day : 09/09/2010 12 results

West Seattle Art Walk: From Barton Street Lofts to The Junction

Outside Windermere Real Estate in The Junction, a young West Seattle Art Walk-goer pondered the sign. Much to see on a cool near-autumn night – not far away, Kristina Griffith painted on the sidewalk in front of the Junction boutique Carmilia’s:

Further south at ArtsWest (WSB sponsor), Eric Montoya was on hand to welcome visitors to the new show he’s part of (through October 2), Tenuous Truths, and across the street, Geoff Carter’s work – including Jessica Rabbit and Tinkerbell, here – graced the walls at knows perfume:

Then we ventured south to the biggest event of the night, more than a dozen artists showing at the Barton Street Lofts (WSB sponsor; here’s a map) – among them, Michelle Auer:

And James W. Sutherland:

Some of the Art Walk visitors mingled in the Barton Street Lofts courtyard, where you’ll find this water feature:

Next West Seattle Art Walk, October 14th, starts the fall quarter, and some participants rotate in and out each quarter, so watch for a new walking map when the date gets closer – as well as previews on the official Art Walk website (here) and Facebook page (here). Meantime, if you can’t wait that long for another artist reception – this Saturday night, Alena Hennessy will be on hand as her watercolor and ink works go on display at Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor), 5-8 pm in the Admiral District (next month, they move to The Junction).

Before the shopping – the sorting: Fauntleroy Church sale preps

Earlier this week, we mentioned this weekend’s big sale at Fauntleroy Church – but had no idea just how big it was, till we stopped in this afternoon for a sneak peek at the stacks of stuff that volunteers are sorting and pricing. Lots of kid stuff:

Plus housewares, clothes, even a whole wall stacked with art, some of it donated by home stagers. Among those sorting, pricing, and inspecting this afternoon – Pastor David Kratz, Carol Karlstrom, and Pat Gedney:

The sale runs 9 am-3 pm on Saturday and 11 am-1 pm to Sunday; also on Sunday, you can bring all sorts of recyclables to the church (here’s a map) for free recycling via 1 Green Planet, 9 am-1 pm – here’s the list of what they’ll take.

Anybody up for Duwamish River rowing? A rower’s invitation

Mike Merta shared that video in hopes of stirring up interest in rowing on the Duwamish River – take a look, and listen carefully. After watching the video, we asked him to elaborate:

Rowing has a long history here in Seattle but as far as I know, there has never been any rowing on the Duwamish. This is unfortunate since it is a sport that pretty much began on a river (Thames in England), and the boats are made to be rowed on calm, flat bodies of water. I realize that the Duwamish is not the Thames, but it’s actually a beautiful place in some parts and would be perfectly suited to the sport of rowing. So far, it’s just me out there in my single. I’d like to raise some money in order to buy a double, then a four, then someday an eight. I’m hoping to connect with other oarsman and oarswomen in the area to see what ideas they might have for fundraising and to find out what interest there might be for starting a club.

There are already a lot of positive things happening on the river these days such as Kayak tours, the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, and Duwamish Alive. I’d like to add to that and to bring a great sport to this part of town. If anyone is interested in helping to get this project going they can contact me through the Duwamish Rowing Club Facebook page.

You can find that page here.

One idea for 9/11 Day of Service: Help clean up Admiral

It’s not specifically a Day of Service project – it’s the Admiral Neighborhood Association‘s regular quarterly cleanup – but it’s on September 11th (this Saturday) and everybody’s welcome. From ANA president Katy Walum:

Admiral Adopt-a-Street Cleanup is this Saturday! Meet at Metropolitan Market at 9 am, where you’ll be provided with safety vests, trash bags, gloves, and trash picker-uppers, as well as fresh fruit, pastries, and coffee from the coffee shop. Once you’re finished beautifying your ‘hood (Admiral Way from the bridge west to 47th, and California Ave. from Walker south to Hanford), return to Metropolitan Market for complimentary sack lunches and a pat on the back for a job well done. What a rewarding way to spend a couple of hours on Saturday morning!

Solar expansion atop High Point Neighborhood Center

When we went by 10-month-old High Point Neighborhood Center this afternoon for a look at the work A&R Solar has done to expand the solar array atop the building, we should have realized it couldn’t be seen without going up on the roof. We’re not much for climbing, but luckily Dave Kozin from A&R agreed to take our camera up and get a few photos. He says they just finished installing the expansion – 128 more solar panels, added to the original 256 panels – and will be working on wiring tomorrow; then it should be turned on by the weekend. The solar array atop High Point Neighborhood Center already was one of the largest in the region; they are new to the project – a different company installed phase 1.

