Welcome to Washington Wine Month! Did you know that our great state of Washington is the 2nd largest wine producing state in the country? Over 55,000 acres of vines give way to over 900 wineries producing nearly 18 million cases of roughly 70 different varietals. Whew! Who knew? Following is a list of them all! Just kidding, that would be quite the task. Leschi Market does have an unparalleled selection of some of the state’s best offerings. For more stats and figures regarding the Washington Wine Industry, visit: www.washingtonwine.org. Meanwhile, enjoy reading about a few of the Market’s favorites. Our cellar selections always include highly sought after Leonetti and Quilceda Creek, among many others. Happy tasting! RED 2015 Mark Ryan Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley ($59.99) “A tiny 245-case production based on Cabernet Sauvignon. It has a very pretty, perfumed, fresh style in its violets, blueberry, mint and bay leaf aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied, nicely concentrated and with good acidity, it has a firm, focused style. It will evolve nicely for 4–5 years than drink nicely for more than 10–15 years.” ~Wine Advocate, 93–95+ points. 2015 DeLille Cellars D2 Columbia Valley ($41.99) “The notes of graphite, crushed rocks, caramelized black cherries and dark chocolate all define the ripe, sexy and full-bodied.58% Merlot, 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc and a splash of Petit Verdot. This beauty has tons of upfront fruit, as well as a firm, nicely structured core. Hats off to the team at DeLille for consistently producing this level of quality at this quantity.” ~Wine Advocate, 91–94 points. 2012 Tranche Blue Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla ($37.99) “Aromas of plum, cranberry, wood spice and herb are followed by concentrated red and black-fruit flavors. A silky mouthfeel and firm tannins only add to the enjoyment. 756 cases made.” ~Sean P. Sullivan, 92 points. 2015 à Maurice Cellars Malbec Gamache Vineyard Columbia Valley ($35.99) “Strong nose of ripe plum, grilled bread, cloves and blackest of black currants. The tannins hold the stage in this rich wine with notes of blackberries, blueberries, clove and plum on the palate. Medium acidity balances the density of the wine. The long finish persists with plum (flesh and skin) and clove.” ~Anna Schafer, Winemaker. 2014 Dunham Cellars Trutina Red Blend Columbia Valley ($27.99) “Made from a blend of 44% Merlot, 38% Cab Sauvignon, 10% Malbec and 8% Cab Franc, the 2014 Trutina gives up lots of graphite and cedary spice intermixed with notions of coffee bean, blackcurrants and licorice. Beautiful on the palate, with full-bodied richness and no hard edges. It should drink beautifully through 2024+.” ~Wine Advocate, 91 points. 2015 Avennia Les Trouvés Red Blend Columbia Valley ($19.99) Mourvèdre (62%) takes the lead on this wine followed by Syrah (21%) and Grenache. It’s aromatic and appealing, with notes of roasted meat, black pepper, herb and plum. The red- and black-fruit flavors are concentrated and bring a compelling sense of texture. Smoke and savory flavors linger on the finish. It’s a standout at this price. Editors’ Choice.” ~Sean P. Sullivan, 92 points. 2016 Involuntary Commitment Red Columbia Valley ($17.99) A new wine made by Chris and Will Camarda of Andrew Will Winery fame. A blend of 61% Cabernet Franc, 22% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17% Merlot that was aged in neutral oak for 11 months. The wine offers great depth of flavor at a price that is perfect. You can sense the black fruits, tobacco leaf and earthy aroma, yet on the palate it is more currants and plums. WHITE 2015 Buty Sémillon/Sauvignon/Muscadelle Columbia Valley ($19.99) “Combining grapes from the legendary Boushey Vineyard, with fruit from Lonesome Spring Ranch and the oldest block of Rosebud Ranch on the Wahluke Slope. The core of Sémillon provides eloquent white flower, golden fig and honey notes, while the Sauvignon and Muscadelle contribute layers of rose, jasmine and orange spice.” ~Winemaker notes. 2015 Ryan Patrick Sagemoor Vineyards Reserve Chardonnay ($17.99) “I chose Sagemoor Vineyards because they have a history and pedigree for growing custom high tier fruit with phenomenal quality. The warm site and mature vines at Sagemoor lend to the ripe, rich style we are looking for in our Reserve Chardonnay. 100 cases produced.” ~Jeremy Santo, Winemaker. 2017 Seattle Wine Awards Double Gold. 2016 Cedergreen Cellars Sauvignon Blanc Yakima Valley ($13.99) “Dry, brilliantly crisp and clean with juicy lemon, apricot and nectarine flavors. Think shrimp, scallops, crab and oysters sizzling over a wood fire, an icy cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc a fine partner.” ~Winemaker notes. Kenneth Benner, a Seattle area native, is a trained chef and has worked in such restaurants as Barbacoa, B.O.K.A. Kitchen + Bar, and Dahlia Lounge. Ken is the wine buyer at Leschi Market. He has a passion for learning, a meticulous palate, and a tenacity for searching out the best for his customers while offering some of the most highly coveted wines in the area. His wine column is intended to inspire and explore new choices in wine, learn about wine with his readers, and share his knowledge and experiences in the wine world. Check out the latest at www.LeschiMarket.com or request to be added to email updates or send questions, comments, or suggestions to ken@leschimarket.com and follow the wine department directly on twitter at twitter.com/leschimarket .

