Renton, WA

In honor of National Disaster Preparedness Month, this fair will feature ideas supplies, demonstrations, and hands-on activities for kids and adults. Stop by Les Gove Park in Auburn on Saturday the 20th, between 11AM and 4PM.

The King County Library System, which does not include the Renton Library, will have their servers down for maintenance on Monday September 24th. If you go to the Renton Library, this will not affect you. However, it does affect the Fairwood Library. During the upgrade, patrons will not be able to place holds, use library computers or Self-Checkout, or access their patron records, databases or eBooks

If you are effected by noise from the Renton Airport, you are invited to “provide input” at a community meeting Wednesday, September 26, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
The meeting will be held at the Renton City Hall Council Chambers. For reasons that are not quite clear to me, the study is being jointly funded by both the City of Renton and the City of Mercer Island. Maybe they just wanted to come taunt the people who live in downtown Renton.

For more information contact:
Ryan Zulauf, Airport Manager, Renton Airport, 425-430-7471
Preeti Shridhar, Communications Director, City of Renton, 425-430-6569

It seems like most of Renton is currently under construction, but this coming week will add closures to I-405 and SR 167 traffic in Renton and Tukwila. The week
of September 15-21 will begin the first phase of The I-405 Renton Widening Project, also known as the I-405/I-5 to SR 169 Stage 1 - Widening Project. As planned, the work should take place at night, after 8 or 10PM.

Stay up to date on traffic congestion and closures:

* Check the construction updates web page:

* Check real-time traffic information by calling 5-1-1 from your cell phone

Or you can visit the DOT webpage

BoA has increased their ATM fee for non-customers from $2 to $3 in most locations. This may not seem like much, but consider it as a percentage. You may be paying a fee of 10% or more to get your cash. So it pays (literally) to find out in advance which ATM along your normal route and neighborhood has no fee to use.

A great way to get cash without a fee is to buy something with your debit, and when prompted increase the charge to get cash back. Most grocery stores and drugstores let you do this. You can get cash back with your debit card at the same kind of places that back in the day let you write a check for greater than the total and get cash back — does anyone still do this? If you find it embarrassing to get $40 cash back when you buy a pack of gum, go through self-checkout.

The median home price in Seattle has now toped a half a million dollars. 501K, to be exact. King County, which is the greater Seattle area, is relatively better, but not by much. It’s 477K.

Ouch.

A worker would have to earn $57 an hour — about $119,000 a year — to afford that Seattle home, according to the Seattle chapter of the Urban Land Institute.

And on the Eastside, a worker needs to earn nearly $152,000 a year to afford a house with the $643,750 median price there in August.

If being a bird-watcher is just oh so “common” and you want a hobby you can casually drop into conversation that sounds more impressive, fall is the perfect time to become a salmon-watcher.

Calling all salmon watchers! During the fall, salmon watchers spend 15 minutes twice a week observing a stream or lake shore in the greater Lake Washington Watershed and counting returning salmon. To become a salmon watcher, attend one of several classroom trainings to learn about salmon identification. Choose from among hundreds of established sites. No experience necessary. For more information, contact Gary Fink, Surface Water Utility, at 425.430.7392

I got a great list of emergency preparedness websites from my children’s school. Since you are unlikely to be able to access a website in an emergency, these are obviously for planning purposes. In case of an emergency, listen to the Emergency Broadcast System on KIRO 710AM.

Here are the websites, in no particular order:

Our local fire department
CERT Programs
3 days / 3 ways
FEMA
American Red Cross
Seattle Red Cross
Regional Information
King County Information

This event is a great opportunity for you to review and provide comment on Renton’s existing trails system and recognized bike routes, as well as existing policies and goals. Participants will also have the opportunity discuss existing trails or bicycle usage patterns that the city does not currently recognize and to suggest additions or modifications to the city’s current policies and goals.

WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday, September 12, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Renton Community Center, 1715 Maple Valley Highway, Renton

Thanks to Councilman Randy Corman for letting us know that today is Renton’s 106th Birthday.

If you are up and ready to go do something productive with your Sunday morning, check out this class:

Seminar and hands-on demonstration that teaches how to eliminate clutter. 9-10a.m., Ikea, 600 S.W. 41st St., Renton; free (425-656-2980 or www.ikea-usa.com/seattle).

I imagine that it involves buying plastic bins from IKEA, which doesn’t eliminate clutter so much as hide it. But at least you can buy a latte for $1 there.