West Seattle, Washington
11 Sunday
Almost missed the chance to mention that it’s coming up fast … two months from today – May 12, 2012 – it’s the 8th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, 9 am-3 pm. If you’re new to the area, it’s not one big garage sale, but instead, many sales all over West Seattle (more than 200 last year), all on one day, which means almost everyone has one within walking distance – great chance to meet friends/neighbors old and new. Or, you can grab the map and see how many you can hit in the course of the day. We’ll be opening registration in three weeks, on Monday, April 2nd. If you want to see what past Garage Sale Days were like, you can browse the archives on our “official” WSCGSD site, westseattlegaragesale.com.
Tonight’s West Seattle Crime Watch roundup starts with two court notes:
COURT-CASE UPDATES: No definite date yet for the start of Duane Starkenburg‘s imminent trial on indecent-liberties charges for the 2010-2011 Lincoln Park attacks – the prosecutor’s still busy finishing another trial. We’ll keep you updated. … Meantime, the trial date for Angelo Felice, charged with murdering vaudeville entertainer Hokum W. Jeebs in Fauntleroy last year, has been pushed back five months to September, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office tells WSB, as the result of a hearing last week.
READER REPORTS: A theft report from VCA:
Thought I would let people know that there are probably metal/copper thieves combing the alleys etc. near Alki. I just had two large copper pots (planters) stolen this morning. One was on my porch right next to my door which is on the alley side. I was only gone for 1 hour, and one of my cars was parked in alley, with my blinds open! Checked in with one of my neighbors across the alley and she did not see anything.
More reader reports ahead:Read More
Long past the Christmas season, the holiday spirit carries on at Holy Rosary School – it’s just finished distributing a share of the 
2011 Christmas Tree Lot proceeds to four charitable organizations in West Seattle: The WS Helpline, WS Food Bank, Salvation Army’s Hickman House, and the Kingston Foundation. “Holy Rosary School is proud to give back to our community,” says Refawne Acarregui, a Holy Rosary parent and tree-lot organizer who’s at right in our photo, along with Father John Madigan, parent/volunteer Currie Baker, and principal Michael Cantu. We caught up with them at the recent meeting of the Holy Rosary Parents’ Club. The 15 percent share of tree-lot proceeds equaled $5625.44, of which the four organizations each received $1406.36. (You might recall one other donation – after the lot closed, unsold trees were given away.)
A West Seattleite has just been announced as director of the new Governor’s Aerospace Office, created “to enhance Washington state’s competitiveness in the global aerospace industry”: He is Alex Pietsch, who has worked for the City of Renton since 2001 and leads its economic-development efforts. Here’s the news release announcing his new state-government role and explaining what it entails, including chairing the Washington Council on Aerospace and serving as executive director of the Washington Aerospace Partnership.
Today we welcome a new WSB sponsor – IHeartWestSeattle.com, the collaborative team of real-estate brokers Roger Steiner & Dale Wampler. Here’s what they’d like you to know about their business:
Roger and Dale describe themselves as “West Seattle residents, enthusiasts, and “hyper-local” real-estate professionals. What does that mean? While we’re definitely tuned in to Seattle real estate in general, we spend most of our time checking the pulse of West Seattle’s real estate market, seeing just about every new property that comes on the market, and carefully tracking what’s selling (and what isn’t). We believe there’s a better way for consumers to buy & sell, and that technology has changed the role agents play in the real estate process. So we’ve taken the best elements of traditional brokerages, and aligned them with all the advantages and conveniences that technology has opened up to our industry. The result is that we’re able to lower our overhead without sacrificing an ounce of customer service, and we then pass along the savings to you, our customer. We’re able to do this because of a few basics:
• Our partnership with RSVP Real Estate: RSVP is a locally owned real-estate brokerage with no parent corporation, no franchised offices, no investors looking for a return. At RSVP we take full advantage of today’s technologies, and just focus on satisfying our clients.
• Geographic specialization: Rather than run all over Puget Sound, we are focused on the West Seattle peninsula- this saves us time and money spent on the road (the Prius and the Vespa help too)!
