Photo by Janine Gates
Olympia - January 26, 2009
Karen Veldheer announced her candidacy for Olympia City Council last night at a meeting of the Coalition for Neighborhood Association steering committee. Veldheer serves on the committee as a homeowner and representative of the Cooper Crest Community Neighborhood Association.
In her statement to the committee, Veldheer resigned from the committee to run for office.
Veldheer said, "Olympia is a great city and has a great wealth of community knowledge and energy. People spend a great deal of time and energy studying critical local issues and they often feel like they are not heard. This is tragedy in a city with such a rich history of public involvement. City business can and should be done better. I pledge to work to build public confidence and listen to public input."
"I will continue to work with the City to make the the necessary repairs to homes in Cooper Crest and to serve as the Cooper Crest representative to the CNA. Thank you for all of the support and I look forward to seeing you all as I begin this new phase of my life," Veldheer concluded.
Veldheer, a married mother of five and an Olympia resident since May 2005, is best known for the difficulties she has had with the builders of her home on the Westside of Olympia. Other neighbors have had similar problems and have made those problems known to current Olympia city council members.
Veldheer wrote about the plight of homeowners at Cooper Crest in an article in the September/October 2008 issue of the South Sound Green Pages. In the article, she details the failure of the stormwater management system, the use of non-native landscaping, and other promised features characteristic of a low impact development.
The article can be read at http://www.oly-wa.us/greenpages.
