Two items from Alki

| Alki Statue of Liberty | West Seattle news

P-I ON PRODUCE: Eric’s produce stand by the Homestead is featured in this P-I article.

STATUE OF LIBERTY GROUP GETS TO START RECEIVING $: With days to go till the Tuesday unveiling and Thursday public meeting (7 pm @ the Bathhouse), Paul Carr announced in e-mail:

Seattle Statue of Liberty CommitteeÃ¢â‚¬â€Phase II is happy to report we finally have our sponsoring 501(c)(3) organization, Urban Sparks. Urban Sparks began here in Seattle when they saw the need for community groups to have a Fiscal Sponsor. They have sponsored several other local groups doing local parks projects.

We can now begin, in earnest, to complete the Alki Statue of Liberty Project by accepting donations. Our thanks particularly to Pam Kliment of the Seattle Parks Department, who suggested this organization to us recently.

Paul says they’ll have more information up on their sealady.org website later this week. Meantime, if anyone spots Lady Liberty making the big move before for Tuesday night — we would love to get another photo like this one.

GenHillOne September 9, 2007 (7:42 am)

I still don’t see on their site – and it should be posted before more donations are collected – a financial statement that answers many more questions. How much money was spent, where was it spent, who has the balance (is it in the bank, has it collected interest, who is legally liable for it), how will the future funds be used, what auditing procedures are in place…? This is a lot of money we’re talking about – much from individuals in our communiy – that requires a system of fiscal responsibility. I don’t give to organizations without knowing something about them and right now this feels a bit like kids selling lemonade on the corner. And…off the soap box…

Jo September 9, 2007 (7:57 am)

GenHillOne – If you can, please attend Parks-called Public Meeting, Thursday, Sept. 13th, 7:00pm at the Bathhouse (60th & Alki). You’ll have a chance to get answers to all those concerns you have. Hope to see you there.
Jo

GenHillOne September 9, 2007 (8:29 am)

Thanks Jo – we’ll plan on it. Hopefully there will be some handouts that can be posted. It’s not that I don’t trust the Parks Department. I’ve just seen a lot of good-intentioned, but less-to-in-experienced individuals take on fundraising. This is a highly-visible public project that I’d hate to see go sour.

Jo September 9, 2007 (9:41 am)

GenHillOne: Any handouts on the ‘new’ plaza would have to come from the Phase II committee or the architect, Matt Hutchins. Maybe if you request this they could put something together for the meeting.

Dis September 9, 2007 (1:21 pm)

There seems to be some confusion about the relationship of the parks department to the fundraising committee. The fundraising committee is a private group of individuals who wish to raise funds for the statue. The architect or designer is a private individual who designed a plaza voluntarily. The question remains whether the parks department has blessed either the fundraising committee or the plaza design? It’s not clear from all the hundreds of posts about this project. It seems the parks dept. is trying to find out whether the “community” or the public supports either of these ventures. But it’s not clear. Another question, does the parks department have oversight of the funds raised, and do they keep track of donations, or is it the fundraising committee (and the nonprofit that sponsors them) that does that? Another thing, there seems to be a lot of “experts” on this project, and that is very confusing. Seems to be a lot of parties taking ownership and meanwhile, the only one that really has any authority is the city. I’ll hand the soapbox off to someone else now. . . .

Jo September 9, 2007 (1:46 pm)

Dis:
“The fundraising committee is a private group of individuals who wish to raise funds for the statue” YES
“The architect or designer is a private individual who designed a plaza voluntarily.” – YES
“It seems the parks dept. is trying to find out whether the Ã¢â‚¬Å“communityÃ¢â‚¬Â or the public supports either of these ventures.” – YES
As to your other questions, you’ll have to go to the meeting on Sept. 13th and ask those questions. As you are aware, I have been very vocal on this whole subject. All I, and many locals, wanted was to get our statue back installed on the existing base. That has now been accomplished. I am not affiliated with the Phase II committee or the architect. I, and others, will have a small part in the Sept. 13th meeting, “sentimental value of statue to the community,” and then my job is DONE!
Jo Ofsthus

chas redmond September 10, 2007 (2:12 am)

Curious how Paul Carr is calling Seattle Parks and Rec’s representative, Pam Kliment, the person who’s trying to bring them down in previous posts and now she’s suddenly their savior because of the 501(c)(3) funding org she suggested. To me, this discloses a situation where Carr and others were NOT playing by the rules up until Parks stepped in and that’s what some of us have been objecting to all along – that it seemed to be a private, public-not-invited, venture. I’m much more pleased now that Parks is back running our parks and that private citizens are back in an advisory role. Gung-ho-ness and a great idea are one thing, going it alone without community support and appropriate city involvement is (and was) another thing entirely. Glad that episode is now behind us and we can all look forward to the statue being re-placed on the pedestal and a perhaps grander pedestal and plaza in the open for public comment.

Sorry, comment time is over.