Puyallup officials have aspirations to make their city more walkable – particularly in South Hill, where the South Hill Mall and adjacent strip malls line traffic-plagued Meridian Avenue.

Thursday city officials invited citizens, health department officials and a national expert on pedestrian-friendly communities to point out what they’ve been doing wrong.

The “walkability” assessment, sponsored by the city and the Tacoma Pierce-County Health Department, took a group of citizens, elected officials and city staff on a tour of downtown Puyallup and South Hill.

Their mission: figure out what street and building improvements could encourage people to get out of their cars and walk from place to place.

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Lakewood City Manager Andrew Neiditz e-mailed me today, saying that he caught my previous post about fines for not paying the $10 launch fee at American Lake Park.

He sent me an update on total fines during the holiday weekend. Turns out, the city issued tickets to 25 boaters. And yes, the fine is $500.

After visiting the site, he did admit that the signs that are supposed to alert boaters of the fee were "not appropriate," and that the city will make them more visible.

More importantly, Neiditz asked the Lakewood Municipal Court and City Attorney Heidi Wachter to dismiss the $500 fines if the boaters pay the original $10 launch fee.

Overall, he wrote, 150 boaters did pay the launch fee.

Here's his e-mail:

Over the holiday weekend, 150 boaters did pay the launch fee, however 25 others were cited for failure to pay (and, yes, the fine is listed as $500). I visited the site Monday and yesterday, and concluded the signage was not appropriate in relation to the fee and how/where to pay it. Accordingly, I asked the Court and City Attorney to dismiss the citations wth the condition that the boater pays the $10 launch fee to the City. We will be installing new directional signage shortly.