West Seattle, Washington
27 Wednesday
Love spaghetti and sports? Saturday night, they share the stage at the Chief Sealth International High School Seahawks’ Baseball Dinner and Silent Auction. From the announcement:
This is our annual event to celebrate the season and raise funds to support the baseball program. Tickets are only $10 and include a spaghetti dinner served up by the players, along with a small silent auction filled with fun stuff and delicious home-baked desserts.
Tickets will be available at the door, cash/checks only, 5-7 pm Saturday (April 6) in the Chief Sealth Galleria (2600 SW Thistle).
(Volunteer Kathi Ishimaru in action! SWSHS photo)
Everything old is new again – or can be, if it gets some TLC – and that’s the mission of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society, which is welcoming prospective volunteers to an informational session this Saturday at its Log House Museum. Volunteers have been busy lately at events including the Alki Elementary centennial celebration last week, and will be vital at upcoming events such as the Colman Estate tour on April 28, Alki Lighthouse centennial on June 1, and the All-West Seattle High School Reunion on June 7. Here’s the SWSHS pitch for you to get involved, starting with attendance at Saturday’s session:
Got time to volunteer? The Southwest Seattle Historical Society needs you! Like to interact with people? Fix computers? Update databases? Make small repairs? Transcribe interviews? Shoot videos and still photos? Plan events? Get a glimpse of our community’s past? Whether you have lived here one year or 50, come learn about how to turn your desires and skills into meaningful tasks that will help preserve and promote the heritage of West Seattle and the greater Duwamish peninsula. Here’s a way to look to the future helping others explore West Seattle’s past.
The Southwest Seattle Historical Society, which operates the Log House Museum, offers this introduction to volunteering, led by Clay Eals, executive director. It will include a brief primer on West Seattle history. The museum is one block from Alki Beach, at 61st and Stevens. More info: 206-938-5293 or loghousemuseum.info.
The session for prospective volunteers is 11 am-1 pm on Saturday (April 6th).
It’s NOT predicted to be a major deluge or windstorm, but you should know the National Weather Service has a “special weather statement” out for our area, just to make sure everyone knows it’s going to be rainier and breezier than usual for the next few days. Here’s the alert. (Right now, it’s foggy as well as rainy.)
3:26 PM: Police are responding to a reported armed robbery at Westwood Village – initial information indicates it was at Payless Shoe Source on the south side of the shopping center. Scanner traffic says the weapon was a knife. Police are questioning a possible suspect. More to come.
3:38 PM: No arrest reported – the search continues.
3:56 PM: Another possible suspect – this time spotted on a bus – is being questioned. (And minutes later – a witness says no, that’s not him.)
(UPDATED THURSDAY EVENING with more information on suspect’s background and status – scroll down)
(Monday night photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
As first reported here Tuesday, friends and family of the man shot Monday night at Charlestown and Avalon, 27-year-old musician Rick Powell, on duty at the time as a driver for hire, were told Powell was defending himself during a robbery attempt – and that the man found shot minutes later on Delridge was the suspect. (Here’s our original coverage from the night it happened.) We had been asking police for confirmation and just got it. We also have heard from a friend of Powell’s, who says his surgery on Wednesday went well. Benefits are being set up to raise money for Powell – including this one.
Meantime, here’s how SPD Blotter‘s Jonah Spangenthal-Lee tells the story (followed by additional information we have researched):
A 19-year-old felon is in jail recovering from gunshot wounds and facing charges for seriously wounding another man in an exchange of gunfire during a violent robbery attempt in West Seattle …
.
Shortly after 11 pm on April 1st, a 27-year-old for-hire driver pulled his Cadillac over along SW Charlestown Street and Avalon Way SW, and stepped out of his car to smoke a cigarette.
As the victim was standing on the street, 19-year-old Juan Carlos Garcia-Mendez — released from a Yakima prison just four days earlier, after serving time for burglary and robbery — drove past the victim, and pulled down the street ahead of the 27-year-old man.Garcia-Mendez climbed out of his car and closed in on 27-year-old, drawing a handgun, and shoving it in the victim’s chest.
1:32 PM: Thanks to Mary for sending a photo and word that the westbound bridge was shut down for what looked like a motorcade headed this way:
Janet then reported a sighting near West Seattle Stadium. SPD Public Affairs says nothing’s on their radar – so for now it’s a mystery; still checking!
1:43 PM UPDATE: Det. Renée Witt in Public Affairs has since confirmed – it’s training. And our crew just caught up with them and has confirmed the same:
Motorcade (escort) training happens here every so often, and we’ve published mentions over the years – but you never know; once in a while, it just might turn out to be somebody like the president of Bulgaria.
