Des Moines City Manager’s Weekly Report for Dec. 22, 2023
City Hall will be closed on Monday December 25 in observance of Christmas.
Essential services will be operating 24/7.
Burning Boat Festival New Year’s Eve
Burning Boat New Year’s Eve Event Celebrate the New Year and support children experiencing homelessness by coming together at the Beach Park on Sunday, December 31st (6pm start) for the second annual Burning Boat Festival. This fundraising event is sponsored by the Des Moines Police Department and South King Fire. Drop your New Year’s messages into a wooden boat built by Maritime High School students and watch it burn safely at 9pm. Come enjoy s’mores, games, entertainment, a hot chocolate bar, beer garden and more. This year, funds raised will go to the Highline Schools Foundation and their mission to support children experiencing homelessness in the school district. Tickets can be purchased here.
Urgent Need for Blood
Supplies of blood and platelets are low in King County and every type of blood is urgently needed. You can help out by giving blood at Bloodworks Northwest. Information and appointments can be found here.
Parks, Recreation and Senior Services Updates
Last Thursday (December 14), employees from REI partnered with our staff to volunteer their time to clean City park property. Thank you to those involved! We have a number of recreational activities we are offering starting in January. Basketball Season is about to start – first games will be January 13. Lego Camp will run from January 2- January 5th, (ages 5-12). Registration for those events and many more can be found here. Finally, the Senior Activity Center handed out 100 bags of non-perishable food to seniors this week as the Center will be closed for Christmas and unable to provide lunch that day. This program was funded by our Vets and Human Services Levy.
Arson Suspect Arrested
Early Thursday morning South King Fire responded to a residential fire in the Marina District. No one was injured but the home suffered significant damage. A suspect was located on foot near the residence and he was detained and subsequently arrested by our officers. Evidence was obtained that showed that he lit the fire outside the home. The suspect was booked into jail and additional investigations are on-going.
Emergency Planning Courses
The City will be offering Emergency Planning classes in January, February and March of this upcoming year. The first class will be January 16th from 5:30-7:30pm. All community members are invited and encouraged to attend in order to be prepared in case of an emergency. Registration will begin on December 26th at a link on our website.
Meetings of Interest
In addition to day-to-day administrative duties, this week I held a meeting with Councilmember Achziger and Executive Staff to discuss upcoming City Council issues and processes. I held a separate meeting with Executive Staff to discuss on-going and upcoming issues. I went to a lunch meeting with the Interim City Attorney and the entire Legal Department to discuss current issues as well as reminisce about the old days (6 weeks ago) when I was the City Attorney. I met with one of the City’s StART (SeaTac Airport Roundtable) Representatives and discussed transition planning on the Committee, some areas of concern as well as other City issues. If you are interested in Airport issues and would like to get more involved, applications to be the City’s next representative for the StART Committee can be found here.
City Council Meeting Summary
No City Council meeting this week. The next City Council meeting will be January 4th. I will be posting the agenda and supporting materials in next week’s report.
Sports Update
Wow what a game that was on Monday Night! The Seahawks remain the Kings of Primetime with a last second victory over the Eagles. This weekend they head down south to Tennessee to face the Titans on Christmas Eve for what looks to be a must-win game. Lots of other football, basketball and hockey games on TV this weekend to keep you entertained while the in-laws visit. Only 64 more days until Spring Training.
Have a great weekend and Merry Christmas!
– Tim George
Interim City Manager
