(iPhone photo by Christopher Boffoli from Harbor Island, added 10:53 pm) ORIGINAL 10:21 PM REPORT: We got a call about a water-main break and have just confirmed with Seattle Public Utilities‘ Andy Ryan that a 12″ main is broken in the 3200 block of 16th SW. No other details yet, but apparently some people are without water as a result. That address is on Harbor Island, by the way (map). 11:01 PM UPDATE: From WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli at the water-main-break scene: “12 inch water main broke around 9pm. No idea what caused the break. Has caused water outages in West Seattle. Repair may take 6 hours. Some businesses on Harbor Island are flooded out.” 11:14 PM UPDATE: More from Christopher: “Estimated 60,000 gallons of water spilled until they were able to turn it off. No idea how many households are affected but calls are coming in to SPU from a number of West Seattle customers.” As Aaron points out in comments, the Fire Department has now been summoned to the water-main-break location, which is described on the 911 log as “water job minor.” 11:40 PM UPDATE: More from Christopher, who has talked with SPU spokesperson Andy Ryan at the scene: “… the pipe that broke was new. The service had recently been moved farther away from the building. Andy speculates that there may have been a problem with the installation or some of the materials may have had a failure. They will have to do a forensic examination to determine exactly what happened.” 11:54 PM UPDATE: New information from Christopher – he’s been told SFD will be pumping several feet of water out of the basement of Seattle Bulk Rail. Also, new estimate of how much water was lost – almost 850,000 gallons – which was said to have caused a pressure drop so dramatic, it was felt as far away as Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill. ADDED 1:07 AM: A few more photos from Christopher:
We’ll be checking with SPU in the morning for new information about what happened and who in all was affected.
(scroll down for continuous updates from the 34th DDs’ meeting in Fauntleroy)
We’re at The Hall at Fauntleroy as the 34th District Democrats get ready to vote on their primary-election endorsements. Most of the major candidates are here, as is a crowd of hundreds. As-it-happens updates, and more photos, to come. Above, the scene inside the hall; here’s Mayor Nickels arriving, with wife Sharon Nickels hugging a friend in the foreground:
7:19 PM UPDATE: Chair Tim Nuse is calling the meeting to order – a bit late – some folks were good-naturedly chanting “LET’S GO, LET’S GO, LET’S GO!” Former chair Ivan Weiss has just led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. Short speeches will be given on behalf of candidates before the vote. Seattle City Council Position 8 is the first endorsement that’ll be made. Voting tonight will be done on paper ballots. Nuse explains that a candidate needs 2/3 majority for the endorsement. If no one gets that on the first ballot, the top two will advance to another vote.
(Tim Nuse at left, Stephen Lamphear at right)
Rule change – before that Seattle Council endorsement: The first endorsements, however, are being made in a block vote – including “No” on the Tim Eyman initiative 1033, Rob Holland for Port of Seattle Position 3, Max Vekich for Port of Seattle Position 4, Brian Bennett for Burien City Council Position 7 – this will be a voice vote.
7:29 PM: The block endorsement passes. Now, the Seattle Council Position 8 endorsements, with candidates being nominated – then speeches will be made before voting. So far, Rusty Williams, David Miller, and Bobby Forch have been spoken for. Next, Jordan Royer. (After him, the nominees to be spoken for are Mike O’Brien and Robert Rosencrantz. This is the position that Richard McIver holds now.) Susan Harmon spoke for him – now it’s Royer himself. Brian Allen is speaking for O’Brien – “We have a lot of really great candidates for Position 8” – now he’s ceding to O’Brien, who included an anti-tunnel line in his speech. (Speeches are limited to 2 minutes, regardless of how many people speak for and against a candidate. So far no one has chosen to speak against any particylar candidate.) Walter Sive is now speaking (7:45 pm) for Rosencrantz … who then on his behalf says Seattle needs to get ready because “the 2nd industrial revolution is coming.” (7:48 pm) The ballots are being filled out for Seattle Council Position 8.
Four minutes later – they’ve all been collected and are about to be counted.
