The Mountlake Terrace City Council at its Thursday, March 30 meeting reviewed the city’s agreement for the annual Tour de Terrace event.

Recreation and Parks Director Jeff Betz spoke to the council about the 2023 agreement. He said there are only been minor changes from previous years, the largest of those regarding the 5K fun run.

“This year’s event has one difference – it will not include a 5K run,” he said. “The organizers were not able to pull enough volunteers together to make it happen this summer.”

Other than that, Betz said the agreement remains mostly the same, aside from some small tweaks.

This year’s event will be free to the public and will be July 21-23. The weekend will kick off with a Friday-night parade followed by a pancake breakfast Saturday morning. Saturday will also feature the annual car show as well as evening fireworks. Throughout the weekend, there will be carnival rides, food vendors, live music and a beer garden.

“Those individual things do cost money, but you can get into the event in general for free,” he said.

Councilmember Laura Sonmore requested that staff find a way to include more security at this year’s event. She reminded the council that last year, there were issues with multiple teenagers getting into fights throughout the weekend and she said she hopes those situations will be prevented this year.

Betz said staff are working closely to have a higher police presence at the event as well as to garner more security volunteers. Those volunteers are unable to detain anyone; they merely work as additional sets of eyes and ears that can alert police of any suspicious activity or fights.

In addition, the council discussed the city’s contract with RRJ Welcome LLC for a decant facility retrofit. The facility is located in the public works building and is designed to separate solids from liquids from water, sewer and stormwater cleaning operations.

However, the facility frequently becomes clogged and currently must be cleared out by hand with a shovel.

“Because the design is somewhat flawed in the way that it’s set up, it tends to back up the solids in one particular area that then must be removed manually,” said Laura Reed, the city’s stormwater program manager.

The proposed contract with RRJ Welcome LLC will renovate the facility to allow a front-end loader to remove those solids as needed. The current facility set-up does not allow enough space for the loader to fit where the usual clogs happen.

“The crews already have a front-end loader that they could be using for this work,” she said. “This would allow the crew to spend more time on work that is of higher value to the community.”

Councilmembers will vote on the contract at its April 3 meeting.

Additionally, the council received brief presentations on the 2022 accomplishments of both the city’s arts and parks and recreation commissions and their 2023 work plans.

During council comments, councilmembers thanked interim City Manager Andrew Neiditz for his time with the city. Neiditz’s last day was March 30 and while he was not at the council meeting, councilmembers said they hoped their words of appreciation reached him.

“Andrew, we really do appreciate all of the time, the counsel, the care that you’ve put into supporting our council and our city and our community over the last several years, but particularly in the past few months in a much more stepped-up role than you anticipated,” Councilmember Erin Murray said. “We’re incredibly grateful and appreciative, and we wish you and your family all the best.”

— By Lauren Reichenbach