Tomorrow night, the Morgan Community Association has a long list of big items for its quarterly meeting – many of which will interest even those living outside Morgan Junction – president Deb Barker provided the rundown – read on: Read More

Though the event’s not in West Seattle, the Young Shakespeare Workshop‘s director Darren Lay lives here, so here’s the word on what’s coming up next month:

“Assist me some extemporal god of Rhyme, for I
am sure I shall turn Sonnet.” — Don Armado, Love’s Labor’s Lost

A marathon performance of poetry will grace Seattle stages this summer. All 154 of William Shakespeare’s sonnets — short poems which he wrote for his friends and loved ones — will be performed on Saturday, August 1st to mark the 400th anniversary of their publication.

This sonnet marathon is hosted by Young Shakespeare Workshop, a company of talented teenagers gathered from Seattle and beyond who spend their summers steeped in Shakespeare’s words. Instead of swimming, camping and playing soccer, these teenagers are learning to fence, to speak with authority, and to interpret and express the multiple layers of meaning embedded in Shakespeare’s text. Their hard work culminates in a first year recital performance and a touring production presented by returning students each summer. Many of the participants return to Young Shakespeare Workshop year after year to perform in the summer production or to mentor younger players.

This summer’s Young Shakespeare Workshop production is the beloved romantic comedy, Twelfth Night. It continues through mid-August at various venues. Young Shakespeare Workshop’s sonnet marathon will take place on Saturday, August 1 from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space in the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford, 4649 Wallingford Ave. N. The audience is invited to not only “sponsor” a sonnet for $30 but to step up and speak or read a sonnet aloud if they wish. The money will be used to support Young Shakespeare Workshop, which is entirely funded by grants and donations and charges no tuition. Young Shakespeare Workshop was created in 1992 by distinguished stage director Edward Payson Call, who wanted to encourage young people to develop a love of the English language by immersing them in the words of its greatest practitioner. Since 1998 it has been directed by Darren Lay, a professional actor, director and teacher [and West Seattle resident] whose scholarly research on Shakespeare has been published in the Times Literary Supplement (UK).

For several years, Young Shakespeare Workshop has been nationally recognized as a Coming Up Taller semifinalist by the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities (www.pcah.gov/cut.htm). It has also received the Mayor’s Race & Social Justice Award twice from the city of Seattle for its aggressive outreach to Spanish-speaking youth.

Monday news release from the King County Council:

The Metropolitan King County Council today cut positions in its own staff and those in Executive-branch agencies, and froze hiring for non-essential County services, to help preserve most of the critical human services “lifeboat” programs in the 2009 King County budget. This budget amendment, sponsored by Councilmembers Bob Ferguson, Dow Constantine, and Larry Gossett, enables the County to fund $1.5 million in lifeboat programs without spending any of the reserves set aside to help close the anticipated shortfall in the 2010 budget.

“With sales tax collections in decline and the prospect of more hard times ahead, we must take immediate, decisive action to protect critical public services,” said Council Chair Dow Constantine, a co-sponsor of the plan. “Last year’s budget used the ‘lifeboat’ concept—granting only partial-year funding to some programs to encourage the state Legislature to approve new revenue sources. The Legislature didn’t provide any new funding, so this proposal shifts existing revenues to maintain key human services programs.”

“Preserving the safety net for our most vulnerable citizens is critical, as is fiscal responsibility during this budget crisis,” said Councilmember Bob Ferguson, also a co-sponsor of the plan. “By making cuts in various agencies, including the Council, we reprioritized our funding and met both goals.”

“We were able to work with our colleagues to create a solution that preserves the out-year reserves necessary to help with the county’s projected 2010 budget shortfall,” said Councilmember Larry Gossett, Chair of the Budget and Fiscal Management Committee and a co-sponsor of the plan. “This plan allows us to continue providing vital services to the neediest members of our community.”

In the 2009 budget, many health and human services programs were placed in a six-month “lifeboat” that – without new revenue sources – was set to be eliminated on June 30.
Earlier this summer, the Executive proposed using more than $2 million in out-year reserves, set aside to help close the 2010 budget shortfall, to fund many of these lifeboat programs. However, with no identified future funding source for these programs and a projected $50 million general fund budget shortfall for 2010, many Councilmembers expressed concern about the Executive’s proposal.
Councilmembers Constantine, Ferguson and Gossett today introduced an alternative that has two goals: 1) to fund the most critical elements of the human services safety net and 2) to maintain the reserves that will be needed to close next year’s budget gap. Their proposal, which was adopted by the Council, achieves these goals by making deep cuts throughout the general fund and reprioritizing these dollars for the human services safety net.

As part of the plan, the County Council will cut $875,000 from its 2009 budget allocation by not filling vacant positions and transferring unspent funds reserved for two council-initiated programs. Also filling the gap will be $110,000 in unspent funds from the Elections Office and Department of Assessments, and $900,000 in cuts to Executive branch agencies. The Council also prioritized funding for those lifeboat programs that provide direct services to vulnerable populations and reduced the lifeboat funding amount for all programs by approximately one-third.

The Council today also approved a hiring freeze proposed by Council Chair Constantine as an emergency measure. Savings from the hiring freeze through the end of 2009 help fund the remaining costs associated with the “lifeboat” so that no reserves earmarked to deal with next year’s budget gap will have to be spent.

The hiring freeze will not affect County employees whose jobs directly impact public health and safety, including Sheriff’s deputies, corrections officers, health care providers, and employees of the courts and prosecutor’s office. It also allows the County Executive to approve new hires in specific cases where a department can show that keeping a position vacant would actually increase costs to the County.

From Ron Angeles, Delridge Neighborhoods District Services Coordinator for the city, announcing this Wednesday’s Delridge District Council meeting, to which you are invited:

In the City of Seattle, citizens are encouraged to participate in city government and one of the most effective ways of getting involved in through your Delridge District Council.

In 1987, the Seattle City Council established the District Council system as a way of soliciting input and advice from citizens on city-sponsored programs and initiatives.

It is also a regular monthly forum where residents, community leaders, neighborhood groups, and community agencies, can network, gather support, recruit volunteers and share what issues, projects, programs, and community building activities they are involved.

Next Delridge District Council meeting:

Wednesday
July 15th
7 pm
Youngstown Cultural Arts Center
4408 Delridge Way SW

This month’s Guest Presentation:

The Seattle Green Bag Campaign, which is an educational campaign formed to
-Inform voters about Referendum 1 on our Aug 18th Seattle Ballot
-Encourage them to vote “yes” for Ref 1 and
-Encourage more public participation in bringing reusable bags to the grocery store.

The Green Bag Fee ordinance referred to in Ref 1 would require grocery and drug stores to charge consumers 20 cents for every disposable plastic or paper market bag they use, instead of embedding the cost of such disposables in the general cost of products, as has been the common practice. The purpose of this fee is to reduce waste created by making shoppers more aware of the cost of disposable bags. The ordinance was passed in July of 2008 by Seattle’s City Council, and was suppose to take effect Jan 1 2009. It has been postponed until a vote of Seattle citizens because of a paid signature gathering effort funded by the ACC (American Chemistry Council).