The next position to be considered is Burien City Council #1 (while the previous race’s ballots are counted) – we won’t be writing about that in detail since it’s outside our area.
8:11 PM: 1st vote count – nobody for Position 8 got 2/3 majority so David Miller (48 votes) and Robert Rosencrantz (37 votes) advance to Round 2. Ballots are being collected. (8:22 pm, still being counted, and they announced, NO endorsement on Burien Council #1 – now they’re handing out ballots for the next position, Port Commissioner #1, before announcing Seattle Council #1 results – There are two nominations in Port #1, John Creighton and no endorsement – Stephen Lamphear (who BTW is a former Burien City Councilmember) says he recommends NO ENDORSEMENT because “there are no Democrats in the race”) – Marcee Stone says, “I know John has struggled with his Democratic identity at times, but he IS a Democrat .. he is an environmentalist.” Now Creighton is speaking (incumbent running for re-election). He says “We still have a lot of work to do, that’s why I’m running for re-election.” Chris Porter (who’s been keeping time tonight) spoke against Creighton; another attendee spoke for him. Cherisse Luxa is now speaking against Creighton, reading from the by-laws. She says Creighton didn’t say he’s a Democrat when answering a questionnaire.
SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL POSITION 8 SECOND BALLOT: Miller 99, Rosencrantz 72, neither got a two-thirds majority, the THIRD ballot now will go “dual endorsement or no endorsement.” Chair Nuse just announced that the 34th District Democrats’ endorsed County Executive candidate, Dow Constantine, has a poll lead over “other Democrats” in the race but needs more support, and he’s mentioning a phone bank, Grand Parade marching, etc. (8:42 pm) Vote-counting still under way. Nuse now has announced 34th DDs’ summer picnic for July 21st at Lincoln Park, and August 14th for the Garden Party fundraiser at West Seattle Nursery. Gatewood resident New York Vinnie will emcee (he’s here tonight BTW).
8:47 PM: Results for Seattle Port Commission #1 – 55% no endorsement, 43% Creighton. No second ballot, so no position in this race. Now nominations are being taken for Position 4 – West Seattle’s Dorsol Plants nominated first, Sally Bagshaw next, David Bloom next. That’s it for this race. Ex-chair Weiss speaking for Plants. Weiss gave a fiery speech – we’ve got it on video we hope to add later. Bagshaw says she’s here “to do some ‘splainin'” about “why (she worked for) 3 Republicans.” She says she worked for Norm Maleng because he worked on social justice issues; she says she worked for Dan Satterberg because she believes in what he did; and as a lawyer for the King County Council, she advised Rob McKenna. She is defending work she did with him such as transit-oriented development. She says this is no place for party labels. Michael Taylor-Judd is speaking against her nomination, saying he agrees to some degree but says that you don’t send letters seeking endorsement and funding for Republicans and then come ask for Democrats’ votes. He got big cheers. Rep. Sharon Nelson spoke for Bagshaw:
David Bloom spoke for himself and derided money being spent on the Mercer Mess, among other things. That’s it for the nomination speeches in this race – voting will begin.
RESULTS IN SEATTLE COUNCIL POSITION 8 – David Miller and Robert Rosencrantz dual endorsement (74% voted for dual endorsement, 26% for no endorsement). Here’s video of Pete Spalding’s nomination speech earlier for Miller, followed by the candidate himself (didn’t get Rosencrantz on video):
9:07 PM: Opening nominations for Seattle Council #2 – West Seattleite David Ginsberg, incumbent Council President Richard Conlin are the nominees. Sen. Joe McDermott spoke for Ginsberg. Then Ginsberg himself: “Nothing would mean more to me than your endorsement.” Kim Becklund speaking for Conlin. For Conlin, Kim Becklund spoke about his environmental achievements; Conlin himself echoed that. Voting is now under way for this position.
9:15 PM: There’s going to be a second ballot for Seattle Council Position 4 – the first ballot ended with Plants 35%, Bagshaw 40%, Bloom 20% – since nobody got two-thirds, there’s a second ballot with Plants and Bagshaw. Here’s Plants, photographed a bit earlier in the meeting:
Voting on that second ballot is under way now. And we’re awaiting results of Ginsberg/Conlin.
