By Tim Clifford

The last meeting of March for the SeaTac City Council was held on Mar. 24 at 6:30 p.m. in SeaTac City Hall. Each meeting is preceded by a 4:30 p.m. study session and is broadcast live on channel 21. These are the highlights from that meeting:

The meeting began with another CPR Save Recognition, the second this year so far. On Mar. 7, just after 4:30 p.m., at the Marriott Hotel nurse Cherie Dreiling was attending a birthday party when she noticed a commotion in the pool area. Multiple people were leaping into the water fully clothed. When she ran to see what was happening 3-year-old Camila was being pulled out of the water completely unconscious.

Dreiling immediately began giving Camila CPR until medics arrived. Camila was taken to Seattle Children’s Hospital and made a full recovery.

The CPR Save Recognition award was presented to Cherie by Brian Wiwel of the Kent Fire Department, with Camila and her family standing with Cherie.

Next was a presentation by Southwest Youth and Family Services or New Futures, a youth and family counseling service that aids culturally diverse communities throughout southwest Seattle. The organization services around 3000 people a year with four sites in Burien, SeaTac and West Seattle. On May 20, from 7-9 a.m., a fundraising breakfast will be held by the organization at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Seattle. For more information visit their website at swyfs.org.

The big draw of the night, and the one which drew the largest response from the audience in attendance, was the Sustainable Airport Mast Plan presentation by Elizabeth Leavitt and Linda Stewart of the Port of Seattle. The plan addressed the growth that the airport will see in the coming years. An estimated increase in passengers coming through the airport annually is expected to rise from last year’s 37.5 million to 66 million over the next 20 years. This growth will require expansion of the airport to make space for more terminals, planes, and access ways.

Once the meeting was open to public comment citizen after citizen approached the podium to voice their concerns over noise and construction pollution. A few who live near Angle Lake claimed that jet pollution already drifts into their homes. Mayor Gregerson asked that the Port of Seattle return at a later date so that the council could prepare more thorough questions and examine the expansion plans more closely. That meeting has yet to be announced.

Closing out the night was confusion over a travel expense for council member Kathryn Campbell. During the opening minutes of public comment concerns were raised over an agenda item for travel expense approval for Campbell to attend a salmon recovery conference. The conference was not included in this year’s council budget and Campbell had suggested that the cost could be absorbed by having one council member skip attendance to either the AWC conference in Wenatchee or the NLC Nashville.

Bickering and general confusion began as the Council attempted to understand their own budgeting procedures and sought justification for the expense from Campbell. During these 22 minutes the audience in attendance became restless and began talking amongst themselves, something which Campbell lashed out at the audience for later on.

The next meeting is scheduled for Apr. 14.