West Seattle business: Liberty Bell Printing to close its storefront
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“It’s going to be hard,” acknowledged Liberty Bell Printing owner Michael Hoffman, talking with WSB this evening to announce the closure of his Junction storefront after December 22nd.
He wants to stress that he is NOT closing the business itself – Liberty Bell Printing and Design will continue serving customers, just not from a retail storefront.
Liberty Bell Printing is The Junction’s fourth-oldest business (after Husky Deli, Menashe and Sons Jewelers, and Terjung’s House of Gifts), says Hoffman, who has owned it for 10 years (out of the 38 total that have passed since it was founded). He says the decision to close is simply financial – “economic changes, technology changes; we don’t need to have a storefront any more.”
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West Seattle holiday helpers: Brownies raise money to fight hunger
(WSB photos by Ellen Cedergreen)
What’s in the box? Part of the more than $400 collected by West Seattle Brownies who gathered tonight at Holy Rosary School. The money’s going to Union Gospel Mission, where it’ll buy more than 200 hot meals to feed people in need. The centerpiece of tonight’s event, which gathered five troops of 2nd and 3rd graders from all over West Seattle, was exchanging and decorating cookies:
And that gave them the chance to make new friends – celebrated toward the end of the event, as they sang their “Friendship Song”:
Coming up, local Girl Scouts will deliver birthday-cake-making kits to local food banks in honor of the 150th anniversary this fall of Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low.
1:30 AM UPDATE: Rosina Geary just sent word of the final totals from Monday night’s event:
We had 5 troops (60 Brownie Girl Scouts) in attendance tonight. We will donate 60 dozen cookies to the Union Gospel Mission. And the COMBINED TOTAL spare change collected from all 5 troops was $479.60. This will provide 250 hot Christmas Meals at the Union Gospel Mission.
The spare change, she adds, took three hours to count! The participating troops were #40890, #40699, #43253, #42472, and #40681.
West Seattle Hi-Yu chooses its 2011 theme: Sparkling Seattle
Big competition tonight at the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival‘s combined monthly membership meeting and holiday party. Main order of business: Pitches and voting for next year’s float theme. Junior Court Princess Riley Fredericks had the winning idea, and even made a model for her pitch: Sparkling Seattle, celebrating some of the best and brightest in our city.
That was one of six proposed themes, and the competition was so close, three rounds of voting were needed to come up with a winner (and even then, it was close). The others included a space concept, a flight theme, a space-aliens-signifying-everyone’s-welcome-in-WS theme, a circus motif, and the “wild, wild Northwest.” Next step: Sketches by float designer Steve Fisher, who was among the two dozen or so people at the meeting inside the St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church Hall. Also tonight, a Hi-Yu tradition: The plaques and trophies from the previous parade season are given to individual royalty members for caretaking; this year, the “Dreams Do Come True” float won five awards, at the
Hope Lutheran students complete breast-cancer-fighting adventure
(Photos courtesy Hope Lutheran School)
That’s Tracy Dart, West Seattle breast-cancer survivor and activist, high-fiving a Hope Lutheran student at the end of the fifth-grade class’s special journey. Hope’s Bil Hood explains:
Last fall the Fifth Grade Class at Hope Lutheran School decided to do what they could to help out Team Tracy as they participated in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for breast cancer research. It started with writing encouraging letters that the members of Team Tracy could read while they were participating in the walk and grew from there.
The students wanted to walk as well. They decided that they would not be able to do 60 miles, like the members of the 3-Day did, but they could walk around the block. And for the last several weeks, they hit the street in all kinds of weather aiming to walk 60 laps.
Last Friday they were joined by Tracy herself and other members of Team Tracy as they completed their 60th lap around the block.
By the way – tonight’s the night that Team Tracy is the beneficiary of the first-ever fundraising Monday Night Scrabble tournament at Skylark Café and Club (WSB sponsor) – starting at 7:15 pm
FBI SWAT team arrests Arkansas explosives suspect in West Seattle
Two notes came in over the weekend asking about what appeared to be an FBI SWAT team raid early Friday at a home on Genesee Hill. We have finally confirmed what that was about. It’s a case you might already have seen in regional/national media, though the stories published so far did not mention the “Seattle” arrest was in West Seattle. Agents arrested a suspect, 40-year-old Arkansas resident Mark Krause, who was visiting someone here who by all accounts has no tie to the case. Krause is accused of placing a homemade explosive device six months ago at a church in Osage, Arkansas, that was serving as a polling place (which is why this is a federal case). The device was inside a soda can, and that’s what several people thought it was when they picked it up at the church and moved it around in subsequent hours until someone noticed it had wiring.
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Another real-estate note: Deal closed for Shoremont on Alki
Sometimes, it’s not what you see that makes the story, it’s what you don’t see. In this case, we noticed the “for sale” sign is finally gone from outside the long-vacant, often-vandalized Shoremont Apartments at 2464 Alki SW, 6 months after two notes brought first word the sign had gone up. We checked with agent Steven Chattin, who confirms a purchase deal has closed. However, he says, the client requested no discussion of the details – rather than listing it for a certain asking price, after a bank had taken possession, they put out a request for offers. King County records show a deed of trust granted a few days ago to two people with a Mercer Island address. ADDED MONDAY NIGHT: Further research reveals that at least one of the buyers already has West Seattle property holdings, including apartment properties on California SW in south Morgan Junction.
