Both the city of Mercer Island and the Mercer Island School District have a lot on their agendas these days, and the two entities took the time to connect and share their various projects at a joint meeting on Feb. 6.
Councilmembers, the police chief and city staff along with school board directors, the superintendent and district staff held an hour-long round table discussion in the district administrative board room. About 20 city and school representatives were present at the gathering, which was streamed online for the public.
Some of the highlights were:
Public Works Chief of Operations Jason Kintner rolled through some of the critical city projects, which include Island Crest Way crosswalk enhancement and corridor improvements in the safe routes to school construction realm; Mercerwood Drive pedestrian improvements; Gallagher Hill Road sidewalk improvements and more. Mayor Salim Nice also mentioned the city’s public safety and maintenance facility design project and more.
Schools-wise, Nice said: “We’ve spent years looking at that (Island Crest Way) corridor and how can we discreetly address things from the safety perspective and then moving along to kind of an efficiency perspective.”
Also on the schools side, Brandy Fox of the district’s capital projects team dove into the immense progressive design build project at Mary Wayte Pool. Led by GLY Construction of Bellevue, the project — which is in the early design phases — is partly funded by a $2 million King County grant and $2 million from the cap/tech levy.
Fox gave a rundown on the present timeline of the project: “We’re working with city staff at this point about draining the pool on the 18th of February, and doing a pretty major inspection of the pool bowl to determine how much repair will need to be done. Then also working with city staff around some life safety issues for the building, with construction planned for this summer.”
Also on tap for the district this summer is some interior and exterior repainting at the elementary schools.
Regarding the school board recently voting unanimously to place a $165 million bond measure on the ballot for April 2025 to address key district-wide infrastructure projects, director Deborah Lurie noted: “I think the board as a whole is really proud of this plan,” and they’re grateful for the work that Fox and staff have done in putting the bond forth.
Lurie added that Mercer Island is uniquely positioned where the city and school boundaries are one in the same and the Island’s leaders have an opportunity to work together to benefit the whole community.
In the bike-pedestrian safety realm, school board president Maggie Tai Tucker steered the conversation into the e-bike/scooter issue that the city has faced over a plethora of months.
Mercer Island Police Department Chief Chris Sutter said that its school resource officer has been working with an Islander Middle School associate principal to present an assembly with students and parents. They’re working on supplying pertinent information to high school students as well.
“They have a pretty robust plan to share out information that would be age-appropriate and informative to the audience and to keep their attention,” he said regarding state laws, the differences between e-bikes and e-cycles and more.
A previous Reporter story on the subject noted that police department representatives said that it’s all about education on this team community safety mission.
“I think the educational campaign that we have started on has started to show some results,” Sutter said.
Superintendent Fred Rundle and board director Cristina Martinez stated their appreciation for the communication that occurred between the city and school district during the “bomb cyclone” severe wind storm in November.
On the city expanding the community and event center hours for device charging, warming and gathering to obtain information, Martinez said, “I thought that was a great example of how we can partner and do different things.”
Mayor Nice echoed that sentiment and thanked the school district for reacting quickly and opening Islander Middle School as a warming center during the storm.
To close the meeting, Lurie praised the Youth and Family Services mental health counselors for their stellar work with students and families on the Island.
Student board representatives Ava Zhang and Lucy Dorer lauded the counselors for their massive help to those in need and were pleased with the city’s focus on safety.
To view the meeting, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4F4VusIuZA
