West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
Another big achievement for the West Seattle triathlete! From her sister, Susan Robinson:
Proud to announce that my sister, Judith Sentz (of West Seattle), participated in the World Ironman Triathlon on Oct. 8th in Kona, Hawaii. The race consists of a 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bike ride, and a full marathon, 26.2 miles. That’s 140.6 miles!! Judy finished 14th in her age group (60-64) in just over 14 hours. Her family was there to cheer her on. She is an amazing West Seattle athlete!
She qualified for the world-championship event by winning her division in a triathlon in Idaho earlier this year.
One high-school football game involving a local team tonight: Final score from the Northeast Athletic Complex, Nathan Hale 37, Chief Sealth 20.
ADDED: Summary and video:Read More
An evening update from the U.S. Coast Guard regarding the sunken 75-foot workboat that left a sheen on the water off Beach Drive, with some of the oil reaching the shore, as reported in our daylong as-it-unfolded coverage:
Oil containment boom and oil skimming equipment are working well to contain and recover the diesel fuel and oil spilled by the sunken vessel Justin, which sank Friday morning off of the west side of West Seattle.
Shoreline clean-up and containment crews are using absorbent pads to mitigate a very small part of the spill that reached the beach near Lowman Beach Park in West Seattle. Shore-side response crews have deployed boom along the shoreline in the waters just of the beach near the incident site in an effort to prevent further shore impact.
Two miles of impacted shoreline have been surveyed. A majority of the shoreline impact is very light which makes clean-up efforts ineffective and may actually cause more harm than good. However, shoreline clean-up crews have identified areas on the beach with pockets of oil and clean up operations are underway in these areas.
An Incident Command Post has been established at Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound that includes representative from the Washington Department of Ecology, U.S. Coast Guard, and representatives from the responsible party.
The Incident Commanders have set the following objectives:
*Secure the source of the spill
*Stabilize the sunken vessel
*Remove as much oil as possible from the water
*Stabilize the barge
*Salvage the sunken vessel
*Monitor shoreline impact and deploy mitigation equipment as necessary.The spilled product that remains on the surface of the water is expected to dissipate. Salvage operations will continue throughout the evening with divers focusing on plugging fuel vents securing the spill source. A 150-ton crane barge is being mobilized to be used to lift the vessel from the bottom early tomorrow during daylight.
A 500 yard safety zone is still in effect around the spill site. Mariners are reminded to stay clear of the Safety Zone until it is cancelled. The public is reminded to avoid contact with any of the spilled fuel or oil in the water or any fuel or oil that may reach the beach. If anyone discovers diesel fuel or oil on the beach, they should report it to the Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound at 206-217-6001/2
We’ll be checking back through the evening and will add any new developments; Beach Drive Blog has been updating all day too.
Just out of the WSB inbox:
Sometime before 5 pm today, we had two bikes stolen from our backyard on the 4100 block of 55th Ave SW – a yellow GT Outpost “18 (S/N P7EL27002) and a silver Marin Bolinas Ridge “15 (S/N 415MGM014) mountain bikes. We’ve called the police and are waiting for them to call back to take a report. Anyone with info please email: marcy.rugland@gmail.com
When we passed by the Uptown Espresso lot in The Junction around 2 pm, only Fusion on the Run was there for the launch of the new “food truck pod” experiment reported here earlier this week – but then we passed by again after 6, and noticed 3. Bigfood and Raney Brothers BBQ had shown up too, for dinnertime. Track the schedule at wseattleeats.com. Tomorrow, meantime, it’s the second Saturday for a pod in restaurantless Highland Park, with Lumpia World and Curry Now at HP Improvement Club (12th/Holden), 11 am-3 pm.
As first reported here last month, big changes are proposed for city-run community centers, in the mayor’s budget proposal, now making its way through the City Council. Whatever changes eventually are put in place, what hours do you think centers should be operated, and what programs should be offered? The city Parks Department invites you to a series of meetings – one at each community center – to share your ideas. Here are the ones in West Seattle:
Alki Community Center, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, 5817 SW Stevens
Delridge Community Center, 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, 4501 Delridge Way SW
Hiawatha Community Center, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2700 California SW
High Point Community Center, 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, 6920 34th SW
Southwest Community Center, 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, 2801 SW Thistle
In terms of the overall budget-cut proposal itself, the next public hearing before the City Council is October 26th (details here).
Thanks to Paul W for the photo – the latest stretch of rocky road in West Seattle to get some new asphalt is Dumar Way, a well-traveled stretch between Highland Park and Delridge (map), where this was the scene just a few hours ago.