9:27 PM UPDATE: Still awaiting vote counts. Chair Tim Nuse has announced 209 credentialed members of the 34th DDs are in the house tonight. He’s also announced donation-seeking for a variety of organizations, including “the homeless camp calling itself Nickelsville.” Marcee Stone is announcing a “Hoe-Down for Dow” fundraiser for County Executive candidate Constantine, at Puget Ridge Co-Housing on July 26th. (photo added later – a lot of this is waiting – Dorsol Plants, Richard Conlin, city attorney and West Seattleite Tom Carr on the sidelines):
9:35 PM UPDATE: It’s been announced that in Position 2, 123 votes were needed for an endorsement – Ginsberg got 122 – so it’s been challenged that two “spoiled ballots” should not have been included in the total from which the 123 was derived to say what constitutes two-thirds. Nuse is citing from Robert’s Rules of Order. (9:41 pm update) Challenges and discussions continue. One motion has been made to revote this race. There’s disagreement over what’s a spoiled ballot and what’s a blank ballot. Marcee Stone suggested that Nuse doesn’t have to go with what the parliamentarian (Lamphear) says. Nuse says he goes with the rules. Now a motion to hand-vote the race, rather than ballot-vote.
9:55 PM UPDATE: Now this race goes to a written second ballot – because in the hand-count revote, 158 votes were cast, Ginsberg got 102, Conlin 56, but 106 votes were needed for two-thirds. The second ballot is for “dual endorsement or no endorsement” just like the Miller/Rosencrantz vote earlier. Someone near us says, “Why not just dual-endorse everybody and get out of here?” And moments later, it was announced that in the second ballot of Council Position 4 the results were Plants 50.3%, Bagshaw 48.6%, so that too goes to a “dual endorsement vs. no endorsement” revote now. It’ll be done by paper ballot – Nuse’s proposal to do a hand vote was challenged.
10:05 PM: While those votes are counted, it’s on to the Seattle City Attorney‘s race. West Seattleite Tom Carr vs. challenger Pete Holmes. Ex-chair Ivan Weiss bellows, “TOM CARR!” Dorsol Plants yells, “PETE HOLMES!” … After speeches, it’s time for a vote in this race. There is a motion to suspend the rules and conduct every further vote tonight by hand vote rather than paper ballots.
10:17 PM: Dual endorsements announced for Ginsberg and Conlin, and for Plants and Bagshaw.
10:26 PM: In the midst of speeches for mayoral nominations. Michael McGinn is the first candidate to speak on his own behalf – Vlad Oustimovitch spoke for City Councilmember Jan Drago, State Sen. Joe McDermott spoke for Mayor Greg Nickels. McGinn mentioned his opposition to the tunnel. Oustimovitch mentioned that Drago had tried to salvage the monorail and when that failed, he says she said, “West Seattle got screwed,” adding, “She was right.” Next candidates nominated, Joe Mallahan (who related an anecdote involving West Seattle’s Holy Rosary and his childhood) and Norman Sigler. No one spoke on James Donaldson’s behalf. Now the voting will begin, though there’s some question about whether a candidate can be voted on if not nominated by a voting member. Sigler will be removed from consideration as a result. Vote-counting under way now. Mallahan’s mention of Holy Rosary, by the way, turns out to be regarding his uncle.
10:39 PM UPDATE: Now to Seattle City Council Position 6 – Nick Licata, Marty Kaplan, Jessie Israel nominated. Licata said he wants to be re-elected to work on a “Sustainable Seattle.” Kaplan says, “You’ve got a choice in this race … it’s an interesting choice.” Israel notes Rep. Nelson and Cascade Bicycle Club have endorsed her.
10:48 PM: Tom Carr receives Seattle City Attorney endorsement of 34th DDs with 68% of the vote. (minutes later) Mayor first ballot – nobody got two-thirds – Nickels got 52 percent, McGinn got 19%, they are top two and go to next ballot.
