By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The turnout was the biggest news from tonight’s Alki Community Council meeting.

As mentioned here earlier this week, the group is taking a serious look at its future – and more than 25 people answered the call to join in that scrutiny by showing up to join in. “I see a lot of new blood,” offered ACC’s Larry Carpenter from the sign-in table at the back of the room. Some of it, he explained later, included members who hadn’t come to meetings in a while. He said membership is currently at 132, down from a peak of 390.

Like other print publications, the ACC-published Alki News Beacon has gone through some changes in recent years.

Fewer copies are published, and the primary distribution is by mail, no longer door-to-door (though some copies are placed at area businesses). Even with changes, it’s still relatively costly to produce, and it’s not paying for itself. So the big question of the night was: Go online only, or keep publishing a print version too? After a lively but respectful and constructive discussion led by the ACC’s new president, Tony Fragada, no final decision was reached, but suggestions emerged for investigation — such as:

*Sell advertising more aggressively (whatever the publication’s format)
*Recruit members more aggressively
*Time publication schedule to capitalize on big Alki events such as the Seafair Pirates’ Landing

But most of the discussion focused on whether to publish online only, vs. online and offline.

Many attendees acknowledged they go online to get much of their news, but some voiced the sentiment that they just “like” having the printed Beacon. In order for an official decision to be made on its future, the group needs to have a quorum, and take a vote of dues-paying members; no motion was brought forth tonight, but it’s sure to be back on the ACC agenda in February. They’ve been publishing some news to their website for a while now, at alkinews.com, with the help of a paid part-time consultant; that site is also where you’ll find a downloadable PDF of the latest edition of the Beacon.

Also at tonight’s meeting, a surprise visit from one of the Department of Neighborhoods coordinators who is part of the newly formed team that will serve West Seattle and other southern parts of the city: When ACC president Fragada started to brief the meeting on changes with the DON, including the coordinators, Ed Pottharst made his presence known.

He told the ACC he’d worked previously in Lake City, and that he was aware of some of the concerns circulating regarding the new team approach vs. the previous assignment of one coordinator for one district (the Southwest District, for example, including Alki, was handled in city-liaison and other matters by Stan Lock, who is now part of the Central team).

Pottharst will be one of four coordinators serving the South region from a base at the Delridge Neighborhood Service Center (along with Ron Angeles, Steve Louie, and Yun Pitre – see them here); people have been asking, he acknowledged, “who do we contact, since there are four of you?” He said they’re exploring the possibility of setting up one e-mail address that can be used to reach them all. He also mentioned the news that just came out this afternoon, of the mayor announcing Bernie Matsuno as interim DON director (here’s our report). And he said the four coordinators will likely send a community letter soon by way of formal introduction.

One more note: David Hutchinson gave a brief update on Statue of Liberty Plaza brick sales – 118 bricks and four tribute plaques are left. (7 percent of the proceeds from the sales go to the ACC as a fiscal-sponsor fee; after expenses for the bricks themselves, the rest goes into a fund so that Parks can keep up maintenance for the plaza.) Want a plaque/brick? Info’s here.

Next Alki Community Council meeting will be the third Thursday in February – February 17th, 7 pm, Alki UCC, 6112 SW Hinds.