day : 25/08/2015 9 results

For the third year in a row, generous West Seattleites helped those two local students do a good deed for animals via their annual Seattle Humane-benefiting bake sale and donation drive. We photographed Muriel and Gwen on Sunday; David and Carey sent the followup tonight:

The girls raised over $300 and got nearly a full barrel of dog and cat food! West Seattle is awesome :)

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THURSDAY: Caspar Babypants closes out this year’s Summer Concerts at Hiawatha

August 25, 2015 7:43 pm

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| Fun stuff to do | West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

(WSB photo, July 2014)

Usually, you can wander onto Hiawatha Community Center‘s east lawn relatively close to showtime and still get a spot for a Summer Concerts at Hiawatha show. This Thursday, though, if you’re planning to go see and hear Caspar Babypants, you’ll want to get there a little earlier than you would otherwise – the kiddie-rock star’s concerts are usually the most popular ones of the series. On July 31st last year (WSB coverage here), the series-presenting Admiral Neighborhood Association estimated well over a thousand attendees. (Of course, when the heart of the fan base can count their ages on one hand, that means 1,000+ people take up less room than other circumstances.) If you’re new around here and not familiar with Caspar Babypants – it’s the alter-ego of West Seattle-residing rocker Chris Ballew, who originally came to fame for his work with The Presidents of the United States of America. His show at 6:30 pm Thursday closes out this year’s series (with co-sponsors including WSB); no admission charge, so just bring a chair or blanket, picnic dinner if you want, and have a great time Thursday night!

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West Seattle Crime Watch: Puget Ridge arrest; Admiral car prowl

August 25, 2015 4:34 pm

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| Crime | Puget Ridge | West Seattle news

Two West Seattle Crime Watch cases to report:

PUGET RIDGE ARREST: Thanks to the texter who sent the photo of police in the 18th/Juneau vicinity this afternoon. That’s where they arrested a suspect in what was described as a felony domestic-violence assault; it appears to be the same suspect sought in a similar case last Friday (WSB coverage here). We will be following up with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office tomorrow. After arresting the suspect, police were searching for a gun he might have cast aside; they subsequently reported finding a gun along a staircase in the area. The victim was checked out by SFD medics.

NORTH ADMIRAL CAR PROWL: This is a reader report from James:

This happened on the corner of Atlantic Street and California in the North Admiral District at the Park Hamilton apartments. Between the hours of 12:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. on August 25th. my car had both passenger side windows blown out and a laptop and iPod was stolen. Neither were clearly visible and the car was parked in a parking space and not on the street. Estimated damage including theft was around $2,200.

Unfortunately, parking lots and garages are no more immune to car prowlers than the street – while we haven’t received a reader report, and it’s not on the official log yet, we also heard a dispatch very early this morning for a car break-in inside a parking garage at one of the Junction’s newer buildings.

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FOLLOWUP: Operation complete – Highway 99 tunnel machine’s front end fully lowered into pit

August 25, 2015 3:43 pm

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| Alaskan Way Viaduct | Transportation | West Seattle news

(The webcam view 24 hours ago, when part of the repaired front end was still visible above the pit’s rim)

Just in from WSDOT:

Seattle Tunnel Partners and crane crews from Mammoet have successfully lowered the 2,000-ton front end of the SR 99 tunneling machine to a platform at the bottom of the access pit.

Crews will now use the crane to fine-tune the position of the piece. When that process is complete, they will begin reconnecting the piece to the portion of the machine that remains in the ground.

The effort to return the tunneling machine’s front end to the 120-foot-deep access pit began early Monday morning. Crews started by vertically lifting the piece, which includes the machine’s cutterhead, motors and the new main bearing assembly. The crane then moved horizontally on its rails to the north. When the piece was above the pit, crews rotated it to a semi-vertical position and lowered it partway into the pit before breaking for the evening. Work resumed early Tuesday morning, with the piece reaching the bottom of the pit Tuesday afternoon.

Three pieces of the machine’s shield that remain at the surface will be lowered and reinstalled in the coming days, according to STP’s latest schedule. After the machine has been reassembled, STP and manufacturer Hitachi Zosen will conduct a series of tests will follow reassembly to ensure the machine is ready to resume mining.

STP has said it hopes to do that in November, by which time it will be almost two years since the machine overheated and was stopped – longer than the tunnel-boring itself is supposed to take.

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FERRY ALERT UPDATE: Fauntleroy terminal outage over, service back to normal

August 25, 2015 1:45 pm

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| Transportation | West Seattle news

1:45 PM: A relatively brief power outage that closed Washington State Ferries‘ Fauntleroy terminal is over, according to WSF, but it’ll take a while for service to get back to the normal three-boat schedule – one run had to be routed to downtown because of “an emergency medical transport.” That run was with the route’s biggest vessel, M/V Issaquah, so WSF says that until Issaquah’s back, “the Evergreen State and the Tillikum will provide non-schedule service.” (The “live” online VesselWatch map shows Issaquah now at Vashon, so that might not take too long.)

2:53 PM: WSF says that 3-boat service has been restored, as of the “2:15 pm departure from Fauntleroy, 2:20 pm from Vashon, and a late 2:45 pm departure from Southworth.”

