West Seattle, Washington
30 Tuesday
While walking to The Junction this afternoon, we noticed this juxtaposition – a festive snowman and snowdrift on a business window along California SW, seen across the top of the road-median “snirt” pile. Snow, of course, always looks especially lovely from a distance:
JayDee sent that photo from 56th/Spokane (map), as well as this photo of 56th looking blissfully ice-free in today’s sunshine:
Thanks yet again to everyone who has sent photos during and after Snowstorm/Snowmare/Snow-however-you-prefer-to-remember-it ’08 … we appreciate and publish photos all the time, from breaking news to community events to timely beauty shots, so please keep our address (editor@westseattleblog.com) handy (if you can spare a moment, program it into your cameraphone too)!
As mentioned at the bottom of the previous post, after our conversation with Seattle Public Utilities, they were working on an official update to put the new information into news-release format — so here it is, in its entirety, just out of the WSB inbox, cut-and-paste of the Word doc they sent (we’ll add the link when it appears on the city website, which SPU’s Andy Ryan says will be late tonight or early tomorrow):
Seattle Garbage Collections Back on Near-normal Schedule
Missed Garbage, Recycling to Be Picked This Week; Yard Waste Will Be Delayed
SEATTLE — Seattle Public Utilities’ (SPU) garbage and recycling contractors resumed full garbage collections today, along with extra recycling service. Weather permitting, SPU hopes to be caught up with garbage service by this Saturday, Jan. 3.Yard waste service — including Christmas tree pickup — will be resumed next week on a near-normal schedule for residential customers. Check your schedule for your next yard waste pickup date.
This week, garbage and recycling will be collected from all Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday customers on their regular day. Contractors will also send out additional crews on Thursday, New Year’s Day, to collect any missed locations. Customers missed this Monday through Wednesday should leave their waste out through Thursday, January 1.
Collections regularly scheduled for Thursday and Friday (Jan. 1 and 2) of this week will be delayed by one day due to the New Year’s holiday.
Garbage and recycling that has not been collected by Saturday, Jan. 3, should be reported to Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), at 206-684-3000.
“Volumes will be big, but contractors are planning to collect all of Seattle’s garbage this week without substantial misses,” said Hans Van Dusen, solid waste contracts manager for the city. “But even though contractors will be bringing on special crews, they can’t physically handle all uncollected garbage and recycling without making temporary adjustments in the yard waste schedule.”
All commercial routes serving businesses and apartments are being operated today [Monday], collecting missed and scheduled accounts. Contractors are using extra staff to access and move blocked containers.
Customers whose collections have been delayed may set out their extra garbage at no additional charge. When setting out extra waste, customers are encouraged to place perishable food items in their collection containers and set bagged non-perishable items next to the containers.
Customers who have had their collections missed can also take their waste to Seattle’s Recycling and Disposal stations, where it will be accepted at no charge through December 31st. The stations will be closed on New Year’s Day, Thursday, Jan. 1.
We’ll put up an “open thread”-type post in the morning for discussion of trash-truck sightings and any other info that comes in during the day, if you’re interested in checking in on the progress. 10:30 PM ADDENDUM: Via Facebook (where we are WS Blog), Krystal said there was some recycling pickup today “on the west side of Fauntleroy.”
Since “when is my trash going to get picked up?” seems to be the #1 lingering question for so many of us here in West Seattle – particularly those of us who missed the past two Mondays — we wanted to get the very latest from Seattle Public Utilities, rather than awaiting the next official citywide news release. Just talked by phone with SPU’s Andy Ryan, and got some important updates you need to know:
#1 – They are going to have trucks running this Thursday, New Year’s Day, to try to catch up on more of the missed collections. New Year’s usually OTHERWISE is one of only three non-collection holidays each year.
#2 – If you put your trash out this weekend because of the announcement that some Thurs/Fri pickups might still be made over the weekend – but they haven’t gotten to you yet – BRING IT IN TILL NEXT THURSDAY, and they’ll try to get to you then … or by Saturday … because the original schedule was, for both holiday weeks, for Thurs-Fri pickups to be delayed a day. (Confusing, we know.)
#3 – If you are normally Monday-Wednesday collection, they are going to try to get back on normal schedule the next three days, but they admit that this is an unprecedented situation and they’re not sure how successful they are going to be – so there is a chance (we appreciate their honesty on this) some Monday customers STILL might not get picked up tomorrow, in which case they will try to catch up during those special Thursday runs.