A local business has announced a special effort to help the family of Dr. Ed Kingston, the 38-year-old volunteer youth-soccer coach who died suddenly last Saturday during a game at Riverview Playfield. A fund has been set up, as reported previously, at edkingston.com; now, we have word that The Wax Bar in The Triangle is going to donate all its proceeds during a four-hour period next Tuesday, to support the family. Wax Bar manager Lynaia tells WSB that her family is involved with youth soccer too and knows the Kingstons, and wanted to do something to help. The benefit event will be 9 am-1 pm on Tuesday (October 18th) and they’re taking appointment calls right now – since they’re closed Sundays/Mondays, you’ll want to call today or tomorrow. 206-935-4990.
(Photos by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
This past hour, both of our state’s U.S. Senators were at South Seattle Community College‘s main campus here in West Seattle to announce a $20 million federal grant that “will train 2,600 more workers with the skills needed by Washington state aerospace employers,” according to the official announcement. SSCC President Gary Oertli was among those with Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell for the announcement at one of the training facilities expected to benefit – the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee’s Advanced Inspection and Manufacturing Mobile Training Unit at SSCC. After the formalities, we photographed Sen. Cantwell inspecting an SSCC goodie basket from Pres. Oertli – with some of the college’s trademarked food/beverage creations:
We covered the announcement; our video is here.
Giannoni’s Pizzeria on the south side of Westwood Village WILL be open on time at 11 this morning, owner Donna says – but that’s after some cleanup work they would rather have not had to do. What you’re looking at in our photo is a hole in the wall at Giannoni’s, cut by burglars who broke in and then went through the wall to get into Taco Del Mar next door. Donna tells us the burglars made off with quarters from the pizzeria’s Pac-Man video-game machine, among other things, so they’ve alerted the nearby QFC in case anyone turns up at Coinstar with an unusual amount of quarters. We’re checking with police for more details on the break-in, but in the meantime, Donna says the burglar(s) were apparently scared off while inside TDM, and it’s believed to have happened around 2:30 am, so please contact SPD if you were in the area and saw anything suspicious.
Thanks to WSB contributor Keri DeTore for the tip about the line outside the AT&T store at California/Fauntleroy. It’s for the iPhone 4S, which went on sale today.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Salvage and cleanup operations continue as of late Friday afternoon. We will update this story until launching a new one this evening.)
8:37 AM: Here’s what’s going on along the 5400 block of Beach Drive that has brought out the Coast Guard and the Fire Department, among others: There was a report of a boat sinking; by the time authorities arrived, it had sunk. It’s a 35-40-foot boat that’s been working on a private project along the shore.
(Photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
No one is believed to have been on board. But they’re trying to evaluate what to do next. We’ve got a crew at the scene.
9:09 AM: Yes, this is what the helicopters were looking at – keep in mind that it happened before the TV morning-news daypart had ended. The boat apparently had been toting rocks related to a bulkhead-building project on shore, in tandem with a floating crane (which was not involved in the sinking). The construction crew involved with the project told WSB that the boat sunk within five minutes of starting to list. Again, no one was on board – but the boat was laden with rocks. And as commenters are pointing out, there is a fuel slick now to deal with. We’ll be tracking that part of it with authorities. Thanks, by the way, to everyone who texted/called/e-mailed/etc. about this.
(Photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
9:40 AM: We’ve just gone back to check on the scene again – there’s now a containment boom out. Beach Drive Blog had covered the construction project to which this is apparently related.
10 AM UPDATE: New information from the U.S. Coast Guard: Salvage divers were summoned to the scene. The vessel that went down is described as 73 feet long. It had 300 gallons of diesel and 30 to 50 gallons of motor oil; the Coast Guard says crews were working to “plug the fuel vents” before it went down. (A neighbor tells WSB that it was listing for quite some time before it went down.) The sheen is described as 150 by 50 feet.
10:21 AM UPDATE: New photo – in addition to the boom, absorbent pads are being put in the water to help clean up the oil. The Department of Ecology is involved in this too, and says “the boat owner did not make proper notifications.” The Coast Guard says that’s Waterfront Construction, which it has labeled the “responsible party.”
12:15 PM UPDATE: Neighbor Lura (thank you!) caught the actual sinking of the vessel before it went under, which Beach Drive Blog says is the Justin, went under – we’ve tried to sharpen it up a bit; look close alongside the barge:
Also for BDB, Rob Porter reports via Twitter that water’s being pumped off the barge.
