White Center Now: The blog about White Center

We’ve talked about the county’s serious budget woes, including the public-safety budget challenges that will bring the sheriff, prosecuting attorney, and others to White Center for a town hall meeting later this month. If you want to speak out to other county leaders, six public meetings are set; the closest ones are in Kent and Seattle – read on for full details: Read the rest of this entry »

Just in from King County Sheriff Sue Rahr (left) – plans for a series of town-hall-style meetings to talk about how the county budget crisis will affect public safety. She and other county leaders including Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, King County Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer, and King County District Court Chief Presiding Judge Barbara Linde will be in White Center for one of these meetings at 7 pm October 29, Steve Cox Memorial Park. The announcement says, “Because of an estimated $90 million county budget shortfall, the King County Executive has directed the criminal justice system to take an “across-the-board” budget cut of 11.4% for 2009. These cuts threaten the quality of justice in King County and put the public’s health and safety at risk. Your criminal justice elected officials are hosting a series of town meetings to discuss the issue. It’s critical that your voice is heard.” (Before White Center Now launched in August, we covered an early-warning briefing by Sheriff Rahr in SeaTac on June 21st; see that report, which includes video, here.)

Word just in from the office of County Councilmember Dow Constantine: A discussion is set to look at the “concept of setting up an Alcohol Impact Area in the White Center business district.” This will happen during the next regular monthly meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, 7 pm October 2 at the North Highline Fire District HQ. According to the announcement, “A representative from the Washington State Liquor Control Board will give a short presentation and will be available to answer questions,” and it further explains, “The Alcohol Impact Area (AIA) program was established by the Washington State Liquor Control Board several years ago. Liquor licensees within the borders of an AIA are subject to special restrictions as to what products they can sell. AIAs were established to deal with the problem of chronic public drunkenness and have been put in place in Seattle and Tacoma. Setting up an AIA requires an extensive neighborhood effort to document a neighborhood’s alcohol-related problems (police calls, aid calls, litter, etc.) along with a government effort to convince liquor license holders to sign “Good Neighbor” agreements. Because the White Center business district is bisected by the Seattle-King County border, we should also consider the concept of setting up adjacent AIAs in unincorporated King County and the South Delridge area (city of Seattle).” The invitation has gone out to “law enforcement personnel, community activists, and crime prevention experts on both sides of the city-county line to attend this discussion.”

King County’s out with a new report today about growth, and is using the occasion to reiterate that it needs unincorporated areas such as White Center need to be annexed to cities. Here’s the official news release: Read the rest of this entry »