Category Archives: Neighborhood Activity

Use this Category to report suspicious or actual security activity in the SunRise Terrace sub-division.

Increasing Traffic on 122nd St East – Its Going to get WORSE – Much WORSE

Neighborhood Activity, Neighborhood Security, Public Service Announcements, Safety

Below is a note that one of our neighbors in the Shawnee Ridge development is sending to the people of Shawnee Ridge.  I think it contains some good information about concerns all of us should have. Exiting from any area on to 122nd St E has gotten much more difficult over the last two years, and it is going to get worse, much worse. Unless we act now we are going to find ourselves with long waits to get out of our areas/driveways, followed by a mad dash hoping not to be smashed by approaching vehicles.

I know the situation is dangerous as it is now.  One day I stopped at Military Rd. E. and 122nd St. E., checked for traffic and pulled out smartly on to 122nd St. E. going west. I had gone only 30 to 40 yards on 122nd when a vehicle whizzed by on my left, cut in front of me and sped away.  I have no idea how fast he was going, but am glad he missed me and the oncoming traffic.

“Signatures needed on Petition at SR162traffic.com.” 

“if you are concerned about privacy please note that you only need to fill in the starred boxes at SR162traffic.com petition to register your concern.  The more signatures we can get the better we hope it will be for traffic in our neighborhood.”

Neighborhood HOA

I live in the Shawnee Ridge HOA and have been involved in the SR162 Community Group for almost a year.  You may have seen our signs on SR162 advertising our Website, “SR162traffic.org”.  Our main focus right now is to try and stop Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) from building a roundabout at SR162 and 128th street.  You can go to our Website to learn more but let me explain briefly how a roundabout at 128th street impacts your homeowners. 

Tehaleh is the largest development in Washington State.  Close to 10,000 homes are expected to be built in this development at completion.  For the month of October Tehaleh sold an average of 12 homes a week.  In order for the builder to continue to keep building these homes the county is requiring them to build a four lane road from their development down to 128th and SR162.  WSDOT has no plans to expand SR162 to handle this additional traffic which is expected to increase SR162 traffic by 150%. 

This has a direct impact to traffic on Military road and south hill.  Traffic wanting to go west are expected to use Military road to get off the gridlock of SR162.  When the new road to Tehaleh opens up, the traffic on military is expected to increase 135% to 150%.   In addition, if the roundabout is allowed to be installed at 128th, the next roundabout is planned for SR162 and Military road.  A total of 11 roundabouts are planned between Orting and SR410.  Once the Military roundabout is installed there will be few breaks in traffic that will allow you to get onto Military Road/122nd St. E.

This is the primary reason I am involved with the SR162 Group.  We need traffic signals on SR162 to provide breaks in traffic.  We will also need traffic signals on Military Road so we can get out of our neighborhoods safely. 

We have been discussing improvements for the Military Road corridor with the county transportation division that would help with the safety issues but they are years away. 

We are asking that you would join us in stopping these roundabouts by communicating the information provided here to your residents so that they all know about this future traffic mess.   We also have a petition on our website SR162traffic.org that we are asking everyone to sign that requests the state to do required reviews that would look at the traffic impacts of a roundabout.  This petition will be provided to our legislators in Olympia who we are already talking to, to get them to demand traffic signals instead of roundabouts on SR162.

SR162 Community Group

Elvin Lerew email etlerew@hotmail.com

Help for our Neighbors in the time of Covid-19

Neighborhood Activity, Neighborhood Events, Public Service Announcements

My name is Julie Hrivnak.  My phone number is 253-279-7355, and my email address on hotmail is jewelsriv@hotmail.com.

I would like to help out the elderly in our Sunrise neighborhood.

As I am sure everyone is aware the Governor has issued a stay at home order. This is especially important for our elderly, or immuno-compromised populace. I am sure a lot of you have friends and family that will do a good job looking out for you and getting supplies that you need. I would like to offer my name , number and email for anyone in our neighborhood to reach out to me with any of your needs. Can I make a grocery run for any of you? Can I talk you through setting up online grocery delivery? Think you may be sick and don’t know what the next steps are? Anything I can do to help you stay in and away from the germs please reach out. Any interaction we have will be at a distance via phone or a porch drop off. I do work in healthcare and don’t want to expose anyone to anything. I also don’t want anyone putting themselves at risk for a little food or toilet paper. If I can help you I will.

If you are healthy and would like to offer me any help with this endeavor that would be appreciated and I can be contacted at the above number and email. Stay well.

