Lakewood Safety Team Provides Tips on Thwarting Recent Spate of Burglaries to Restaurants

City celebrates 16th Birthday

The City of Lakewood will celebrate its 16th birthday on Feb. 28. Please review the 2011 Year End Report to see how far the city has come in its short but productive history.

CSRT provides safety tips to Lakewood fast food restaurants to thwart burglaries

Due to a recent spate of burglaries at local fast food restaurants, CSRT and LPD Neighborhood Patrol Officers are contacting Lakewood fast food restaurants with safety tips designed to help them prevent burglaries. CSOs and NPOs are also getting contact information to have on file to be able to quickly disseminate additional information to the businesses as it becomes available. 

Year End Report available on City’s website

The 2011 Year End Report (as an edition of “Connections”) was mailed to citizens this week and is arriving in mailboxes now. The report is also available on the city's web site.

Lakewood Police serve search warrant at recycling center

. The team serving the warrant included representatives from CSRT, Washington State Department of Ecology, City of Lakewood Building Enforcement and Public Works, Puget Sound Energy, Tacoma Public Utilities, Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, and West Pierce Fire & Rescue.

Several months ago, officers began to note that there was a large amount of business being conducted at WOTC with subjects known to be involved in metal thefts and drug trafficking. The service of the search warrant resulted in the recovery of items that had been stolen from two different businesses.

Police are continuing the investigation and will forward to prosecutors for potential criminal charges.

Worms and Fishing and Healthy Start After School Programs

The PRCS Department is collaborating with on two projects that will start in March. The first is a recycling/composting project utilizing worm bins to educate students about the benefits of worms (how they produce castings to enhance soils at the same time reducing the amount of non-meat food waste).

The healthy worms will be ready to be used as bait for the PRCS Kids Fish-In event in May. The second project is the Healthy Start program that promotes kids having a nutritious diet and to be physically active to combat the growing trend of childhood obesity.

The program is funded by the City of Lakewood, Lakewood’s Promise, Communities in Schools, St. Clare Hospital and the Clover Park School District. Students play a wide variety of games and activities and receive fresh fruits and vegetables provided by local businesses.

The program will extend hours on regularly scheduled school half-days to provide consistency and reduce childcare needs for parents. All Healthy Start participants will be invited to participate again this year in the Tacoma Kids Marathon.

Bridgeport Way – South of Flanegan Road

Tree removal and wall construction on the west side of Bridgeport Way south of Flanegan Road will start next week. The work is in preparation for the Bridgeport Way/north city limits roadway improvement project that will add bicycle lanes and sidewalks this summer. The construction will require temporary lane closures (during working hours only) and will last for six to eight weeks.

Refuse rate increase in Lakewood

The City refuse service rates will increase staring March 1. The rate increases are associated with the annual automatic cost adjustment provisions contained within the city's contract with our refuse service provider.

The automatic adjustment factors relate to the yearly change in our area Consumer Price Index and the change in the land fill “tipping fee.”.  The CPI increase was 1.742 percent. The tipping fee increased by $7.06 per ton (or 5.827 percent).

Because the tipping fee is only a component of the residential customer service charge, the net combined increase to our residential customer is 3.863 percent. This equates to a $1.14 per month increase to a residential customer with weekly pick up service of a 65 gallon bin with recycling.

CSRT provides personal safety training for Lakewood Area Shelter Association

CSO Mike Miller conducted two personal safety presentations this week for the “Life Skills” classes held at Trinity Baptist Church.  Approximately 30 people attended the classes, which included question and answer sessions.

CSRT conducts sign code presentation

Code Enforcement Officer Doug Price presented at this month’s LOCAL (Lakewood Organization of Community Active Landlords) meeting. CEO Price presented an overview of the recent sign code changes. Eleven rental-housing owners and managers were in attendance, so the presentation was tailored to issues that impacted their sign usage.

CSRT assists Pierce College with Operation Child ID event

CSO Gail Conelly assisted the Pierce College Criminal Justice Program with their 7th Annual Operation Child ID event on February 15th. CSO Conelly operated a fingerprint station and fingerprinted 72 children at the event. Other services included DNA swabs, dental impressions, and video of the children, showing their personality and speech patterns.