What’s for sale: Morgan Junction ‘strip mall’ just listed
We don’t randomly check the commercial-real-estate listings as often as we used to – many multimillion-dollar listings have been up a long time, no surprise given the market – but we just found a new one of note: The “strip mall” at 6540 California SW in Morgan Junction is listed for sale. That’s the one with New Teriyaki and Wok, Domino’s Pizza, a freestanding BECU ATM, and the Shell station/minimart. Everything on the site but its billboard is one-story, but it’s zoned for up to 30 feet. Asking price: $2.5 million. See the listing here. (The most expensive public commercial listing for West Seattle right now: $8.1 million for the six-acre 4500 West Marginal Way SW site that includes Gray Line’s bus yard – which just signed a new 5-year lease, according to the listing.)
Wandering dogs finally captured – but whose are they?
WSB lost/found pet reports are usually handled via the Pets page – but we’re showing this photo, shared by Susan via Facebook, here on the main page because we received so many calls/notes about these two yesterday, it seemed half of West Seattle had spotted them. They were reported to be wandering Admiral/Alki, and many were worried; we even heard police-scanner reports about them again this morning. Finally, Susan caught them a little while ago, and took them to the VCA Animal Hospital at 5261 California SW – where, she says, they couldn’t find chips, so their ownership remains a mystery. They’ll likely be headed to the Seattle Animal Shelter next, so if you have any idea whose they are, now that you’ve seen a photo (our listing from yesterday didn’t include one), now’s the time to come forward.
Stuck with corks, post-party? Recycle them at bin 41
Here’s an option for dealing with all those corks left over from your holiday party: As bin 41 (WSB sponsor) wine-shop proprietor T. Frick McNamara puts it, “We’re on a roll for recycling corks!” Since starting their program this summer, they’ve recycled 500 pounds – a quarter-ton! – of corks. She explains, “Often folks put these either in garbage or the garden compost can, not realizing there are options for reusing this valuable renewable material. We’re teamed up with ReCORK of Amorim in California. They work with a company called Sole, who by spring of 2011 have vowed to use all recycled cork material instead of virgin cork to make the soles of their shoes. ReCORK is also working with a company in Portugal to replant new cork trees to help end the cork shortage.” You can bring your natural corks (no synthetic) to bin 41 in The Junction any time (maybe during Wednesday’s tasting?) and put them in the recycling box (shown above). Questions? bin41@me.com. (Also check out the store’s holiday hours in the WSB West Seattle Holiday Shopping/Business Guide – now with a new feature enabling you to share/e-mail individual deals from the page.)
West Seattle Monday: Schools; Scrabble; Hanukkah party…
From the WSB Events calendar and West Seattle Holidays list: AAA West Seattle is having its holiday open house all week – stop in, 4701 42nd SW, 10 am-4 pm … It’s “Open Mike Monday” at Senior Center of West Seattle at 3 pm (call to sign up) … Bingo at Alki UCC church, doors open 5:30, 1st game at 6:30 (6112 SW Hinds) … West Seattle Hanukkah party co-sponsored by Seattle Kollel and West Seattle Torah Learning Center, 6:30 pm (call for location – contact info here) … As previewed here, two school events are also at 6:30 pm: Find out about the new Westside School middle-school program (7740 34th SW); get a design update on the Lafayette Elementary School playground project, school library (2645 California SW) … Monday night Scrabble, raising $ for local causes, starts tonight (previewed here) at Skylark Café and Club (WSB sponsor), 7 pm registration, 7:15 pm game (3803 Delridge Way) … High Point Library Family Story Time tonight, 7 pm (35th/Raymond).
3 West Seattle Soccer Club teams in state championships
Followup on last weekend’s news about three teams from the West Seattle Soccer Club winning their district championships and heading into the Recreational Cup statewide tournament: All three played so well this weekend, they’re in the state championships! WSSC’s Tim McMonigle says that, for any or all of the teams, “A win would mean they are the best recreational team in the state for their age bracket.” All games are at Starfire in Tukwila – on Saturday, the BU-11 Crush plays at 11 am on Field 9; and on Sunday, the GU-14 Cheetahs play at 11:15 am on Field 2, the BU-19 Sambas at 1:30 pm on Field 1.
School news: Westside, Lafayette, WSHS, West Seattle Elementary
WESTSIDE SCHOOL MIDDLE-SCHOOL INFO NIGHT TONIGHT: One month after announcing they’re expanding to add middle school, Westside School (WSB sponsor) is having an informational meeting tonight for interested families. 6:30 pm at Westside’s new campus (former Hughes School in Sunrise Heights, 7740 34th SW).
LAFAYETTE PLAYGROUND PROGRESS REPORT TONIGHT: The “Play It Forward” project to match a $100,000 city match-it-or-lose-it grant has a community meeting tonight about the playground improvements’ design, 6:30 pm, school library (2645 California SW) – and a fundraising auction this Friday, too.
NEED MONEY FOR COLLEGE? INFO EVENT AT WSHS West Seattle High School invites you to learn how to get it, at a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) information session this Thursday, December 9, 6:30-7:30, in the West Seattle HS Theater. WSHS invites you to “bring all your financial aid questions. Go home with answers!” (3000 California SW)
WEST SEATTLE ELEMENTARY SELLING ‘ENTERTAINMENT’ BOOK: Special deal from West Seattle Elementary, in its first year of a high-stakes, high-intensity improvement effort that’s gained regional attention: They’re raising money by selling Entertainment coupon books, $25. Stocking stuffer, perhaps? Stop by the WSE office in High Point, 6760 34th SW, during school hours, or call Diane Stuart in the WSE office, 206-252-9450.
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