day : 03/10/2013 9 results

(‘Instrument petting zoo’ from Seattle Super String Saturday presented by SYSO)
Once again this year, students in our area are gaining musical mentorship courtesy of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra – and that’ll include another Super String Saturday event for the community – read on for SYSO’s update on what’s ahead:

This week Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra (SYSO) begins its fifth year of providing professional musicians to coach beginning violin, viola, cello and bass players in the elementary schools in Southwest Seattle – Arbor Heights, Concord International, Highland Park, Roxhill, Sanislo and West Seattle Elementary Schools – as well as at Denny International Middle School, completely free of charge to the schools and the students’ families.

Professional musicians Kim Roy, Begin Scarseth, Daniel Mullikin and Jared Ballance bring their expertise as teachers and performers to the classroom. These talented musician-educators have served as university music faculty and private teachers, as well as having performed with such local and regional orchestras as Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Rock Orchestra, and Tacoma Symphony Orchestra. In Southwest Seattle, they collaborate with Seattle Public School music teachers to enhance violin, viola, cello and string bass instruction.

In the six elementary schools, SYSO coaches co-teach with Elementary Instrumental Music teacher Casey Cheever, who is himself a SYSO alumnus. Mr. Cheever worked with SYSO coaches last year and explains the impact of this program for both himself and his students:

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Halloween event planned? Please let us know ASAP!

October 3, 2013 7:24 pm

| 2 COMMENTS

| Holidays | West Seattle news | West Seattle online

Exactly four weeks from tonight, it’s Halloween! We’ll be publishing our special page of Halloween/harvest-season events/activities soon, so we’re sending out the request tonight: If you have a seasonal event planned, open to the public, at your business, school, church, etc., please let us know. E-mail the what/where/when (etc.) basics to editor@westseattleblog.com ASAP – even better if you have a weblink and/or Facebook link to info about it (not mandatory, though). As with all event-calendar listings, we request that you send the info as plain text, NOT as a Word/PDF/image attachment. Thanks!

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PACK YOUR BAG! Today’s simple way to get prepared

October 3, 2013 4:13 pm

| 8 COMMENTS

| Preparedness | West Seattle news

If you missed Day 1 – in honor of Washington State Disaster Preparedness Month, WSB is working with Cindi Barker from West Seattle Be Prepared to help you take one major step toward personal/family preparedness, with one simple action every day, resulting in your “go bag” being packed and ready in case of disaster.

In our state, that disaster is most likely to be an earthquake. We haven’t had a big one since the Nisqually quake in 2001, but it could happen without warning. And quakes are happening in many places every day, so Cindi will share quake info every day along with the tip for what to do next to PACK YOUR BAG! Ready?

On Wednesday, there were 9 earthquakes, all between 3.0 and 4.0 magnitude, the closest being a 3.4 in the ocean, off southern BC. There has been a lot of activity going on in that area; the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network Facebook group often posts charts showing the latest swarm of quakes that goes on in our greater Northwest area.

The Day 1 action to take was: Get a suitcase or backpack and designate it your go bag. Today on Day 2, we start packing:

PACKING YOUR BAG TODAY: Put 3 cans of ready-to-eat soup for each person in your bag, plus a hand-operated can opener. You won’t want to be using precious water to dilute soup; that’s why ready-to-eat soup is recommended. Hand can openers can be found at the local dollar store (and often at garage sales).

OK, we’re off to the store. Got yours? Send us a pic! (editor@westseattleblog.com) And watch tomorrow for the next item(s) to pack. If you miss a day, this info is all in the WSB “Preparedness” archives – westseattleblog.com/category/preparedness.

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Who helps marine mammals to our south? Could be you!

October 3, 2013 2:18 pm

| Comments Off on Who helps marine mammals to our south? Could be you!

| How to help | West Seattle news | Wildlife

That’s Dr. Kaddee Lawrence, the West Seattleite who is executive director of the MaST Center in Redondo. We photographed her there a year and a half ago, when the skeleton of the gray whale that beached in 2010 in The Arroyos went on display. The photo is relevant today for a multi-part reason – Dr. Lawrence is seeking volunteers for the MaST Center’s Marine Mammal Stranding Response Team, whose jurisdiction begins along the southwesternmost West Seattle shores:

The MaST Center in Redondo, a part of Highline Community College, is having an information session and meet&greet for people interested in being part of our Marine Mammal Stranding Response Team. There is no previous experience necessary, just a willingness to help the seals and other marine mammals in Puget Sound. People can be involved as much or as little as they feel comfortable. Come and learn how to help our mammalian neighbors in the water. This event is being held at the MaST Center in Redondo (next door to Salty’s restaurant on Redondo Beach Drive South) on Saturday (October 5th) at 3 pm.

Here’s a map to that location.

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West Seattle scene: Highland Park Elementary’s Amy West wins ‘Teacher of the Week’

October 3, 2013 1:10 pm

| 10 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

Big surprise this morning for Highland Park Elementary third-grade teacher Amy West – she found out she is the STAR 101.5 Teacher of the Week. She’s at left in our photo with student Andre Brown, who nominated her for the award. Prizes included a personalized plaque and $100 for the classroom.

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How will you be asked to be taxed for Seattle Parks, and what the $ would fund: Park development? Off-leash law enforcers?

October 3, 2013 11:20 am

| 26 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

The Parks and Green Spaces Levy approved by Seattle voters in 2008 is expiring, and that’s a major reason why the Parks Department has been working on a “Legacy Plan” including what to ask voters for next. The Legacy Plan Citizens’ Advisory Committee meets downtown tonight, and the agenda includes a briefing on potential options that could eventually wind up as part of your property-tax bill, as well as a look at proposals for how to spend the money.

