day : 15/08/2012 11 results

In that video from earlier this year, it’s the funky party band The Braxmatics – playing Thursday night’s show for the Admiral Neighborhood Association‘s Summer Concerts at Hiawatha. HOWEVER – remember that this show is NOT at Hiawatha, but at Alki Beach, near the Bathhouse, perfect night for it since it’ll be cooler by the water. 6:30 pm, free, fun, bring your own chair/mat/blanket (or just stand up to get down). This is the fourth concert of this year’s series – the last two will be back at Hiawatha, with Caspar Babypants on August 23rd and Curtains For You on August 30th.

Totem-pole touch-up at West Seattle Rotary Viewpoint Park

August 15, 2012 7:25 pm

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| West Seattle history | West Seattle news

(WSB photo: Artech’s Shawn Nordfors and Roger Waterhouse)
A few days after the second anniversary of the West Seattle Rotary Viewpoint Park totem-pole re-dedication, the pole got a touch-up today. Visiting West Seattle to get the job done: Roger Waterhouse and Shawn Nordfors from Artech, the Renton-based firm that restored it in 2010, months after the bizarre theft-and-recovery saga ended.

Their work today at the park (35th/Alaska) left it shining in the late-morning sun:

By now, the light preservative they applied has likely soaked all the way in; they cleaned the pole first, and did some paint touchup afterward. We stopped by just as they were wrapping up:

Roger told us the Rotary Viewpoint Park pole is in great shape – evident if you look closely at features like the “paws” toward the bottom:

An even closer look at its base is revealing because of what you don’t see – no moss, no sign that the pole has been permeated with new moisture.

Since it was in such good shape, they needed less than half the 3 1/2 hours they originally scheduled for the job, and packed up, planning to check back on it in another 2 years or so. As reported here after the pole’s brief absence in late 2009, it was carved in 1976 by Robin Young, a Native American who at the time taught woodcarving at Highline Community College, and donated to the city along with the park site by the Rotary Club of West Seattle.

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West Seattle Weather Watch: Now, ‘Excessive Heat Warning’

August 15, 2012 5:05 pm

| 11 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle weather

The National Weather Service stepped up the alert level one more notch this afternoon; now that the extra-hot weather is almost here, an “Excessive Heat Warning” will be in effect tomorrow afternoon through late Friday night – see it here. That means a “prolonged period of dangerously hot temperatures,” according to the NWS, which is still projecting highs at least into the mid-90s. If your house is the typical air-conditioning-less Seattle “oven,” as some describe theirs, there are outdoor alternatives both nights – we’ll spotlight them later tonight, or you can skip ahead to the WSB West Seattle Events Calendar now!

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Fundraiser on Sunday for 7-year-old girl fighting cancer

August 15, 2012 4:23 pm

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| How to help | West Seattle news

7-year-old Sophia Thompson is fighting a rare form of soft-tissue cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma – so rare that only 350 cases are diagnosed each year. That means big medical bills, as little Sophia goes through chemo and deals with a feeding tube to help keep her from losing too much weight. Her classmates at West Seattle Montessori School (WSB sponsor) are hoping you will help them help Sophia and her family – by buying lemonade from them at their fundraising stand outside the West Seattle Farmers’ Market this Sunday, 10 am-2 pm. You can find out more about Sophia – and make a donation now – at gofundme.com/sophia. There’s also a benefit at 7 pm August 25th at Bison Creek Pizza in Burien, 630 SW 153rd, with raffles and music, plus of course pizza. But first – lemonade this Sunday!

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West Seattle traffic alert: NO Spokane St. Viaduct closure tonight

August 15, 2012 2:34 pm

| Comments Off on West Seattle traffic alert: NO Spokane St. Viaduct closure tonight

| Spokane St. Viaduct project | West Seattle news

Just in from SDOT:

The previously scheduled closure for tonight of the eastbound lanes of the Spokane Street Viaduct has been canceled; however, the same eastbound lanes from SR 99 to I-5 will be closed tomorrow night, Thursday, August 16, as scheduled.

The Thursday night closure will begin at 10 p.m. and finish at 5 a.m. on Friday morning. During the closure, all eastbound traffic on the West Seattle Bridge will be detoured to northbound SR99. At the end of this closure on Friday morning, the eastbound Harbor Island on-ramp to the Spokane Street Viaduct will be reopened to traffic.

We are updating today’s preview and our ongoing day-by-day closure list to reflect tonight’s cancellation.