I like to think of Valentine’s Day as the unofficial end of winter for the Puget Sound lowlands. After Valentine’s Day, it becomes much harder to get strong windstorms, flooding rains, and most of all, widespread arctic outbreaks/lowland snow events. The northern latitudes have warmed significantly by this time, and even if a surge of particularly cold air makes it into Western Washington, the high sun angles and longer days warm temperatures on and near the surface above freezing, making it very difficult for falling snow to stick. In many ways, it didn’t really feel like this winter began until after Valentine’s Day, especially considering how cold and snowy last winter was. We had a massive ridge overhead for the first part of December, giving a little fog to the lowlands but exceptionally warm temperatures to alpine sites with freezing levels near 12,000 feet. Another ridge moved over the area for mid January, this time bringing sunny skies and record-warm temperatures to the lowlands. Seattle hit a high of 64 degrees on MLK Day! The exceptionally warm weather continued into the first week February, particularly for regions east of the Cascades; Yakima hitting a jaw-dropping 69 degrees on February 8th. Our truly magical White Christmas notwithstanding, I’m sure many folks were left wondering if winter would ever truly take hold over the area. The 2017–2018 winter was (and continues to be) a La Niña winter, but we didn’t actually enter and stay in a typical La Niña pattern until the second week of February. The “classic” setup for a La Niña is to have a large ridge in the Central Pacific and a large trough over the West Coast, giving us cooler-than-average temperatures, above-average precipitation, and above-average snowfall, particularly in the mountains. Until the second week of February, I’m sure many skiers and snowboarders were chagrined by the lack of mountain snowfall, but thankfully, we’ve made huge progress over the past few weeks, and it looks like our cooler and slightly wetter-than-normal weather will continue into March. I was in Portland on February 20th, when a quick-moving, intense band of snow brought 2–4 inches of snow to the region in just a couple hours. Roads quickly became extremely treacherous, and the snow on the branches made for a beautiful sight. It’s not often when you have blooming daffodils and a giant snowman in your yard at the same time! Interestingly enough, the Puget Sound area can see bursts of snow into early April if temperatures are cool enough as heavy showers can temporarily lower snow levels down to the surface. Intense Puget Sound Convergence Zones are notorious for dropping a quick, unexpected inch of snow on grassy surfaces. However, this snow tends to melt as quickly as it accumulated after the shower passes, even at night, as ground temperatures are well-above freezing that late in the season. Winter may have taken its time getting started, but better late than never! Hopefully the Cascades can keep piling up more and more snow—March and even April can be extremely snowy up there. ~Charlie Phillips Charlie Phillips, a Madrona resident, received his B.S. in atmospheric sciences from the University of Washington and works in Portland as a meteorologist forecasting wind energy along the Columbia River Gorge. Check out his weather website at weathertogether.us .

