Holiday closures at the City of Lakewood
The City of Lakewood will be closed Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024 and Wednesday Jan. 1, 2025 in observation of the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays.
City Hall, the front lobby of the Lakewood police station and non-essential city services will close at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024 and New Year’s Eve, Tuesday, Dec. 31 so that Lakewood employees can spend time with their families.
Regular operations and hours will be in place all other days with City Hall opening at 8:30 a.m. and closing at 5 p.m.
The Lakewood Police Department will maintain its regular patrols. Police services are not impacted by the closures or holidays.
Thank you and Happy Holidays from the City of Lakewood!
Lakewood Officers Charity hosts Holiday Meals
This week the Lakewood Police Department opened the doors of its station to 150 local families for the Lakewood Officer’s Charity annual Holiday Meals program.
Spearheaded by Sgt. Ryan Moody and the Lakewood Officer’s Charity, officers have hosted this event for 19 years. The charity partners with the Clover Park School District to identify families who would benefit from receiving holiday meals.
The Lakewood Officers Charity works with Lakewood Walmart to purchase items for the meals, including turkeys, stuffing mix, canned veggies, 5-pound bags of potatoes, gravy, butter, rolls and pies. The food items are bagged and await the arrival of the families. Officers then host them at the station for a meal before sending them home with the complete holiday meal kit.
The Lakewood Officer’s Charity is funded by donations from Lakewood police officers who allocate a portion of their paycheck to support the charity. The charity also accepts community donations. It uses the money raised to give back to the Lakewood community, including through annual programs like the holiday meals and its Shop with an Officer event. Want to donate? Email Sgt. Timothy Borchardt.
Lakewood police officer highlighted by state Criminal Justice Training Center
The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center recently highlighted Lakewood Police Officer Jon Porter who graduated last week from the training program.
Officer Porter is a retired U.S. Army Green Beret. While serving in the special operations group for the Army, Porter was a K-9 handler. He received a special surprise on his graduation day from the training center when Lenny, his former K-9 partner, was there to celebrate his accomplishment.
Read more and watch the video from the WSCJTC.
Wards Lake Park to close Jan. 7, 2025
Starting Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025 Wards Lake Park will be closed to the public. It will remain closed through November 2025.
The closure is in preparation of major improvements planned for the park.
The Lakewood City Council approved a $3.2 million contract this month, awarding Redside Construction the contract to complete the first two phases of planned improvements.
Once complete, the improvements will make significant changes to the park located off 84th Street SW near the northeastern city limits. Planned upgrades include:
- ADA accessible loop trail with a 170-foot-long bridge over the lake.
- Ten-foot-wide paved trials and gravel paths throughout the site.
- A new playground and picnic shelter.
- A pump bike track.
- 3-acre bike track and skills area.
- New restroom facility.
- Prairie restoration and a bird blind overlooking the lake.
- Public art and landscape improvements near the entry.
- Parking lot expansion.
- New off-leash dog park.
- New neighborhood park and playground at 25th Ave Ct South.
- Landscape improvements.
During construction the public is asked to please stay out of the park and obey all closure signs. This is for public safety and the safety of construction workers in the park.
Council Corner: What’s on Deck
The Lakewood City Council has no more meetings in 2024. The next Lakewood City Council meeting is Monday, Jan. 6, 2025 at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers.
Police Chief’s Corner
Each week Lakewood Police Chief Patrick D. Smith shares a summary that includes a look at total calls for service the Lakewood Police Department responded to for the prior week. The intent of the summary is to show a snapshot of how the department works to keep the community safe. To see quarterly statistical analysis, visit the Lakewood Police Department crime statistics page on the city website.
Weekly Summary, Dec. 10-17, 2024
- Calls for Service: 1035 (up 14% from prior week)
- Arrests: 37 (down 16% from prior week)
- Violent Crime: 22 (down 24% from prior week)
- Property Crime: 51 (down 19% from prior week)
- Traffic Stops: 170 (up 33% from prior week)
- Collisions (reportable): 37 (up 54% from prior week)
Community events
Lakewood Playhouse presents “It’s a Wonderful Life: A live radio play”
Head to the Lakewood Playhouse in Lakewood Towne Center to experience a classic holiday tale performed like a 1940’s style live radio play. This unique take on a familiar tale honors Lakewood Playhouse’s history of presenting radio plays while also exploring how “It’s a Wonderful Life” speaks to a modern world.