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1 month till West Seattle Junction Car Show – motorcycles, mopeds too

August 15, 2012 2:21 pm

| Comments Off on 1 month till West Seattle Junction Car Show – motorcycles, mopeds too

| Fun stuff to do | West Seattle news

Just one month till the last big bash of summer in The Junction – the West Seattle Junction Car Show, which, as first noted here back in April, will show off motorcycles this year too – 8 am-4 pm September 16th in the heart of The Junction. Plus, we’ve learned, mopeds are eligible to be featured, too. If you register your car, motorcycle, or moped before the end of this month, you’ll get the early-bird deal – $15. (It goes up to $20 on September 1st.) You can get the application on the car show’s official website – find the link on this page, next to the logos for show sponsors (including WSB again this year). And full details about the show are on this page.

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Bacon-chocolate-chip cookies, & your donation, at Delridge Day bake sale

August 15, 2012 1:40 pm

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| Delridge | West Seattle festivals | West Seattle news

You can donate to the bake sale at the Delridge Day festival this Saturday without even baking. Francesca Annis from the Delridge Community Center Advisory Board explains:

There will be a bake sale to benefit youth programs at Delridge Community Center during the Delridge Day Festival hosted by the Delridge Community Center Advisory Board. Goodies made by the School Age Care and Teen Programs include snickerdoodles and bacon-chocolate-chip cookies!

Contributions from C&P Coffee Co., Great Harvest Bread Co., Sugar Rush Baking Co., and Zatz a Better Bagel will also be available.

We are also accepting homemade and store-bought items from the community. If you are interested in making a donation you may drop it off at the community center on Friday (please make sure to label it) 11 am-6 pm or bring it directly to the table on Saturday beginning at 9:00 am. If possible, please wrap homemade items individually and mark if the item contains nuts.

Question about the bake sale? E-mail Francesca, wskeekai@gmail.com. For full details about the festival (with co-sponsors including WSB) – check out the brochure, which includes a vendor list/map and schedule of events (music, contests, more).

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West Seattle Crime Watch: 2 break-ins, one interrupted

August 15, 2012 12:38 pm

| 8 COMMENTS

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

Two burglary reports in West Seattle Crime Watch today:

The first one answers a few questions we received last night and this morning about police cars rushing Admiral-bound on Tuesday evening and a traffic stop on the bridge: A neighbor told us late last night about a burglary in the 3700 block of SW Grayson in Admiral (map); we weren’t able to get followup information till this morning, but here’s what SPD’s Det. Mark Jamieson could tell us:

Officers answered a “burglary in progress” call that came in at 5:22 pm. The victim came home from work and saw a ladder up against the house, where there shouldn’t have been one; walking around the east side of the house, they noticed a stranger inside – described as a white male in a white T-shirt and backward baseball cap. The intruder saw the resident and bolted, kicking open and destroying a French door in the process. The burglary victim saw a white “Ford or Chevy type” van in the area, and shared that information with police, who subsequently stopped one. However, no arrest was made, Det. Jamieson says, because the resident couldn’t confirm that was the person seen inside the house. (While the available SPD information didn’t include the location where the van was stopped, we received a separate note this morning from a WSB’er wondering why traffic was stopped on the eastbound bridge about that time as police questioned someone in a white van.)

Also in Crime Watch today, a reader report from Mike:

Wanted to inform you that my garage on 31st ave SW near High Point playfield was broken into sometime last Saturday (8/12) between midnight and about 2:00 or so in the afternoon. They broke the latch on the main garage door and took pretty much all of my tools. According to the cop that came over to talk to me, another guy’s truck was broken into across the street as well. The insult to injury was that I was fixing my car at the time – they even took the parts I had just bought for my car.

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Middle College High School’s new home: High Point Neighborhood Center

August 15, 2012 10:31 am

| 9 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

West Seattle’s smallest public high school has a new home. You may recall that Middle College High School lost its longtime home at South Seattle Community College (here’s our 6/13 report), which says it needs the space; then Seattle Public Schools planned to co-house it at Boren with K-5 STEM (reported 6/15), but neither school community welcomed that, and a new solution was sought (with confirmation 8/6 that MCHS would definitely not be at Boren). Just received from SPS:

Dear South Seattle Middle College and K-5 STEM at Boren families:

As you know, our South Seattle Middle College program lost its classroom space at South Seattle Community College for the 2012-13 school year and we were planning to co-locate the program on the K-5 STEM at Boren campus.

I’m pleased to announce that we have secured classrooms for South Seattle Middle College at the High Point Center Building located at 6400 Sylvan Way SW in West Seattle. As a result, the Middle College and K-5 Stem programs will remain on separate campuses.

The space at the High Point Center is well-suited for our small Middle College Program and is conveniently located with easy bus line access for our high school students.

We appreciate the feedback from our families, and we worked very closely with the Middle College Principal, Cindy Nash, as we developed a solution we believe will benefit both our Middle College and K-STEM families.

We look forward to seeing all of you at the start of the 2012-13 school year.

