New economic development director summarizes ARPA-funded programs, grant-writing work and childcare wins

Meredith Veil, Federal Way’s new economic development director, presented an informational report to the FEDRAC committee on May 27 summarizing multiple ongoing projects and contracts funded primarily through one-time ARPA allocations and other sources.

Veil said the presentation included updates on mobile surveillance trailers (MST) used by police for monitoring high-crime areas, an outsourced city grant-writing program that researched roughly 91 grants and helped secure several awards worth tens of thousands of dollars, a website audit and rebuild work (visitfederalway.org) and the shop-local marketplace effort. She also introduced partners who reported progress on two programs: a grant-writing and capacity service and a home-childcare expansion through the Imagine Institute.

On mobile surveillance, Veil said the city purchased additional MST units to expand real-time monitoring in parks and commercial areas; police data on uses and outcomes were not available during the meeting, and staff committed to follow up with counts and performance metrics by email. Council members asked whether deployments reduced crimes,…