Election results: King County-wide emergency-radio levy passing
8:41 PM: The first and only election-night results are out, and the one measure that was on ballots in our area, King County Proposition 1 to raise money to replace emergency responders’ radio system, is passing in a big way – 65 percent for, 35 percent against. It only required a simple majority for passage. Here are the numbers.
9:24 PM: County Executive Dow Constantine has sent this statement thanking voters: “A reliable emergency radio network is the lifeline that keeps all of our communities safe, used thousands of times a day by police, firefighters and medics in every corner of our county. I want to thank the voters of King County for acknowledging the need to replace a dangerously outdated system and ensuring that our first responders have the tools they need to communicate during life-threatening emergencies.”
West Seattle Crime Watch: Triangle robbery; tote bag taken in car prowl
Two notes in West Seattle Crime Watch:
STREET ROBBERY: A man was robbed this morning in The Triangle around 4:15 am. We’ve been trying all day to get some details, after seeing the robbery designation on Tweets By Beat, and finally just got information from police who are here at the Block Watch Captains’ Network meeting we’re covering. According to Lt. Ron Smith, two people described only as a black male and white female approached the victim in the 4600 block of 36th SW, asked for a ride to Renton, and then grabbed him, took his wallet and 60 dollars, tossed the wallet on the ground and took off. The report also says they considered stealing his car but it was manual transmission, so they apparently gave up on that idea. Police searched the area, with a K-9, but didn’t find the robbers.
CAR PROWL: A car-prowl victim in West Seattle early this morning is hoping somebody might spot what was stolen from her car:
Someone broke my passenger side window and stole an over-sized brown suede tote bag (I believe it was from Eddie Bauer). They took nothing of financial value, except my well-worn tote bag.
Nothing in that bag would have been of value to anyone else, she said, but it contained client files that were important for her business – if you’ve seen the bag, please let police know.
VIDEO: Impact fees, fish-truck crash, and levy outreach @ City Council Transportation Committee
That’s the Seattle Channel video of this morning’s City Council Transportation Committee meeting, which included several items of interest. One was a briefing on the city’s ongoing study of development impact fees. Staffers from several departments participated. One reminded the councilmembers that impact fees are meant to raise “new capital for new needs created by new construction,” and that the areas in which they could be applied are “transportation, parks, schools, and fire … necessitated by new development and reasonably benefiting new development.” One example of what money from impact fees couldn’t be used to cover: Filling potholes. No vote, let alone decision, on the issue, but the studies continue.
Then came the discussion of the “after-action report” about the 9-hour Highway 99 closure last month because of an overturned truck full of fish. We published the first version of the report when it was circulated two weeks ago; today’s discussion, which included Seattle Police Deputy Chief Carmen Best and SDOT director Scott Kubly, brought a few more things to light. For one, the two departments use different traffic management systems that prioritize incidents in slightly different ways – and if not for that, different decisions might have been made as on-scene crews struggled with getting the truck out of the roadway. It was also pointed out that an insurance-company rep was on the scene relatively quickly, and that the rep was advocating for saving the $750,000 truckload of fish (“whitefish, not salmon, for the record,” it was pointed out today), which ultimately did not happen. Kubly said this would lead to some further refinements such as possibly positioning certain types of response equipment in certain areas of the city, and creating a tiered system to prioritize incidents depending upon a road/highways’ importance.
When presenting his written report, featured here last Friday, Kubly didn’t say much about the West Seattle components – except a reiteration of the walking tour times (35th SW 9 am-noon on May 16th, SW Roxbury 5:30-7:30 pm on May 20th) – but did discuss how outreach on the draft transportation levy is going, with a new draft to be presented to the mayor this week. He said the in-person traditional community meetings hadn’t drawn many, and described those drawn by those meetings as “disproportionately white, male, older,” but said 5,000 responses had come in to the online survey. Last week’s online meeting, he said, had 30 participants.
How to stay connected to your teen: Find out at free event Thursday night at West Seattle High School
If you are raising … or have raised … a teenager, you know how tough it can be to stay connected. They need some freedom so they can get ready to live their own lives, and yet they also need guidance and support, even in the times they try hardest to shrug it off. To help with navigation of this challenging and important time, West Seattle High School‘s counseling department is hosting an event on Thursday night and inviting the entire community, not just those with WSHS ties:
Dr. Laura Kastner will be our guest speaker, along with Lisa Davidson, Seattle Public Schools Prevention/Intervention Specialist. The evening will first take a look at the latest research and data on drug use in our community (Lisa’s portion) and will be followed by a talk with Dr. Kastner on what we as parents and community partners can do to stay connected to our teens. This will take place on Thursday, April 30th, from 6:30-9:00 pm in the West Seattle High School Theater.
WSHS is at 3000 California SW; the theater entrance is toward the south end of the main building.
