• Where – South SeaTac is an area on the Seat Tac / Des Moines city lines, just south of the SeaTac Runway, off of 200th to the north. The area is a patch work of lands owned by the Port of Seattle, the City of SeaTac, the City of Des Moines, and WSDOT.
• Who – Key Players involved are the cities of Auburn, Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Renton, SeaTac, and Tukwila. The cities have formed an organization known as the South Correctional Entity (SCORE). SCORE is an independent administration agency and is a separate legal entity from the 7 participating cities.
• What & Why – SCORE’s goal is to build and operate a 668-bed misdemeanor jail to provide capacity for displaced inmates from the KC jail by 2012. The overall plan for a new jail system has been in the works since 2001.
• When – SCORE is shooting to be moving dirt by Aug 1, 2009 with hard construction beginning in Oct.

Overview
Last Friday Communications Director, Jon Kennedy met with Wick (SST race promoter and local resident), Lisa Miller (of the Indie Series) and Penny Bartley (Interim Director of SCORE) to discuss the jail.

It appears that the jail is immanent at this point in the game. Permits were submitted to the City of Des Moines last week and they’re expecting a 30 day threshold determination.

There was a recent article printed in the times about the shrinking number of inmates in the King County Jail and how it’s bucking prior forecasts and raising new questions about whether Seattle and its suburbs will need to build their own jail by 2012. Penny was quick to dismiss this and call it irrelevant in the construction process. Apparently, the county jail's daily population is decreasing between 6 to 8% and that’s prompted officials to revisit the previous forecasts and reevaluate whether this new jail is needed.

SCORE is open to mitigation but it’s not clear yet what that might look like. They have already agreed to give us all the dirt we want. Wick and I plan to scout the other open space Thursday to determine if other areas might be feasible for new trail. The Port property north of the site is already identified for development after a wetlands designation expires sometime next year. Al Royal is the Port contact for this. Evergreen will be in touch with him to get a better sense of their plans.

Evergreen is currently talking with SCORE and the various municipalities involved to see if we can come up with an amicable solution for the mountain bike and surrounding communities.

Update (6/25/09): Over 140 racers entered in last night’s Wednesday Night Race Series Event. This is more than double the usual turnout according to Wick, SST race promoter and organizer. Not only that but the spectator crowds were huge and the flowpark saw a significant number of riders ripping it as well. Why all the gitty up?

For the past few months, Evergreen has been working closely with Wick and Lisa Miller to address the SCORE facility at SST. Wednesday evening’s event was special in that city officials from Sea Tac and Des Moines were out (on bike!) to witness the park in use first hand. The various officials seemed to really get the community support for this facility and that’s important as we move forward as the plan is to push the idea of expanding the existing park boundaries to include other parcels nearby that could allow for extensions of the current XC trails and potentially relocating the flowpark.

The next step will be to meet with representatives from the various municipalities to see what kind of support we can generate to backing this idea. Evergreen will be sure to update you in the coming weeks as this process unfolds… stay tuned!

Update (8/6/09): I spoke with Penny Bartley of SCORE and they are starting to clear the site. Right now they are clearing the property line in order to install a fence. The fence should be installed next week.

Once the fence is in, they will further clear within the fence area and begin work to connect storm water and sewer connections and finally site grading. This will take until October.

Access to South SeaTac park itself should not be impacted. I know they have been doing test infiltration pits along 18th. This work should be nearing completion and not interfere with the rest of the Park itself.

Please know that Evergreen is working with Wick and Lisa Miller from the Indie Series to address the issue. Evergreen is working on a proposal to expand riding access in the are and potentially relocate the flow park. I will keep folks informed as we move forward with this.