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City Hall belongs to the people of Seattle. That’s why for the third year in a row they’re inviting the community to come downtown to City Hall for an Open House. Enjoy local music and food, learn about resources the City provides, meet local elected officials and connect with opportunities to make our community a better place.

City Hall Open House
Saturday, January 28th, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
601 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98104

The agenda will include tours of the Mayor’s Office and City Council Offices, a Q&A session with the mayor, workshops on the legislative process and interpreting credit reports, tabling by City departments and the City Attorney’s Office, live music, a farmer’s market, and more.

Parking near City Hall can be difficult. Come via transit.

The recent snow didn’t cause any power outages for us in NRV, but lots of other people lost power. And we’re certainly not immune. The following info comes from Public Heath-Seattle & King County.

Prevent carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning can kill you. Carbon monoxide gas comes from burning fuels such as gasoline, propane, oil, kerosene, natural gas, coal or wood.

Prevent poisoning from carbon monoxide:

• Only use a generator outdoors and far from open windows and vents
• Never use a generator or portable propane heater indoors, in garages or carports
• Never cook or heat inside on a charcoal or gas grill.

Carbon monoxide poisoning can happen suddenly and without warning. Physical symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning may include splitting headache, nausea and vomiting, and lethargy and fatigue.

If you believe you could be experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning, get fresh air immediately. Call for medical help from a neighbor’s home. The Fire Department will tell you when it is safe to re-enter the home.

For a full list of carbon monoxide prevention tips and other safety and disaster information in English and other languages, visit www.kingcounty.gov/health/disaster.

Staying warm indoors safely
If you have a power outage, use safe ways to stay warm:

• Find places where you can go to get warm, such as the home of friends and family whose homes have power. Many cities have opened centers where people can go during the day to stay warm. Center locations can be found at www.kingcounty.gov/safety/prepare
• Wear several layers of light weight, warm clothing rather than one layer of heavy clothing. Wear hats, mittens, and blankets indoors.
• Close curtains and cover windows and doors with blankets. Everyone should try to stay together in one room, with the door closed, to keep in body heat.

Stay safe

• Check on elderly friends, family, and neighbors to make sure they are safe.
• Watch your footing on surfaces that may be icy and slick, and wear shoes that provide traction.
• Be careful not to overexert yourself when shoveling snow, especially if you have heart disease or high blood pressure, as the cold weather puts extra strain on your heart.
• Do not sled on streets or on slopes near streets, ponds, or streams.
• Avoid driving if you can. If you must drive, allow safe stopping times and distances.

Help others

• Warn others about carbon monoxide poisoning. Share the information with neighbors, friends, family and community groups.
• Check on family, friends, and neighbors, especially if they are elderly or if you think their power might be out.
• If you know someone who has lost electricity, invite them to your home to stay warm.

Food safety
If power goes out where you live, keep food safe:

• Keep the doors closed on your refrigerators and freezers as much as possible. This keeps the cold air inside. A full freezer can stay at freezing temperatures about two days; a half-full freezer about 1 day.
• If you think the power will be out for several days, try to find some ice to pack inside your refrigerator. Keep raw foods separate from ready-to-eat foods.
• Refrigerated foods should be safe as long as the power is out no more than a few hours and the refrigerator/freezer doors have been kept closed. Throw away foods that spoil easily (such as meat and fish) if they warm up above 41º F.
• Frozen foods that remain frozen are OK to eat. If potentially hazardous foods are thawed (such as meat and fish), but are still cold or have ice crystals on them, use them as soon as possible. If potentially hazardous foods are thawed and are warmer than 41º F, throw them away.

Do you check out books or DVDs from the Library? Do you come to the Library for story time, to use a free computer or listen to an author? Or do you come for homework help for students, Internet access, research, community events, job search activities, or online learning? The Seattle Public Library needs to hear from you! The Library wants your input on priorities for improvement in four essential areas: hours, books and materials, computers and online services, and maintenance. Strategies for stabilizing Library funding will also be discussed. Please join us for these important community meetings.

• 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 7, Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Auditorium (206-386-4636)
• Noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, Beacon Hill Branch, 2821 Beacon Ave. S. (206-684-4711)
• 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18, Ballard Branch, 5614 22nd Ave. N.W. (206-684-4089).

For more information, visit www.spl.org and select Libraries for All: A Plan for the Present, A Foundation for the Future or call 206-386-4636.

If you cannot attend a meeting, please visit us online to share your feedback at www.spl.org. Your input is very important. For more information call 206-386-4636.

Come join your neighbors for a Thanksgiving feast, Wednesday, November 16 from 5pm to 7pm at the Neighborhood House. Bring a dish to share (and label your contribution with the name of the dish and primary ingredients). There will be raffles and games! Spend some time with your neighbors and start the holiday season off right! Need more info? Contact Naomi at nchang@seattlehousing.org.

Mayor Mike McGinn, City Departments & Community Groups will be having a Town Hall meeting at Franklin High School on Wednesday, October 5, at 5:30pm. They will answer your questions and hear what’s on your mind.

Agenda:

• 5:30-6:30 Meet and Greet: City Departments and local community organizations have information tables, answer questions and offer volunteer opportunities
• 6:30-6:40 Youth performances ( Franklin High School Cheerleaders and Franklin High School Lion Dance Group)
• 6:40-8:00 Open question and answer session with the Mayor and City staff

For more information please contact Yun Pitre (206) 386-1924 or yun.pitre@seattle.gov.

