day : 12/05/2014 11 results

The newest Junction development proposal we’ve found in city online files isn’t a total surprise. The site is 4800 40th SW, now in the city system with an early-stage proposal for a four-story mixed-use building. The site is currently home to Bella Mente Preschool, which – as reported here two months ago – is moving to a new location (6007 California SW) after losing its lease because the site was to be sold and developed.

The site is in the vicinity of a sizable amount of future development. It is kitty-corner from the 150-unit 4745 40th SW project that appears to be starting soon, with heavy equipment and temporary power on site; it’s south across Edmunds from the parking lot of the Masonic Center, which itself is bordered on two sides by the future development The Whittaker.

This new proposal at 4800 40th SW, with an early filing just last week, has a site plan in online files showing only its ground floor so far – residential units facing 40th, live-work units facing Edmunds, a lobby on the 40th/Edmunds corner, and parking off its east-side alley. City files show the same prospective developer/architect team as 4745 40th SW, Alliance and Encore.

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Celebration of life next Saturday for ‘Roxy’ Fultz-Tovey, 1955-2014

May 12, 2014 8:29 pm

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| Obituaries | West Seattle news | West Seattle people

A celebration of life for a woman known best as “Roxy” is planned this Saturday in Skyway. Shared by her family:

Roxanne (Roxy) Lee Fultz-Tovey passed away at age 58 in her home in Tacoma. She was born December 2, 1955, to the late Virgil Fultz and Gloria Bruce.

Roxy moved to West Seattle around 1975 after attending Western Washington University; she then went to dental hygienist school. Roxy made lots of lifelong friends during the 20 years she lived in West Seattle. After working as a dental hygienist for 5 years, she then went to work for the Boeing Company, where she finished out her working career, until 2009.

Roxy was married to Mark Tovey from 1994-2005 and has a stepdaughter, Erin Tovey of Spokane, who she loved very much. Roxanne is also survived by her grandmother Jessi Bruce of Tacoma, brother Bruce Fultz of Tacoma, brother Troy Hoffmaster of Hastings, Nebraska, nephew Coltn Hoffmaster of Port Townsend, aunt Virginia (Ginger) Steffenson of SeaTac, cousin Stacy Hardy of Moses Lake, and cousin Danay Mims of Enumclaw.

Celebration of life to be held Saturday, May 17th, 2:00 pm, at Skyway VFW, 7421 S. 126th St. Roxy’s favorite color was purple – it would be great if you have something purple to wear. Please make any memorial donations to the Lupus Foundation.

(WSB publishes obituaries by request, free of charge. Please e-mail the text, and a photo if available, to editor@westseattleblog.com)

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Jump into Seattle Parks’ outdoor-swimming-season preview

May 12, 2014 7:31 pm

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| West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

Walking along the Lincoln Park shore this evening, we noted that sign inside the front door of Colman Pool, posted after last season ended, looking ahead to the season that’s about to begin. Just today, in fact, Seattle Parks published its roundup of the dates for the start of outdoor-swimming season. We’ve already reported the start dates for local wading pools (Lincoln Park first, on June 21st – assuming that’s a 70-degree day! – others to follow) and for Highland Park Spraypark‘s second season – May 24th, which also is the first day of the first pre-season weekend at Colman Pool (schedule here). Read the citywide breakout here, and check out Parks’ Summer Guide here (PDF).

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Money for Metro: King County Executive Dow Constantine says he’s creating ‘clear path’ for cities to buy more transit-service hours

May 12, 2014 3:58 pm

| 33 COMMENTS

| Transportation | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

King County Executive Dow Constantine has just outlined a three-part plan regarding Metro‘s future, ranging from a way for cities to avoid service cuts within their borders, to a way to counter the claims that Metro doesn’t spend its money wisely, to a way to figure out how to improve customer satisfaction.

