An update on Adventure Park - and other business

    Leavenworth City Council closed the February 12 meeting with updating the community on some individuals favorite hot button topic, Alpine Adventure Park. After the last City Council meeting that had a crammed audience and robust public comment period, this meeting was relatively quiet. However, in between the initial roll call and heads up on the theme park, a lot of business was tended to in City Hall.
    Chelan County Commissioner, Bob Bugert, was supposed to drop in for a formal introduction to Leavenworth but unfortunately the recent snow made for treacherous roads - so Bugert stayed on the safe side, took a rain (snow) check and will make an appearance at a later date.
    "He's going to come and talk at our next evening meeting and make a presentation about what the county is thinking about doing with overnight rentals," said Mayor Cheri Farivar. So if overnight rentals within the county spike an interest, mark the calendar for February 26. "Since we're the only community that has actually regulated overnight rentals in the way that we have, he took our ideas and some thoughts back."
    After Sergeant Scott Lawrence's December 2018 update, the city dived into council member reports. Margaret Neighbors brought up Enchantment Park in her updates, which would later become a thoroughly discussed topic on the agenda.
    "Enchantment field turf improvements, the contract has come back and the interesting thing about that is that we're within the scope of the levy," said Neighbors. The city hasn't overspent.
    Council member Mia Bretz replied to this by bringing back some complaints from sports groups about the park's closure for the seasons - the closure is in order for the contractor to work on the field's drainage and grading work.
    "There's been a lot of feedback from the sports groups lately about their concerns of the shutting down, but we tried to start collaborating with them over a year ago," said Bretz.
    Herb Amick, Public Works Director, explained that due to unpredictable weather and the contractor's schedule, the city can't allow teams to schedule events at specific times. He stated they did have a meeting with the sports groups two years ago as form of heads up. However, he and the Mayor emphasized that when no one is working on the fields, the teams are able to use the fields.
    "They are welcome to use the field until the contractor starts, but they are not changing our contractor's schedule to match the sports schedule," said Mayor Farivar.   
    The bid of $151,746.66 was granted to Greenshield Systems LLC and planning on beginning work in the spring.
    Some residents' slumber may be impacted, but only for 35 days and for a good reasoning. The Washington State Dept. of Transportation requested a special use permit for night construction in order to rebuild (they are out of compliance with American Disabilities Act) pedestrian sidewalk ramps. It has to be done at night due to traffic concerns and will last an estimated 35 days (April-May), but only 8 days of demo (i.e. 8 days of sound). It'll take place at the intersections of Chumstick Highway and Front Street and US 2 and River Bend Drive - primarily commercial buildings, so little impact on locals.
    "They (WSDOT) don't have to even come to us for this, this is courteous and they're exempt from doing this," said Mayor Farivar. "
    A recent update to the closely followed Alpine Adventure Park was read out loud by council member Jason Lundgren and the council seemed keen for the message to the constituents to be passed on - so no one is left out of informative information for such a heated debate topic.
    "A mitigated determination of non-significane was issued on February 8, 2019. The comment period and appeal period for the MDNS will both end on February 22, 2019," read Lundgren.  
    If one is interested in sending in a comment, this gives the community a week and a few days window to gather thoughts and send comments to Lilith Vespier, dsmanager@cityofleavenworth.com, or in person. Comments can also be sent via snail mail and should be addressed to City of Leavenworth, PO Box 287.
    As for an appeal, that will come with a $500 fee and will be submitted to the City Hearing Examiner. A notice of an appeal with the fees should be delivered to the city, City Clerk, Chantell Steiner.
    "A comment is not the same as an appeal," continued Lundgren. "The city's SEPA official will review comments, but may disregard those comments."

Other business that occurred at the meeting:
- The Ale Fest was given a special noise permit - in past years there have been 0 reported complaints and the group uses their own decimeter to ensure noise doesn't exceed what is allowed.
- Highway 2 crosswalk's new HAWK signals and the Rapid Rectangular Flashing Beacon at the Link Transit Park and Ride and the maintenance will be the Washington State Department of Transportation's responsibility.
- The council approved a bid from W.M. Smith and Associates for the Hopkins Memorial Pool Surge Tank Resurfacing, Pool Resurfacing and Fiberglassing.
- City of Leavenworth agreed to the needed obligations to fulfill within 18 months of the KOA Utility Easement and officially took jurisdiction of the road.
- A simple formality was taken care of: The city identified the City Clerk Treasurer as the designated person to file claims against the city.
- The mayor added Anne Hessburg to the Parking Stakeholder Group as she got approval from the council to reconfirm the appointments to the group.
- Sergeant Scott Lawrence, liaison officer, informed council the month of December deputies had a much higher number than usual. 226 incidents versus 117 in September. The mayor asked how many were due to Christmas Lighting (only two), but primarily the calls were for welfare checks, citizen assists and vehicle accidents were up - the factor appeared to be weather.