• Efficiency: Being geographically focused saves us time in another way: When you contact us about buying, we won’t take that as a cue to start rushing around ‘getting to know’ what’s out there- chances are we’ll already know of a few homes on the market that might suit your needs. If you’re thinking of selling, we’ve seen several homes in your value range which have sold over the past 6 months, so we don’t start from scratch. Please visit our website to learn more about our unique fee structure, and look for us around the neighborhood!”
We thank IHeartWestSeattle.com for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news on WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.
As promised, Seattle Public Schools has announced its design team for the new school it’s opening in West Seattle this fall, K-5 STEM at Boren. They’ve also confirmed that the team – whose job will be to start working out details for the new school’s operations – will have its first meeting 6 pm this Wednesday; that meeting will be at district HQ in SODO. We asked the district today who was on the team, and here’s what we received:Read More
(April 2011 photo by Kathy Mulady for WSB)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Almost one full year after the “closed forever” sign went up on the Charlestown Street Café‘s door – a new sign is up on the property at 3800 California SW:
We noticed the sign over the weekend, as did others (two WSB’ers sent us notes – THANKS!), and this morning we spoke with John Wunder at Associates West, the West Seattle brokerage handling the just-launched search for someone new to lease the property.
Wunder confirms that the most recent development proposal for the site (reported here shortly after the restaurant’s closure last April) fell through, though he doesn’t know why, since his firm was not involved with it.
No daily preview today because of the morning’s breaking news, but there are two meetings to note: Admiral District merchants meet today at 4 pm at the Benbow Room (agenda here); North Delridge Neighborhood Council meets tonight at 6:30, Delridge Library (agenda here). Meantime, the Admiral Neighborhood Association has a CHANGE OF PLAN for tomorrow night. Instead of its regular meeting, ANA is tabling at 5:30 pm tomorrow before Mayor McGinn‘s 6:30 pm Town Hall at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (agenda here).
(Scroll down for updates, including video interview with new information from police)
ORIGINAL 8:18 AM REPORT: A body has just been recovered from the water off the 3700 block of Beach Drive – near Cormorant Cove Park and Harbor West Apartments (the complex that juts out on pilings) – is under investigation right now. No word on identity or how the person died. We have a crew at the scene finding out more.
(Photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand unless otherwise credited)
8:24 AM UPDATE: We’re told the body was found about 100 yards offshore, but don’t know yet who spotted it or how. Adding a photo of some of the emergency response at the scene. Police have put up yellow tape to cordon off the area where the body was placed, until the Medical Examiner arrives.
(This photo courtesy area resident who didn’t want to be identified)
9:14 AM UPDATE: Seattle Police have shared a bit more information via SPD Blotter:
On 3/12/12, at approximately 7:30 a.m., officers responded with Seattle Fire Department to the 3800 block of Beach Dr SW., to a report of a body floating in the water approximately 100 feet off shore.
The victim is a white female, 30-50 years-old. The cause of death is unknown at this time. Homicide Detectives have responded to the scene out of an abundance of caution. This is all the information available at the time. Additional updates may be added as more information becomes available.
10 AM UPDATE: Just talked to SPD spokesperson Det. Renée Witt at the scene in a video interview we will upload here when our crew’s back in house. She says they’re considering the death “suspicious,” until and unless proven otherwise, so the area remains sealed off while detectives investigate. (added) Here’s the video; she also told us the woman hadn’t been in the water for long:
About six weeks after its first official meeting, the first rally/protest involving Occupy West Seattle has just been officially announced. The group says it will target Chase Bank in The Junction tomorrow (Tuesday, March 13th), in connection with other rallies/protests nationwide. Read on for the news release we received via e-mail this morning:Read More
6:14 AM UPDATE: If you look at the regional map on the National Weather Service‘s Seattle home page, you’ll notice various types of weather alerts are in effect almost everywhere – but NOT here in the city. Nonetheless, the newest forecast says it’ll be very windy, to say the least (and you might already have heard evidence of that in the very early morning hours). As always, we’ll keep watch through the day, with updates if things go beyond general blusteriness. (And if you have anything to report – 206-293-6302, any time, text or voice; thank you!)
8:37 AM UPDATE: As commenter/meteorologist Patrick notes, a wind advisory is now up for our area. See it here.
9:08 PM UPDATE: The wind advisory expired this afternoon without anything serious happening. But the weather is still unsettled, and some snow might be mixed in with overnight/morning showers. Here’s the newest forecast.
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