In promoting “Figuring History: Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Mickelene Thomas,” the Seattle Art Museum asks these big questions: “Questioning History: Who authors history, who has power, who figures in art history?” Curator Catherina Manchanda selected large paintings by three generations of black artists to offer us some answers. Since history painting and museums are mostly the terrain of white people, this exhibition is in our white faces, telling us some of what we don’t know. Robert Colescott: George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook, 1975. Acrylic on canvas 84 × 108 in., from the Seattle Art Museum. Robert Colescott is the oldest of the three artists, born in 1935, he died in 2009. Schooled in California, but profoundly shaped by Fernand Léger (with whom he studied), Egypt (where the artist taught), and the Civil Rights Movement, Colescott determined to turn white American history upside down. His iconic work George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from American History Textbook, 1975 repopulated the famous painting by Emmanuel Leutze with black face stereotypes led by the famous scientist. It is Colescott’s manifesto! His later paintings continue to redefine both history and art history. The museum has recently acquired Les Demoiselles d’Alabama Vestidas (dressed), 1985, with its reversal of the original skin colors of the well known Picasso painting. Picasso’s women included prostitutes and a male client on the left; Colescott replaces him with a white woman who may be joining the brothel. Indeed Colescott’s paintings emphasize not only rewriting history, but skin colors, he frequently includes a whole range of tones from white to dark brown as in the series of three paintings here Knowledge of the Past is Key to the Future from the mid 1980s. He features a central figure, Columbus, Matthew Hensen (polar explorer with Peary), or Jesus Christ, then surrounds them with a galaxy of people, some identifiable, some standing for a category, all with contrasting skin colors. These people never look at us. Colescott chose to be more complex in his later works, but his purpose never wavers. Kerry James Marshall pulls no punches. His very, very black people look right at us, challenging us to look away, to avoid their gaze. There is no nuance on skin color here, it becomes a parody of the idea of “black.” Marshall (born 1955), who grew up in Birmingham Alabama and the famous LA Watts in a housing project of the 1960s, saw the contradiction of Utopian projects and nightmare day to day realities. The series focused on in this show Souvenirs , from the mid 1990s, pays homage to those who died in the Civil Rights Movement, expanding the pantheon beyond the well known to include many others. The second series here is Vignette , homages to Rococo love images, in a decorative style, but looking closer, we see an improbable image of a hefty man raising a large black woman over his head. Odd romance this, and surrounding the figures are subtle and not so subtle references to black power. ( Vignette as a series includes many other works that are more explicit about both racism and romance. Kerry James, Marshall School of Beauty, School of Culture, 2012. Acrylic and glitter on unstretched canvas, 107 7/8 × 157 7/8 in., from the collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art. Marshall’s School of Beauty, School of Culture, 2012 , a partner to an earlier work by De Style, 1993 of a barber shop allows us white people into a place that is almost a sanctuary of black power. Here is real life, real culture, real people. And it is the white ideal that in the end is a mirage, an odd phenomenon, as the small children point out in School of Beauty. Here people are living their lives on their own terms. The stunning conclusion of the exhibition, the paintings of Mickalene Thomas, dazzle us with their surfaces, scale, and powerhouse representations of women. Thomas born in 1971 brings us up to the present of black power and assertiveness. Thomas embeds rhinestones on her surfaces that serve to keep us at a distance, even as her huge women seem to take over our space. In Thomas’ redo of Manet’s famous painting as Le déjeuner sur l’herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires, three women look at us and beyond us, we are not seen. Thomas’ work requires time to explore; she creates landscapes of patterns and styles, mixing photography, and painting, combining the geometry of “white male” modernism with decorative fabrics. In fact just about anything goes in her work, she has no interest in setting any limits on herself or her subjects. I am sure that the Black Lives Matter movement had something to do with the framing of the exhibition. Of course, the Seattle Art Museum has shown other black artists such as Kehinde Wiley and Nike Cave (that amazing sound suit designer) and in the (subsidized for the showing of black artists) Jacob Lawrence and Gwen Knight Gallery (still curated by Sandra Jackson-Dumont—the only African American curator at SAM who is now based at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) we saw cutting edge artists like Titus Kaphar, La Toya Ruby Frazier, Theaster Gates, Matika Wilbur and currently “Sondra Perry, Eclogue for (In)habitability.” But, the museum can answer the question “who has power” by continuing to vigorously integrate its collection, its staff, its audience and its programs. (For starters, admission keeps most people away, the prices are astronomical and special exhibitions are still half price on those free first Thursdays). ~Susan Noyes Platt www.artandpoliticsnow.com

