West Seattle, Washington
31 Saturday
It’s been one week since Marcia Ingerslev‘s class at Arbor Heights Elementary announced its 100th Day of School Food Drive, hoping to collect 100 nonperishable food items by that day (2/20/13), and challenging other West Seattle classrooms/schools to join in. Tonight, we have word of more participants, this time from Schmitz Park Elementary! Mandy Cook, SP kindergarten teacher, e-mailed tonight to announce:
Schmitz Park Elementary is excited to take on the 100th Day of School Food Drive Challenge. Kindergarten, 3rd grade and 5th grade will be collecting non-perishables for the West Seattle Food Bank. Thanks for the great idea, Arbor Heights!!
Other participants we’ve heard from: Alki Elementary (here’s the Thursday story) and Cometa Playschool (also reported on Thursday). Anyone else? Let us know – thanks!
P.S. You’re also welcome to support Ms. Ingerslev’s class in their collection – here’s how.
It’s been years in the making. Today the City Council approved a plan to allow West Seattle’s Nucor plant to get energy-saving credit for energy generation involving waste heat – “cogeneration” – and the project could be up and running next year. Seattle City Light writes about it on its Power Lines site; as pointed out therein, Nucor is City Light’s biggest customer. There are even more details in this slide deck from a presentation to a City Council committee earlier this year.
(City map of camera/communication system – click for larger, zoomable view)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
While installation of 30 federally funded, Seattle Police-run cameras continues – with 9 up as of the end of last week, according to SPD – who will operate them and who will have access to them is not yet decided.
That’s according to SPD’s Special Operations Bureau commander, Assistant Chief Paul McDonagh, who we interviewed late Friday.
We reported on several key points of the conversation hours after it concluded, in our third report about the cameras; our first one appeared here last Tuesday, with a bit of information about the previously unannounced, unreported installations, after a first round of research followed WSB readers’inquiries.
Then Thursday, our second report included details of the project gleaned from the video archive of a little-noticed City Council committee briefing and vote back in May.
As shown in our Friday coverage, we confirmed that the six cameras we had seen along West Seattle’s waterfront boulevards are only half of the 12 planned for West Seattle; the southernmost camera is also already up, over the southbound RapidRide bus stop at the Fauntleroy ferry dock.
Ahead, full details from our conversation with Assistant Chief McDonagh, which we recorded on video and have excerpted with links to specific points in the conversation:
In his State of the County address today, King County Executive Dow Constantine included a call for “strategies” to prevent gun violence, pointing out that gun-related deaths outnumber motor-vehicle deaths in the county. Here’s the official news release:
King County Executive Dow Constantine today signed an executive order directing Public Health – Seattle & King County to develop innovative, data-driven local strategies for preventing gun violence in King County.
“Gun violence is a public safety crisis. It is also a public health crisis. Locally, we can approach gun violence as a preventable public health problem,” said Executive Constantine, as part of his 2013 State of the County address. “State and federal law pre-empt our ability to regulate firearms, but that should not stop us from thinking innovatively about what we can do within our own authority.”
Tomorrow night – as reported here last week – it’s the regrouping/launch meeting for a Westwood/Roxhill/Arbor Heights community council, 6:30 pm at the Southwest Branch Library (35th and Henderson), in hopes that will help neighbors join together to tackle community concerns including crime prevention. Mat McBride, Delridge Neighborhoods District Council chair, has just sent the agenda – see it here (PDF) or click ahead:
We first told you last night about a little black cat stuck on a power pole at 46th/Andover – not with the intent of putting out a “somebody help!” call, but with the intent of finding its owner, since neighbors had no idea whose cat it was. Nonetheless, an outpouring of concern resulted, in WSB comments and on the WSB Facebook page – and repeated calls to Seattle City Light brought out a crew to help. Our video shows the rescue, just a short time ago – though as you’ll see, the cat did not want to stay with rescuer Aaron!
(Eagle at Alki Point, photographed by Patrick McCaffrey)
Happy Monday! Five highlights from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar (where you will find even more of what’s up today/tonight, and beyond):
WEST SEATTLE COOKING CLUB: The theme for today’s recipes – Thai. 3 pm, Beveridge Place Pub (6413 California SW), details in our calendar listing.
WEST SEATTLE ELEMENTARY INFORMATIONAL MEETING … for parents of prospective kindergarteners, 5 pm; contact organizers (info in our calendar listing) for location and other details.
BUTTON DESIGNERS AND VOLUNTEERS WANTED! That’s the call to the community from West Seattle Hi-Yu</a>, which invites all to its general meeting at 6:30 pm tonight, St. John the Baptist Church (California/Hanford).
NEW DAISY SCOUT TROOP FORMING: Interested parents of kindergarten/1st-grade girls are invited to find out more at the main school hall of Holy Rosary School (42nd/Genesee), 6:30-7:30 pm, details in the calendar listing.
OPERA PREVIEW/LECTURE: 6:30 pm, West Seattle (Admiral) Library, a free lecture previewing Seattle Opera’s upcoming “La Boheme” – details in the calendar listing.
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
As we start the week, no major traffic alerts in West Seattle, though there is one downtown, affecting those who travel on 1st Avenue South between Pike and Pine – one southbound lane all week, as crews install monitors related to the forthcoming Highway 99 tunnel project. As for the existing Highway 99/Viaduct, there is NO scheduled closure this week. But remember that when we get to Friday night, the intersection of Delridge/Henderson will be closed all weekend as part of the Delridge repaving project. Drive/ride safely!
| Comments Off on 100th Day of School Food-Drive Challenge: Schmitz Park joins