Round and round over Green Lake trail

By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

An agitated City Council ripped into Mayor Norm Rice and his staffyesterday after hearing that its request for a new bicycle trail around GreenLake had been quietly torpedoed.

"From a point of accountability, it is not acceptable," said CouncilPresident Jim Street, upon learning that a $200,000 trail study ordered by thecouncil had not been done.

But people in the Parks Department say the only problem is that Street andthe other council members did not have the whole story -- that the study isproceeding, though slowly.

The confusion stems from a lack of communication at City Hall that has leftthe council and public in the dark about the future of the popular park foralmost a year.

Yesterday's flare-up also underscores the divergent opinions about anyfurther trail development at Green Lake, an urban oasis that is in danger ofbeing loved to death.

The City Council budgeted $200,000 last year to study the best way to buildan outer trail around the lake. The beltway, estimated to cost $1.4 million,would be exclusively for bicyclists and in-line skaters.

By giving those on wheels their own path, it was felt that fewerbike-pedestrian accidents and conflicts would occur. More than a millionpeople use the park each year.

But council staffers yesterday said the trail study hadn't been done, andinsinuated that the Parks Department may have dumped the idea without tellingthe council because of its cost.

Council staffers also said the council could redirect the unspent moneysome $175,000 -- for repairs to the lake's existing 3.2-mile shoreline path.

Perturbed, the council called on Diana Gale, director of Rice's Office ofManagement and Budget, to explain

Gale said a decision had been taken not to proceed, in part, because thecouncil had been split over whether to spend the $200,000 for the study.

Gale added that the city doesn't have enough money to build the secondpath, and that it didn't make sense to pay for a study that would not be used.

Council members took her remarks as a slap at their authority.

"For the executive (Rice) to unilaterally decide not to do it isinappropriate. It makes you wonder what other votes have been totallydiscounted," Councilwoman Jane Noland said during a break.

Neither Street nor Noland favor building the second path, but they bothsaid it was inexcusable for Rice to ignore an official action by a councilmajority. But Parks Superintendent Holly Miller, who was not at the meeting,said later that despite what the council was told, she has not ignored itsrequest. A consultant has spent some of the money the council allocated and isdrafting a plan for the second trail. The study, which was to have been donein June, is behind schedule, Miller acknowledged.

The study has identified a number of design problems.

Rather than spend more money, Miller said, the parks staff decided it wouldbrief the council -- later this month.

As to the council's concern that her department ignored its request, Millersaid, "Not in any way, shape or form. The time spent was analyzing the workthat would be needed."