When visitors make their way to the Mercer Island Community and Event Center, they’ll be experiencing some changes that occurred during the city’s annual facility maintenance at the end of December. During the two-week closure, crews replaced the floor in the Mercer Room, cleaned the carpets and furniture, completed wall repairs and painting touch-ups along with multiple repairs to the HVAC system, and finished transforming the Slater Room into the city council chambers. The facility reopened to the public on Jan. 2.

On the water utility front, the city’s team recently completed repairs on a leaking service line from the water main in the 4100 block of 94th Avenue Southeast, and completed annual maintenance on the pressure reducing station in the 8100 block of West Mercer Way.

Along with clearing a stormwater trash rack on Southeast 53rd Street where a busy beaver attempted to enhance a home dam, the stormwater team jetted and cleared a 12-inch stormwater pipe of immense root intrusion near 62nd Avenue Southeast.

On a recent day near Avalon Drive, the right of way team utilized a lift truck to remove a high-hanging broken limb in a fir tree.