Briarcrest Neighborhood Association

One of our neighbors has had the bad experience of being poisoned by a malfunctioning furnace, with long lasting health impacts. She would like to share this information:

Is your furnace working properly?

Do you have a gas furnace? Did you know that a furnace can
malfunction without your knowing it? An old furnace can be a
threat to your health. When was the last time you had an annual
routine maintenance check-up? Carbon monoxide emission
levels must be monitored in order to avoid toxic exposure. An
annual check-up is imperative!
Carbon monoxide or CO, a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion,
can be emitted from a bad furnace at levels that can be harmful.
A person can suffer from physical ailments and symptoms of toxic
exposure without realizing the cause.
Carbon monoxide is a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion. It is a
colorless, odorless and tasteless gas and consequently it is very
hard to detect the presence of CO in the environment. When
properly installed and maintained, most fuel burning equipment,
natural gas, propane or oil, will produce insignificant amounts of
CO. Even at relatively low levels carbon monoxide is poisonous
because it rapidly accumulates in the blood thereby depleting the
body’s ability to carry oxygen.
Don’t let this poisonous gas cause harm to your health. Save
yourself and your family the hardship of being poisoned by this
harmful gas. Install a carbon monoxide detector in your home.
Give your furnace its annual routine maintenance check-up.

Hello neighbors,

We had a great meeting on Tuesday with Jacob Bilbo, the city Parks Bond Project Manager. Here is my summary of what we learned about the Hamlin/Briarcrest Park project: if you have questions, please write to me at skbriarcrest – at – gmail.com.

Timeline: fences should go up at the park site, ballfield 6, on March 24, actual construction to follow as soon as permits are finalized. They want to avoid starting the season with the ballfield in use and then yanking it. Construction is scheduled to take through spring 2026, although some of their other park projects have finished early.

Some of the features include:
Rebuild of the ramp access from the south end of the parking lot, along with stairs
Play structures with features for older, younger kids
Concrete slide
Zip line
Splash pad in two parts: one more passive, with less spray, and the other more active.
Restroom renovations

Osprey nest: they are paying a lot of attention to mitigate disturbance to the osprey nest.
They will conduct construction activities as far from the nest as possible
Demolition will be mostly done by hand
Construction materials won’t be staged near the nest
No disturbance to existing pole, will put up new nest pole – possibly with camera? New pole will be close by, with the hope that the ospreys will relocate to it by choice.

A total of 13 trees will have to come down, mostly to make way for the new ramp and stair access. Several of those are in bad shape now (pretty believable if you go look there). More trees will be planted of course. For replacement trees and landscaping they will lean towards natives/drought tolerant although it won’t be 100% native.

Lighting: some of the existing ballpark lighting will come down, but Jacob wasn’t sure exactly which ones. There will be some solar powered lighting along the access ramp/stairs, possibly on a schedule but also TBD.

The ballfield further from the street (ballfield 5) will stay open during construction.

Improving the south end of the parking for better ADA parking and/or a turnaround area was considered, but didn’t make it into this phase of the project due to cost.

The final name of the park is TBD. Possibilities include Briarcrest Park, Upper Hamlin, and Hamlin East.

The current plan is available at https://www.shorelinewa.gov/government/projects-initiatives/2022-park-bond-projects.