Sound Transit Open House

Members of Sound Transit's staff including CEO Joni Earl met Pierce County residents in our neck of the woods Thursday evening, holding an open house at The Tacoma Dome Station. ST staff answered questions, navigated attendees through an impressive array of presentation materials, and encouraged attendees to share their feedback through conversation and written comment. Town Hall Tourist and Tacoma Tomorrow blogger Chris Karnes will post a more detailed account of the open house later today.

Campaign Ads Already?

It seems unbelievably early for it to be campaign season in Tacoma, yet every time I logged onto Facebook this week I was met by paid advertisements from recently appointed City Councilmember Robert Thoms' campaign.

A quick trip over to the Public Discloser Committee's website revealed that Thoms, a lobbyist by trade, certainly has got the campaign cash to spend as he has already raised over 25 thousand dollars. His opponent, small-business owner and Go Local Board President Patricia Lecy-Davis has raised about 6 thousand.

We'll go into the PDC details in the weeks and months to come, but there are already some interesting things to note. One that caught my attention is that the 27^th District's two State Representatives have already donated to different candidates, Rep. Fey has given $500 to Lecy-Davis and Rep. Jinkins has $100 down on Thoms. 

Sprinker Recognized for Energy Savings

Parkland's Sprinker Recreation Center received Pierce County's "Biggest Energy Loser" award (an honor perhaps in need of a new title) for 2012 after cutting its energy use nearly in half. The facility's 2011 remodel included an upgrade of mechanical systems, improvements to the building envelope and changing of the lighting. All of these renovations led to a 49.8 percent reduction in annual energy use.

Testy Health Department Board Meeting

The Trib reported that this week's meeting of the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department was quite a testy affair as Director Anthony L-T Chen quarreled with Board Members over when and how to carry out a $1.6 million cut in Federal Funds.   

Good news from the City of Tacoma

Finally, some links from the City of Tacoma's website that I thought were worth sharing.

Lucas Smiraldo was selected by the Tacoma Art Commission to be Tacoma's 2013-2015 poet laureate

A Monday Mixer networking event on April 29 will spotlight opportunities to invest and develop in downtown Tacoma

The City Tacoma was recognized for its work to preserve the Murray Morgan Bridge