First, Constantine said he remains “fully committed to a regional transportation solution.” And he says a statewide package remains “desperately needed … but doing nothing while we wait on Olympia” is not an option. So, he says he’s “creating an enhanced Metro program for cities … to have a clear path for” buying additional hours of Metro service. He says this is intended as “a bridge” until a permanent funding solution is found: “Until the Legislature acts, I cannot ask cities to accept cuts that they are willing locally to prevent.” He says this won’t prevent the first round of Metro cuts this fall but if cities choose, might be able to hold off subsequent rounds. (The four West Seattle bus routes slated for “deletion” aren’t scheduled to go away, for example, until September of 2015.)

He says he’s also calling for “new transparency” in how Metro spends and is run, to “clear the air” and “get the right information” to people to refute a perception that Metro doesn’t spend its money well. He says Metro’s costs are 99 cents per mile, while the industry standard is 98 cents per mile, and “growth in Metro costs is now well below the national coverage, 19th out of our 30 peers.” Constantine says he’s calling for a financial audit of Metro’s reserves and capital-spending plans. He says Metro spends cash on buses rather than go into debt.

Exec calls for peer review and financial audit of Metro's operations, and establishes new Customer Service Panel to make recommendations.

— Dow Constantine (@kcexec) May 12, 2014

And he says he’s forming a new customer-service panel to find out “how to make the experience of riding Metro, even better.”

The first part of his announcement would seem to pave the way for Mayor Ed Murray‘s expected announcement tomorrow of a Seattle-only tax-increase proposal. Voters in the city approved Proposition 1, though it was defeated countywide because of a strong “no” vote outside the city; that was pointed out by City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who was among those joining Constantine at the news conference that has just ended.

4:13 PM: Here’s the full county news release. And Mayor Murray’s office has just sent word that his announcement is set for 9 am tomorrow.

5:18 PM: And carrying over the footnote from our earlier item previewing this story – you’ll be able to follow up on the county news today and the city news tomorrow morning, by hanging out with the West Seattle Transportation Coalition tomorrow night.

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What if? West Seattle preparedness, communications volunteers to join in citywide Mt. Rainier-scenario disaster drill this Saturday

May 12, 2014 3:30 pm

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| Preparedness | West Seattle news

Seen hazily in the distance from a ferry this morning, Mount Rainier was beautiful … yet always, also, vaguely ominous. It’s a volcano. And it’s NOT extinct. So … what if? That’s the scenario for a disaster drill coming up this Saturday morning (May 17th, 9 am-noon), involving West Seattle preparedness volunteers and others around the area. Local activity will be focused at Ercolini Park west of The Junction and at American Legion Post 160 in The Triangle. As officially announced:

Neighborhood emergency preparedness groups across Seattle assisted by amateur radio emergency communicators will test skills Saturday in an exercise based on a simulated major mudflow and ash release from Mt. Rainier. This exercise titled “Mud and Ash Everywhere” is the spring version of this semiannual event. The goal of this exercise is to practice preparedness and response actions that will contribute to community resiliency in surviving a significant disaster.

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West Seattle Crime Watch: Tale of the theft that tanked

May 12, 2014 2:14 pm

| 15 COMMENTS

| Crime | West Seattle news

Heard a bit of scanner traffic on this – stolen toilet tank? – and thought we’d misheard. However, SPD Blotter’s Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, who gets to see the reports and knows a good story when he sees one, tells the tale this afternoon:

Seattle police are looking for a man who put the bathroom of a West Seattle Subway out of commission Sunday night after stealing the restaurant’s toilet, making off with a key, and flooding the restroom’s sink.

According to Subway employees, the man and his family walked into the Subway restaurant in the 4700 block of 42nd Ave SW and ordered food around 7:45 PM. While employees were preparing the family’s meal, the man went into the Subway’s bathroom and was gone for quite some time — so long, in fact, that his wife knocked on the bathroom door and asked what was taking him so long. The man’s family then left the restaurant without him.

A short time later, the man emerged from the bathroom carrying a large, black plastic garbage bag and quickly left the restaurant.
An employee later walked into the bathroom and found the toilet tank missing. The employee also found the still-running bathroom sink stuffed with paper towels, and discovered the bathroom key had also been liberated from the lavatory.

