Aug. 15 Mercer Island City Council meeting is canceled | City briefs

City news in Mercer Island.

City news in Mercer Island.

Next City Council meeting is canceled

The Mercer Island City Council voted to cancel its Aug. 15 meeting, meaning that its next meeting will be Tuesday, Sept. 6. The meeting was moved from Monday. Sept. 5 to Tuesday due to the Labor Day holiday.

In addition, the regular meeting of Monday, Oct. 3 has been rescheduled to Tuesday, Oct. 4 due the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

At its last meeting, the council discussed code amendments regarding Comprehensive Plan amendment procedures and the scope of work for revising the single‐family residential development standards.

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Some specific solutions to concerns about development have been proposed, such as reducing gross floor area, reducing impervious surface, or retaining more trees.

“While it’s tempting to jump directly to solutions, a deliberative approach and solid problem definition are needed to ensure that adopted solutions will be effective and deliver the outcome desired by the community,” according to the council’s Aug. 1 agenda bill.

MIPD, with regional help, makes 25 arrests during Seafair

Mercer Island Police Department (MIPD) Services Commander Leslie Burns said that Seafair 2016 was a success, with no serious injuries reported and 25 people arrested for Boating under the Influence (BUI).

Washington State Patrol, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Seattle Police Department, King County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Coast Guard all helped the Mercer Island Marine Patrol over the weekend.

There were 16 BUI arrests over Seafair Weekend in 2015 and 30 in 2014. Police also tallied one felony warrant arrest out of Nevada for a fraud charge, and “one fight responded to and a jump in the lake at the end of the night,” Burns said.

Each Seafair weekend, officers patrol Lake Washington, looking for signs of BUI and other unsafe activities. The BUI patrols are a combined effort of local and state law enforcement. If officers believe a boater is drunk, they do field sobriety tests.

When the BUI enforcement began about 10 years ago, 175 people were arrested on Seafair weekend.

If the boater is arrested, and no one else on board is sober or can safely operate the boat, the boat is towed to a dock on Mercer Island and impounded.