Tacoma public utilities director William Gaines told the city council Tuesday that he wants to sell three small chunks of property the utility no longer needs.

The three are:

– one-third acre at North 18th and Orchard,
– 0.2 acres at S. 35th and S. J Street,
– 0.15 acres at S. 45th and S. Warner.

The first lot is about two building lots. The others are single building lots. They are among nine that the utility had wanted to sell but stopped to gauge whether there was interest in the community to use them for public purposes.

TPU chief Gaines told the council there was no community interest in these three parcels.

City Councilwoman Lauren Walker said she had heard concerns from the Warner Street neighbors about the lack of green space in the area due to apartment and townhouse construction. Perhaps, she wondered, it could be used for a small park.

Gaines said the utility was open to discussion.

This could be one of the coolest events of the summer for history buffs and mystery fans. It is a tour of the Old Tacoma Cemetary near South Park.

I've spent a little time in this cemetary and its neighbors and wish I knew more about it. It's kind of hidden in plain site and holds many stories and mysteries.

I'll let the sponsors explain the event and how to join in.

Historic Tacoma Cemetery Tour
On Friday evening July 17th, Fort Nisqually will be partnering with the Tacoma Historical Society and the Old Tacoma Cemetery to present a living history event.

For those of you who remember the Port Townsend/Jefferson County Historical Society Cemetery tour of several years ago, this will be a very similar format – where re-enactors stand at the headstone of people from Tacoma’s past and tell their life story in first person.

If you would like to know more about people like Job Carr (Jim Weatherford), Rebecca Carr Staley (Jill Weatherford), Thea Foss (Karen Haas), Angelo Fawcett (Patrick Haas), Clinton Ferry (John Salicco), Edward Huggins (Jerry Eckrom), Letitia Huggins (Judy Bridges), John Sprague (Ken Morgan) or Allen C Mason (Steve Ricketts) be sure to mark the date on your calendar.

Like Fort Nisqually’s Candlelight Tour, tickets will be purchased for specific start times and can be purchased from the Tacoma Historical Society by calling 253-472-3738 or emailing info@tacomahistory.org or visit their website at www.tacomahistory.org . The tickets are $8 each.

OR, if you would like to volunteer to help we are also looking for docents to lead the groups through the tour. The primary job of the docent is to lead the group from person to person and introduce the character the group is about to meet. If you would like to volunteer please contact Melissa McGinnis at melissam@tacomaparks.com.

The Old Tacoma Cemetery is located at 4801 South Tacoma Way and is adjacent to South Park Community Center where Fort Nisqually holds the annual Robert Burns Volunteer Recognition Dinner.

Opponents of the way Sound Transit plans to run Sounder rail tracks from the Tacoma Dome to South Tacoma have started a blog called Do It Right Tacoma.

Here's how they state their position: "Sound Transit is planning to build a rail line through Tacoma and their current plans are NOT GOOD for the future growth of Tacoma. We're very concerned that the plans affect future economic development, damage critical environmental areas, and will greatly affect quality of life and recreation needs of the area."

Here is a link to the blog.

South Tacoma's Edison Neighborhood will hold its fourth annual cleanup from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 25.

This is cause for tons of rejoicing among activists who have coordinated the event with the City of Tacoma. The city will provide the containers and haul them away for free.

Here's how it works: Residents of single-family homes or duplexes between South 56th and 66th streets between Oakes and Washington streets can bring their pesky junk to Edison Elementary School, 5830 S, Pine St., and have it hauled away for free. They must also bring a proof of residence. A driver's license or utility bill will do the trick.

Volunteers will help recycle, and Tacoma Goodwill will be there to rescue items that still have life in them. Goodwill also can recycle televisions and computers.

Some stuff can't be accepted: Cars, motorcycles, boats, campers, canopies, trailers, RVs, whole or in pieces. Business materials. Household garbage. Liquids, paints, hazardous waste, dead animals riding mowers and oil-based products.

Volunteers are welcome to go on trash patrol and help haul for folks who are physically unable to do so. Andy Mordhorst is coordinating the assistance. Call him at 253-475-8416.

We have steam to blow off, righteous anger.

But the whole mob with pitchforks image is getting trite.

Better to grab shovels, hammers and clippers and show up at one of two Saturday work parties that offer the chance to whack away at bad stuff.

The First Creek restoration team will kick off Earth Month with a chance to kill all the ivy you want. We are talking cutting, pulling, even rolling up the invasive vine that's attacking and smothering native trees in the watershed.

For the more automotive minded, there will be plenty of opportunities to amass a fine collection of used tires, and possibly shopping carts.

The big fun starts at 9 a.m. and lasts until noon. Muster at 1801 E. 34th St. There's parking in the church lot at East 34th and R streets. Bring sturdy gloves. Organizers will provide tools and directions.

The Puyallup Tribe will celebrate all the good work with a barbecue lunch for volunteers from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Portland Avenue Community Center.

To sign up, call Dan Fear at (425)260-4991, or e-mail firstcreekwatershed@gmail.com.

In South Tacoma, the Manitou Crew got MetroParks' permission to build a garden at the community center, and they've been operating on hyperdrive ever since. Frank Blair and Andy Mordhorst have been trolling for materials, from lumber to fencing.

They'll be meeting at 9 a.m. Saturday morning at the community center, 4802 S. 66th St., to haul sand, removed timbers and dig up old playground rubber. They'll also discuss the layout for the garden.

Interested? Bring shovels, gloves and the realization that living well is the best revenge.

Tacoma Public Utilities will be disposing of nine lots it no longer needs for substations.