The show runs Dec. 13-29, 2024. Shows are Fridays and Saturdays 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Pay What You Can Performance is Sunday, Dec. 22 at 7:30 p.m. For ticket information call the Box Office at (253) 588-0042 or visit www.lakewoodplayhouse.org.
Call to Poets: Submit Your Poem for Lakewold Gardens’ Winter Garden Poetry
Lakewold Gardens is seeking original, unpublished poems for inclusion in the 2025 Winter Poetry in the Gardens event. Poems should be no longer than approximately 1,000 words or no more than five minutes in duration when read aloud, preferably with a theme related to gardens and/or the celebration of nature.
Participants must be Washington State residents and be available to record their poems and have headshot photos taken onsite at Lakewold Gardens the week of Feb. 10, 2025. Poets of all backgrounds and ages are invited to participate. Lakewold Gardens strives to promote contributions from communities that have been traditionally underrepresented. Poets who identify with or are part of these communities are strongly encouraged to apply.
Selected participants will be celebrated at a special event on February 22, 2025 where they will be invited to read their poems aloud. Only one entry per poet will be accepted. Entries must be submitted before Jan. 17, 2025. Learn more.
Sign up for Lakewood Alert (Code Red)
The City of Lakewood uses Code Red, an alert service, to notify residents of important information happening in the city.
If there is an emergency that requires public notification, we will use Lakewood Alert as one way to communicate. We will also post information to our website and social media channels.
Subscribers can sign up to receive text and email alerts. People can also sign up for important non-emergency updates including information about road impacts from large events in the city or information about special events.
Find out more and sign up today.
Road project updates
Lakewood Station Access Project: Sound Transit is investing nearly $70 million in road improvements in and around the Lakewood Sounder Station to improve roads in the Lakeview and Springbrook neighborhoods. Recent survey work added one-foot squares of white paint on certain roads. Construction is not anticipated to begin until the fall of 2025.
84th and Pine: Final items to complete are installation of luminaires on the traffic signal poles and signage corrections.
Farwest Drive SW: The contractor installed the pedestrian luminaires. Puget Sound Energy now needs to energized the lighting system and WSDOT needs to conduct a final inspection of the work. Once that is done the project is complete.
Rose Road Sanitary Sewer Project: Work is anticipated to start early 2025.
Steilacoom Boulevard Weller to 87th Ave: Active Construction, Inc. is expected to start construction in early 2025.
South Tacoma Way Overlay 96th to Steilacoom Blvd.: Miles Resources is expected to start work in early spring 2025.
South Tacoma Way & 92nd signal replacement: Bids were opened Dec. 4 and an apparent low bidder identified. A contract is expected to go to the Lakewood City Council is January for approval. Work is expected to begin in early 2025.
Parks project updates
Big things are happening in Lakewood’s parks. With several major capital improvement projects planned, we want to make sure residents know what’s happening. Each week updates will be shared here highlighting the work being done to improve our parks for public use.
American Lake Park: Construction began in September with the replacement of the bulkhead and new retaining walls. Work will continue through winter with the upcoming installation of new restroom, plaza, ADA ramp to the beach, shelter and play equipment upgrades. Work is expected to be complete by early summer.
Wards Lake Park Improvements: The Lakewood City Council awarded $3.2 million contract to Redside Construction at its Dec. 9, 2024 meeting. Construction is anticipated to begin in early 2025. The park will be closed to the public Jan. 7 to November 2025 during construction. Planned improvements include:
- ADA accessible loop trail with a 170-foot-long bridge over the lake.
- Ten-foot-wide paved trials and gravel paths throughout the site.
- A new playground and picnic shelter.
- A pump bike track.
- New restroom facility.
- Prairie restoration and a bird blind overlooking the lake.
- Public art and landscape improvements near the entry.
- Parking lot expansion.
- New off-leash dog park.
- 3-acre bike track and skills area.
- New neighborhood park and playground at 25th Ave Ct South.
- Landscape improvements.
The Big One: Relocation of the Tenzler Log: Construction of a shelter around the log is nearing completion. The log will be refinished to protect and seal the monument, and a wire mesh installation will be installed in January to protect the round it in its new home at Fort Steilacoom Park. Work is expected to be complete by late January, weather permitting.