January 2015

In this newsletter:
1. Flooding has happened. Now what?
2. Report from the Task Force on Safely Relinquishing a Newborn Baby
3. Helping the Little People in your Life Develop their Potential

Dear District 3 friend,

Happy New Year! I hope your times together with family and friends were joy-filled celebrations and that 2015 brings you many blessings.

Already this year, we experienced the worst flooding since 2009 and many of you were affected. I've included a lot of very pertinent information on flooding in this edition of my monthly newsletter. Please read the information below and let my office know if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

I've been busy since we passed the budget, working on new legislation and speaking at a number of community functions. If your club, homeowners' association or service organization is interested, I'd be happy to come and talk about county government and how it affects our daily lives. Just call my office (206.477.1003) so we can schedule.

I wanted to mention two significant things in addition to flooding. The Council recently received the report from the Task Force on safely relinquishing a newborn baby. This task force was in response to the body of a newborn infant found in the woods near North Bend. We want to make sure people know that a baby can be given up safely at any fire station or hospital – no questions asked.

I'm also working on a rewrite of the County's noise code. For anyone who has ever had to deal with an overly noisy neighbor, this legislation may bring some path to relief. The original law was written in 1977 and needed to be totally rewritten. A task force worked for a year with various groups and individuals to write this ordinance. It will get a hearing on January 27th in the Law, Justice, Health and Human Services Committee.

May 2015 bring you and your family much happiness and success.

It's a privilege to represent you on the Council.

Kathy Lambert

1. Flooding has happened. Now what?

Both King County and the Washington State Department of Transportation have resources available to update people about flooding issues.

For general information, you can visit the website of the King County Flood Control District: http://www.kingcountyfloodcontrol.org/

The Flood Control District also has specific information:

You can subscribe to KC Flood Alerts, a free automated system that allows subscribers to receive customized alerts of potential flooding for any or all of King County's six major river systems. Immediate notifications about pending high water are sent to email, smart phone text or voicemail, providing subscribers with the maximum amount of warning about potential high water.

(I have my phones signed up. So when they both ring at once, it may be flood time!)

The district has developed an app for your smart phones (Android, iPhone and Windows Phone). You can download it here: https://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/waterandland/flooding/warning-system/app.aspx

For detailed status reports on state highways such as SR-203, please visit the Washington State Department of Transportation's website. Although King County has automated WSDOT alerts so they appear on the county's map through RSS feeds, it is still recommended that you refer to WSDOT directly for critical information.

Weather- related highway closure information can be found on WSDOT's blog at http://wsdotblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/weather-related-highway-closures.html

Travel alerts can be monitored at http://www.wsdot.com/traffic/trafficalerts.

Local road conditions can be monitored at the My Commute map: www.kingcounty.gov/mycommute. The traffic cameras on this page show real-time images of selected roads in King County and whether any road closed signs are present day and night.

Sandbag Distribution Centers: https://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/waterandland/flooding/sandbag-distribution.aspx

2. Task force on safely relinquishing a newborn baby

The Council report prepared by the task force created to examine ways of increasing awareness of options available for parents to legally and safely give up a newborn is now available.

I'm grateful for the commitment of the task force members who produced this report. Their work will result in more people knowing about the options available to safely relinquish a newborn.

The goal of the task force is to educate people to be able to save lives and provide options to parents who don't know where to turn for help. The task force consisted of representatives from the Executive and Council, local cities, health care institutions, public health, the criminal justice system, human service agencies, and first responders.

Here's the link to the Task Force Report: http://is.gd/Report_Safely_Relinquishing

3. Helping the little people in your life develop their potential

On a happier note, I went to a conference on early learning recently. They gave some powerful information on activities we can do easily with young children to help give them opportunities to make brain connections to assist them in reaching their potential. There is also an assessment parents can do to help monitor their child’s development. All these free resources are online.

Check out these websites:
www.joinvroom.org
www.kingcounty.gov/beststarts
www.parenthelp123.org

These sites are for everyone - parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles… and everyone else who cares about children.