Subway staff told officers the missing toilet tank was worth $550. Officers also spoke to several witnesses at the scene who provided information identifying a possible number one suspect in the case. Southwest Precinct burglary/theft detectives will handle the investigation.

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West Seattle bee season continues: Swarm at Westwood

May 12, 2014 12:47 pm

| 16 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | Wildlife

12:47 PM: On our way to check out multiple reports of a bee swarm at Westwood. We mention it in advance because beekeepers have asked us to mention as often as possible, please do NOT panic, do NOT try to poison them – swarming is natural, especially this time of year, and the best thing to do is to contact somebody on the Puget Sound Beekeepers Association‘s swarm list to come remove them – if you can’t just wait them out. Here’s our recent story about all this.

1:31 PM: We are here and a beekeeper (above, in hat) is too. He says this is a relatively small group, maybe 20,000. They break off from a hive and hang out 15 minutes to 2 days until a scout brings back word of a suitable new spot. He will hang out after collecting these so the scouts come back. Photos shortly.

2:01 PM: Photos added. The beekeeper, Clay Cook (who is on this year’s list of PSBA beekeepers to call about swarms), says it’s home turf for him since he works part-time at Westwood Village. He said that bees swarming like this generally would have left their original hive not far away, so any of the “scouts” that scattered while he was up there and didn’t make it into his box would likely find their way back to that nest.

It was heartening to see people stopping and remarking how cool it was to see the bees, instead of getting scared and bolting (of course, it’s understandable if you’re allergic; one passing driver slowed down and then, when informed that the buzz was about bees, said she needed to get out of there since she is).

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West Seattle road work: Traction-improvement work announced for stretches of Genesee, Charlestown, Olson

May 12, 2014 11:02 am

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| West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

You’ll recall that, when announcing recent concrete-panel-replacement work on SW Charlestown west of California and SW Genesee east of Avalon, SDOT mentioned it would be followed up by work to improve traction on those steep hills. The department has just announced a work schedule for those two stretches and one other in West Seattle that had recent panel replacement (as well as others around town):

The Seattle Department of Transportation will grind the concrete street surface to improve traction for safety at multiple locations around the city from May 15 through May 29. Work will take place during weekdays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. with the exception of some weekend work, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Dates for each location are subject to change depending on work progress or other factors. Flaggers will be on site at road closures to provide local access and guidance. The locations were selected based on traction vulnerability due to heavy rain, snow or ice.

May 17-18:
Olson Place SW between SW Cambridge Street and First Avenue South (one lane of traffic open in both directions)

Work zone is in the northbound lanes of Olson Place SW between Fourth Avenue SW and Second Avenue SW.

May 20-21:
SW Genesee Street between SW Avalon Way and Delridge Way SW (local access only)

Work zone is SW Genesee Street between SW Avalon Way and 30th Avenue SW.

Eastbound traffic detoured via SW Avalon Way, SW Yancy Street, 28th Avenue SW, SW Andover Street, and Delridge Way SW.

Westbound traffic detoured via Delridge Way SW, SW Andover Street, 28th Avenue SW, SW Yancy Street, and SW Avalon Way.

May 22-23:
SW Charlestown Street between 49th Avenue SW and California Avenue SW (local access only)

Work zone is SW Charlestown Street between 47th Avenue SW and 45th Avenue SW.

Eastbound traffic detoured via 49th Avenue SW, SW Admiral Way, and California Avenue SW.

Westbound traffic detoured via California Avenue SW, SW Admiral Way, and 49th Avenue SW.

SDOT’s full news release also includes the three non-West Seattle stretches where this work is scheduled.

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Avoiding Metro Transit cuts: New plans expected today, tomorrow

May 12, 2014 10:04 am

| 12 COMMENTS

| Transportation | West Seattle news

Can major cuts in Metro Transit be avoided, in the aftermath of Proposition 1’s defeat? As reported last week, Mayor Murray has said he’s working on a plan, which at last report is expected to be announced tomorrow (and as a result, the I-118 signature-gathering campaign is on hold). Now, we’ve just received a media advisory saying that County Executive Dow Constantine “will hold a news conference today to announce a program for funding of Metro Transit service.” He’s making that announcement downtown at 3:30 pm. No hints yet about what that’ll entail.

