Followup: Mayor orders more police patrols for Nickelsville
“The current situation raises serious concerns about Nickelsville’s ability to protect the health and safety of its residents.”
That was part of Mayor McGinn‘s response to WSB today, after we requested comment on the situation reported here on Sunday – centering on the encampment’s Central Committee declaring that it was having trouble “preventing the overrun of our community by meth dealers and barred, violent former campers,” blaming police for not supporting camp decisions to evict such people. Our story, meantime, included an incident one week ago in which the SPD report indeed quoted police saying that people on public land had no right to tell others to get off that public land – while also including a would-be evictee claiming they were getting booted for going to police about an alleged crime.
The mayor, meantime, says more police help is in order; the second and final sentence of his reply to us was, “The immediate next step is to increase our police presence through the use of directed patrols from the Southwest Precinct.” We hope to hear something about that when precinct commander Capt. Joe Kessler speaks to the West Seattle Block Watch Captains Network on Tuesday night (6:30 pm, SW Precinct, Delridge/Webster); then on Wednesday night, the Highland Park Action Committee, the neighborhood council closest to the encampment, plans a Nickelsville update during its regular monthly meeting (7 pm, HP Improvement Club, 12th/Holden).
Looking for camps? Sealth Basketball and Life Skills Camp is back!
(Photo courtesy Coach Colin Slingsby)
It’s more than a sports camp – and it’s back for the 16th year. You can sign up now for the Sealth Basketball and Life Skills Camp, as announced by Chief Sealth International High School‘s Coach Colin Slingsby:
We are excited to host our 16th annual summer of Sealth Basketball and Life Skills camp at Chief Sealth International High School and Denny International Middle School this summer. Last year, we hosted more than 350 campers in our multiple sessions. The emphasis of our program is to teach the fundamentals of the game in part of a fun and competitive basketball experience, but also to emphasize the Life Skills necessary to be successful in school and life, both intellectually, and socially.
The camp is run by the coaching staff at Sealth with the help of many high school and college students who are put through a lengthy mentorship training in order to be prepared to work with our many campers. While we enjoy teaching the game of basketball and providing a positive week on the court, we pride ourselves on our Life Skills curriculum, which includes a classroom session daily, emphasizing the values of our program.
Camp runs from 9 am-4 pm each day, and each camper will receive a camp t-shirt and Camper Handbook which will include hand-outs and topics from our Life Skills classroom sessions. In addition, we are excited to offer an ‘Advanced Concepts’ session this year (August 19th-23rd). This session is geared toward campers 6th grade and up.
Brochure with further information and registration forms are available on the Chief Sealth International High School website link here. Contact Coach Colin Slingsby at caslingsby@seattleschools.org with any questions about the program.
West Seattle High School’s Hao Cheng wins photography award
That’s an award-winning photo titled “Withered Lotus,” the work of West Seattle High School photography student Hao Cheng. WSHS Art Department head Michelle Sloan shares the news that Hao received an Outstanding Achievement in Photography award at the Puget Sound Educational Service District’s Regional High School Art Show:
Hao accepted the award at a reception on Sunday. Congratulations!
P.S. You can see the entire art show online – photographs representing 96 entries – just go here.
West Seattle (and vicinity) Crime Watch: Alan Polevia in jail
Remember Alan Polevia, subject of an air and land manhunt centered in Shorewood on March 5th, resulting in school lockdowns, days after he escaped from custody while being taken to Harborview Medical Center – in handcuffs? He is back behind bars today, according to the King County Jail Register. Before his escape, he had been arrested on warrants related to theft allegations, and our research showed that in November 2006, he was found guilty of third-degree assault for a West Seattle incident involving him and his father getting kicked out of Poggie’s in The Junction, then going across the street and attacking a man outside Talarico’s with a beer bottle and a tire iron. Meantime, as for how he was caught this time around, Sgt. Cindi West from the King County Sheriff’s Office tells WSB this afternoon that last Friday night he was found “rummaging through a dumpster behind a building” in Burien. He at first told deputies his name was Alex Polevia; they used a photo and tattoo descriptions to identify him as Alan, at which time, deputies report, he “apologized for lying about his name.”
West Seattle Monday: Passover begins; Andrew on Letterman; more
(Monday morning submarine sighting with the Olympic Mountains as a backdrop, by Don Brubeck)
Relatively quiet day on the calendar. A few notes:
PASSOVER BEGINS: Tonight is the first night of the Jewish festival of freedom, Passover, which concludes April 2nd.
