The first fifteen layoffs have been issued as the initial step in cutting city expenditures to balance the 2010/2012 operating budget. Presumably residents will notice a significant reduction in some service areas.
It should come as no surprise that the public works department survives intact. Not only will the department incur no layoffs in 2011, but capital funding for street projects will grow by $16.5 million over the two-year period.
In August, the department requested and the council approved an additional $3 million to complete the $5.6 million funding for the 352nd Street extension project. At the time, street systems manager Marwan Salloum is quoted as saying that “though the South 352nd project is not considered urgent, staff wants to make sure the city doesn’t lose out on obtaining the right-of-way property while it can.”
Council members Mike Park and Jim Ferrell voted against awarding the additional funding with the latter quoted as saying: “We have some real serious concerns about a level of service decline in a number of areas and city operation, and I think it would be very prudent on our part to wait a little bit longer on a project that, up until now, has not been a high priority.”
Council member Jeanne Burbidge disagreed: “It’s a very important connection between major regional and local corridors that right now are congested, and the circulation is very much less than ideal.” But isn’t the long-awaited “Triangle Project” supposed to alleviate these problems?
Public works director Cary Roe added that “staff expects the project will also push forward economic development in the area. An extension will decrease traffic and open up property frontage for new and redeveloped enterprises.” Presumably this would increase city revenue. However, no estimate of the return on the taxpayers’ $5.6 million investment has been made public
In his budget presentation to the council on Oct. 27, Roe identified the 352nd Street extension as a key project to be completed in 2011 and that the project is “ready to go.”
This project connects Enchanted Parkway from the south entrance to the Costco parking lot to Pacific Highway with a three-lane road, including a two-way left-turn lane. Presumably in anticipation of significant increases in pedestrian and cycle traffic, the project also includes bike lanes and an 8-foot sidewalk. To complete the design, a 6-foot landscaped strip will be planted with trees and sod.
Is this really one of the highest priority uses for Federal Way residents’ tax dollars, and is there no one on the council that considers the project to be over-engineered, given its location amid big box stores and strip malls?
At least the 15 employees already laid off will have the satisfaction of knowing that, in part, their termination made this street of dreams possible.
Derek Purton, Federal Way