1 PM UPDATE: The Coast Guard has put together its official summary of what’s happening. New information includes news of a contractor brought in to clean up the spill.
1:23 PM UPDATE: Mike sent photos, saying some of it has washed up south of the sinking:
He’s in the 5900 block of Beach Drive, several blocks south.
4:05 PM UPDATE: Thanks to Colby Chester for a bird’s-eye view of what the slick looked like a few hours ago:
The Coast Guard has published another update, acknowledging that some of the sheen has reached the shore, and saying it appeared to be breaking up. We were down at the scene a little while ago and they were doing flyovers to gauge its size. There’s a 500-yard “safety zone” around the spill and, says the Coast Guard update, “An estimated 1,600 feet of hard boom and 300 feet of soft boom have been deployed to contain and absorb oil from the water.” They expect to continue cleanup till nightfall, and to resume it in the morning as needed; salvage operations for the sunken vessel will continue into the night. The state Ecology Department also has an update, with sheen aerials, here.
4:36 PM UPDATE: We also have heard from a spokesperson for the owners of the vessel, which they describe as 75 feet, and confirm is the Justin:
Waterfront Construction, the owner of the 75’ vessel “Justin” that sank in the Puget Sound early this morning, has contracted with NRC Environmental Services to contain the surface sheen released from the vessel.
NRC Environmental Services has multiple spill response vessels and skimmers on scene and has deployed containment boom. Additional boom is on scene and ready to be deployed as needed. Marine and shoreline emergency response trailers as well as vacuum trucks are standing by for additional support, should they be required. In the first few hours, divers were brought in to plug fuel vents to stop the release of the fuel on board. Salvage experts from Ballard Diving & Salvage have been contracted by Waterfront Construction to perform underwater inspections of the vessel and create a salvage plan to raise the ex-military Landing Craft from the Puget Sound waters as quickly and safely as possible.
“Waterfront Construction appreciates the unified response that has been assisting with this unfortunate event and is doing everything in its power to clean the waters as quickly as possible”, states Keith Landry, Project Manager of Waterfront Construction.
In a followup exchange, the spokesperson told us it’s too soon to tell how soon they will try to bring up the Justin, as they are still working on the plan.
Something new turned up on the city’s Travelers Information traffic-info map: Links to live video from the two main cameras on the West Seattle Bridge. There’s no direct link so far as we can tell, so here’s how to get to them: Go to the map, scroll till you see “Live Traffic Video” on the lower right, click that, and it opens a list of 12 cameras around the city, including the two on the bridge. The video seems to stop after 30 seconds, though, requiring another click to resume. We’ll be checking with SDOT later this morning to find out more about this new addition.
Like its counterpart a few miles north, Chief Sealth International High School opened its Open House last night with music – in their case, the Jazz Band played in the auditorium. The program that preceded classroom visits included a special event – acknowledgment of the new public-art installation outside the auditorium, visible from SW Thistle:
The six illuminated steel “Sentinels” are the work of Seattle artist Juan Alonso, who spoke briefly and emotionally, explaining the inspiration behind them:
A Washington State Arts Commission rep explained the work as part of the “1/2 of 1%” program. Sealth’s new principal Chris Kinsey also spoke briefly, saying the year – his first there – is off to an “amazing” start. (No classes today – it’s a professional-development day throughout the district.)
No school today for Seattle Public Schools students – but last night was big for at least two schools here on the peninsula, high-school Open House night. We stopped by both; at West Seattle High School in the early going, we found principal Ruth Medsker out in the courtyard with the band, ready to serenade arriving parents. Then we got the student musicians on video:
Tomorrow (Saturday) is WSHS Homecoming, with a barbecue in the courtyard starting at 2:45 pm, followed by a caravan to the stadium at 4:15, and the game at 5, with the Homecoming Dance (at the school) afterward.
Story and photo by Karen Berge
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
This week’s Admiral Neighborhood Association monthly meeting provided attendees with another opportunity to learn and ask questions about the upcoming Alaskan Way Viaduct closure – scheduled to begin on the evening of October 21st – now just one week away.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Viaduct project deputy director Matt Preedy, who had presented a community briefing at West Seattle High School the night before (WSB coverage here), was the featured speaker.
Preedy described what is going to happen during the closure and reiterated many of the points that have been covered recently in previous meetings – but there were still lots of questions. (And there’s some new information, you’ll notice, if you’ve been following the coverage closely!)
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