(UPDATE: The bid just awarded will include Delridge all the way to Roxbury, but not 16th)
Roads, raingardens, greenways, beautification, and elections comprised the topics tackled at Monday night’s North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting – starting with an update on the big paving project in the works for the south half of Delridge Way:

DELRIDGE PAVING PROJECT: SDOT‘s LeAnne Nelson told NDNC they haven’t finalized the contract yet for repaving Delridge between Orchard and Henderson (and installing new stormwater infrastructure down the middle of the road) – which means they’re still awaiting word on whether they’ll be able to extend the project to Delridge south of Henderson, and 16th from Henderson to Roxbury. Nelson says they should know within a week or so. (The city website says, however, that the contract has been awarded to Gary Merlino Construction, and includes “additive 1,” which, according to this advertisement for bids, would mean the Delridge repaving would extend to Roxbury, but that 16th will not be included. We’ll check on this later today. *UPDATE – confirmed – see the comments.*)

Nelson reiterated, as had been discussed at a recent Delridge Neighborhoods District Council meeting, that boulevard treatment is not feasible for this section of Delridge, though it might be for the road north of this project, at some future date. She recapped points discussed at previous meetings/briefings, including the fact that northbound traffic will be maintained in the road-work zones, but southbound will be detoured – primarily to 35th SW (for vehicles), except in the northernmost section of the project (which will move south to north once it gets going in January, broken into four phases, each of which will take at least two months). She says they’ve been meeting with Metro to talk about how this will affect bus routes, but they have not yet made final decisions – they’re hoping to get that information within a month or so.

In Q/A with NDNC members, she acknowledged that neighborhood-cut-through traffic will be a concern, since not everyone will use the official detours: “We can’t tell people ‘they can’t go there’,” and they have learned over the years that “Local Access Only” signs don’t help much, so they are not used much, though they do “see some good return” with signs such as “Drive Like You Live Here” – but neighbors will need to work directly with the SDOT traffic team to talk about such measures. Other questions included how school-bus stops will be handled; Nelson will check with the project manager.

DELRIDGE GREENWAY MONEY: Jake Vanderplas, the NDNC transportation chair, noted that the city has a significant chunk of money in line for next year’s budget for the Delridge Greenway. He also reminded everyone that the neighborhood-feedback meeting on the potential greenway is coming up this Wednesday, 6:30 pm, at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (as first reported here last month).

RAIN GARDENS: North Delridge is already a leader in terms of raingarden utilization, but there’s always room for more, and Hannah Kett of Sustainable Seattle came to speak about their Green Blocks/Blue Sound program, which works with the city’s RainWise program. They have a program that offers liaisons to come evaluate interested sites. You can contact Hannah at at 206-622-3522 or hannahk@sustainableseattle.org.

FALL CLEANUP: Lisa Taylor-Whitley, the NDNC beautification chair, talked about last Saturday’s cleanup – low on participants but high on effectiveness. They decided to tackle trash, and Taylor-Whitley said that problem didn’t seem to be as bad as it had been in the past. Participants said they got several “thank yous” from passersby, which was gratifying. Taylor-Whitley is thinking about putting together a list of volunteers who might want to work on painting out graffiti on a regular basis.

NDNC ELECTIONS: Board members were elected: Kirsten Smith and Parie Hines as co-chairs; Rafael Garcia as a co-secretary, with another position still open; Patrick Baer as treasurer; Vanderplas is staying on as transportation chair; Taylor-Whitley remaining as beautification chair; Dorsol Plants, who chaired the Highland Park Action Committee while living in HP, lives in North Delridge now and will become NDNC’s public-safety chair; Amanda Leonard as the outreach chair.

The North Delridge Neighborhood Council meets second Mondays, 6:30 pm, at Delridge Library (except summer, when they choose outdoor neighborhood meeting sites). They’re online at ndnc.org.