11:00 PM: Seattle Council Position 6 – Licata got 55% of vote and Israel 40% of vote so they go to a second ballot. We are now in Hour 5 of this meeting. It’s just been announced that King County Council chair and already-endorsed-by-this-group County Executive candidate Dow Constantine is here.
11:08 PM: Just announced, neither Nickels nor McGinn got two-thirds support on second ballot – 64% for Nickels, 35% for McGinn. Now a third ballot will decide on dual endorsement or no endorsement. And meantime they’re moving on to decide what to vote on the bag fee (Seattle Referendum 1). Ann Martin is speaking in favor of it, holding up cloth bags: “This is a big step for our environment.” (A vote FOR the referendum would be a vote in favor of the 20-cent fee for non-reusable shopping bags.) There was also a speaker against – and now Sharon Huling is speaking in favor – saying plastic pollution is “a critical problem.” Cherisse Luxa follows that up by speaking against the bag fee – saying it’s a “regressive” fee. And then, speakers for and against REJECTING the bag fee – Chris Porter, against rejecting: “The planet cannot wait.” Heather Trim of People for Puget Sound held up a small bottle she said contained evidence of plastic pollution in the ocean, blamed partly on bags:
11:24 PM: Just announced, neither Licata nor Israel got two-thirds majority in the second ballot in their council race – so it goes to third ballot (like many other races tonight), “dual endorsement or no endorsement.” We’re also still awaiting results of the same third-ballot “dual or no” vote in Seattle mayor, which is Nickels vs. McGinn.
11:33 PM: Neither side in the bag fee got two-thirds … “yes” came close, 64% … so the 34th DDs take “no position” on that. Now they’re taking up the North Highline Annexation (whether south White Center and other parts of the unincorporated area will agree to be annexed by Burien). A motion to endorse has made from the floor. King County Council Chair Dow Constantine and former Burien City Councilmember Stephen Lamphear have spoken for it – “There is one Highline,” says Lamphear, saying he wanted to annex ALL of North Highline even back when he was on the council; Sharon Maeda has spoken against the proposal. On a hand vote, the 34th DDs support the annexation proposal.
11:48 PM: Now miscellaneous matters. Judge Anne Ellington has been endorsed. The “Decline to Sign” movement to keep an anti-gay-rights referendum off the ballot is supported. Now there are motions to endorse Charlie Mas or Betty Patu for the school board seat that Cheryl Chow is leaving. Leslie Harris is speaking in favor of Mas and recommends people check out his writings at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com. She called him “briliant” and noted he has “lots of experience being a gadfly.” Christi Stapleton speaks for Patu and notes she worked at West Seattle’s now-closed Cooper Elementary for many years. This race now goes to a paper ballot.
11:57 PM UPDATE: Meeting adjourned after it was noted that the School Board district is not in the 34th’s turf (although in the GENERAL election, all school board seats are voted on citywide). Almost five hours. Will file a separate item with more photos as well as succinct list of who was endorsed for what.
