Story and photos by Mary Sheely
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Applications for the 2010 Neighborhood Projects Funds (NPF) should be turned in to the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council by March 3, and plans for Delridge Day and the next phase for the Delridge Produce Cooperative are both under way. All were discussed at tonight’s meeting of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council in the boardroom at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center.

Ron Angeles, Delridge District Coordinator for the Department of Neighborhoods, filled the group in on the first two items. Most pressing is the deadline for applications for the NPF, which Angeles and Dave Ellinger, co-secretary of the North Delridge council and a member of the District Council, urge applicants to complete by March 3.

The NPF awards money for neighborhood-proposed improvements such as sidewalk repair, traffic calming, or playground updates. The District Council will review all proposals and then select three for evaluation by the Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle Parks and Recreation. Learn more at the NPF website.

Any resident can fill out an application, and Jessie Summa-Kusiak, owner of Skylark Café and Club (WSB sponsor), had hers turned in by the meeting’s end.

Summa-Kusiak is concerned about speeding traffic as cars enter Delridge Way from the West Seattle Bridge, just north of Skylark’s front door. She’s hoping for traffic-calming devices such as a radar speed indicator to help slow things down.

Slightly more upbeat were discussions of Delridge Day, an annual event scheduled for June 5 this year — which Summa-Kusiak notes is Skylark’s fourth anniversary.

“The theme of this year will be food, fitness, and the environment,” Angeles says, and the event will work with initiatives such as Healthy Parks, Healthy You to plan events. Ideas being discussed include planting trees, cleaning up litter, neighborhood walks between the Delridge Community Center and areas like High Point and the West Duwamish Greenbelt, as well as the “fun things” like live music and food.

On a related note, there was a discussion of the small turnout — four people — at the latest Adopt-A-Street Cleanup the previous Saturday. The North Delridge council hopes for more volunteers at the next Adopt-A-Street, April 24.

Neighbor Galena White (above, with Jerry Hoffmeister) offered updates on Delridge Produce Cooperative, meeting at 6:30 p.m. each Monday. White says that a “Produce Party Potluck” will be held next month, tentatively on March 28, to get more people involved and start making concrete plans on their next moves. She says that the group has been getting opinions on whether to open a full-fledged produce store, a warehouse-type operation, or something more along the lines of a food cart. So far, White says, “The basic precepts that we all agree on are local, sustainably grown, cooperative, and non-profit.”

“Of course, I love all of it,” she says of the ideas.

The next North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting will be held March 9. The meeting location is yet to be determined.