What the rescue callout at Terminal 5 was all about
We chased this one an hour ago but got there as fire crews were leaving — it had been a big “rescue/rope” callout on the 911 log, official address in the 3400 block of West Marginal. Couldn’t tell at the time what had happened but we’ve just gotten an update from a Seattle Fire spokesperson, who says a 50-year-old man suffered “minor trauma” while operating a crane at Terminal 5 (the West Seattle side of the container-ship area). Firefighters arrived, the spokesperson says, and discovered the man was “stable”; they used a harness to help him get down via the crane elevator. He was able to walk once he got down, but to be on the safe side, he was taken to a hospital to be checked out.
New Gatewood Elementary play structure is finally open
Out for a walk tonight, we passed the west edge of the Gatewood Elementary playground along Fauntleroy, saw kids on the new play structure (recent photo above), and wondered if we were late to discover that it was finally unfenced and ready for use. Turns out, not so — moments later, we got e-mail from Steve White, announcing … the construction fence just came down today and the play structure is open! This is the culmination of a long process of planning, fundraising, and volunteer work (remember the goats?); a formal dedication/celebration isn’t expected, Steve says, till after the new school year starts.
Traffic alerts: East Marginal, Battery Street Tunnel … and more
SDOT is out with two traffic alerts that you might need to know about: First, the eastbound left lane of the Spokane Street/East Waterway Bridge on East Marginal Way will be closed 9 am-3 pm tomorrow for expansion-joint repair (the city describes the exact spot as “between the Spokane Street Swing Bridge and the on-ramp to the Spokane Street Viaduct“); then on Sunday, at the north end of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the left-hand lanes in both directions of the Battery Street Tunnel will be closed 10 am-6 pm for drain-cleaning work. (Also a reminder, while we’re at it, that the Seafair Torchlight Parade is Saturday night, so downtown traffic will be restricted from late afternoon through late evening; looking further ahead, the four days of Blue Angels-related I-90 bridge closures will start a week from tomorrow.)
Wednesday afternoon links and notes
MERCURY FROM CEMENT PLANTS: They’re not in West Seattle but they (and other Duwamish-area industrial operations) affect the air quality here (and come up in discussions such as this recent WSB comment thread about a “mystery smell”). Today the Times reports an environmental group says the emissions from Lafarge and Ash Grove cement plants include up to 91 pounds of mercury a year. The Times story (at this moment, anyway) doesn’t link to the group’s report, but we found it here.
SHE’S A CHAMP: Think people tend to get weaker with age? 48-year-old Tamela Thomas of West Seattle is among those who can disabuse you of that notion. The Weekly writes about her historic martial-arts win.
MORE TIME TO ORDER ROTARY BLUEBERRIES: Another harvest delay is changing the Rotary Club of West Seattle blueberry pickup date – which means more time to order if you haven’t done so already – now pickups are projected for August 8-9. Raspberries will be here this weekend as scheduled, however. You can order blueberries from the Rotary website till August 5th; notes Rotary member Josh Sutton of the West Seattle Family YMCA (WSB sponsor), “These sales support our annual Holiday Kids Shopping Spree, where we take about 100 kids to Sears and buy them new clothes, shoes and winter coats each December. And the berries are yummy.”
INTERESTED IN GOING TO INDIA OR FRANCE? This too comes from the Rotarians, but it’s a citywide announcement – “young businesspeople” who are NOT Rotary Club members are invited to apply for an exchange program to spend a month in India or France. Find out all about it here.
Chief Sealth HS construction/move: Portable-plan update
Driving Delridge, we spotted work under way alongside that row of portables at Chief Sealth High School‘s new temporary home (the former Boren Junior High), a short time after getting a quick update on the start of the two-year Sealth renovation project. A doorhanger’s gone out to neighbors, says Pauline Sugarman, assistant to Robert Evans, the Project Manager for the Denny/Sealth construction process — but if you were expecting to see demolition of the CSHS portables, once expected to be among the first visible signs of work, you’ll be waiting a while longer. Sugarman says one portable has been moved and the others won’t be demolished “for quite a while” because another permit is needed. She adds, “Most if not all of the construction right now is happening in the inside of the existing buildings.” You can check this city webpage to track the various permits that have been applied for and granted; the Sealth website has its own page with info-links about the relocation to Boren.