Yet more from the West Seattle Summer Fest preview files tonight, with the three-day festival less than two days from kickoff (10 am Friday) … At left is West Seattle’s most fashionable designer/barista, Blayne, photographed at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) this afternoon and also among the amazing artists, merchants, performers, vendors and others you’ll find at Summer Fest. … Erin at Edie’s Shoes, which also happens to be one of four local stores in the new City Stimulus promotion, says that for Summer Fest, “We will be having a promotion for the festival. Buy one pair of full-priced shoes, get a second pair half off, of equal or lesser value (excludes sale) …” Pete Spalding from the West Seattle Food Bank board of directors sent a reminder that the always-popular WS Food Bank raffle tickets will be on sale at Summer Fest – $5 each. We mentioned the tickets when they went on sale last month – grand prize, 2 unrestricted Alaska Airlines tickets! (More in the second half of this WSB report) … Also another note about the beer garden raising money to complete the construction fund for Junction Plaza Park — it’s the beer garden AT the park site — not only is Elliott Bay Brewery making a special beer for the occasion (which Washington Beer Blogwrites about here), but we’re also reminded that sales of the other beers available at that garden will chip 25% into the park fund too. And the beer cups will be compostable! … We’ve also heard from Sorensen Orthodontics in Burien, which will have a booth near the kids’ area, and says, “We will be handing out information regarding the Invisalign Orthodontic Treatment and signing up prospective new patients for our Burien and coming soon to West Seattle offices. Summer Fest patrons can also take a guess on how many retainers we have on display with a chance to win a I-Pod Nano!” Free lip balms, too … The full lineup of Summer Fest participants is here – with live music here and other entertainment here. We’ll be publishing more previews so if you’re part of Summer Fest, please e-mail to let us know what you’ll be doing/offering! We’ll be reporting live from WSSF the whole time, too, so we’ll see you there …
We received e-mail this morning asking for an update on when the 16th SW road-rebuilding work will start north of South Seattle Community College. In our last update in late May, SDOT had projected “late July.” Checking with SDOT’s Marybeth Turner today, we learned the city has just set the start date for the week of July 20th; people who live in the area are getting flyers today. See the entire flyer here – it includes the detour map shown above, which will affect northbound traffic only, according to SDOT. (The red stretch is the “project” zone, where SDOT says there will be some “minor widening” as well as “reconstruction” work.) The official project page on the city website – just updated today – is here. If you haven’t seen that stretch of badly pitted road, by the way, even Google Street View captures it (likely photographed sometime last year):
First of 2 road-work updates we have for you this afternoon: During Sustainable West Seattle‘s Bike-A-Palooza meeting in April (WSB coverage here), city rep Gina Coffman mentioned one of the next WS road stretches to get sharrows would be California SW between Fauntleroy and Thistle, and indeed, the prep work has begun: They’ve been roughed out this week along part of that stretch in Gatewood; we took the photo on the northbound side at Holden (map). “Sharrows” (full explanation here) indicate road stretches which bicyclists and drivers are supposed to share and have already been painted on several West Seattle arterials; to see where else they’re scheduled to go in the future, check the city’s Bicycle Master Plan – specifically, this map section (zoomable) shows what’s planned/proposed for West Seattle streets.
(photo added 2:20 pm – note, they’re still early in the set-up phase)
Two quick notes re: e-mail we just received – First, Stevewrote to ask why video-game machines are being moved into the space that’s been open since Capers consolidated. Answer: West Seattle Summer Fest! Blinky’s Time Warp Video Arcade will occupy that space during the festival (Friday-Saturday-Sunday – read about it here). Second, a coyote alert – Michael just saw one on Genesee Hill near the now-closed school: “Bold as brass, trotting slowly up our driveway … sorry I was too slow to get a pic. Small pet warning!!” (All WSB coyote reports – some with pix and/or video – are archived here, newest to oldest.) ADDED EARLY THURSDAY: Going through e-mail from the incredibly busy holiday weekend, we realize that last Friday night we failed to add this (suspected) coyote report:
At 3:00 AM on July 3, a probable coyote (according to Animal Control, who said it was definitely not a raccoon) killed an orange cat between Walker and Hill on 48th AVE SW.
