Updated, 3/22: It's refreshing to see Mayor John Marchione getting out into the community and showing interest in the neighborhoods that elected him our city CEO and Representative. John participated with Fire and Police in student Olivia's High School Dodge Ball Fundraiser at the beginning of his term, but then became bogged down with managing the bureaucracy and budget. For a while , I was fearful John would morph into a total bureaucrat. It doesn't look like it now, but we'll know for sure by baseball season.
Currently, tournament basketball and city-church land use activities are pulling John back into the neighborhoods. Yeh! At the last Council meeting John announced high numbers of students busing to Tacoma to root for our H.S. Boys State Basketball players in the State tournament. It must have helped. Redmond took 5th in the State!
(The
http://www.redmondboysbasketball.com/ high school site has stories, pics and video clips).
Did you hear, Lenny Wilkens, the winning Sonic coach during the 1979 NBA championship, was the featured guest at the Washington Cathedral's (WC) event last Saturday? John Marchione's council work on WC land-
use Reviews engaged him with the church . Mr. Mayor was part of the Saturday ribbon-cutting ceremony for WC's massive new recreation/sanctuary facility. (Pastor Tim White is on the left). I missed it, but who knows, John could have been asked to start the tip-off in the Redmond-Woodinville basketball game played in the WC gym (played by football players). If John can throw in the ball to start high school dodge ball games why not throw the tip-off for this church basketball game?
Mr. Mayor, council and staff get involved with churches often during land use proposals. In the case of
Washington Cathedral (WC) a large and complicated annexation and re-zone was required at the city's sensitive northwestern Gateway. Critical wetland, streams, slopes and severe traffic were mitigated; this project abutted rare valley agricultural land. The city drew the line on WC's 10 acres along 124th. WC wanted to develop this hillside land to build a large grocery store for income. Meta, Mega or Mighty - a church this size needs income. I attended WC many years ago when it was a Nano/Micro-church at Lake Washington H.S.
St. Jude Catholic Church on 166th Av. & 104th St. stands out in it's association with Mayor Marchione. John is a parishioner. Past Mayor Rosemarie Ives attends. Every year, the Parish hosts a "Mayor's Breakfast". Several high-level staff are members. To many neighborhoods, St. Jude is the home of Tent City 4 (TC4). Though TC4 was a success, two years ago the city and citizens underwent a painfully long and troublesome Review and Appeal process. "Temporary Use" was put to the acid test and failed so miserably that this year the Planning Commission re-wrote the code. When TC-4 opens up this spring at St. Jude any appeals will be adequately managed. My wife and I attended this church once, thinking it was Episcopalian! A Public Notice Sign was just posted for a TC4 opening this Spring.
During the
Ed. Hill Neighborhood Citizen Advisory Committee, the City and Mayor Ives got involved with the Pastor Robroy Ranger's Redmond
Assembly of God (RAG) on 166th Ave., half way up the hill. Robroy spent months, if not years, generously hosting the Advisory Committee and attending Planning Commission meetings. Part of what came of the meetings were the 166 Ave. 3:2 lane improvements and plans to extend 160th Ave. north. The RAG has a basketball court and the church has hosted teams looking for facility. The RAG also hosts a highly regarded day-care service. The church practices speaking in tongues and other charismatic methods of spiritual enlightenment. Pastor Robroy is incredibly passionate and a friendly sole.
A much smaller land use project transpired a few years ago at
Redmond Presbyterian Church on NE 100 St. & 166th Ave. Marchione, a councilman at the time, wasn't directly involved but staff was present. Redmond Presbyterian is only 5 minutes from my home so I had some questions about the tree removal to install a parking lot and children's building. Actually, at the project's completion, I found I could enjoy the trees even more because I could
see them -- when taking a short-cut through the forested church lot to the Junior High -- and walking the NE 100 St. sidewalk. In addition a lush, green forested greenbelt and a bio-swale is present and best seen inside the sanctuary!
I've attended all the churches listed above but finally found a home at Redmond Presbyterian with Rev. Dr.
Larry Grounds and his flock. The church inspires faith in God, celebrates children, and honors community. Larry did his Doctoral dissertation on
"Children Stories in Worship". Now I know why we love and learn from his skits for the children every Sunday! Larry's talks are exceptional. This
verse about neighbors read last Sunday at Redmond Presbyterian triggered me to post this story. Coincidentally and in theme with this story, Larry Grounds played basketball in High School.
He broke his ankle while playing. While in recovery his ministry germinated.
Two years ago, St. Jude Parish hosted Redmond's first Tent City(4) for the homeless. Tent City is planning to open again at St. Jude from April 25 for about three months. You can see from the above photo of last month's Informational Meeting on Tent City-4 community turnout was low, very low. The few who did speak up were positive and supportive of Father Dave Rogerson's invitation to host TC-4 at St. Jude Parish. The TC-4 nonprofit "SHAREWHEEL" is a co-applicant with Father Rogerson for the Temporary Use Permit required of the City.
