Rumors & Questions

Thank you for the compliment! We appreciate this forum too in order to help clarify rumors people may hear, like the one you brought up. Cornerstone Montessori recently applied for permits to expand their capacity. When expanding occupancy, owners tend to think about the size of the building itself but often miss other needs, like the size of the sewer service capacity and safe exit routes for occupants. We’ve been working through those issues with the owners. The original occupant load was 112 and will be increased to 242 occupants. Total occupant load is calculated based on building size, use ad egress compliance based on existing corridor sizing. It has nothing to do with ages. The owners are in the process now, so they can’t expand service until the work is done, and we get their certificate of occupancy at the larger size. In the meantime, they can still operate with their current 112 occupant load. We value good childcare too, and a lot of our staff rely on it as well. Our job also requires us to make sure that any building offering childcare (or any other service) has all the necessary structures and systems in place to do that safely for the children, staff, and neighbors.

We posted about a year ago on this page (still available if you scroll down) about the condition of the fountain and its plaques. It's great that yours survived. Others did not survive and shattered. There's no design yet for how all the names will go back into the park. Just to clarify, the names returning will include all the donor names that were in the park, including on the brick pavers, not just the fountain names.  

Those are the Flock cameras we've been talking about. There are 12 throughout the city. They actually have their own project page; here's the link to learn more: https://connects.sumnerwa.gov/flock-safety.

Maybe! I'll share your thoughts with the Traffic Safety Committee, which is a team of all the different departments (Police, Public Works, Legal, etc.) who meet routinely to review traffic issues and improvements. A few years ago, we floated the idea of school zone cameras to the Council. They did not want us to pursue that, so we never really got to red-light cameras. We just pursued and installed Flock cameras, which help us find criminals and vehicles with alerts. That brings no revenue, but they sure are helpful.

Different circumstances need different things, and this is a situation where one size does not fit all. If you were planting these trees in a forest or in a park, then, yes, it likely would be better to plant directly into the ground. Main Street is a different situation where the tree is in a crowded space that must accommodate pedestrians, ADA access and commerce happening around it. One of the key reasons we’re choosing to use a planter is that when these trees get too big for the space, we have the option to easily move them elsewhere rather than dig up our sidewalks again. The planters also greatly reduce tripping hazards for people’s safety, which is our priority.

Sure! It's been on the Ryan House project page for a few years now. Visit https://connects.sumnerwa.gov/ryan-house and look at the Document Library on the right-hand side of the page. There's a lot of documents there, and I promise you, the deed is included.

Sure! Any comments submitted to the clerk by email or as a hard copy at the meeting are attached to the minutes of that meeting. So, for example, in the screenshot below, this email received for the December 2 meeting appears after the minutes for that meeting. To find those, go to https://sumnerwa.gov/council/agendas-minutes-videos/ and select the meeting date. To access past meetings, scroll up. This is a style feature from our vendor that we can't change. It's great...once you realize it. Then, after selecting the correct meeting, click on Minutes (highlighted in this screenshot). The minutes are posted for a meeting after they're approved by the Council at the next regular council meeting. So, these minutes for December 2nd went online after they were approved at the December 9th special meeting. Typically, they will appear after two weeks as the Council's regular meetings are usually the first and third Mondays of the month. This is a bit beyond your specific question, but it's worth clarifying that this is how the public sees the record of these comments. Councilmembers receive them before the meeting (if by email) or at the meeting (if submitted in print at the meeting).

Multiple aspects affect the safety of our roads. One part is indeed engineering. We received a Federal grant to study several intersections along Main Street, including at Parker Road, for potential changes. We'll be conducting that study this year. We also have a Traffic Safety Team that meets routinely with staff from Public Works, Police and other departments to review and assess ways to improve road safety throughout our city.

Unfortunately, engineering only gets us so far. We also get complaints of drivers blowing through two-way, four-way and even signaled intersections. The collision at Parker & Main early this morning involved a driver under the influence. That's why another safety component is enforcement. No amount of signs or lights can overcome drivers' poor decisions involving speed, distractions, DUI, or even aggression. Our police department uses education and enforcement to try to reduce those behaviors as much as possible, but unfortunately, it's not within our power to eliminate them.

Good question! Here's the answer from the Deputy Chief: 
Parking enforcement in residential areas is typically only done in response to calls for service. And, complaints that are a safety risk (like moving violations) are prioritized over parking complaints. At night, we typically only have two officers working, so they don’t proactively enforce parking violations.
Thank you to everyone who takes the extra moment to park facing the right direction.

The City did receive a proposal from a BESS. The GreenWater facility proposal came from a company called Bright Night, who is planning to develop this facility on private property in Sumner’s Manufacturing Industrial Center. The owner and developer went through the Pre-Application Process, which the City encourages any large project to do in order to review any impacts, zoning issues or other challenges before a project applies for permits. This project did that pre-application. Over the past few months, the City has put the project through a State Environment Protection Act (SEPA) Process for the full development and a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) process, per our code, for the transmission lines only. These processes involved a lot of both required and proactive engagement to review concerns from the City, from East Pierce Fire & Rescue, from the health department, from neighbors and from the public. Topics reviewed included everything from ensuring drive lanes accommodated the turning radius of a fire engine to assessing this project’s proximity adjacent to one of the City’s wells. You can still review all the topics addressed and assessed.

To ensure concerns were addressed from the public the process included public notices, signs on the site, posts in the City’s e-newsletter and on social media, and postcards mailed to neighboring properties, inviting them to a public information session held on the site. Bright Night also attended the City’s Spring Open House at City Hall to share information and answer questions. Although the formal comment periods have ended, we recognize this is new technology may continue to generate questions. If you have concerns, please do not rely on rumors heard from your neighbor or viewed on social media; instead, please contact Bright Night directly to talk through your concerns and get your questions answered.

Moving forward, the City is updating its code to more clearly specify requirements and process around battery energy storage systems in our commercial and manufacturing areas. They will not be an allowed use in any residential zones.