TRAFFIC ALERT UPDATE: SB 99 ramp to West Seattle Bridge reopens
1:26 PM: Headed toward southbound 99 to get home? You’ll need to take an alternate route – as shown in SDOT’s tweet above, the ramp from SB 99 to the West Seattle Bridge is blocked right now. So SB I-5 or 1st Avenue S. are your alternate routes to the bridge until this is cleared. (Thanks to the texter who tipped us to this!)
2:06 PM: SDOT just reported that this crash has cleared and the ramp from southbound 99 to the westbound bridge is open again.
Congratulations: Denny, Pathfinder, WSHS win Washington Achievement Awards!
Just in from Seattle Public Schools – three West Seattle schools are on the list of 23 district-wide that have just received Washington Achievement Awards:
Twenty-three Seattle Public Schools are being honored with Washington Achievement Awards from The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). The schools earned these awards for improvements in areas including reading, English, math and overall outstanding academic success.
[West Seattle schools on the list]
Denny International Middle School – Math Growth
Pathfinder K-8 – High Progress
West Seattle High School – High Progress
“We are honored to have so many of our schools recognized for their hard work, dedication, and student success, with this prestigious award,” said Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland. “This recognition demonstrates the continuing efforts and achievements our students and staff are making in academic excellence.”
Schools are selected based on their statewide assessment data for the three previous years. This data is analyzed using the Achievement Index and methodology. All schools received their awards at a ceremony earlier today in Spanaway.
FOLLOWUP: Spring ‘Recycle Roundup’ results, plus fall date
(WSB photo from Sunday’s Recycle Roundup)
If you dropped something off at the Fauntleroy Church “Recycle Roundup” this past Sunday, you were part of another successful, sizable round of recycling. Judy Pickens shares the news:
The sun on Sunday brought out the best in West Seattle residents as an estimated 400 vehicles delivered recyclables to the Fauntleroy Church Green Committee’s spring Recycle Roundup. The crew from 1 Green Planet carried, loaded, and took away an estimated 10 tons for responsible disassembly. We’ll do it again on September 27!
West Seattle, WC, SP nonprofits in GiveBIG this year: Let us know!
For the fourth consecutive year, we’re planning to create and publish a page of links to West Seattle/White Center/South Park nonprofits that are participating in the GiveBIG donate-a-thon, so that readers of West Seattle Blog, White Center Now, and The South Park News will have a one-stop cheat-sheet for where to donate. This year, GiveBIG is May 5th, one week from today. So if you are associated with a nonprofit in WS, WC, and/or SP, that’ll be participating, please let us know (some already have!) and send us the link to your GiveBIG donation page, ASAP. Best way to get us this info: editor@westseattleblog.com – thank you!
TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Tuesday updates & alerts
(Four WS-relevant views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
6:28 AM: Tuesday morning’s commute is off to a breezy start. Two road/trail-work alerts, too:
ALKI TRAIL IN 3400 BLOCK OF HARBOR: As previewed here on Monday, SDOT is making changes for safety’s sake, and work is scheduled to start today.
24TH/MYRTLE LANE CLOSURES: As mentioned Sunday night, westbound Myrtle at 24th will be restricted in the daytime today and tomorrow as part of work related to the nearby Delridge/Orchard CSO project.
ADDED 7:27 AM: Traffic’s still quiet. So one more mention of note today, the City Council Transportation Committee meets at 9:30 am. The agenda includes the periodic update from SDOT director Scott Kubly; as previewed here last Friday with the document prepared for his appearance, it includes several West Seattle project updates.
1:28 PM: Ramp from SB 99 to the westbound bridge is blocked right now. We’re updating this separately.
High-school baseball: West Seattle vs. Chief Sealth
(WSB photos by Torin Record-Sand)
The only guaranteed varsity-baseball game this year between West Seattle High School and Chief Sealth International High School ended in a 5-2 win for the Wildcats on Monday afternoon at Southwest Athletic Complex. Thanks as always to Caryn Johnson for the recap:
A beautiful afternoon for baseball between two great schools. With the addition of more schools to the Metro league and the way the divisions within Metro are set up, West Seattle and Sealth only meet each other once during the regular season. The stands were full of West Seattleites. It was fun to see the support for these two great teams.
The game was a battle of the pitchers. West Seattle senior Jordan Sagmoen was up against Sealth sophomore Evan Moe.
First inning saw no runs scored by either team.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the 2nd that Sealth broke the 0-0 tie and scored on a triple by David Johnson and a single by Evan Moe that drove him in.
In the top of the third, West Seattle would score two off a single by senior Sam Cook and a triple from Morgan McCullough. Sealth would get one more back in the bottom of the third to tie things up.
No runs were scored in the 4th.
Then at the top of the 5th, West Seattle would take advantage of a couple of errors to score two more runs. They would bring in one more run in the top of the 6th. Jordan threw the entire game to get the win 5-2 over Sealth. In the end he would strike out 6 and only give up 6 hits.
Evan Moe would also throw the entire game, striking out 4 and giving up only 5 hits.
Both teams’ next games are at 3:30 pm Wednesday – West Seattle will be at home at Hiawatha to face Seattle Prep, while Sealth will be on the road visiting Cleveland.
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