Caring for Clover Creek, March 7, 6:30pm

Clover Creek, from Steilacoom Lake to Frederickson, is a mess. It’s dry much of the year from the asphalt ditch in Parkland to Waller Road. It is also sadly, full of trash, weeds and other debris. It is subject to contaminants from the military base and other businesses and roadways around it. If you live…

It’s About Our Water

Co-Authored by Kirk Kirkland & Al Schmauder. [Republished from the Suburban Times] In the face of escalating urbanization in Pierce County, a concerning lack of oversight exists in monitoring drinking water usage and assessing evolving trends. The repercussions are evident, with increasing water pollution, diminishing well levels, and the cessation of winter flow in Clover…

Mistakes were made, a water battle looms

By Marianne Lincoln In 1931, Pierce County Drainage District 20 built a ditch. This ditch drained the farms to the west of 47th Avenue between 128th Street and 112th Street. At the time, the really wasn’t a 47th Avenue, but the LaForge Farm was there since 1915 along with the Andre Farm to the North…

Can we save Clover Creek?

By Marianne Lincoln On January 4, a group of advocates and landowners along Clover Creek met at the Parkland Spanaway Library to talk about how to improve the creek and stop hurting it. Much work is yet to be done as far as setting up a solid organization to move forward, but the list produced…

Comments on Tiny Village MDNS due Nov. 30

MDNS Comments Due by Nov. 30th!! The County has issued a Mitigated Determination of Non-significance, MDNS, for the Tiny Home Village in Spanaway. This means that, despite the public’s overwhelming concerns about the impact this giant project in this critical area will have on the environment, wetlands, water table, Spanaway Lake, traffic on Spanaway Loop…

House demolition, but no silt fence

By Marianne Lincoln Spanaway is watching. There is already a high level of concern about how the Tiny Home Village project was dropped on our community. There are lawyers being paid to defend the interests of people living on the lake self-taxing to improve water quality. Then this project comes along and threatens to make…

PSM-LUAC Nov. 15, 6:30pm, Sprinker !!

By Cindy Beckett This will be heard at the Parkland-Spanaway-Midland Advisory Commission public meeting date is November 15, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. at Sprinker Recreation Center. (Remember, you will hike a distance to get in from parking due to construction right now.)  The Land Use Advisory Commission will be reviewing the homeless village project now labeled…

New Tribune opinion piece a political farce

By Marianne Lincoln, Editor Another opinion, or three. For my entire lifetime, I have lived in unincorporated Pierce County. Everyone here I know has always been cynical of the opinions of the New Tribune because they always seem to back up the opinions of the County or city of Tacoma officials and disregard the information…

The rain is finally headed this way

It has been a very dry year, perhaps a record. We lost a lot of aquatic creatures to dry creeks. There is a week of rain coming, that rain will move salmon up the river and creeks. So get out your raingear and your fishing poles. From Al Schmauder, noted Clover Creek walking steward: My…

Vanishing water – bits from other stewards

To whom it may concern: My name is Diane Dumond.  I lived on carp lake for 15 years.  I was a stream team volunteer taking water samples from the lake for 17 years.  I have worked in the field of water testing for over 40 years. There seems to be a question as to whether…

Veto Override today? Aug. 22, 2023

By Marianne Lincoln UPDATED Spanaway, Parkland and Frederickson, being unincorporated urban communities get many promises for infrastructure and services. Since the 1980’s, the Cross Base Highway was promised to help alleviate traffic from all the housing developments the County allowed to squeeze into the area. The highways project meetings went on for decades, involving community…