A&R Solar is based in Seattle and notes in the announcement of the project:

This system is currently one of the state’s largest solar projects with 48.6 kilowatts (kW) of capacity. The additional 128-panel installation from A&R Solar will increase the community center’s solar energy output to 73.6 kW. … With help from Sally Knodell at Environmental Works, as well as engineering support from Glumac (electrical) and Swenson Say Faget (structural), A&R Solar began installation of the additional 128 solar panels on Monday, August 23, 2010, and is scheduled complete the project by Friday, September 10. Many thanks are in order for the City of Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development, who helped streamline the permitting process, and to the City of Seattle for providing most of the funding for the project.

A&R Solar says it’s also working on a system at Walla Walla Community College with almost as much capacity as High Point – 72 kilowatts. HP Neighborhood Center, meantime, has other energy-saving features beyond the social array – we detailed some of them during a hard-hat tour last year.

Kiwanis Club of West Seattle honors Alki Lumber’s Jim Sweeney

At this week’s Kiwanis Club of West Seattle lunch meeting, the club honored Alki Lumber and Hardware owner Jim Sweeney as an “Everyday Hero.” He donated materials for the Kiwanis service project in June that placed bag dispensers at Westcrest Off-Leash Area, West Seattle’s only off-leash dog park. Alki Lumber was founded by his father William J. Sweeney – a onetime president of the Kiwanis chapter; Jim Sweeney took over at age 20 when his father died in 1959. (Our photo shows him with the Kiwanis Club’s West Niver.) When he started running the business, Sweeney said, Seattle had 131 lumber yards, but today, only a handful remain – they’re planning to expand their hardware section this year, though, and will be an Orgill Hardware affiliate when that’s done.

Admiral Way restriping will keep existing lanes, city announces


(Click graphic to enlarge – sketch of new Admiral plan)
Less than four months after we first reported the city was looking at “rechannelization” – also known as a “road diet” – on Admiral Way north of The Bridge, the decision is in. Just arrived via news release, this announcement – no lane reductions:

After hearing from the community and conducting additional analysis, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) today announced changes to SW Admiral Way to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety without impacting existing vehicle travel lanes.

SW Admiral Way will be restriped between SW City View St and SW Manning St in September 2010. After the work is complete, the 0.7 mile stretch will feature the existing two travel lanes for each direction along with a bike lane with a striped buffer on the northbound (uphill) side of the roadway and shared lane markings in the outside southbound (downhill) lane. A pedestrian crossing island will be constructed at SW City View St to accommodate pedestrians crossing SW Admiral Way to the Metro transit stop on the west side of the roadway. On-street parking will remain on the east side of the roadway north of City View, while underutilized parking will be removed south of City View to accommodate the two travel lanes and the buffered bike lane.

This decision is based on current and future traffic conditions on the corridor, recommendations in the Pedestrian and Bicycle Master plans, and community input received via letters, phone calls and the July 13 open house [WSB coverage here]. The final roadway layout carefully reflects the needs of motorists, freight, transit, bicycles, pedestrians and emergency response. Additional information about the changes, to include frequently asked questions and plans for the project, can be found on the project’s Web site at:
http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/bikeprojects/sw_admiral_way.htm

That page says the work will start “mid-to-late September.” If that still leaves you wondering, so what’s really going to change? here’s the bottom line from the project website:

WHAT WE PLAN TO DO
* Maintain the existing 4 vehicle travel lanes
* Install a pedestrian median crossing island at SW City View
* Install a 5 foot wide uphill bike lane with a 2 foot wide painted buffer
* Add shared lane markings (sharrows) to the outside, downhill lane.
* Remove parking south of SW City View St to maintain existing travel lanes and add the uphill bicycle lane

Parks Board tonight: Reservoir park design; tennis-court changes

Two items of note on the agenda for the Seattle Parks Board, meeting at Parks HQ downtown tonight at 7 (agenda here): Board members will review the latest “schematic design” for the new levy-funded park atop the newly covered West Seattle Reservoir in Highland Park, next to Westcrest Park. We just checked with project manager Susanne Rockwell, who says everything’s on schedule for the project to go out to bid in the first quarter of next year, and for construction to be complete by spring 2012. No date yet for a promised open house; the last public design meeting was in June (WSB coverage here). Also, there could be West Seattle effects for a policy change the board will start reviewing tonight – possibly allowing non-tennis uses on “low-use” tennis courts. Here’s the briefing paper; it specifies criteria for determining what’s a “low-use” tennis court, but doesn’t specify which might meet those criteria. (West Seattle’s outdoor tennis courts include Alki, Hiawatha, Solstice/Lincoln Park, and Lowman Beach.) After the board discusses the concept tonight, a public hearing is planned for September 23rd; this link explains how to comment on the idea, any time between now and a scheduled vote in late October.