Saturday, May 11, is the day this year that buying, selling, browsing, and mingling will be the order of the day for West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day 2013 – the ninth annual edition! It’s a fun tradition and we are glad to be coordinating/presenting it again this year; a community-building West Seattle nonprofit called Megawatt launched it in 2005, and when they shut down a few years later, we asked if WSB could take over and keep it going – this is our sixth one (already!). Anyway, you can register an individual sale, a block sale, or a business/organization/school (etc.) sale, by going here. This is the third full day of registration, which will be open for a couple more weeks – we don’t want anybody to miss out – and we’re off to the fastest start yet, with 40 sales signed up so far. We’ll continue sharing periodic updates here, but the major info links for WSCGSD are the official website and the official Facebook page.
Two West Seattle development notes this morning:
4724 CALIFORNIA LAND-USE PERMIT DECISION: In March, the development team for 4724 California SW – a seven-story building with 73 apartments and 13 live-work units at the former Petco/Sound Ad Group storefront – told WSB they will likely start the project mid-May. We’re checking back to see if that’s still the plan, now that a key decision is in – for the Land Use Permit. The decision (read it here) announced today is subject to appeal, and the deadline for that is April 18th; the official notice has a link explaining how to do so.
About a mile north:
3829 CALIFORNIA PREVIEW, BEFORE DESIGN REVIEW NEXT WEEK: The “packet” for next Thursday’s Southwest Design Review Board meeting about 3829 California SW is now available online, so you can preview the newest design plans. It’s a three-story, 29-unit apartment building; that’s the rear and south-side view in the rendering above. The meeting is at 6:30 pm April 11th, Senior Center of West Seattle (California/Oregon).
First time all week we’ve had time to run the traditional calendar preview; today, aside from the morning traffic trouble, things are busy, but in a good way. So here are a few highlights:
‘PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE’ AT WSHS: The West Seattle High School Drama Club‘s spring musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” premieres tonight at 7:30 pm. The second standalone performance is Saturday, but tomorrow – Friday night – you can catch a special performance as part of the WSHS fundraiser “Taste of the Arts” which includes more than “just” the show – details on that are here.
WEST SEATTLE JUNCTION FASHION SPRING FLING: Four Junction fashion shops join forces again for a special evening shopping event starting at 7 pm – details in our calendar listing.
‘CIRCLE OF SINGLES’: Singles 55+ are invited to join this group leaving the Senior Center of West Seattle café at 5 pm for a trip to the Museum of Flight, where it’s free-admission night. Details in our calendar listing.
NIGHTLIFE – MUSIC, COMEDY, DJ’ING, KARAOKE, QUIZ: Listings for Duos, Benbow Room, Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor), OutWest, and Terrible Beauty are in the calendar – find them here, and open any individual listing by clicking the “plus” sign on the right side of its line!
Though she has a new role on the world stage pending – a potential appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Japan – Caroline Kennedy is reported this morning to be planning to keep her date with West Seattle’s Sanislo Elementary. Sanislo librarian Craig Seasholes sends along formal word of Kennedy’s expected visit next Monday afternoon as part of National Library Week, for which she is honorary chair. Kennedy is coming to Seattle for a poetry event Monday night that isn’t in WS but will also feature Sanislo students (free but tickets required – get them here ASAP). During her visit to their school, she’s scheduled to meet with Poetry Club students. (2008 photo of Caroline Kennedy by Martyna Borkowski, via Wikimedia Commons)
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
6:53 AM: The West Seattle-vicinity routes have no problems reported at the moment, but there’s one huge problem affecting traffic a bit farther north: A wrong-way crash has eastbound Highway 520 shut down at Montlake. WSDOT says that might last another hour or so. But eastbound I-90 is reported to be “running smoothly.”
8:15 AM: Outbound traffic is another matter – “Fed Up” says in comments that the bridge is “backed up from 35th to I-5.”
(LeTrey Newsome catches a fly ball)
The West Seattle High School varsity-baseball team is looking to a rematch with Nathan Hale this Friday after a road loss 9-3 on Wednesday. Thanks again to Greg Slader for the update and photos:
The varsity baseball team started off strong with a 3-0 lead through three innings. But too many walks and timely hits by Nathan Hale was too much for West Seattle as they lose their first League game.
(Sam Hellinger hits the ball)
West Seattle is now 5-3 (4-1) on the season and looks to Friday’s game for another chance against the Raiders – 3:30 @ Hiawatha.
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