Arts, Heritage, and Cultural Programs: Running through December 13 at City Hall, this art show honors veterans by showcasing works created by veterans and their family members. Titled Operation Art to Heal, the exhibit emphasizes the power of art in fostering healing. Monthly events feature activities such as painting, drawing, and crafting, designed to help veterans address challenges like PTSD, depression, anxiety, and military sexual trauma, while combating suicide. Organized by the Pacific Northwest Veteran Assistance Program, a local 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the initiative supports veterans in emotional need, celebrating their service and promoting their well-being. 

Recreation Programs: Teens With a Cause is thriving in three of our Edmonds School District middle schools and is excited to welcome our fourth middle school this month! These remarkable students are making a significant impact in our community through various volunteer efforts. From assisting at local elementary schools to partnering with Snohomish County Conservation and Natural Resources at Meadowdale Beach, their dedication is inspiring. They’ve also brought creativity and kindness to their schools by crafting Halloween candy grams and painting decorative rocks for gardens. Although this program just started for the school year a few weeks ago, these teens are off to an impressive start with even more exciting projects on the horizon! 

Parks Update: Last month's wind storms caused several trees to come down in many of our parks. Gold Park was hit the worst. Six large trees came down over the trail. Crews worked hard to get trails open and cleared for the disc golfers, who didn't miss a beat in visiting the park. Crews will clean the parks for the next few weeks to complete the clean-up.

Seasonal lighting is going up at the Civic Campus, Wilcox, and Heritage Park. This is always a welcome change as the fall colors fade and the leaves fall from the trees. As December approaches, crews will continue with the winter clean-up and pruning. We have around 500 trees that need pruning each year, including the parks and street right-of-way. 

Wishing our Director Farewell: Bill Franz is retiring from the City of Lynnwood after 33 years. He started in 1991 as a Civil Engineer 2 in Plan Review, from there he worked his way through many roles and became the Public Works Director in 2004. From his early engineering work to leading Lynnwood Public Works, he's had a wide reaching career impact—from managing stormwater programs and rebuilding major roads to establishing programs that improved city infrastructure and quality of life for our community. His leadership brought $100 million in grants, improved transportation, environmental programs, and even a salmon hatchery!  Thank you to bill for your commitment to Lynnwood.

Traffic Signal Storm Response: The recent November 19^th windstorm caused widespread power outages in the Puget Sound region. Although many traffic signals in the region were dark, this was very limited in Lynnwood because the city’s traffic signals are equipped with battery back-up systems. Of the city’s 69 traffic signals, 21 lost power. Of those 21, only one ran out of battery power (168th & 52^nd). It ran for 6 hours before the batteries died.  The other 20 intersections ran on batteries during the entire outage. The longest running backup was about 7 hours 28 minutes!  One of the city’s traffic signal technicians, Mike Thomas, who has been with the city for 20-years said this is the best our system has performed the entire time he has been with the city. Overall, staff is very pleased with how the system operated. Not only is it dangerous to have dark traffic signals, but it can also cause long traffic backups, and become a resource drain on emergency and public works personnel, who already have their hands full with other storm related issues. Much of the reason why the system performed so well is many of the batteries were recently replaced through a routine maintenance upgrade. Many thanks to our wonderful traffic operations team! Please congratulate them if you have an opportunity!”

PW Awarded TIB Grant: The Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) selected our project, 44th Avenue W Underpass Pedestrian and Bicycle Improvement, for an award of 13.1441% of eligible project costs with a maximum grant of $1,000,000.  This project will improve our community by creating safer sidewalks near the Lynnwood Park and Ride that also services the Lynnwood Light Rail stop, and many different bus route stops. It will affect those who plan to walk or ride to the station and into our developing City Center. Grants like this help make the project possible. 

This year, the Transportation Improvement Board received requests to fund 325 projects totaling $295 million. They are pleased to provide $145.5 million in transportation investments to cities and counties like ours throughout the state.