Bulletin: Thomas Qualls charged in Alki police shooting case

ORIGINAL 9:59 AM REPORT: The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has just confirmed that 59-year-old Thomas J. Qualls, shot by police after a confrontation at his Alki home last Friday night (original WSB coverage here), is now charged with three counts of second-degree assault. He is scheduled for arraignment in two weeks; police had told us earlier today that once he is released from the hospital, he will be booked into the King County Jail. (12:46 pm note – Per KCJ and Harborview, he’s now out of the hospital and in jail.)

10:19 AM: We have just finished typing the full transcription of the narrative (sequentially published but now complete, below) in the charging document. In summary, there’s some new information, that police say officers and Qualls both fired their weapons, that they say Qualls had a third gun, and that marijuana was found in the house. The phone call that brought police there in the first place is also more fully described:

… Police Officers were dispatched to 6114 SW Admiral Way … A caller, who was later identified as (Qualls’ daughter), stated that she received a phone call from the defendant, who told her that he and her mother had got into an argument, and that she had left the house. He told (daughter) that if her mother did not return, that he would shoot himself, and then she heard what sounded to her as one gunshot, then the line went dead. She explained to the 911 dispatcher, that her father had access to several weapons in the house.

Sgt. Strand was the first to arrive on the scene and parked his patrol vehicle several houses to the east of the defendant’s house and waited for additional units to arrive. While he was waiting outside of his vehicle, Sgt. Strand stated that he heard what sounded like fireworks or possibly a gunshot coming from the area outside the defendant’s house.

Officer Peloquin, who at the time of this incident was in plain clothes and was acting as a Field Training Officer capacity for his partner Officer Gallegos, who was completing his field training, arrived a short time later and met with Sgt. Strand at the scene. The three officers observed that the defendant’s house was dark, with no lights on in the front portion, but noticed that lights were on in the rear of the house. The defendant’s house was on the north side of SW Admiral Way, and an alley ran north and south, just east of the defendant’s home.

The officers walked down the alley to the rear of the house and noticed that the back door was open. Officer Gallegos walked into the back yard area, between a detached garage, which was north of the main house, and a large stack of firewood that blocked the officer’s path to the back door. Sgt. Strand was just to the left of Officer Gallegos and Officer Peloquin to Sgt. Strand’s left. As they approached the stack of firewood, Officer Gallegos called for the defendant, identifying himself as a Seattle Police Officer.

At about this same time, Sgt. Strand noticed that the defendant was armed with an assault rifle, and had the weapon positioned across his body as he walked outside onto a deck, which was about eight feet above the surface of the back yard. Sgt. Strand announced that defendant was armed and commands were given by Sgt. Strand to the defendant to drop the weapon. The defendant yelled something similar to, “f*** you guys, I’m going to get you” at this moment, the defendant raised his rifle and pointed it at the officers. Officers stated that the defendant fired his weapon, possibly three times in their direction, at the same time all three officers fired their duty weapons toward the position of the defendant.

Officers also broadcasted over Seattle Police radio that the defendant had fired shots at them. All three officers moved to a better cover position after the volley of shots and waited for additional units to arrive before attempting to contact the defendant. During this time Officer Peloquin covered the suspect, who was now lying on the back deck, with the rifle next to him and the defendant was still conscious and telling officers “I’m not down.”

Additional units arrived and the defendant was taken into custody. Officers patted the defendant down for additional weapons and recovered a fully loaded .45 caliber handgun in his pocket.

Also recovered was the assault weapon, which was 7.62 caliber rifle, with a fully loaded magazine, which has a thirty-round capacity. Also recovered at the time of the arrest was a loaded .22 caliber rifle, which was located near the back door of the house. Officers found that the defendant had suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen and was taken by Seattle Fire to Harborview Medical Center to be treated.

Detectives with the Seattle Police Homicide Unit were called to the scene and were informed that the defendant had several surveillance cameras showing the surrounding areas around his house. The defendant would have been easily able to see the officers’ arrival and their positions prior to making contact with them outside.