Once a month on the 3rd Wednesday, members gather in the dining room after lunch to get the Senior Center update from Dian Ferguson, Director. Dian introduced Alexis, a UW researcher, who is surveying the membership with the intent to initiate some programs to address issues such as depression. To take the survey, call Alexis at 206-616-7002 or email alexisd3@uw.edu. Lately, the update has been about the bureaucratic maze the Facilities Committee must transverse in their efforts to redo the parking lot. Three of the requests need a variance from current regulations: 1. The attempt to cut into the grassy area on the west side of the parking lot to add more parking slots runs into an issue of three feet too little space; 2. The request to move the dumpsters also runs into regulations already in place and 3. There is a regulation that requires that there be 35% slots for “small” cars. Few seniors drive small cars; this is a generation that likes a lot of steel around them as they cruise the dangerous streets!! And Dian says we can’t manage smaller slots without some serious issues of bumping into one another. In addition to the cost rising with each delay, the group was charged $630 for a 2 hour talk! Dian stressed that the parking lot is a safety issue and doesn’t meet ADA regulations. One obvious problem is the existence of only ONE handicapped slot! Dian was told that the building is grandfathered to a greater height and that may be the way to go. Despite all the delays and steadily rising costs, she hopes to get a permit by the fall. Learning about the height possibilities encourages the hiring of a geo-tech person to assess the ground and the structure and identify what changes could be made. Sound Generations is hiring a new director; meanwhile Joanne Donahue is acting director The SE Senior Center is disconnecting from Sound Generations. Dian has some good candidates to interview for the Administrative Manager position. She will interview the second week in March. This position will be responsible for the newsletter, and social media allowing Dian time to write more grants. She reassured the audience that background checks are done on candidates. Good News! The two fundraising breakfasts brought in the funds needed to order a new Bingo Board (with a nice donation from the Bridge group). Now the Bingo folks hope to be able to sweeten the coffers of the Senior Center with some fun Bingo evenings. Stay tuned! Sound Generations is hosting the annual Inspire Positive Aging awards. Nominations are due April 20th. There are 5 categories of awards: Community Service, Health & Wellness, Intergenerational impact, Advocacy and Activism and Lifelong Learning. The winners will be honored at an event in June. ~Diane Snell

A special League of Women Voters year-end program was given by University of Washington professors Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom on December 7 at Benaroya Hall. “Calling BS,” a class in examining information with a critical eye, especially on social media, has become a very popular class at the University, and colleges and universities around the country have requested the syllabus, so the class is spreading. The professors, in a fast-paced, alternating presenter style, began with an overview of how information has been passed down through the centuries, beginning with illuminated manuscripts to today’s social media. Although “BS” has been passed on throughout history, it’s much easier to spread it in today’s fast-paced information world. They gave several examples of BS from current events that spread quickly and were widely believed by some. For example, the pedophile ring supposedly run by Clinton supporters at the Comet Pizza house actually resulted in someone who believed it taking it on himself to “rescue” the children and destroy the place. Even though the man was arrested and the entire story completely debunked, some people still maintained that it was true. Another example given was about sighting of singer Taylor Swift on a date with Senator Joseph McCarthy. One recipient quickly pointed out that despite the “proof” of the photo taken of the date, Senator McCarthy has been dead for 50 years, long before the young singer was even born. When dealing with fake news, recipients must question the source: Who is telling me this? How do they know? What’s in it for them? We should not be intimidated by authoritative-sounding sources with their graphs and tables. And we should avoid “confirmation bias” situations, in which we believe something because it supports our already decided opinions. Is it possible that we will someday have an automated fake news detector? Probably not, since it’s harder to detect than spam. It should be noted that despite the ease of proliferating fake news, it takes far more effort to retract it. Professor West also believes that published research (information that has been vetted by peer review) should have a conflict of information disclaimer. The League was acknowledged for its longstanding efforts to provide useful and timely information to the voter. But their advice to us was: Think more. Share less. The presenters will publish a book in Spring 2018. ~Kiku Hayashi

I just learned about a relatively new law that has been enacted in California and New York states that prohibit employers from asking candidates about their salary history as a prerequisite for employment. As you might know, this is a common practice among companies to reduce the amount they offer to employees, thus leading to pay inequities for the same job depending on the response of a candidate. This disproportionately affects women and people of color, as they either undervalue themselves in initial inquiries or are chronically underpaid. This new regulation empowers the people to stop this practice of pay inequality and start paying people by what they do, not who they are. I encourage us to seek out this type of legislation for the City of Seattle to stop this predatory practice and force companies to pay people what they are worth! The full text of the California legislation can be found at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB168 . Write or call your councilmember TODAY to make this a reality! If you live in Leschi or the surrounding area, your councilmember is Kshama Sawant. You can reach her at Kshama.Sawant@seattle.gov or 206-684-8016. ~Trevor Lalish-Menagh

