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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Cultural Communities Board - 04/23/2019CULTURAL COMMUNITIES BOARD MEETING MINUTES Tuesday April 23, 2019 / 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. / Centennial Center - 400 W Gowe st. Kent WA 98032 City Staff: Uriel Varela Presenters: Robyn Austin (King County Metro), Kris Faucett (King County Flood Control District) Board members present: Yusuf Bashir, Davies Chirwa, Marvin Eckfeldt, Sara Franklin-Phillips, Norma Maldonado, Miszanur Rahman, Vaivao Semisi-Tupou, Ted Schwarz, Tanya Medina, Lelei Masina. Meeting called to order at 6:30 p.m. Announcements:  The Pacific Islander community is hosting their 5th annual dance competition at the University of Puget Sound. The dance competition was started by two former high school students who saw a need to encourage Pacific Islander students to continue to improve their GPAs after the football season was over. One of the founders of this competition was tragically lost to gun violence this year. If interested, please reach out to Lelei Masina.  The Tukwila library is hosting a multicultural reading event this Sunday April 28 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. A children’s book will be read in multiple languages which include Samoan, Spanish and Somali among others. The event is free.  The Kent Police Department is hosting a community meeting to solicit community input on officer de-escalation training programs. The meeting will be held at the Kent Senior Center (600 e. Smith St. Kent, WA 98032) on Thursday May 2, 2019 starting at 6:30 p.m.  The Greater Kent Historical Society will be awarding a $2,000 dollar scholarship. The application deadline has been extended to May 8, 2019. Graduating seniors from any of the Kent High Schools may apply.  The State of Washington will be awarding grants to community based organizations who will be conducting community outreach for the 2020 census. Please reach out to Davies Chirwa for more details.  The Khalsa Day Celebration has been scheduled for May 4, 2019 at the accesso Showare Center The parade is a celebration of the Sikh faith. Everyone is welcome. King County Metro’s Rapid Ride Metro gave their presentation on the new Rapid Ride service that is coming to the City of Kent. Metro is looking for community input about barriers preventing people from using public transit. They also want to know where people are going when they use Metro services. They are using the data provided to design new bus routes and make public transit more accessible for everyone.  The new Rapid Ride line will be the fastest and most reliable metro service available.  Metro is currently in the planning and preliminary design phase. The service will be coming to Kent in 2023.  The Rapid Ride line is part of a much larger Renton, Kent, Auburn mobility plan that will be improving mobility for some of the most underserved populations in South King County.  They provided 3 questions that they would like to receive feedback from the community. o Where do community members go, or where would you like to go, using transit in the Renton-Kent-Auburn area? o What are the current barriers to accessing transit in the Renton-Kent-Auburn Area? o What transit area improvements would encourage people to use transit more frequently? King County Flood Control District Presentation This presentation had to do with protecting the lower green river corridor from potential flooding. The lower green valley (Renton, Kent and Auburn), is home to 22 thousand diverse residents and supports over 100 thousand jobs. In the interest of protecting people, property and the environment, the King County Flood Control District is developing a flood hazard management plan. The plan will be addressing 21 river miles that flow through Auburn, Kent, Renton, Tukwila and some areas in Unincorporated King County. Davies Chirwa brought up the potential disaster that could endanger local Kent Residents in the event of a large flooding incident. He explained that evacuating all of the residents who live by the green river could be catastrophic because of the lack of evacuation routes. The Flood Control District is looking for community input about any concerns that have not been brought to their attention. Here are all of the elements being taken into consideration for their new plan;  Agriculture, Aquatic Resources, Climate Change, Cultural and Historic Resources, Cumulative Impacts, Equity and Social Justice, Geology and Geomorphology, Land and Shoreline use, Public Health and Safety, Recreation and Public Access, Socioeconomics, Terrestrial and Riparian Resources, Transportation, Tribal Treaty Resources, Utilities and Public Services, Water Resources, Wetlands. Meeting adjourned at 7:58 p.m.