Proposed new road from Tehaleh subdivision to SR162

Interesting Things, Neighborhood Activity

 

Luke Rambo has asked that I provide an update on the SR162Traffic.org meetings I sometimes attend.  I was planning on doing this at the last Sunrise Terraces meeting but was unable to attend.   —- Wayne Reibold

  • I attend some of the periodic SR162Traffic.org meetings.  They’re very eager to involve Sunrise Terraces residents in their activity.  Currently I’m the only Sunrise Terraces resident that attends the meetings and I’m unable to attend all of them.  Anyone interested in attending meetings please e-mail me your interest at WynsWrld98@yahoo.com and I’ll put you in touch with the SR162Traffic.org meeting coordinator.  sr162traffic.org has a lot of information on their activity and also a link to their Facebook page where you can request to become a member and follow the activity.
  • The attached map shows the activity on/around SR162 that SR162Traffic.org is involving themselves as oversight.  A very notable thing on the map is a new FIVE LANE road being built from Tehaleh to intersect SR162 at 128th St E.  It is expected to be open within 5 years.  This road is of particular concern for many Sunrise Terraces residents due to it being so wide at five lanes and that it runs angled from south to north making it more visible to some Sunrise Terraces residents when looking towards Mt Rainier vs if the new road was running angled north to south.  The County will be putting very tall silver street lights along the new road which will make the road especially visible to some Sunrise Terraces residents at night.  SR162Traffic.org requested of the County that the street light poles be painted green or brown to blend but this was denied since it is a County standard for them to be silver and they can’t make an exception just for one project in the County.
  • Tehaleh (see attachment) is planning on having 9,500 “residential units” (including apartments, duplexes and single family residences) at full build out.  It’s believed currently there are over 1,000.  What this will do to the already significant traffic on Military Road/122nd St E is alarming since it’s the likely artery to get from Tehaleh to Puyallup/South Hill.  And of course the load it will add to the already overloaded SR162…  Here is a link of importance: https://sr162traffic.org/Military-Road-2/Tehaleh Map
  • One of the main things SR162Traffic.org is trying to accomplish is to make sure signals are placed at the intersection of SR162 and 128th St E vs a roundabout that is the current plan.  The SR162Traffic.org proposal is two left turn lanes from southbound SR162 going onto the new road to Tehaleh to keep evening traffic moving.  The decision for a roundabout at that intersection is deemed flawed due to not considering the unique nature of that intersection such as the large number of gravel trucks that travel up and down SR162 that will undoubtedly result in long delays at the roundabout since a gravel truck would require a lot of space to get through the roundabout as well as increased accidents of cars and gravel trucks interacting in a roundabout.  SR162Traffic.org is pushing for proper modeling of this intersection which should show a roundabout is a very bad idea and that signals would be far safer and better move traffic.  But there is a big push for roundabouts so it’s a challenging situation.
  • As shown on the attached map the County may do a study to extend 128th St E up the hill as an access point to South Hill to take some traffic load off of Military Road/122nd St E.  The County is also discussing widening Military Road to 3 lanes but only a short distance west of SR162 due to the “cliff” that exists that would be very expensive to deal with.  It is expected none of these studies would happen until after the new Tehaleh road opens.  The County states its top priority right now is the work they’re doing on Canyon Road extending it from where it ends at Pioneer Way East in Puyallup to 70th Avenue E in Fife.SR162TrafficDotOrg Map
  • NOTE: You can click on the map above to enlarge it on your computer.
  • The current plan is to put several roundabouts on SR162 including at the intersection of Military Road/122nd St E and 128th St E among others.  SR162Traffic.org is against this plan and is pushing for signals.
  • Regarding possible widening of SR162 between Orting and SR410 the only thing being discussed long-term is to add ONE lane.  You’d think four or five lanes would be a good idea due to how much traffic already travels on SR162 but the reason even SR162Traffic.org isn’t pushing for that is they want to keep the area more rural with farms vs a large highway running through the area.  There is talk of having an alternate corridor parallel to SR162 east of it to get people (especially from Tehaleh) up towards SR410/Sumner/Bonney Lake.  The road being discussed is McCutcheon Road East/Riverside Road East.  Many people including myself take the back roads in this area during rush hour to avoid some of the SR162 traffic between Military Road E/122nd St E and SR410.
  • New Tehaleh Road Level 3 Reforestation (see attachment) to deal with removal of trees/foliage during excavation – this is something Tehaleh brought up as a probable “mitigation” they would have to do and that they seemed quite willing to do.  Pierce County has not yet required it.  That’s where we all might come in…to push the County to require it so Tehaleh can’t change their mind and do anything less.  It needs to be in writing from the County to be sure we really get it.Tehaleh_L3_Landscape