Mark your calendars for March 24 from 10am to 2pm. EarthCorps needs 44 volunteers to do work in Frink Park. EarthCorps will supply gloves and tools. You need to wear long pants and long sleeves AND sturdy shoes. Leave your dancing shoes at home. Bring a sack lunch and water; there will be water on site for refills. The registration area is on Lake Washington Blvd. parking limited; you will need to look for parking in the neighborhood. ~Darrell Howe

Elections are looming and we need to announce this in the newsletter 3 months ahead. This same information will appear in the March and April newsletters with the election planned for May. All current officers need to be re-elected to continue serving. Our president, Janice Merrill Brown, was elected in 2017 to serve out the remaining year in a term vacated by Yuki Igarashi. Our Vice-Present, Trevor Lalish-Menagh, was elected in 2017 to complete the term held by Yousef Shulman. Our treasurer, Janet Oliver, is filling out the term vacated by Amy Fink. Our secretary, Diane Snell, is completing her first term and is running for a second two year term. Even though the current Board is willing to continue if elected, any resident may challenge any of these positions. We request that you contact leschinews@comcast.net with your name, the position you wish to run for and a brief bio. ~Diane Snell

All meetings will be held on the 2nd Thursday of the month, 3:30pm at BluWater Bistro. We do need volunteers, especially an artist coordinator whose duties include sending out the applications, collecting checks for booths, tracking vendors on Excel, herding vendors to their correct booth on the day of the ArtWalk and answering questions throughout the day such as “Where’s the coffee?” followed closely by “Where’s the bathroom?” We also need a volunteer for fundraising and folks with creative ideas for activities. Our grant is wonderful but it pays AFTER the fact so we need some start-up funds. Parks has committed to our equipment request but they always run out of canopies so if you have one, we can use it. ~ArtWalk Committee

Editor: This month we reprint a book review on making change happen: You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen, by Eric Liu. Book Review by Vicky Downs, reprinted with permission from The Voter, January 2018, a publication of the League of Women Voters–Seattle. Where does power come from? Eric Liu tells us about migrant workers who hand-picked tomatoes and were “entrapped in debt peonage…the very definition of powerlessness.” Yet they began to meet in a local church and “resolved, together, to act.” They organized work stoppages, then larger strikes, followed by mass marches. The press noticed and after five years the workers got a raise. They did not stop, but went on to challenge supermarkets and fast food chains that bought tomatoes in bulk. Eventually Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and Burger King agreed to raise wages and reform their supply chain. In 2014 Wal-Mart followed suit. The author asks us, if people “who started where they started could learn power and transform their lives, can’t anyone?” He suggests that if any of us believe change is needed, “ask yourself: ‘Who runs this place?’” Who has the power? Once you have those answers, ask, “How could this be different?” How do we find the power to make changes? To do so we need to understand power itself. Liu defines it as “the capacity to ensure that others do as you would want them to do.” He warns us, “Power is a kind of language. If you don’t learn how to practice power, someone else will do it for you…and often against your interests.” Fortunately, power itself is neutral: “it is no more inherently good or evil than fire or physics. It just is.” He shows us how to understand it. I learned that “power accumulates and justifies itself.” How could that work? We know lobbying is mostly done by and for the very rich. They and their lobbyists often justify their power by saying it is “not just deserved but natural.” They then suggest they’ve worked hard for their just desserts. Fortunately, we learn that “power is infinite” and can be conjured up, even by those who think they have none at all. This happened in Ferguson, Missouri. It began with the outrage at the police who killed Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager. Then “Progressives turned the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter into a rallying cry and the basis for reform agents.” Reformists are still working on this, but more people are demanding that the justice system treat all citizens with fairness and respect. Liu takes it further. He says, “We’re in a period where people across the political spectrum from right to left are pushing back and recognizing that the only remedy is to convert this feeling of ‘not enough say’ into ‘demanding a say.’” This book is a call to action for those who want change. The first thing to do is to get together with others to discuss what specifically needs to be altered or transformed. Once there is a clear topic—homelessness for example—then it is time to decide on the first step. There will be many steps thereafter, and probably a number of failures and retries, but a win comes with tenacity and flexibility. Liu founded Citizen University, a nonprofit citizen participation organization in Seattle. Programs at the University are geared to cultivate “the values, knowledge and skills of effective citizenship.” He knows whereof he speaks, and this is his how-to book for the activists among us. ~Vicky Downs