Even before we received that striking photo last weekend from Craig, who took it over the Kingston-Edmonds ferry route and shared it after seeing the WSB report about “gross” greenish water off Alki during the hot weather at the end of last week, we promised to follow up and see what we could find out. We finally found our way to an expert at the state Ecology Department, courtesy of its media liaison Larry Altose: Dr. Christopher Krembs is Ecology’s Senior Oceanographer in the Marine Monitoring Unit of the Environmental Assessment Program. While on the phone with us, he took a look at the photo shown above – and listened to our relayed description of reader reports about the beach-level Alki sightings. Dr. Krembs said it’s tough for them to solve the mystery without actual samples. They had flown over areas of the Sound a few days earlier to look at blooms, he explained (read about the marine flight program here), but what they saw didn’t exactly match this photo. Most interesting outcome of our conversation: They pointed us, and anyone else interested, to this page full of information about marine algae blooms. As you’ll see on the bottom of the page – they want to hear from you if you spot something like this – they didn’t receive a report of the Alki sighting – but next time, here’s what to do:
Bloom Sightings
Ecology has been conducting monthly monitoring of Puget Sound and Washington’s coastal estuaries for phytoplankton abundance and nutrients (as well as other parameters) for decades through our marine flight program. We are very interested to hear reports of bloom sightings so that we can direct our oceanographers to those locations to collect and analyze samples, and keep statistical information on their occurrence. Please note the date, time, location, and color of the bloom, and contact Dr. Christopher Krembs ckre461@ecy.wa.gov with this information
One other important question we asked: Is it safe to go in the water during an algae bloom? According to Dr. Krembs, without a specific sample/identification, you can’t say for certain, but they’re “generally” not harmful. Regarding other water quality/health concerns, there’s an Alki monitoring station in the bacteria-watching BEACH program – here’s its page (current status: “good”).
Maybe you heard about Seattle Public Library‘s “Summer Reading Program” and thought it was for kids only. Not so! SPL’s Liz Kaune shares this info, with some updated stats:
It’s July! This can mean only one thing: The Seattle Public Library is well into its annual Summer Reading Program.
We know West Seattle loves its libraries and here’s an easy way to get involved: Visit any of our five local branches to sign up for the Summer Reading Program!
You probably know that all the libraries sponsor fun free programs, but did you know we also have goals that we’re trying to meet? Each branch determines the number of kids, teens and adults it expects to sign up, and the number of books it expects them to read. The combined goal for West Seattle is 1,510 readers of all ages and 17,280 books read by Aug. 30. Right now they’re at about 50 percent overall.
Percentage-wise, teens are leading the pack, which certainly counters stereotypes that teens don’t read. Adult sign-ups have reached about 65 percent and kids are at 35 percent.
So we need more people to head over to their local branch and sign up! The five Library branches in West Seattle and vicinity are listed below.
Every book and all readers count! It doesn’t matter how old you are or what books you read. And you don’t have to read Library books – you can read books you already own, or you can listen to audiobooks.
Please help us reach our local reading goal, and the goal for the entire Library system, which is 125,000 books. Check out www.spl.org or visit a Library location for more information.
When we first reported in May about the city’s plan for wading pools this summer – with mandatory safety upgrades causing some pools to open late and a few (like Highland Park) to not open at all – Delridge WAS set to open today. Just doublechecked the city site, and it’s now scheduled to open next Monday (7/13). Not that wading pool weather is expected today anyway, but just in case you were planning for the weekend, now you know. Lincoln Park opened a couple weeks ago (but like all wading pools only operates on sunny, warm days); per the wading-pool website, Hiawatha is still scheduled to open July 20th, E.C. Hughes on July 27th. (Lincoln Park pool photo courtesy of Tamsen)
Twelfth Night Productions (TNP) is pleased to announce it’s next offering Meredith Willson’s ode to Americana, The Music Man. An affectionate tribute to small town USA of a bygone era, The Music Man follows a fast talking traveling sales man, Harold Hill, as he cons the people of River City Iowa into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys’ band he vows to organize. This despite the fact that he doesn’t know a trombone from a treble clef. His plans to skip town with the cash are foiled when he falls for Marian the librarian, who transforms him into a respectable citizen by curtain’s fall.
TNP is excited to partner with the All City Band for this cherished musical. Expect surprises, laughter, fun and an old fashioned good time this summer as Twelfth Night Productions presents The Music Man. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the All City Band.
TNP is a non-profit performing arts organization located at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. This production features several artists from the West Seattle community as well as the greater Seattle area.
The Music Man runs in a special limited engagement at the West Seattle High School, 3000 CALIFORNIA AV SW. Seattle, WA 98116. Show times are: August 7-8, 14-15 and 21-22 at 7:30PM, with matinees at 3 PM on August 9, 16 and 23. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students & seniors, and are available through Brown Paper Tickets (www.brownpapertickets.com), and at West Seattle High School two hours before each performance.
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