West Seattle barista on “Project Runway”: Blayne talks tanning
Today is Blayne‘s second day back on the job at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) since his return from taping “Project Runway 5” (don’t even ask him about the show, totally off-limits per all sorts of paperwork) so we had to go say hi and grab a photo, looking ahead to the viewing party his boss Lora Lewis is organizing again tonight at nearby Ginomai. Blayne says it’s a relief to be back – the taping schedule was hectic and intense – but he did get to see some of the New York sights. Direct quote: “I tanned in Central Park.” (His skin hue has been a major topic of media discussion.) He told us he’s got a conflict that’ll keep him from the viewing party tonight, but if he makes it to episode 3 (and of course he can’t even hint), he’ll be there. Ginomai is on the southwest corner of 42nd/Genesee, with a (free!) parking lot you can access from 42nd on the south side of the building; doors open at 8 pm, bring a nonalcoholic beverage to share, and a small dessert.
West Seattle wildlife watch: Latest coyote pix and sightings
We suppose photos like that MIGHT bore us someday when coyotes are in residence at all hours in all front yards, back yards, parking spaces … but that’s probably a ways off. At least a week. Vanessa sent the photos a few days back, saying she’d taken them at 46th/Willow (map) a few weeks earlier (believed to be the same coyote shown here). We’d been looking for a timely excuse to run her pix, and got one this morning when another sighting report came in, this time from Pat in Fauntlee Hills:
Late last night my wife and I saw a coyote trotting down 39th Avenue SW near Henderson St. [map] walking south. A good reminder to keep your pets safe!
Fauntleroy Place site demolition update: Interior focus today
From the sidewalk on the SW Alaska side of the building that’s coming down to make way for Whole Foods and the rest of Fauntleroy Place, you can still see into the ex-storefront, and beyond to the former parking lot. We’re just back from another visit to the demolition site, where Fauntleroy Place project manager Easton Craft from BlueStar told WSB that the crews are not expected to tear down the actual structural shell before tomorrow. They’ve been assessing as the work proceeds, he says, and there’s more clearing out to do inside the old Hancock Fabrics (which will have a new store in the new building) and Schuck’s (which won’t) building; if you go by the site, you’ll see the debris in almost-neat piles:
It’s being arranged this way because much of the debris will be taken away for recycling. As previously mentioned, demolition (to be followed by excavation) is proceeding even though a final design for the mixed-use building (including almost 200 apartments) hasn’t been approved yet — the most recent version will go before the Southwest Design Review Board three weeks from tomorrow, on August 14th; the site for that meeting now has been set — High Point Community Center. Fauntleroy Place will be reviewed at 8 pm, after the design for the 35th/Graham project is reviewed at 6:30 pm.
Happening today/tonight: Demolition; playground; party
Walking the southern side of the ex-Schuck’s/Hancock Fabrics building, future Fauntleroy Place, at Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th, we caught that little slice of demolition life toward the end of the Tuesday workday — note the shopping carts on the lower right. Demolition work is scheduled to continue today, starting around 8 am. (More background in WSB coverage from Tuesday morning.) Meantime, a milestone happens tonight in the life of another project:
6:30 tonight, Admiral library branch, you are invited to the first community meeting about a proposal for a playground at that mini-park (California Place, next to Admiral UCC church; backstory in previous WSB coverage here).
Last but by no means least on the list of tonight’s highlights — Viewing Party #2 for West Seattle’s own contender on “Project Runway” season 5 — barista Blayne from Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor). Again tonight, bring a non-alcoholic beverage to share, and a small dessert, to Ginomai (southwest corner of 42nd/Genesee), doors open at 8 pm, show’s on the big screen at 9, free offstreet parking lot.
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