day : 08/08/2013 11 results

The man arrested on Tuesday after a cross-peninsula series of incidents involving a stolen truck is out of jail, though not necessarily off the hook. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office confirmed to WSB today that a judge did not find probable cause to keep the 23-year-old suspect in jail when he appeared for a bail hearing on Wednesday. If you missed our coverage on Tuesday – the incident began with a truck full of landscaping equipment stolen from Alki Avenue SW next to Cactus; a citizen pursued the stolen truck, which reverse-rammed the citizen’s car at 53rd and Stevens; the truck continued on to Morgan Junction, where it did the same thing to a police car (photo at right, tweeted by Robert). Officers found the truck ditched shortly thereafter on Gatewood Hill, and found the suspect hiding under a deck at a home nearby; he was arrested and booked into King County Jail – where the jail register shows he was released hours later. Since he was not held, paperwork related to the hearing is not available – so far – but we are told that charges are still possible, as police continue to process and compile evidence. Court dockets show the suspect has a record with more than half a dozen felony convictions as a juvenile and one as an adult, a plea-bargained case three years ago in which he was found with a stolen car.

West Seattle scene: A night for lighthouse learning

August 8, 2013 9:59 pm

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| West Seattle history | West Seattle news

(Photo courtesy Southwest Seattle Historical Society)
Along with music and art, tonight’s palette of possibilities in West Seattle also included history. In the courtyard at the Log House Museum, 20 people watched and listened as Will Winter shared highlights of the Alki Point Lighthouse‘s hundred-year history. He was in the uniform he and other U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteers wear as they spend summer weekend afternoons showing visitors around the lighthouse and its grounds. The Southwest Seattle Historical Society, based at the museum, has joined with the USCG and the Auxiliary to celebrate the lighthouse’s centennial; it began in earnest with festivities back on June 1st, continues with weekend tours through the end of this month, and will peak at the SWSHS’s lunch gala November 9th, themed “Tripping the Lighthouse Fantastic.” (You can order your tickets now – go here to see how.)

P.S. The next big SWSHS event is a different centennial – on August 18th, Greg and Sharon Nickels host the 100th-birthday party for their North Admiral home, as a benefit for SWSHS and a chance to learn about not only the house and neighborhood history, but also about researching your own home; details here.

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West Seattle traffic alert: 4-car crash on Delridge

August 8, 2013 7:40 pm

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| Delridge | West Seattle news | WS breaking news

Thanks to everyone who’s tipped us about a multiple-car crash on Delridge Way between Dakota and Genesee (including Dana, who sent the photo above). Our crew (who took the photo below) just arrived and tells us four vehicles were involved, with one person going to the hospital by private ambulance (which generally means non-life-threatening injuries).

It’s in the southbound lane, but traffic is getting around both days – just be ready for a slowdown in the area.

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Happening now: West Seattle Art Walk – plus kale and wings

August 8, 2013 7:29 pm

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| West Seattle Art Walk | West Seattle news

Another big event tonight – and this one just happens once a month – West Seattle Art Walk! While WSAW official stops are all over the peninsula, and all on the map/list you can find here, you’ll find a few extras around The Junction – like Rose the Kale Lady, above, outside Shoofly Pie. She’s selling curly-leaf kale for $2, with proceeds to the West Seattle Food Bank, also the beneficiary of raffle tickets she’s selling. Rose’s watercolor paintings are on display too.

Further south on California, Easy Street Records is where you’ll find the wings mentioned in our headline – Happy Hour tonight in the café, per this photo tweeted earlier by ESR proprietor Matt Vaughan. Here’s the menu for this new Thursday night feature:

Around the corner at Twilight:

ADDED 8:19 PM: At Firefly Café and Creperie (California/Genesee; WSB sponsor), you’ll find Adriene Travis and his Kolorfusion photo/graphics art:

Next Art Walk: 6-9 pm September 12th.

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Video: Impossible Bird @ Summer Concerts at Hiawatha

August 8, 2013 6:50 pm

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| Fun stuff to do | West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

On the stage on the east lawn at Hiawatha Community Center, playing to hundreds of people enjoying another perfect summer evening, that’s Impossible Bird in our short Instagram video clip. (added) And here’s a full song:

Summer Concerts at Hiawatha aren’t just about the music – there’s lots happening on the sidelines, like Joyful the Clown making balloon animals for kids:

Merrill Gardens-Admiral Heights (WSB sponsor) is presenting Joyful tonight. Other freebies include popsicles from the Admiral Neighborhood Association, which presents the concert series – here’s past and current presidents Katy Walum and David Whiting:

Katy organizes the concert series, now in its fifth year (and we’re proud to have been a sponsor every year since the start). Yet more freebies tonight – coffee and iced tea from Starbucks, and peaches from Metropolitan Market (WSB sponsor), which is now in its Peach-O-Rama mode. Plus: West Seattle’s own Marty Riemer is tonight’s emcee:

He told the crowd that Impossible Bird has been on his podcast many times – they’re making beautiful music onstage while families, friends, and neighbors visit. The free concert continues until 8 or so – if you’re not here already, c’mon over.