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Timetable for arterial streetlight switchover to LEDs: Still a few years away for most of West Seattle

August 25, 2015 12:46 pm

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| Utilities | West Seattle news

After switching residential streetlights to LEDs – which cast light in a dramatically different way from their predecessors – Seattle City Light is working on arterials, as first announced two years ago. But West Seattle arterials aren’t scheduled for the change any sooner than 2017, according to the utility’s recent update. SCL says the new lights use up to two-thirds less energy and last up to four times longer, among other attributes. Our area’s busiest city road got them almost two years ago.

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What’s up for the rest of your West Seattle Tuesday

August 25, 2015 9:40 am

| 6 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

(West Seattle photographer/pilot Long B. Nguyen shares that view of the smoky Cascades, from 10,000 feet)

BABY STORY TIME: 10:30 am, bring your newborn-to-1-year-old(s) to Baby Story Time at Southwest Library. (35th SW & SW Henderson)

BIKEMOBILE: 1:30-4 pm, you’ll find it right behind Neighborhood House’s High Point Center, offering sliding-scale repairs, as explained here. (6400 Sylvan Way)

DREAM DINNERS FREEZER SALE: 4:30-7 pm, stop by Dream Dinners-West Seattle (WSB sponsor) to buy pre-assembled, ready-to-freeze-or-cook dinners, sides, breads, desserts, “at budget-friendly prices,” first-come, first-served. If you miss tonight, the sale continues 10 am-12:30 pm tomorrow, but better not to wait, in case there’s an early sell-out. (4701 41st SW)

50-STATE KARATE JOURNEY: West Seattle Karate Academy hosts Gretchen Carlson, who is on a journey to visit karate schools in all 50 states. She’ll be teaching tonight and tomorrow at 5 pm. In honor of her visit, students are filling backpacks for kids served by the West Seattle Food Bank. (35th SW & SW Roxbury)

FREE TRACK WORKOUT: Meet at 6:15 pm at WSB sponsor West Seattle Runner. (2749 California SW)

PARKS SUPERINTENDENT AT DELRIDGE CC: Have you been to any of the stops on new Seattle Parks Superintendent Jesús Aguirre‘s “listening tour” yet? Tonight at 6:30 pm, Delridge Community Center is his fourth West Seattle stop (here’s our coverage of his Alki CC event last week), and last one until late October. If there’s something to fix, something to add, or something to praise at your local Parks facilities, this is the time to take it directly to the new boss. (4501 Delridge Way SW)

OLD-FASHIONED VAUDEVILLE REVUE: 7:30 pm at Kenyon Hall, mentalist Scotty Walsh headlines a vaudeville revue that also will feature Bob White accompanying a silent comedy on the hall’s Mighty Wurlitzer. Ticket details here. (7904 35th SW)

MORE! Find it all on our calendar.

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Make West Seattle greener with ‘free’ trees! City has conifers, if you have places to plant them

August 25, 2015 8:59 am

| 2 COMMENTS

| Environment | Gardening | West Seattle news

Once again this year, the city has trees in search of homes – maybe even your neighborhood. From Katie Gibbons:

Could your yard use a beautiful new tree? You’re in luck! Through the City of Seattle’s Trees for Neighborhoods project, Seattle residents can apply for up to 4 free trees for their yard or planting strip. Participants receive free trees, water bags, mulch, and planting and care instruction.

While many of this year’s small ornamentals have sold out, you can still apply for 1 of 5 gorgeous conifers that will add beauty and grace to your yard. If you have the space, consider planting one of three native conifers we’re offering this year: the grand fir, the western hemlock, or the western red cedar. For small, narrow spaces, plant the graceful Serbian spruce. Consider the deciduous bald cypress and enjoy its changing color and soft beautiful foliage. Bald cypresses are excellent urban trees because of their adaptability, even winning the Society of Municipal Arborists’ Tree of the Year award!

To learn more about this year’s species, space requirement, and to apply, go here.

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TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Tuesday updates & alerts

August 25, 2015 6:30 am

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| West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

(Four WS-relevant views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
6:30 AM: Good morning! No road-work alerts today. One transportation-news note to start with:

TUNNEL MACHINE’S FRONT END TO CONTINUE ITS DESCENT: According to WSDOT‘s online updates, contractor Seattle Tunnel Partners spent most of Monday slowly lifting and rotating the repaired front end of the Highway 99 tunneling machine, then starting the process of lowering it into the access pit. That process will continue this morning.

There’s also an early transit alert:

Transit Alert – Route 116 northbound to Seattle due to leave the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal at 6:40 AM has been canceled.

— King County Metro (@kcmetrobus) August 25, 2015

6:36 AM: Now, a Water Taxi alert – The county says the 6:15 am departure was missed because the Spirit of Kingston is having “mechanical issues,” so backup boat Melissa Ann is taking over the West Seattle-Downtown route starting with the 6:45 run from Seacrest.

1:39 PM: A brief power outage that closed the Fauntleroy ferry terminal is now over, according to WSF, and operations are returning to normal.

3:37 PM: Water Taxi trouble again – a “fueling delay” has canceled the 3:45 pm trip from Pier 50; King County DOT says service will resume with the 4 pm trip from Seacrest.

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