From last night’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting: ANA president Katy Walum read a letter from SDOT turning down the longrunning request for a pedestrian light at 47th/Admiral (map), the intersection where City Council staffer Tatsuo Nakata was hit and killed more than four years ago. ANA has been pressing for stepped-up safety measures at that intersection; the letter signed by SDOT’s Luke Korpi pointed out the intersection has had work done including the addition of curb bulbs and, more recently, stop lines (as you can see in our photo), ultimately concluding that its volume of usage doesn’t merit a pedestrian signal. Walum said she is continuing to hear from area residents who see numerous near-collisions, and vowed not to give up pushing for a signal.

That was just one of the items on the agenda for last night’s meeting in the lower-level meeting room of Admiral Congregational Church – read on for more toplines including the latest on the Lafayette Playground project and the plans for this year’s Summer Concerts at Hiawatha series:

LAFAYETTE PLAYGROUND ‘PLAY IT FORWARD’ PROJECT: ANA heard from Holly Grambihler, one of the parent volunteers leading the project: They secured the $100,000 city matching-funds grant with $85,000 in donations and $15,000 in volunteer time; they are currently awaiting proposals from playground “big toy” vendors, and are looking for a community representative on a committee to help choose the “big toy” — it’ll require participation in two Monday night meetings (3/14 and 3/21) at the school library, 6:30 pm. If you’re interested, contact information is on their webpage. They’ll narrow down the options at the second meeting, and then on 3/22 they’ll have a community meeting to vote on it, followed by a student vote later that week, and then the bid will be awarded. They’re continuing to raise money, hoping for $15,000 to equal the volunteer time; they’re selling inscribed bricks to help reach that goal. They’re also hoping for some pad above and beyond that, for extras, such as an access gate for SW Lander so that, as was suggested by commenters here and elsewhere, there can be access on that side.

BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT: This is one of ANA’s new initiatives – engaging with the local business community – to help support a “healthy, vibrant” business climate in Admiral, with businesses’ participation. Some of the association-sponsored events like Summer Concerts at Hiawatha and business-district trick-or-treating already have business participation – but what else would the businesses want to be involved with? A survey is planned to seek out answers, and to find out more about the local businesses and their plans, aspirations, etc. It will likely start April 12th – made available online and in hard-copy form. A month later, a breakfast or lunch-type event would be planned to share the results.

WEST SEATTLE TRAILS: Three years after the first West Seattle Trails map was put together, Chas Redmond visited ANA last night to review some of the changes and accomplishments. This was the first map of its kind for the city – with more than 80 miles of identified trails. He shared heavy-stock copies of the newly revised map, which includes purple dots denoting the locations of the 10 forthcoming wayfinding kiosks. Redmond said the project slowed a bit because of a family emergency for the artist who’s been working on the kiosks. And two of the kiosks will be delayed until after 2012, when RapidRide-related street and sidewalk work is complete. A new print run of the updated West Seattle map is about to happen, he said; other new features include a legend showing some of West Seattle’s major grade/slope profiles. Distribution of an estimated 20,000 copies should start in July, at or before West Seattle Summer Fest, funded by Viaduct-mitigation money that King County received from the state to help West Seattleites get around. Meantime, he showed the Northeast Seattle Trails map that took inspiration from the first-of-its-kind West Seattle map (both in collaboration with Feet First).

IN MOTION: Redmond also provided a sneak peek into the coming King County “In Motion” campaign, “trying to get us to hop onto buses” – he says that through four months of summer and fall, the campaign will attempt to convince people in West Seattle to give up thousands of car trips in favor of transit. It’s already been deployed in other neighborhoods, such as Ballard, he noted. (On a related note, he talked about the community-conversation process that, as we have mentioned previously, will start with Metro this fall, regarding possible ways to reshape the West Seattle route system once RapidRide revs up in fall 2012.)

SUMMER CONCERTS AT HIAWATHA: This year’s lineup for the popular concert series should be anounced in May, according to Walum. She says local on-air/online personality Marty Riemer is helping review musicians who applied to perform, and also has agreed to emcee at least two of the concerts (including one that will be held at Alki). ANA still has room for more concert series sponsors, too.

ADOPT-A-STREET CLEANUP ON MARCH 19TH: Rescheduled from a recent too-wintry Saturday, the ANA’s next Adopt-A-Street cleanup is now set for 9 am-noon March 19th. Anyone and everyone’s welcome to meet at Metropolitan Market that morning at 9, have free coffee and treats, head out and clean up (tools, bags, reflective vests provided), then get a free sack lunch to take along as you go home.

The Admiral Neighborhood Association meets the second Tuesday of each month, 7 pm, Admiral Congregational Church (California/Hill).