P.S. Next week, same time/place, it’s Massy Ferguson, for the fourth of this year’s six Thursday night concerts. And there’s more outdoor music in West Seattle tomorrow – the second of four concerts on the south side of Providence Mount St. Vincent, featuring the Convergence Zone Bluegrass Band; the 6 pm concert is free, and dinner’s available for purchase (menu here).

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New WSB sponsor, family-owned Junction True Value, turns 60!

August 8, 2013 3:33 pm

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| West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

(8/14 note: To check whether a business is still a current WSB sponsor, please go here)

(Junction True Value owner Bruce Davis and, showing off 60th-anniversary T-shirt at right, 4th-generation family member working at the store, daughter Ahna Davis)
How does an independent, family-owned hardware store last for 60 years?

“A great location and great customers” are a big part of the answer, according to Bruce Davis, owner of Junction True Value, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a big sale all this week, culminating in a celebration to which you’re invited this weekend.

(We’re also pleased to welcome Junction True Value as a new WSB sponsor in honor of the occasion!)

Bruce Davis is the third generation of Junction True Value ownership. His grandfather Henry Bergquist bought the store in 1953, and sold it to Davis’s parents, John and Norma Davis. “He didn’t want to get into the business as much as he wanted to give his daughter and son-in-law something to grow into,” Davis says.

Junction True Value hasn’t always been at its current 44th/Edmunds site. It had two locations on California SW, first where Elliott Bay Brewing is now (which had been a hardware store even before that, as revealed in this WSB story), and then, around the time of the 1962 World’s Fair, moved to where Northwest Art and Frame is now. Davis remembers helping move the store across the street with a hand truck when he was 10 years old; he said he was already helping out at the store back then, with tasks such as inventory. The store was there until its current building was built in 1976, about two years after Davis first started working there fulltime. He says he’s been in charge since his dad had a stroke in 1983, but his parents remained owners “until they both passed on – with a lot of veto power.”

The name has changed from its original Junction Hardware; Davis’s parents originally joined a co-op called Hometown Hardware, bought by True Value in 1969. True Value also is a cooperative, Davis explains – “a really great system for smaller stores, (with) buying power and marketing power.” The store Rewards Program will save you money, too.

Funny thing about hardware stores – Davis says they’ve had their naysayers for a long time, with people insisting first they’d be taken out by discounters, then big-box stores, “each time, they said we’re going to be toast – but we’ve kept growing, still growing and thriving, doing better than ever – doing very well.” In no small part, certainly, because Junction True Value has kept evolving; if you think a hardware store is low-tech, consider that the store has had a computer system for 30 years! Davis analyzes store data to find out what’s gaining popularity and what’s not so popular (gardening, paints, and housewares are hot, for example) – although the human touch will never go out of style, from his late mom’s ideas for the gift department, to current staffers who “are very creative in their decorating and merchandising. It’s fun!”

He also enjoys working with the people who walk through the door each day, to shop and spend and visit: “Our customers love us and we love them. We do our best not to disappoint them.”

And so, you, Junction True Value‘s beloved customer, are invited to join the anniversary celebration. All week long, a sale is under way, including daily merchandise and gift-card drawings. Then on Saturday, the actual 60th anniversary of the store’s August 10th, 1953, opening, the party gets BIG – as also detailed on the store’s website – hourly drawings, free face painting, free balloons, free popcorn – and from 10 am-3 pm, hot dogs and pop at ’60s prices with the West Seattle Lions Club helping out! (Sunday, the drawings will continue, along with free popcorn and free balloons.)

As Bruce Davis says: “It’s really just appreciation of the customers – we want to say thanks.”

Junction True Value is at 4747 44th SW, 206-932-0450, online at junctiontruevalue.com, and on Facebook here. (Also check out the money-saving coupon on the WSB Coupons page!)