Sincerely,

Carmela Dellino
Executive Director of Schools, Southwest Region
Seattle Public Schools

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West Seattle Wednesday: ‘Godspell’; ‘Noise Guy’; 2 highway closures…

August 15, 2012 10:07 am

| 5 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

(Mt. Constance in the Olympics, photographed from West Seattle by Danny McMillin, shared via Flickr)
That’s a cool view as the temperature starts to rise – though the forecast still says Thursday/Friday are the REALLY hot days; today will be closer to “very warm.” As for what’s hot on the WSB West Seattle Events Calendar – here are selections for today/tonight:

TONIGHT’S ~~**DOUBLE**~~ TRAFFIC ALERT: Two overnight closures tonight – southbound Alaskan Way Viaduct/99, 9 pm-5 am, and ~~eastbound Spokane Street Viaduct, 10 pm-5 am.~~ (Here’s this week’s edition of our day-by-day list.) **2:37 pm update – SDOT has just canceled tonight’s SSV closure**

GATEWOOD READS AT HIGH POINT LIBRARY: 11 am-1 pm, three Gatewood Elementary teachers are there to read and talk with students, looking ahead to the new school year (just three weeks from today).

FRESH VEGETABLES, WHERE THEY’RE GROWN: Wednesday is the day you can stop by the High Point Market Garden Farm Stand at 32nd and Juneau and buy fresh organic vegetables grown and harvested steps away. 4-7 pm.

ASK AND ANSWER: Meet real-estate and home-service professionals, and bring your questions! Presented by Savvy Seattle Women at Prudential Northwest Realty offices in Jefferson Square, 6-7 pm – details here.

THE NOISE GUY AT THE LIBRARY: What? You thought libraries were supposed to be quiet? Guess not at the West Seattle Branch, where The Noise Guy appears at 6:30 pm – details here.

SUNDAY SOCCER ON WEDNESDAY: Did you know the West Seattle Sunday Soccer folks also have a Wednesday night pickup game at Delridge Playfield, 7 pm?

OPENING NIGHT FOR ‘GODSPELL’: The 12-to-16-year-old Theater Conservatory summer students at ArtsWest have been working on “Godspell” and are ready to debut it for you, 7:30 pm.

NIGHTLIFE: Trivia at 7, open mike at 9, at Skylark.

LAST DAY FOR PCC’S BOGO PIZZA COUPON: Haven’t tried PCC Natural Markets‘ take-and-bake pizza yet? The longtime WSB sponsor has a coupon (get it here) you can use to buy one, get one free – and today’s the last day.

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Spokane St. Viaduct: Why some of its new surface is getting cut up

August 15, 2012 3:49 am

| 50 COMMENTS

| Spokane St. Viaduct project | West Seattle news

(SDOT photos, courtesy Darin Stephens)
Some driving the Spokane Street Viaduct in recent days have asked why squares are being cut from some of its newly paved surface. The questions started in the comment section following our Friday update on the close-to-completion project.

As promised, we followed up with SDOT. Project spokesperson Paul Elliott talked with project manager Stuart Goldsmith and replies that the problem is delamination – some of the new concrete didn’t bond with the old concrete: “Repairing and resurfacing the old bridge deck required a hydro-demolition process to clean and roughen the old deck to ensure a good bond when the new thin lift micro silica overlay was then applied. If there is any oil or other dirt remaining, we can end up with delamination/an inadequate bonding.” (The hydro-demolition process was discussed in our story about a work-zone tour two months ago.)

The delaminated spots were discovered with a low-tech type of testing, which you can see in WSB coverage of the Fauntleroy Expressway seismic-retrofit work back in January – “the best way to determine whether or not the bond is solid is to drag metal chains across the top and listen for problem areas,” as Elliott explains it. The problem spots (we’re checking back to ask how many) were cut out for repairs:

He says the work will not set the schedule back further. Meantime, other work that’s going on includes pouring of the permanent concrete barrier between westbound and eastbound – the green material is the rebar:

And here’s a section after the pour:

Milestones ahead for the project: Friday morning, as noted in our day-by-day closure list, the Harbor Island onramp to the eastbound SSV reopens after its long closure; starting next Monday (August 20th) the 1st Avenue South offramp from the eastbound SSV closes for about 5 weeks, during which time it’ll be repaved.

ADDED 6:18 PM: SDOT’s reply to our followup questions, which included: How much of the resurfaced bridge deck has the delamination problem? Why did it happen? What about concerns of an uneven surface post-repairs?

The percentage of the new roadway requiring repair due to delamination was less than 5% of the total resurfaced area and was well within expectations given the condition and age of the old deck. Delamination repair was anticipated as part of the deck refurbishing process, which is why we test it, and does not delay the project.

Drivers on the roadway, to include motorcycle riders, should not be able to detect the cuts once they are filled with concrete. We will continue to review the contractor’s work to ensure the roadway meets the required specifications prior to the city accepting the work as complete.

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