P.S. However it all shakes out, it’ll certainly be a hot topic at tomorrow night’s monthly meeting of the West Seattle Transportation Coalition, with the mayor’s transportation point person Andrew Glass Hastings already a scheduled guest. That’ll be at 6:30 pm Tuesday, Neighborhood House’s High Point Center.

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Five possibilities for your West Seattle Monday

May 12, 2014 9:31 am

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| West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

(Orange-crowned warbler photographed by Trileigh Tucker. Saturday BTW was Migratory Bird Day!)
Welcome to the brand-new week! A few things on the calendar for tonight:

NORTH DELRIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL: 6:30 pm, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center room 103. Preview via NDNC: “Monday’s agenda will focus on the Delridge Plan Update that DPD is currently working on for North Delridge. David Goldberg, DPD staff for the Plan Update, will attend.” (4408 Delridge Way SW)

STORY TIME FOCUSES ON GARDENING: 6:30 pm story time at High Point Branch Library – details in our calendar listing. (35th/Raymond)

CHIEF SEALTH IHS PTSA: Last meeting of the year, 7 pm in the Confucius Center on campus. (2600 SW Thistle)

HIGH-SCHOOL BASEBALL POSTSEASON GAME: 7 pm at Steve Cox Memorial Park in White Center, Chief Sealth International High School plays Nathan Hale. (1321 SW 102nd)

‘FREE MUSIC MONDAY‘: No admission for Skylark Café and Club‘s show tonight, 9:30–10:30 pm, live music featuring Audio Chunk. (3803 Delridge Way SW)

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TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Monday updates; Highland Park Way crash; I-5 fire

May 12, 2014 7:01 am

| 21 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

(WS Bridge and Highway 99 views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
7:01 AM: Quiet, sunny commute right now in and beyond West Seattle. An earlier problem on the Highland Park Way hill is reported to have cleared – please let us know if you’re seeing otherwise.

7:20 AM: We’re on our way to check firsthand but in the meantime, we just got a call that traffic is OK coming up the Highland Park Way hill toward HP, but that it’s still blocked headed out (downhill).

7:41 AM: Still closed and the closure might last a while – it appears that the Traffic Collision Investigation Squad is on scene.

7:53 AM: Andrea reports in comments that an uphill lane has been opened for downhill traffic – that’ll still be slow going. Meantime, unusual hazard reported via scanner at Delridge/Roxbury – “man who keeps running in and out of traffic.”

8:26 PM: The aforementioned person is now the subject of a medical call. Meantime, we’re headed back to Highland Park Way for a status check. Haven’t heard back from SPD for more details on the crash. One more note – if you are I-5 bound, there might be something of a distraction on the southbound side just north of the bridge – a vehicle-fire call.

8:31 AM: Our crew says the top of the hill is completely closed off – we’re not seeing the possible downhill lane. Meantime, Seattle Fire spokesperson Lt. Sue Stangl tells us the crash victim is a 34-year-old man taken to the hospital “in serious condition.” And the aforementioned southbound I-5 incident near I-90 is now described as a truck fully involved in flames – lots of smoke too (see this traffic cam)

9:01 AM: Again, the I-5 situation is on the southbound side, but certainly a distraction if nothing else on the northbound side:

Here's another look SB 5 near I-90. Backup mainline and express about 3 miles. Use 99 or 405 if N enough. pic.twitter.com/qak2TeEdpf

— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) May 12, 2014

RT @wspd2pio: Minor injury from SB I-5 truck rollover that caught fire, pic.twitter.com/I5Ld5wiuXV

— WA State Patrol (@wastatepatrol) May 12, 2014

10:26 AM: SPD spokesperson Patrick Michaud says the Highland Park Way scene is now clear. He says the driver suffered a “life-threatening head injury.”

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