Tacoma City Council
Study Session
Noon, Tuesday, March 2, 2004
Room 16
Tacoma Municipal Building North
728 St. Helens Ave.
Metropolitan West contract
The City Council will hear a presentation of the Retirement Boards recommendation to renew the investment management services contract with Metropolitan West for three years. The public may attend, but the council will not take comment.
Tacoma City Council
Regular Meeting
5 p.m., Tuesday, March 2, 2004
Council Chambers
Tacoma Municipal Building
747 Market St.
Aircraft carrier museum support
Should Tacoma become the home to a world-class Naval and Aerospace museum? The City Council will consider a resolution that would express support for the Pacific Northwest Aircraft Carrier Museum and the efforts of the USS Ranger Museum Foundation to bring the project to fruition. Organizers envision the Pacific Northwest Aircraft Carrier Museum as an educational center, civic complex and Navy memorial in the Puget Sound. The USS Ranger, a 1,000-foot carrier that served for more than 36 years, would be the floating centerpiece of the museum. Now in the planning and fundraising phase, the USS Ranger Museum Foundation intends to work on design and permitting issues through Spring 2005. The group hopes to open the museum in 2006. Similar aircraft museums in New York, South Carolina, Texas and California draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to their respective cities annually. The council will take public comment during the meeting.
Downtown BIA may continue
The City Council will review an ordinance to continue the Business Improvement Area (BIA) for the 17th year. Begun in 1987, the BIA program provides common area maintenance, security and marketing of Tacoma’s downtown area. The ordinance would approve the BIA work plan and budget, including the proposed $757,655 appropriation for the period of May 1, 2004 through April 30, 2005 – a three percent increase over last year. The Local Development Council conducted a rate payers meeting on Feb. 4 to review the BIA work plan and budget, and to hear public testimony. The council will take public comment on the proposed ordinance and is scheduled to vote March 9.
Training grants for fire department
The council will vote on a resolution that would add an additional $9,000 to an existing $15,000 grant agreement with Pierce County to provide community emergency response training for the Tacoma Fire Department. The $24,000 grant would fund a series of seven emergency response classes between now and August for Tacoma residents. Fire department personnel will teach residents how to prepare for, and deal with, the initial effects of a disaster. Another resolution would authorize a $48,255 agreement with the Washington State Military Department for local emergency management planning and training activities during 2004. The grant represents almost a 50 percent increase over the 2003 award from the state. The money augments the citys Emergency Management Program. The council will take public comment on both resolutions.
This is an incomplete agenda. The Index prints as much as space allows.
