – unwanted change, for some. But these studies, conducted by reputable electric system planning experts according to strict federal reliability requirements, point to a problem that we as a community need to solve.

Jens Nedrud, P.E.

Gretchen Aliabadi

Energize Eastside Project Puget Sound Energy

The dark side of the new elementary school

There is no denying that schools on the island have been overcrowded for a long time. Mercer Island needs a new elementary school so that class sizes are less than thirty-five and teachers don’t have to enter hundreds of grades each week. But some may argue that building the new elementary school when and where they are is a good idea.

At this moment, construction workers are digging up a giant pit on S.E. 40th Street, next to Holy Trinity Lutheran church. The new elementary school will be where Youth Theatre Northwest (YTN), Country Village preschool, and Little Acorn preschool were last year. Country Village, Little Acorn and YTN were renting the land from the city. YTN was there for 31 years before the City of Mercer Island asked for it back.

Country Village was prepared when the city took their land back. They built a new building and their school has been running smoothly.

Little Acorn moved into the Mercer Island Community and Event Center. Youth Theatre Northwest, however, was less prepared.

Theatres are expensive, and YTN didn’t have all the money to find a new building as quickly as Country Village and Little Acorn did. For the past year, YTN has been putting on shows wherever they can. Emmanuel Episcopal Church has been gracious enough to let YTN rent out space there for offices and now, after a years’ worth of fundraising, install a small stage. When YTN can’t put on a performance at Emmanuel, they put them on all around town — at IMS, the Stroum Jewish Community Center, and even at small theatres in the Seattle Center.

Without its own building, YTN is not like it used to be. With the giant sign, two theatres and more rooms, the theatre is getting a little less publicity. YTN is planning on building Mercer Island Center for the Arts, or MICA, by 2018, but until then, the second home to many may be going through tough times.

The next time you think about Elementary School No. 4, think of the good things and the bad things that it is causing. One elementary school is affecting hundreds by the location that Mercer Island has decided to put it.

Martha Sprague

Editor IMS Press, the Islander Middle School newspaper

Boy Scouts future strengthened by local leaders

Rob McKenna, a Bellevue resident and Chief Seattle Council President, has repeatedly expressed his support for ending the BSA’s anti-gay membership policy.

Two years ago, Bellevue (and former Mercer Island) resident Wayne Perry led the national organization in ending its the ban on gay youth. BSA National President Robert Gates, who lives in Sedro-Wooley, recently called the current ban on gay adults “unsustainable” and declared an end to enforcement against local councils for allowing gay leaders. We can take pride in the effort of these and other local leaders to end institutionalized prejudice on a national scale.

The policy that has made the BSA a poster child for gay and lesbian discrimination is one paragraph of 45 words. That paragraph and its previous iterations were non-existent for the BSA’s first 85 years. Striking this divisive and prejudicial language refocuses Scouting on its important mission and the honorable and unifying values of the Scout law.

With a simple act of healing, our local Council has a timely opportunity to demonstrate that the BSA is ready to close this painful chapter in its story. Let’s hope Chief Seattle Council takes this opportunity to repair the BSA’s battered public image and to restore equal dignity to all in our Scouting community.

Jesse Pacem

chiefseattle@scoutsforequality.com