LEARN/PRACTICE SPANISH: Drop-in conversation class at the Senior Center of West Seattle (California/Oregon), 1 pm. Details here.
FAMILY STORY TIME: 7 pm at High Point Library (35th/Raymond). (Watch our calendar for other library story times around West Seattle throughout the week.)
TRIVIA/QUIZ: Three West Seattle venues offer it tonight – all listed on the calendar (mouse over and click the “plus” sign on the right side of any calendar line to see more information and the link to the full listing).
‘BANKERS CARE’ FOOD DRIVE: Through April 5th, drop off nonperishable food donations at Washington Federal, Dakota/California north of The Junction or California/Fauntleroy in Morgan Junction, which is part of the Bankers Care food drive for Northwest Harvest, which supplies local food banks.
ADDED: ANDREW’S LETTERMAN SPOTLIGHT *TONIGHT*: Update from the Metropolitan Market (WSB sponsor) PR team – CBS made a mistake when they announced over the weekend that national bagging champ Andrew Borracchini‘s appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman had been moved, so it’s now back to TONIGHT (Monday).
West Seattle schools: Help design new Arbor Heights Elementary
With the Seattle School Board approving the architect contract for the new Arbor Heights Elementary earlier this month, and opening set for fall 2016, it’s time for a community Design Advisory Team to be formed – and the call for applications has just gone out on the school website. The open letter from principal Christy Collins says in part:
The Design Advisory Team will be composed of current Arbor Heights staff and families as well as neighborhood residents. Our goal is to form a working team of 10-12 individuals who can commit to six formal meetings over the course of April and May and two additional future meetings.
The meeting schedule is part of her letter; the application is here, and needs to be in by April 2nd.
Since its new school is being built on the same site as the deteriorating old one, Arbor Heights is expected to move to the Boren building on Delridge starting in fall 2014, SPS spokesperson Tom Redman tells WSB, remaining there for the two school years prior to the opening of the new building. The new K-5 STEM school is there now, with no timeline for a decision on its permanent home, but the Boren campus has room for hundreds more students, and improvements are planned this summer. The school board’s Executive Committee was briefed on those improvements last week; Redman says they would include:
1) seismic strengthening in the form of shear walls and roof-to-wall braces;
2) completion of the upgrades to finishes in the north wing;
3) selective demolition and “tenant improvements” for two child care rooms and Arbor Heights;
4) replacement of all exterior doors and hardware
P.S. If you’d like to know more about how a school Design Team is supposed to work – its part of the in-depth district manual.
West Seattle schools: Sanislo principal-search meeting tomorrow
Just announced by the Sanislo Elementary PTA:
Our Principal, Ernie Seevers, will be retiring at the end of this year, and the school community has begun a transition process for transitioning to new leadership. There are hiring committees meeting in the next few weeks to recommend a candidate to Superintendent Banda for hiring. Carmela Dellino, our West Seattle executive director for schools, has met with our staff to hear their ideas about the skills and strengths that they believe the new leader at Sanislo will need, and she would like to do the same with families. She has scheduled a meeting at Sanislo Tuesday (TOMORROW) at 3:40 to talk with you. Please make a point to come in and meet with other families and share in a conversation with Ms Dellino. Your thoughts are important and valuable in this process. Children are, of course very welcome to attend with you, and we’ll also have supervised play for the children that don’t like meetings.
Traffic alert, next 2 weekends: Northbound I-5 lane closures
For your traffic-alert radar (we’ll link this atop the BIG STORIES list in our sidebar, too, as we always do with major traffic/weather alerts) – WSDOT is reminding everyone this morning of northbound I-5 lane closures between South Spokane St. and Albro Place the next two weekends – at least two lanes closed at a time for expansion-joint work, which means you’ll want to avoid that stretch of the freeway if you can. Details are here.
TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Monday updates
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
6:33 AM: Nothing out of the ordinary reported on the roads right now, but if you use Washington State Ferries out of Fauntleroy, some early-morning runs were canceled because of what WSF described via e-mail alerts as “staffing issues.” WSF says everything will be back on schedule – the spring schedule that took effect yesterday – as of the 6:40 am run.
6:59 AM: Paul reports a RapidRide bus stalled on northbound California just north of Fauntleroy, sharing the photo you see above (thanks!).
7:09 AM: Bus has moved along, per commenter SeaChanty51 (thanks for the update!).
federal Judge John Coughenour has told the federal
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