#4 – DON’T BOTHER WITH YARD WASTE for a week or so – they are trying to catch up with recycling and trash first.
#5 – SPU **hopes** to be caught up by next Saturday night. In another day or two, Andy tells WSB, they will announce a special number you can use to start reporting missed collections, but so far they know there are more people who were missed than not and they want to get through a day or two of trying to get back on schedule, before they start taking those calls.’
#6 – Andy wanted us to convey to everyone: “We very much appreciate your patience. This is the worst experience in anyone’s recent memory at Seattle Public Utilities – nobody remembers a storm that kept us out of service this long, and we appreciate people being patient while we take the time to pick stuff up safely.”
We’ll check in with SPU again around midday tomorrow to see how it’s going. Hope the above isn’t too confusing; we wanted to write it up fast after that phone conversation. And if you see a trash truck in your neighborhood tomorrow – let us know! since, something like all the recent story-sharing about buses and snowplows and mail-delivery trucks, it may generate a bit of hope.
UPDATE 7:53pm: Just got word that SPU will issue a statement about tomorrow’s pickup in the next couple of hours. We’ll publish it as soon as we get it.
Wanted to let you know that while holiday fun went on the back burner during Snowmare ’08, a list of West Seattle New Year’s Eve happenings is well under way on the WSB Holidays page, from church services to restaurant/bar parties – even a walk! (If you know of one [or more] WS NYE events we’re missing, please e-mail us a few details, editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks!)
A warning about the major road on West Seattle’s eastern border, sent by Laura in Highland Park (we also got a short Facebook note that mentioned West Marginal Way hazards, so perhaps the same stretch):
Want to alert drivers to a hazardous road condition. I was just out doing errands–happily driving on bare, wet streets. As I was going northbound in the right lane on West Marginal Way at normal speed (40 mph) I came around a curve and hit major slush/ice. I lost control of my car–as did the car in front of me. Luckily we managed to come out of it unscathed, but it was scary for a moment, and could have resulted in an accident. I kept going (in the left lane–and much slower this time) and saw that the right lane continued to have many slushy/icy spots AND a few large fallen branches from the greenbelt. So…two warnings: 1) Specifically, be careful on W Marginal and 2) In general, continue to be extra careful driving–though many streets are bare and wet, you never know when you might come upon a spot that hasn’t melted yet.
And now, of course, the rain is back, which may make it worse before major melt makes it better.
Now that weather woes have mostly passed (for now, at least), we’re going back through the WSB inbox to be sure we didn’t miss anything to share with you. Here are two alerts from WSB’ers who wanted to get out the word about scary incidents that happened to them – read on for the details:Read More
The best way to get events on a West Seattle-wide radar is to send info about them as soon as you finalize the plan (editor@westseattleblog.com) – we are happy to add your event weeks, even MONTHS in advance, to the WSB Events calendar (which is almost caught up from weather-related delay). This one didn’t make the calendar because it just came in – hosts Tas and Sarah Philp have posted it to the WSB Forum but the topic’s so important, we want to note it here too:
We are hosting a community meeting today to discuss health care reform. This is one of a number of such meetings being held all over the country at the request of the Obama transition team.
The meeting is being held Sunday (12/28) from 3:00 – 5:00 pm at our home at 3024 38th Ave SW (98126). Please RSVP to tasandsarah@gmail.com if you plan to attend. All are welcome (no small kids please).
During our recent waves of snowfall, many turned to meteorologist Cliff Mass, well-known for his KUOW appearances and now for his website. He has layered this with a host of caveats, but — given our particular vulnerability in hilly, treed, water-surrounded West Seattle — you should know he says there’s the CHANCE of serious wind toward the end of the coming week. Read his post here. (What about the National Weather Service, you ask? The latest “forecast discussion” mentions only a “strong … system.”)
(added later, 12/28/08 WS Farmers’ Market photo, courtesy JayDee)
Two things that were supposed to happen in West Seattle last Sunday but didn’t, because of the snow, ARE happening today:
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET – Back after an extremely rare cancellation. 10 am-2 pm, 44th/Alaska. Here’s the link to the latest Ripe ‘n’ Ready Fresh Sheet.
ADMIRAL SINGS CHRISTMAS – Feel like you missed out on the usual dose of Christmas music because of being snowbound? This West Seattle holiday-singalong tradition was postponed a week – and you’re welcome to join in at 4 pm today at Admiral Congregational Church, California/Hill (here’s a map). Read more about it here.
| Comments Off on West Seattle snow aftermath: Sunday scenes