The eighth annual National Preparedness Month kicked off September 1^st. This year’s slogan is: “A Time to Remember. A Time to Prepare.” The campaign’s goal is to move beyond education and encourage people to take the necessary steps to ensure that their homes, workplaces and communities are prepared for disasters and emergencies of all kinds.

The Seattle Police Department’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is joining with Target to make that step easier for families in Seattle. Target has generously donated $10,000 to help families build emergency kits. Each participating family will receive a $100 gift card that they can use to build their own emergency kits. Seattle Police Department will be on hand to help people identify basic items for an emergency kit, as well as help them customize their kit to meet their specific needs. Participants will need to be at the West Seattle Target on September 29, 2011 at 9:00 AM. They will be given a map of the store with locations where items for emergency kits can be found highlighted and the gift card to make their purchases.

Families with children are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity. If you are interested in participating in this one of a kind event please email the Seattle Office of Emergency Management at snap@seattle.gov or call us at 233-5076.

For the seventh straight year, Seattle’s recycling rate has risen, hitting an all-time high of 53.7 percent overall and 70.3 percent for single households. The national recycling average is 32.1 percent. While each city calculates its diversion rates differently, Seattle is considered to be among the national leaders in municipal recycling, especially after the great strides we made in 2010.

Now Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is looking for your input to inform our decision-making as they update the long-term waste plan. Please take a moment to review the draft plan available at www.seattle.gov/util/About_SPU/Garbage_System/Plans/Solid_Waste_Comprehensive_Plan/index.asp. Feel free to choose the section that most interests you:

• The Executive Summary, which gives an overview of the entire plan and summarizes all recommendations in the plan.
• A Breakdown of Recycling Recommendations shows when these recommendations would be implemented in the different sectors of single-family homes, apartments and condos (multi-family), and business (commercial).
• Chapters that contains recommendations:
  • Chapter 3 Waste Prevention, which covers strategies to prevent waste from being created. It also talks about product stewardship, which gets producers and retailers more involved in managing their products at end of life.
  • Chapter 4 Seattle’s MSW System, which goes into more depth about the recycling recommendations. It also talks about the steps in waste management, from collection, through transfer, to processing and landfill disposal.
  • Chapter 5 Other Solid Waste Streams, which contains recommendations to increase construction and demolition debris, as well as for graffiti, illegal dumping, litter, and community cleanup.
  • Chapter 6 Administration and Financing the Plan discusses solid waste education, as well as the financial impacts of the recycling recommendations.

After reading the section(s), please send a quick note to spusurveys@connectionsgroup.org specifying which section(s) you read and including any comments you have on the recommendations, the overall direction of the plan, the recycling goals, or anything else.

Here are a few questions to jumpstart your thinking.

1. Do you support the draft plan’s recycling goals to reach 60% by 2015, and the longer-term goal of 70% by 2022? Do you think Seattle should be more aggressive about recycling, or increase recycling more slowly?

2. SPU’s waste prevention programs include product stewardship activities, which seek increased producer responsibility for wastes. Do you agree producers and retailers should do more to reduce toxics in their products, and make their products more recyclable? Do you think they should pay for managing products at their end of life?

3. The recycling recommendations would be phased in over a number of years. Do you agree with the order and timing of the changes? Do you think customers will have time to get used to a change before the next one comes? Should the timing be more aggressive?

4. Do you support SPU inspectors increasing how often they look in garbage containers for materials that aren’t allowed?

5. Do you think the changes will go smoothly? Are there perhaps some problems SPU planners should take into account before starting a new program?

Lastly, SPU asks that you fill out a five-minute survey when you have a moment. The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/spusolidwasteplan.

Thanks very much for your time. SPU appreciates your feedback!

Parking. Whether it’s on the street or in a garage, it’s something that many people do on a regular basis. While people certainly don’t drive for the sole purpose of parking, the act of finding a spot is inevitable. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) wants to hear about your experiences.

SDOT manages the on-street parking network – all those pay stations, meters, and related signs. Right now, they’re working on a project that outlines different strategies to make paid street parking in downtown and neighborhood business districts more available. The technical term is performance-based parking pricing. Other cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C. are testing out new strategies too.

SDOT would like to get a better sense for business owner needs, understand the customer parking experience, and look for ways to make it better. Take a survey! You can find the survey here (http://surveymonkey.com/s/seattleon-streetsurvey) – it should take about 10-15 minutes to complete.

Starting July 5, 2011, cars with 4 or more delinquent parking tickets will get you the “boot”, a wheel-locking device. It will apply to cars parked legally or illegally. The City will not boot cars that are parked on private property or privately-owned lots. More information is here.

Mayor Mike McGinn & Interim Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield invite you to join them for an open community meeting and Q&A session, featuring entertainment by the hit band School of Rock and information about city-wide youth programs and opportunities, the proposed Families & Education Levy, and more.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011
South Shore Elementary School Rotunda
4800 S. Henderson, Seattle, WA 98118
5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Parking is available at the school and supervised activities for young children, along with water and light snacks, will be provided.

Interpretation and translation will be provided in the following languages: American Sign Language, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Spanish, Somali, Tagalog, Amharic, Tigrinya, and Oromo.

Please RSVP to: publicaffairs@seattlepublicschools.org

This meeting is part of an ongoing series of community outreach meetings as part of the Mayor’s Engage Seattle and Youth & Families initiatives. To be included in the contact lists for future Mayor’s Office events or to receive regular news from Mayor McGinn, visit www.seattle.gov/mayor/signup.