Newport Hills Community Club

Hello Neighbors,
I wanted to let you know that I will be testifying at the Bellevue City Council meeting Monday February 1st. Some of you may recall at the December NHCC meeting, we had 2 City Parks and Recreation folks come and speak to the turfing of the Newport Hills Park. One of the questions that I had was as this appeared to be going through, could the start of this project impact our use of the park for our annual 4th of July picnic. The response was “very likely” and when I asked what we could do to request this not impact that event I was told that I needed to ask the City Council.

Hence, my next step on Monday.

I will be actually presenting on 2 topics. Both topics were presented at the NHCC meeting on January 19th where a motion was forwarded, seconded and I received unanimous Board approval to represent them and also received approvals to represent all present members at that meeting.

Briefly, here are the 2 items:

1. I will request a delay in the start of the Newport Hills Park until after our 4th of July picnic (scheduled for Saturday July 3rd this year) so that there is no possibility that the park would be closed off to us – either entirely or sections – or that there could be large scale equipment left on the site over the weekend also impeding our activities and possibly inviting temptation to some of our younger neighbors if we were to host an event around these items. We do not have an alternate facility to host our event and as many of you know no equal type of park in Newport Hills.

2. Which brings me to the second topic. I will be asking the City Council to strongly consider purchasing the open lot of 4 acres for sale on SE 60th – located between the cross streets of 114th Place SE and 116th Avenue SE. Many of you know which parcel I am talking about; the completely cleared open space with an abandoned foundation in the far quadrant and surrounded on 3 sides by wooded area. This is the last great open parcel of its kind in our neighborhood. I and others think this is a great opportunity for a new grass only park in Newport Hills. We are underserved in parks for the size of our neighborhood in relation to other Bellevue communities and I think a majority of neighbors would welcome this open space stay open and usable as a community grass park vs. a 21 home development.

So, as stated earlier, I will be presenting these 2 topics at the City Council Monday night. I would welcome any support either at the meeting, or via email, and contacting any city council members with your support for either of these items as well. The meeting starts at 8pm at City Hall.

I will post the outcome of that meeting.

Sincerely,
Michelle Hilhorst
NHCC President