Election, 2013

Well, the voters have spoken.

Now we just have to convince the mayor why, "This has never happened before, I have no idea why this has happened."

Mr. Evan Lee, my neighbor, had a pretty good idea what caused it and he managed to get his letter to the editor published in the Tacoma News Tribune on November 14, 2013.

I hope the current council members, as well as the incoming council members, will take note as well.  You cannot ignore the needs of the citizens of Fircrest and expect to get elected year after year.  How many voters in Fircrest did the affected residents talk to, concerning the council reaction of our frequent attendance to the City Council meetings?  Will other Fircrest residents get the same reaction when they present issues to the council?  I have yet to hear valid reasoning why the City of Fircrest will not provide adequate drainage to this area.

Now if we can only get the Mayor to figure out why two long time council members were not re-elected....

                                                                                                      Steven Post

Flood Tax

It may behoove you to review your real estate tax statement for 2013.  Everyone is now paying because we are in a "flood zone".  I wonder what bucket Fircrest is going to put the "new money"?

Would be nice if City of City of Fircrest could put our portion of the taxes to good use and put in some drainage between Monterey and Ramsdel.  They accepted the property years ago and never fulfilled their part of the bargain.

I have not seen any mention of the flood zone taxes in any of the City Council meeting minutes.  I guess as long as we keep sending our taxes, they keep cashing the checks.

ANY COMMENTS  ???

Legal Opinion to the City of Fircrest,

 Made Public

We received a copy of the legal opinion, by Morris Law, to the City of Fircrest.  It was sent to us by the City of Fircrest, which was appreciated.  Several of our neighbors received a copy of the letter, as well.  

Personally, I'm not too concerned about the contents.  I truly hope that the City of Fircrest actively completes more research on this issue.  I'm not an attorney and I like to keep my practice at law to an absolute minimum, but I simply don't agree with some of the issues she brings forth in her opinion concerning the ten foot easement.  I am not going to go much further than that in my explanation because as I mentioned before, I'm not an attorney.

However, in the opinion submitted to the City of Fircrest she does concede a number of issues.  Here are just a few of those issues:

• The ten foot section of land was given to the Town of Fircrest (1961) and accepted by Fircrest on a "quit claim deed" with the notations of "streets, utilities, and drainage".

• The drainage easement was required on the plat, "because of the discovery of spring water in the area".  As stated in the letter of legal opinion, her source of this information was "City of Fircrest Staff".

I hope her source of information also advised her that the Fircrest Park, near the recreation center, used to be Spring Lake and water was very prevalent in the area which is why drainage was required to be annotated on the final plat.

Please take a few minutes to read the "Legal Opinion-Easements", submitted to the the City of Fircrest by Morris Law.  You can find the link to the document in this blog under the "Interesting Links" page.

Again, I appreciate the submission of this document to us by the City of Fircrest.

News Reviews

      Fircrest isn't the only Guilty Municipality!

This article came out in the Sunday, June 10, 2012 edition, as front page headline, titled "Open courts, closed files: Hitting roadblocks in quest for public files".  Unsure if many of you were aware that my wife, Julie Post, stated in a council meeting that you could no longer obtain information about the legal description of your property in Fircrest.  Prior to September, 2011, you could go to the Pierce County Website and input your parcel number to find information about your property.  Since September 2011 you will still see some information about your property however much of the remaining information you will see, "Contact City of Fircrest".

This "roadblock" occurred shortly after I gave Mr. Trent Lougheed, of the City of Fircrest, a copy of our legal description at  Monterey Lane containing our "Express Easement" stating a 10' property border was for the use of Fircrest for "Utilities, Streets, and Drainage".  For those who haven't been following our group for very long, this has probably been our foundation statement of our cause, since the onset of our cry for help.

At the last study session the mayor of Fircrest, Mr. David Viafore, stated he was going consult their land attorney to obtain legal standing on this issue. By the way, this Tuesday, June 12, 2012 is the City of Fircrest Council meeting where this issue is supposed to be addressed.

As the title of this page states Fircrest is not the only municipality guilty of this "skulduggery", for lack of a better term.  I was simply unaware this issue was so widespread!

Meeting

 I met with Mr. Trent Lougheed from City of Fircrest, on June 23, 2011 and located the origin of the "spring" which is causing most of the recent water flow on my property.  The spring is located on the easement area northwest of my property. This area is designated for the City of Fircrest to have access, if a drain is needed, and is listed as such on all of our property titles which border the spring.  I was advised by the City to get together with another homeowner and install a drain, to route the water to the storm drain.

I was told by Mr. Lougheed that the spring is an "act of God" and the City is not liable for installation of a drain.  What I don't understand is why should we have to provide access for the City to provide a drain if they refuse to take responsibility for installation of a drain.

Does this make sense to you?