The Rotary Club of Kirkland held an in-person meeting February 24, 2025, at the Kirkland Eagles Club.
Acting President Kate Koslosky presided at this meeting and called the meeting to order at 6:17 p.m.
Rick Ostrander led us in the Pledge of Allegiance; Jocelyn Ellison led us in the 4-Way Test recitation. Jim Meniketti provided us with raffle tickets.
Attending: David Aubry, Don Dicks*, Jocelyn Ellison, Monica Fratita*, Rashmi Garimella, Chris Kelly-Storbeck, Kate Koslosky, Jim Meniketti, Rick Ostrander, Rémy Pairault, Angela Pritchett, Daniel Sada Caraveo, John Storbeck, and Rick Walter. *Attended via Zoom.
Guests: Rémi Pairault introduced several of our guests, including speakers from the city of Kirkland: Rosalie Wessels, Kimberly Coraza, Pauli Maneevong, Sarah Olson. Also attending as guests of Cody Baker were Aron and Sarah Hommas. Rashmi Garimella introduced her sister Pooja Malholra. Rich Bergdahl is back again to visit with us after a hiatus. He has visited a number of other Rotary clubs, mostly north of us, over the past year. He reminded us to be proud of our Rotary membership. We welcomed with enthusiasm Stephanie Walter, spouse of Rick Walter, who is back for a visit as he continues his treatment.
Announcements:
Ms. Koslosky announced that she and Jocelyn Reiter attended Rotary’s President-Elect seminar this past weekend. Kate also reminded us that the Super-Sale is coming up in June and volunteers are needed. All club members are expected to participate in the process – set-up, sale, and take-down.
Dave Aubry passed out flyers explaining the importance of always wearing our Rotary pins.
Happy Bucks:
We did Happy Dollars in honor of Rick, who led things off with a generous donation, matched by Don Dicks, who attended by Zoom. There were quite a number of other Happy Rotarians.
Program:
John Storbeck introduced our speakers from the city of Kirkland, led by Sarah Olson, deputy director of public works. They were here to update us on the I-405/NE 85th Street Interchange project that will result improved public transportation north and south on I-405, and connections with transit east and west.
This a project of WSDOT and Sound Transit to build a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) stop and interchange with bus lines running east and west. Kirkland mostly is working on various improvements designed to take advantage of the new services.
We were shown a number of slides, with explanations, showing how the project will progress over the next couple of years, along with drawings of the final configuration. During construction, both North/South traffic and East/West traffic will be disrupted and realigned several times. This is to allow excavation and construction of the BRT stop area and the realignment of lanes on I-405 and NE 85th Street to intersect with each other, and with the BRT stop.
Both the city of Kirkland and WSDOT have web pages illustrating the project and how it is evolving. The project is funded largely by WSDOT and Sound Transit; this includes some of the improvements in the city of Kirkland.
One of the interesting improvements is the construction of a pedestrian/bicycle pathway adjacent to NE 85th Street west of I-405. This will involve some engineering challenges as there is no room on the current right-of-way for such a pathway.
Another change is some paving and median work on Central Way opposite Kirkland Urban and Peter Kirk Park.
Part of the presentation involved illustrating how this project is part of the larger project along I-405 from Lynnwood to Burien to improve both public transportation and the capacity of the I-405 right-of-way.
There were a number of questions from Rotarians.
Jocelyn Reiter gave us a quick update on the scholarship interview process. John Storbeck is looking for more speaker ideas after March.
Our guest Aron Hommas drew raffle tickets, resulting in wins for Daniel Sada Caraveo, Dave Aubry, Rich Bergdahl, and Kate Koslosky.
Acting President Kate Koslosky rang the bell to adjourn at 7:13 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
David Aubry – Acting Scribe