First: The briefing suggests possible temporary or permanent levy-lid lifts, bonds, or creating a permanent Metropolitan Parks District – like Tacoma has – that would have its own property-taxing authority. From the city website, here are the slides for tonight’s briefing:

Seattle Parks presentation for possible voter-approved funding

If you can’t see the slides in that window, you can see the PDF version here. The committee is working toward a December deadline for making recommendations to the City Council and Mayor. Tonight they also will look at the long list of “Investment Initiatives” – what might be funded with whatever money is raised by the next voter-approved measure.

Items of potential West Seattle interest from the 37-proposal list include:

#14, $1.4 million to develop parks at sites where the city has bought or is buying the land – including three in West Seattle. Explanation excerpt:

Thanks to the support of the people of Seattle, voters approved the Parks and Green Spaces Levy in 2008. Included in the Levy were funds for new park acquisition. However, there were not funds in the 2008 Levy to develop the newly purchased properties into parks or to maintain them. Fourteen neighborhood park sites have been acquired with 2008 Levy funds but are land-banked – held in their current condition. The land-banked sites are throughout the City, many in some of the densest neighborhoods, experiencing the greatest population growth. The sites need to be developed to become true assets to their neighborhoods, and to keep faith with the voters who supported their acquisition as park land.

(The three in West Seattle would be 48th/Charlestown, the 40th SW site in The Junction, and the site north of Morgan Junction Park.)

#26, which would include funding 2 new park rangers and 2 animal-control officers:

The most frequent complaints Parks receives from our park users are about dogs off leash. Additional support from dedicated Animal Control officers is also needed to respond to dog off-leash issues in our parks. Park Rangers and Animal Control officers would work outside the downtown parks with special focus on random patrols of parks where there have been complaints of dogs off leash or where there is observed ongoing damage to turf, trails or natural areas by dogs off leash. Park Rangers and Animal Control officers would work in cooperation to provide education and solicit compliance of the leash law.

There is a public-comment period at tonight’s meeting, which is at 6 pm at Parks HQ downtown (100 Dexter Ave. N.).

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Police investigating possible child-luring attempt in West Seattle

October 3, 2013 9:34 am

| 15 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle police

We have just confirmed that Seattle Police are investigating a reported child-luring attempt in West Seattle. We found out about it thanks to a Hope Lutheran School parent who late last night forwarded us a parent alert sent by the school on Wednesday:

Yesterday afternoon around 3:40 PM, a Hope female student was walking along Oregon Street between 41st Ave. and 42nd Ave., heading to her car while her mother was inside the school office. A male driver pulled over in his car and told her he was supposed to pick her up and take her home. The student immediately ran away and back to her mother. The police were contacted by the mother at home but we don’t have a lot of details besides the fact that it was a male driver. …

We contacted SPD this morning to ask for a copy of the report, which we have just received. It says the student who reported this is 10 years old. The officer talked with her at her family’s home and later wrote:

Somewhere between the hours of 1530-1600 [on Tuesday, October 1, the child] was walking along SW Oregon between 42nd SW and 41st when she heard a voice from a car parked along the north side of the street.

[The child] said she heard a male voice from inside the car call out to her saying, ‘Hey little girl, come get in the car with me. I’ll take you home.’ [The child] told me that she stated ‘No’ to the male and ran down the hill to her mother’s car, locking herself inside. [The child] said she told her mother about the incident just a few minutes later when she came out to the car.

[The mother] told me that she walked back the same route [the child] had gone and saw no one unusual.

According to the report, the child was unable to provide any description of the man or the vehicle, saying that she only heard his voice. There is no indication whether this has any link to the as-yet-unsolved flasher incidents last month, two of which happened near Holy Rosary, which is one block north of Hope.

(P.S. Here’s the SPD page with information on safety advice for families, including what to teach kids about staying safe.)

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West Seattle Thursday: Olympic peek; check the calendar

October 3, 2013 9:11 am

| Comments Off on West Seattle Thursday: Olympic peek; check the calendar

| West Seattle news | West Seattle weather | WS miscellaneous

What looks to be a busy news day is off and running, but first: The morning began with a text (206-293-6302 any time) about a possible whale sighting off Me-Kwa-Mooks. Co-publisher Patrick Sand headed down the hill to look; no marine mammals in sight, but he did catch the sun turning Olympic Mountains peaks pink, briefly. So we’re sharing the photo but asking that for today’s calendar preview, you go directly to the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar – several items of note, including West Seattle High School Family Curriculum Night, the fall dinner benefiting Transitional Resources, and more – but we’ve got to get on to the news of the day. Each calendar item leads to a standalone web page with map and details – just click the plus sign at the right side of the entry, and then the “more” link on the lower right. Thanks!

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TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Thursday on the move

October 3, 2013 7:33 am

| 5 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; other cameras are on the WSB Traffic page)
7:33 AM: “Generally, things are moving better than they have all week.” So says WSDOT via Twitter, a regional observation, but still, an optimistic assessment here as we approach the heart of the commute.

HIGHWAY 99/VIADUCT CLOSURES THIS WEEKEND: Yet another reminder- both directions of Highway 99/Alaskan Way Viaduct will close this weekend between the West Seattle Bridge and Battery Street Tunnel, 5 am-6 pm Saturday and 6 am-6 pm Sunday, for the semiannual safety inspection, and that will coincide with a weekendlong closure north of the BST for utility work – closure details here.

7:42 AM: Downtown surface-street problem, pointed out in the comment section – a crash at 6th and Pine is tying things up. Westbound Pine is closed, one northbound lane of 6th is open, per KING 5’s traffic reporter Tracy Taylor.

8:25 AM: If you ride Sound Transit Route 560, ST says a crash in Bellevue might cause delays.

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