Association

How It All Began

The Echo Lake Neighborhood Association (ELNA) was formed on December 20, 1996 under the leadership of Dwight Stevens.  In 1995, Dwight walked the neighborhood, personally putting a meeting flyer on every one of 2,900 doorsteps!  The first meeting was held in the Echo Lake Elementary School gymnasium, and was attended by 77 people.  Mary Alice Burley, of the Rose Hill Neighborhood Association, was the speaker at the first meeting.  

The first chair of the association was Brian Doennebrink, who was named the first president of the association, followed by Kevin Grossman. Newsletter editors were Janet & Dave Barber.  Dwight Stevens served as Chair for 10-12 years, with Linda Williford co-chairing for one year and Dale Wright for 2 years. When Dwight retired he was replaced by a board.  The present governing board has between four and eight members who run the association cooperatively and collaboratively.

ELNA is part of the City of Shoreline Council of Neighborhoods, under the direction of the City's Office of Neighborhoods. During the first beach augmentation at Echo Lake Park, ELNA bought 3 yards of sand from Salmon Bay Lumber.  The next time, mini-grant funds bought 80 yards of sand.  Later the Parks Department provided the sand to the beach. Current best practice is not to add sand to the beach.

Accomplishments of the association include:  

>  Monitoring the health of Echo Lake by water sampling, coordinating with King County and the City of Shoreline for water testing

    and coordinating with Shoreline Planning and Development Services and local project developers re water run-off into the lake.

    Volunteers took care of this for over ten years. When King County said they would no longer do the testing for free,

    ELNA successfully petitioned the City of Shoreline to take over the monitoring and payment for testing.

>  Using neighborhood mini-grant funds for signs to mark the neighborhoods.  (Echo Lake Neighborhood was the first to get its

    "welcome to the neighborhood" signs posted.)

>  Using mini-grant funds for more picnic tables and benches in Shoreline Park and Echo Lake Park.

>  Working with the city to deal with traffic and parking by Shoreline Park and Shoreline Pool (@ 190th & 1st Ave. N.).

>  Coordinating with the artist(s) for the Echo Lake Neighborhood mural and the art installation at Echo Lake Park (2008).

>  Most recently, a small group of neighbors in the Ashworth, Densmore area created an informal group, and under the umbrella of ELNA,

    successfully petitioned the City for mini-grant funds and support to turn an entire city block Right-of-Way into a landscaped pathway with

    picnic areas and native plants. The project won a national award from NUSA, but the real reward was the beautiful, usable space created.