A search warrant was obtained for the defendant’s house (by phone). During the search several notes were photographed and recovered. The notes read “got back up! Going for blood!”, “be careful, it loaded and ready to go!”, “let play not you (wife’s first name). Love Tom” and “lock and loaded, let go.” These notes were recovered from the stairs leading from the kitchen to an upstairs bedroom; also on the stairs was another fully loaded magazine for the assault rifle, which has a capacity of thirty 7.62 rounds.

On the kitchen table was a large amount of suspected marijuana, which appeared to have just been cultivated and was drying on the table. Seattle Police CSI processed the scene and collected that listed items and the computer which included the surveillance camera monitor.

On 9/7/10, Detective Steiger interviewed the defendant after reading him his Miranda Warnings, which the defendant stated that he understood. The defendant was still at Harborview Medical Center, but was coherent during the interview. The defendant stated that he did not remember what happened on the night of the shooting. When it was suggested that it appeared he wanted to commit suicide by the officers shooting him, he did not disagree or agree with the suggestion.

The facts presented in this case establish probable cause to charge the defendant with Assault 2nd egree RCW 9A.36.021.

(document ends with signature)

Prosecutors are asking that bail be set for Qualls, once he’s out of the hospital, at $1 million, because, they write, “…(he) poses a flight risk and is likely to commit a violent offense. … The defendant has no known criminal history but fired an assault rifle at three police officers when they attempted to make contact with him in regards to his daughter’s concern about a possible suicide attempt.” The three counts of second-degree assault with which he is charged represent one count for each of the officers at whom authorities say Qualls fired. 11:40 AM NOTE: The King County Jail Register shows Qualls booked into jail as of 5:18 pm yesterday, so we are checking with Harborview to see if he is indeed out of the hospital. (Confirmed 12:46 pm)

(Photo credits: Friday night scene, Christopher Boffoli for WSB; guns, Seattle Police, published by SPD Blotter.)

West Seattle Art Walk tonight – stretching south to Barton St. Lofts

September 9, 2010 9:43 am
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 |   West Seattle Art Walk | West Seattle news

Another big night at dozens of locations around West Seattle – 6-9 pm, it’s the West Seattle Art Walk (see the map here). And this time around, the Art Walk stretches even further southeast than it has before – Barton Street Lofts (WSB sponsors) have 13 artists on hand for a gala so exciting, they’ve been talking about it since before the last art walk! From metal robot sculptures to recycled-art dolls, the artists span many media – you can read about them on the official Art Walk website and on the Barton Street Lofts’ own website. Also among the WSB sponsors participating, Hotwire Online Coffeehouse features David Peacey‘s paintings (read about them here); ArtsWest – where “reasons to be pretty” just opened in the theater – is featuring the show “Tenuous Truths” (spotlighted here); also in The Junction, Bin 41 has West Seattle painter/sculptor Clayton Marsh, viticulturist Marco Ventrella from Graham Beck, and “Dining in Seattle: Past and Present” author Andrea Lott. WSB sponsors Cupcake Royale, Brunette Mix, and Click! Design That Fits (moving to The Junction soon!) are on the map too, along with the rest of the participant list (including The Building in Gatewood, featured here on Labor Day) – support your local businesses and go see them while enjoying art (and often treats, too) tonight! Here’s the map again.

West Seattle Crime Watch: Two reports from the inbox

Two West Seattle Crime Watch reports out of the WSB inbox – car vandalism and car theft (different part of the peninsula than the car-theft wave we reported here earlier this week) – read on:Read More

No facelift this weekend for the Roxhill “R,” after all

A few weeks back, Donn DeVore from the Westwood Neighborhood Council put out the call for help with an unusual project – help spruce up the “R” at Roxhill Elementary. But now the project’s on hold, according to a note from Donn:

Unfortunately we are going to have to postpone the painting event this weekend to some future date. Initially we received positive and enthusiastic support from the Roxhill Elementary School staff earlier in August, and based on these discussions we set a date for the painting of the ‘R’. Unfortunately, Seattle Public Schools has not given us the final go ahead due to a potential of lead paint on the existing ‘R’. Without their approval, Roxhill cannot allow us to paint the ‘R’.

He says they’re looking for more sponsorship help too, after learning that promised help from McLendon Hardware wouldn’t go as far as they’d thought:

I will be researching and enlisting the help of additional company sponsorships over the next week to be able to do the project appropriately. The West Seattle Tool Library has offered us any tools that we could use at no charge. Hopefully we can work on this project in the near future.