By Karen Shiveley
Ring, ring!
There I was sprawled in front of the TV, thanking God I didn’t live in Moore, Okla. and feeling sadness for the people who do. My condo neighbor and dear friend Gayle called to say, let’s cut down the overgrown grass on 240th Street Southwest and Edmonds Way to increase visibility. It was an expected call since we talked about taking matters into our own hands.
Last year, Gayle called Councilmember Lora Petso to say we can’t see oncoming traffic due to tall grass. Bada boom, bada bang, in days it was mown. That was last year. I follow Edmonds politics well enough to know that there’s less money this year. We didn’t ask.
Minutes after her call, I meet Gayle on the corner. She had the puniest scissors I’ve ever seen and was cutting away. I had no scissors, no gloves, no garbage bag — just me. What a pair!
Gayle jokingly says, “Why don’t we ask Edmonds Way Automotive (a few feet away) if they’ll lend us a push mower”. Being in sales, I hear “no” a lot so I was not holding out much hope.To my surprise, Lee, the owner, says yes and gives me a riding mower to use. Uh, how does it work? A few quick instructions and I’m tooling along knocking down grass and weeds.
Ten minutes later I push the riding mower back to Lee, unable to get it to go once it conks out. What’s a choke?!
Lee jumps on and proceeds to follow me and then cut grass. Gayle is making some headway with her puny scissors, who knew? Lee, in the riding mower and then with a push mower, makes greater headway.
I proceed to pick up garbage, Lee lends me his trash container. Tons of cigarette butts,cans, plastic bottles. Yuck! No gloves but I push on as do Gayle and Lee.
Long story short — we got our deed accomplished in a little more than an hour. Now we have short grass and garbage gone.
Gayle and I thank Lee profusely. His response- “The people of Edmonds have been good to me. It’s the least I could do.” Say what? I was close to tears.
Gayle will be whipping up a batch of cookies for Lee as our thank you.
As the song goes- “What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man…”
It was an Edmonds kind of Day!
Publisher’s note: After sending us this story, Karen added a note in a follow-up email — “I forgot to tell you but neither Gayle nor I knew Lee before last night, we’re not customers. Not even sure if Lee is first or last name.”
Neighbors just taking care of business.
Thank you Gayle, Karen, and Lee, for your initiative!
This is a story that gives me great pride in our cities residents. I am the street and storm manager for the City Of Edmonds. I am tasked with maintaining the vegetation in the city right- of-ways along with a wide variety of other maintenance duties. As Karen has alluded to, our budgets are tight and our crew is shrinking, all the while our duties grow and our infrastructure ages. Due to budget cutbacks my crew has been reduced by one, leaving a very committed crew of 13 talented individuals that maintain our streets, sidewalks, vegetation, storm system, traffic signals, signage, roadway markings, etc…etc. This year , due to a predicted revenue shortfall , I will not be able to hire the two seasonal helpers that in the past has done a large portion of the vegetation control we do annually. That means there will have to be less vegetation control done. We will continue to respond to site visibility issues such as the corner that Karen, Gayle and Lee took care of. I am very appreciative of their efforts and the recognition of the financial pinch the city is in. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!! Please patronize Edmonds Way Automotive… they have been good to Edmonds!
This is not the only example of community give back for mowing. Edmonds Landscaping cares for areas around the Edmonds Center for the Arts and for the area in the median between the opposing lanes going down the hill to the ferry loading area. Great job Edmonds Landscaping!!!
What a refreshing contrast to the kayaker rescue story, where fishermen and boaters ignored calls for help on Lake Ballinger! We need more people like Karen Shiveley, Gayle Johnson and Lee in Edmonds! They are Edmonds kind of people!
Way to go, young ladies!! What a generous soul Lee is. Neighborhoods need more people like you!
Way to go Gayle and Karen, as well as Lee!!! You guys are awesome and inspirational! I must print this for my son so that he can follow your lead. Much, much love to you guys!
I’m proud to say that Gayle is my sister (and Karen our adopted sister!). I’m not surprised they decided to ‘just do it’!
You would have to know Karen Shiveley as I do, a great friend, to know that I am not surprised at the result of this story.
She knows how to meet people like Gale that are about making change when possible and getting frustrated enough to say “Let’s just do it”. She shows up when needed. I have always felt she was the Oprah Winfrey of Radio and was shocked when she left that profession. Would love to have heard her interview Rush Limbaugh and asking him “what were you thinking, were you thinking”? Everyone needs to know a Karen Shiveley in their life time. And then to put her with Gale that is lethal…Seattle had better LOOK OUT.