King County Budget Items Targeted to NE Seattle

Rod Dembowski, King County Councilmember for District 1, has been working hard to get funding to improve our community and provide better opportunities for our residents, particularly as those efforts relate to our youth and economically disadvantaged neighbors. He just announced that the KC 2017-18 budget contains:

From a small allocation for councilmember-designated community organizations, he designated small grants for flexible purposes as follows:

• $2,500 to the Thornton Creek Alliance to support their work
•  $5,000 to Lake City Future First to support their work

From an Expanded Youth & Amateur Sport and Recreation Program, which is funded by a 1% tax on car rentals, Rod secured the following appropriations:

• $30,000 for equipment, programming or related field improvements to Virgil Flaim Park in Lake City.  Children’s Home Society is the designated recipient
• $30,000 to Solid Ground, for an Access to Sports and Recreation Scholarship fund for children and youth residing at Magnuson Park.  We hope to create a partnership with the several program providers at Magnuson (Sail Sand Point, Cascade Bicycle Club, Arena Sports, Mountaineers, Sand Point Tennis Center, etc.) to provide a comprehensive program offering discounts and culturally-sensitive access for these young people
• $25,000 to the Mountaineers, to fund a youth scholarship program targeting NE Seattle (including specifically Lake City, Pinehurst and surrounding neighborhoods) underprivileged youth to provide access to Mountaineers programming
• $10,000 to Sound Generations’ Lake City Senior Center for fitness activity programming
• $1 million to Seattle Parks and Recreation for improvements to the Magnuson Park Community Center and/or the Lake City Community / Recreation Center.