According to state law and the city charter, they have to be sold if they're no longer playing the electricity game. The question is, should they be sold to private parties, or to a government agency that will preserve them as public lands.

Morgan Alexander has been harnessing the power of the gardening community to preserve some of the suitable lots as pocket parks or community gardens.

Who knows? Some of them might work as solar demonstration projects, combining solar panels with rows of beets and peas. If the panels feed into the grid, that might make it possible to preserve them as TPU property, and uncomplicate the process?

Alexander is making progress. Already, he is on the agenda for the Metro Parks Board meeting Monday, March 9 at 6pm, Metro headquarters: 4702 S 19th St.

Here's the list of surplus properties:

Adams, 1920 Adams St. N.

Centennial, 543 N. Stadium Way.

Downing, 1801 N. Orchard St.

Fairmont, 4924 N. 31st St.

Junett, 3008 N. 16th St.

Ruston, 5001 N. Visscher St.

Parkland, 101 127th St. E.

Warner, 3404 S. 45th St.

Lincoln Park, 1009 South 35th Street.

You might have caught the story about the Park Avenue Neighborhood group
lying in wait for speeders last week. They were clocking violators, snapping
photos of their cars and license plates, and making a list to send to the
city. By now, some of the people who blew through the 25-mile-per hour speed
limit probably have letters from Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell suggesting
that they not do that again.

If you read that story, bet you were thinking, "Dang. How do we get one of
those radar guns?"

You work with the Tacoma Neighborhood Speed Watch, that's how. The city has
four speed guns available for neighborhood groups.

The first step is to collect signatures on a petition. The second is a
formal application to use the speed gun in a specific area. To get the
petition and the application, write to Jennifer Kammerzell, Neighborhood
Programs, 747 Market St. Room 520, Tacoma, WA 98402-3769. You can also call
her at (253)591-5511.

"When the neighbors are ready, I'll attend their meeting," Kammerzell said.
"I'll bring the gun and show them how to use it."

Before you can get your hands on the speed gun you must be 21, and agree to
be careful with the delicate piece of equipment. You have to promise to work
with a partner and not to "chase, stop or apprehend drivers," or pretend
that you are a police officer, Also, no throwing stuff, yelling insults or
making rude gestures.

Before you start, you must alert the police department when you and your
partner are going out, and where you're going. And you have to keep a log of
the leadfoots, their vehicles, speed, plate numbers, time and location.

It's tougher than it sounds, definitely a two-person job. But the more you
practice, the more people get letters.

Eastsiders have come to love the sound of tow trucks in the morning.

They have been working with Tacoma Police Department Officer Don Williams to rid the neighborhood of illegal and decaying cars in all the wrong places.

They’ve alerted Williams to blocks clogged with cars on the planting strips, cars with grass growing in their wheel wells, cars with expired tabs, cars on lawns, cars on sidewalks, cars parked facing the wrong way. Williams checks off the pertinent violation on a form. He leaves the form on the windshield with a notice that, if the owner doesn’t move the car by a certain date, the city will do it, and send a bill.

The first time Williams went out, people thought it was a bluff.
Then big trucks towed 30-plus cars away.

The next few times around, owners dealt with the problem themselves, and the tow trucks hauled off half a dozen vehicles.
Now Tow Day is going city-wide.

Jeanie Peterson of Hilltop Action Coalition is inviting volunteers in Sector One, which includes Hilltop and the downtown, to get the training to hit the sidewalks for the program. The police will offer free training sessions the weekend of Dec. 6 and 7.

“The first training class for the 6th will begin at noon at the Sector One Substation, South 16th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and other trainings will happen throughout the day,” she said.
Tow Day will come to Sector One in time for the holidays, then cycle through Sectors Two and Three, then back to Four.

Will Hirsh attended the public meetings. He talked to city and parks officials. He was certain he had secured a promise not to cut some century-old trees in Tacoma’s South Park.

But he awoke Wednesday to a scene he describes as shocking and deeply upsetting: the sight of Metro Parks Tacoma work crews cutting down three trees as part of the construction of the Water Ditch Trail.

“I saw them swarm in this morning, very early, with a huge crew and cut down the same trees that they promised me would be saved,” he said. “It’s irreversible damage. It’ll take 120 years to repair. It’s unbelievable.”

But Metro Parks’ arborist had signed off on the tree-cutting as part of a necessary renovation to accommodate the South Tacoma-to-downtown urban trail. And a city engineer with whom Hirsh had been speaking said their promise was more of a conversation that might have had both sides agreeing to different things.

“There was no written agreement,” said Michael Ahearn of the city’s Building and Land Use Division. “He called me and we talked. It was a little confusing on the phone talking about what trees we’re going to be removed. I tried to explain which ones would be removed. I think there was a gap in communication.”

=> Read more!

Safe Streets is offering another round of the Neighborhood Patrol Academy. I highlighted the program in a May article.

The program, which is free and open to all Pierce County residents, lasts three sessions and is held at the Tacoma Police Department headquarters.

The training is Aug. 14, 21 and 28 from 7-9 p.m.

If you're interested, call David Cantlin at 253-272-6824 or e-mail him at choo_choo_dave@yahoo.com

Increasing gang violence and meth use has prompted Sen. Patty Murray to return from the other Washington and visit Tacoma.

She’ll be meeting with the “area’s top law enforcement official and concerned citizens about the problems the city and county face with increased gang violence and meth use,” her office e-mailed.

If you’re interested, she’ll be at the Tacoma Police Department headquarters at 3701 S. Pine St. on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

Click below to read the press release:

=> Read more!

A reader sent this photo along. The church is near the corner of South 56th and South Cheyenne Streets.

Umm, I’m not exactly sure what to say about it.