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Duwamish Tribe says it’s lost artifacts because it’s not officially recognized

August 8, 2013 2:40 pm

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| West Seattle history | West Seattle news

(Now-empty artifact case; photo courtesy Duwamish Longhouse)
The Duwamish Tribe – whose longhouse and headquarters are here in West Seattle – have long pointed out the cost of its lack of official federal recognition, for which they continue to fight, so far unsuccessfully. Today, a new report is out with details of another cost: Tribal artifacts, taken away from the Duwamish Longhouse after 4 years on display because they are to be “repatriated” to a tribe that does have recognition. The artifacts were found here in West Seattle more than a quarter-century ago, reports Indian Country Today Media Network, on Port of Seattle-owned land. They had been exhibited at the Duwamish Longhouse until they were recently taken away, and ICTMN reports that the Port is making the decision about who will get the artifacts. The full story was published today on ICTMN’s website – see it here. The publication reports that the Port has not answered its inquiry about who will get the artifacts; we also are inquiring.

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Close call in High Point: Toddler survives window fall

August 8, 2013 1:18 pm

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| Safety | West Seattle news

With temperatures still peaking in the 80s, an incident last night is occasion for a reminder to be extra careful of windows when small children are around – Seattle Fire spokesperson Kyle Moore says a one-year-old boy was taken to Harborview Medical Center around 8:30 last night after falling about 14 feet at a residence in the 6500 block of 32nd SW in High Point. He says the boy was “conscious and crying and had no visible injuries” when SFD crews arrived, and was reported in stable condition when taken to the hospital. No other specifics. (P.S. Authorities say that nationwide, 5,000 children a year are hurt this way; here’s prevention advice from a national safety organization.)

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New Arbor Heights Elementary preview: ‘Community cornerstone’

August 8, 2013 10:33 am

| 19 COMMENTS

| Arbor Heights | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

As the recommended design for the new Arbor Heights Elementary School made its public debut last night, the community Q/A expanded beyond the facility’s look and layout.

AH principal Christy Collins reassured the community that, although the school is moving toward an “eSTEM” (environment, science, technology, engineering, math) curriculum, it will remain a neighborhood school. And, Collins said, the new facility will even better serve the school’s role as a “community cornerstone” in Arbor Heights.

Also: While there are still School Board formalities ahead, district reps reiterated that the project remains on its accelerated timeline, with AH scheduled to move to temporary quarters at Boren right after the coming school year, so construction work can get going.

Now, as for the design, here’s how the presentation unfolded:

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West Seattle Thursday: Art Walk; Hiawatha concert; ‘Little Critters’

August 8, 2013 9:32 am

| 5 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

(River otter – yes, the ones you see in and near Puget Sound are *river* otters – photographed by Mark Wangerin)
The fog will lift, the forecasters say – so envision a sunny summer evening as you look ahead to tonight’s art and music – but first, if you have a wee one at home this morning:

LITTLE CRITTERS: Your little ones get to learn about – and then meet! – a small animal TBA, 11:30 am at High Point Library. (35th/Raymond)

WEST SEATTLE ART WALK: 6-9 pm, all over the peninsula! You can preview some of tonight’s artists by going to the official WSAW website. See the map/venue list here, with participants including WSB sponsors Click! Design That Fits, Firefly Café and Creperie, Hotwire Online Coffeehouse, Wallflower Custom Framing.

WINE AND MUSIC: Tonight’s also the nightly Wine Club event, with music by Choro Tocando, at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor), 6-8 pm. (5612 California SW)

SUMMER CONCERTS AT HIAWATHA: 6:30 pm, Impossible Bird is live, free, on the east lawn at Hiawatha Community Center – see our preview from last night. (2700 block Walnut Avenue)

LIGHTHOUSE HISTORY: The celebration of the Alki Point Lighthouse‘s centennial continues with tonight’s presentation at the Log House Museum by US Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteer Will Winter, 6:30 pm – details in our listing and recent preview. (61st/Stevens)

And to the south …

RATCITY ARTCITY: White Center’s monthly art celebration, 6-9 pm, focusing tonight on live performance (and other types of art) – go here to see who’s doing what where!

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TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Thursday updates

August 8, 2013 7:03 am

| Comments Off on TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Thursday updates

| West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

(Live view from the west-facing WS Bridge camera; other cameras are on the WSB Traffic page)
So far, nothing out of the ordinary on West Seattle’s outbound routes. As always, we’ll add updates here if that changes.

EARLY WARNING: If you missed the announcement last night, SDOT has sent early warning that a key connector between Highland Park/Puget Ridge and Delridge will be closed for five weekdays starting August 19th – details here.

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