In his monthly briefing for the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, Burien city manager Mike Martin covered the latest in annexation, a group formed to come up with alternatives to library consolidation, and a possible initiative to improve education and reduce crime in Burien.

Annexation
While the Burien City Council congregates at city hall to induct new and old councilmembers, Martin said he will miss that meeting to attend the Washington State Boundary Review Board public meeting on Monday, Jan. 9, 7 p.m. at Cascade Middle School. The board will review Burien’s proposed boundary of North Highline annexation and the public is encouraged to attend and voice their opinions.

“We don’t expect there to be any surprises, we expect this to be very straightforward,” Martin said. “We are confident of a positive outcome.”

Burien is moving forward with plans to annex the remainder of unincorporated North Highline, although the process could be halted if the State nixes tax credits for cities that annex. The tax credit is critical to the economic feasibility of annexation, Martin has said.

Library consolidation
With the King County Library Board delaying their decision on consolidating the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries into one library near S.W. 128th St. in Burien, Martin said an ad-hoc group including NHUAC president Barbara Dobkin and himself has been formed to discuss “what, in a perfect world, the libraries would look like going into the future. Whether they should consolidate or not, whether Boulevard Park needs to stay open or not…."

Martin said a few generally agreed upon themes have emerged, including the fact “that the Boulevard Park library is a unique facility and it serves a function that is greater than it being a library. It is a gathering spot, it is iconic in that it is the sole representative of government there …”

Additionally, Martin said the group is considering new locations for the White Center library, also considered important beyond its library function for the community. Martin and Dobkin both mentioned the possibility of moving it closer to the White Center business district, a move Martin considers a potentially “transformative economic engine” with an estimated 35,000 Seattleites visiting the White Center library annually. If the library is closer to White Center businesses, Martin said, they should see an uptick in business.

Kids and Cops Initiative
Martin unveiled an initiative Burien city staff is working on called the Kids and Cops Initiative. He qualified the information by saying it is in the think tank stage now and will be presented to the city council in February. If they are behind it, Martin said, the process will move forward.

There are two parts to the proposed plan: First, providing additional funding to hire five to ten additional police officers for a two to three year period and second, to provide direct grants to Burien elementary schools (in the neighborhood of $300,000 to $400,000 a year per school) over a similar time period to improve reading scores for pre-kindergarten through third grade students.

The goal is to improve public safety (and its perception), education and the economy, Martin said.

“We are convinced the City of Burien has two major problems,” Martin said. “One is the perception of crime, not the actual crime itself and we know we can fix that in a couple of years. The second element is our schools. We know that our schools are the single greatest (incentive) to getting the younger couples to come to the city and stay and put their kids in school and it has an economic development impact ..."

Martin said he believes better-educated children are less likely to commit crime. In an interview after the meeting, Martin said he has data proving crime in Burien is no worse than surrounding areas, and by adding additional officers they can lower the current crime rates even further in hopes of finally squelching Burien's reputation as crime-ridden.

He said the grants will go directly to each school in Burien, not to the school district.

The North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meets at 7 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month at the North Highline Fire District building (1243 S.W. 112th St.)