Hello Leschi Neighbors! Spring is upon us this month and no doubt we are all ready for sunshine and spring flowers. As you know, our monthly community meetings are the first Wednesday of each month. March’s meeting will be on Wednesday, March 7th. We have an exciting program planned for you. It pertains to the homeless problem and is called Housing for All. Watch further as our panel offering insight into diverse community living and the change that comes with it will be our May program. We encourage your attendance at our monthly meetings, as we serve our community at large and we all benefit from the collective ideas and thoughts a broad perspective offers. Last month we had a presentation at the meeting from the group who would like to have the LCC support its endeavor to beautify the wall on 31st and Jackson. Many voices were heard with varying degrees of concern, ideas and strategic suggestions. The Board has gone back to the group with the position of support with the caveats of primary support from Leschi and Mt. Baker community committees with veto power. We will keep you apprised of the answer we receive. Meanwhile, there are upcoming opportunities to get involved in gardening, landscaping and cleanup parties when our weather improves. Dust off your garden gloves and join us. As we look forward to the new beginnings of this time of year and the renewal opportunities, please consider becoming involved in our lively group. Change begins with us. May the daffodils and tulips light up your gardens. ~Janice Merrill Brown President, Leschi Community Council A note from a reader: Thank you so much for keeping up with all the relevant activities in our community and for reporting on them. I really appreciate this publication! ~Mary Jo Watanabe

January 8, 2018—Attending: Janice Merrill Brown, Trevor Menagh, Diane Snell, Tracy Bier, John Barber Treasury: Treasury report will be in newsletter. Larger expenses: SDOT $140; annual Bulk Mail Permit: $225 (We will be reimbursed half from Madrona CC) Old Business LOGO: Janice asked to move this item ahead as she has not had time to work on it. Racism Program: Janice is meeting with one of the coordinators in mid-January. Bank Account signatures: B of A told Janice that everyone needs to come in at once, including past officers. Elections: Trevor is running for Co-secretary of CANDC with Jon Stewart. Election is in February. New Business Programs for rest of year: Much discussion and many good ideas. Trevor will contact the Mt. Baker mural folks about a February 7 program. Tracy will contact Sandi Doughton about March; Tracy feels we need a series of programs to deal with emergency planning. Madison Park does a good job on this topic. List developed to capture all the ideas. John Barber: The King St. Street End was designed to be accessible, but former landowner put a large piece of concrete in the path. This needs to be removed. New homeowner seems more agreeable. King St is actually accessible as well. The marina contract is in effect and some work is going forward. Tracy: no luck getting Felicia Cross to write column for The Leschi News. Diane: February deadline: January 22 Deadlines: Diane explained how the deadline is figured and it relates to our meeting date. One works backward from there to figure when papers need to be at the Bulk Mail Center, backwards to determine when copy goes to printer and backwards to set a deadline. If we want to publicize something beyond Leschi, Madrona has an earlier deadline by about 10 days. ArtWalk news: Committee member Cara Ros wrote an application for a grant and we got it! Two year grant. First year $1300. CASC rent resolved: we have an invoice for all of 2017 and will be billed quarterly for this year. Next Board Meeting: Feb 12 at 7pm. Technology room at Senior Center. Treasury Report Restricted Fund: Frink Park is the largest of our neighborhood parks and we are extremely fortunate to have two dedicated stewards volunteering their time and energy to keep the invasive plants under control and to substitute native plants. (At some time in the distant past, volunteers actually planted the invasive ivy that we all fight against in an uphill battle!) These neighborhood “angels” are Darrell Howe and Darcy Thompson. Darrell won a grant from King County Conservation of $45,000 to restore wetlands in the park. This job required professional help and we are now at the end of the grant having hired outside groups to do the work. Darrell managed the grant himself and all the LCC Treasurer had to do was write checks as the money flowed in and then out again. A sweet deal for Frink Park and our Board!