 

 

SUNRISE TERRACE NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING

Neighborhood Activity, Neighborhood Security, Public Service Announcements

 

May 16:  7-8 pm

Sunrise Baptist Church

Are you concerned about traffic, road safety and our view?  Do you enter and exit 122nd and Military?  Change is coming to our neighborhood because of a new county road under construction between Tahaleh and McMillin.  Come learn what the state and county plans are for our neighborhood.  You know your ACC (Architectural Control Committee) would not organize a mid-year meeting unless we thought it was really important.

 

Guest speaker will be from the sr162traffic.org community group.

Mail Thieves Are At It Again

Neighborhood Activity, Neighborhood Security, Safety

This morning I received the following report from one of our neighbors:

On our early morning walk this morning, we found our neighbor’s mail strewn up the 136th hill on the curve where those cars park (which is dangerous to those of us going out as it is hard to see oncoming traffic around that curve).  There was more mail on the intersection of 118th & 136th and the mailboxes at the corner of 119th & 136th were all open with more mail on the ground. Just thought you’d like to know.

PLEASE CALL THE US POSTAL SERVICE AT 1 (800) 275-8777 TO REPORT MAIL THEFTS.

 

From the Architectural Control Committee

Neighborhood Activity

The Sunrise Terrace Architectural Control Committee thanks everyone who came to the annual meeting Oct. 11.  We enjoyed delicious treats, had a great time visiting, and learned some history about our neighborhood.  We met the real Jennifer, for whom Jennifer Court is named.  The committee reported on actions taken the past year.  Everyone is encouraged to greet their new neighbors and tell them about our directory and blog.  Please send their name, phone number, address and email to Kirk Hall kahalljr@comcast.net  so we can include them in our communication.  To save money we don’t use postcards any longer so will continue to keep in touch with the blog, web site and e-mail. 

 Because of recent questions about where people are in which Addition and which Covenant covers them, we are working on a compilation of the maps of each Addition and PDFs of the Covenants.  When completed they will be posted on the web site which hosts our Blog.  They will be downloadable and you will be able to access them. This is a work in progress and we will notify everybody when it’s done.

You are also encouraged to talk to your neighbors about driving slowly through our streets, removing trees that have the potential to fall on your house or a neighbor’s house, and cleaning the gutters and storm drains to avoid floods in the low areas. 

Following the meeting the committee learned the Pierce County numbers to call for questions and to report concerns.  For roads it is 253-798-6000.  For traffic it is 253-798-8000.  We reported the alder tree which is leaning into 122nd between Military and 133rd and the hole in the county fence on 122nd just east of 133rd.  A county employee has already been out to inspect. 

We look forward to seeing each other in the neighborhood and hope to see you at next year’s annual meeting.  

Know Your Neighbor – and make certain you know their e-mail

Neighborhood Activity, Neighborhood Security

Over the last several years our Neighborhood has seen many changes.  Recently a number of the homes have changed hands, something which did not happen very frequently in past years.

Now we face a quandary – how many of the new people know about our Blog – how many know about the Sunrise Terrace Directory and have submitted their information?  If you have a new neighbor could you take a moment to go over, say hello and make certain they know about these things?  If they don’t have the information, perhaps you could give them my phone number (253) 840-0411 or have them drop me a line at kahall@hotmail.com.

–Locking Mailboxes– Stolen Mail

Neighborhood Activity

Carol Silvernail reported this to me and asked that it be posted in the Blog. Dav Eide and I appreciate people reporting things like this so that we can post them.

Fort Knox mailboxes are made in Grant’s Pass, Oregon and several of us in the neighborhood have them. I mention that because on Sunday morning (Aug 2) as we were driving up Military towards 122nd we noticed a lot of trash on the side of the road. When we came back a few hours later it was still there so we stopped. It was stolen mail. Most of it was junk but there were a few unopened official looking pieces and lots of envelopes that had been opened. The addresses of the stolen mail were from 81st Ave in Spanaway. There was also a traffic ticket issued July 28th to a girl from Bonney Lake driving without insurance. I called the Pierce County Sheriff non-emergency number this morning and within a few hours a sheriff stopped by and picked up what I had found. The Sheriff’s non-emergency number is 798-4721.

I also noticed a lot of other litter on Military, going up to 122nd. Maybe when the weather cools down we can clean up along the road.