What makes a community livable? Penny Gazabat knows. Two years ago, she was staffing the I.M.Pact booth at the Key Peninsula Livable Communities Fair, spreading the word about preventing domestic violence. Little did she know that strolling among the exhibits were some unknown benefactors. That chance contact resulted in grant awards from the Geneva Foundation that enabled the opening of a safe house to protect victims of domestic abuse.

Ed Taylor of the Key Peninsula Civic Center Association knows. In 2004, he asked the Livable Communities Fair organizers where they found the professional jazz band to entertain at the annual event. “That’s your school system at work,” he was told by Dennis Taylor. “That’s the Key Peninsula Middle School jazz band.”

Pierce County officials know. In 2004, representatives from the Advanced Planning Department attended the Livable Communities Fair to ask what quality of life issues KP residents felt were important. “Those issues were organized and prioritized and used to plan for the upcoming meetings of the Citizens Advisory Board that would begin, in late 2004, to develop the KP Community Plan,” said County Council Member Terry Lee. “We used the information to better understand the storm-water issues that might be unique to the Key Peninsula, that we could direct our surface water management fees to protect the shellfish in the bays and estuaries on the KP,” Lee added.

Dennis Taylor, of Safe Streets, knows. The KP Livable Communities Fair is cosponsored by Safe Streets, and Taylor describes the event as “showcasing the people, agencies and organizations that make the Key Peninsula more livable.”

If you haven’t attended a Livable Communities Fair, this is your chance go. Then you, too, will know a little more about what makes a community livable, and how to get involved in the community to help make everyone’s lives better.

There will be booths for arts and culture, citizenship, public service/information, employment, economic development, education/outreach, habitat protection, land use, parks/trails, social and civic services, and all of the volunteer opportunities that make life on the Key Peninsula livable. Come and learn how citizens feel about parks and recreation, 24/7 police protection, land-use densities, transportation issues, economic development, and other issues and aspects that affect our lives.

“People love the combination booths, entertainment, and special attractions. They like the family-oriented flavor of the event,” Taylor told the KP News.

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