day : 02/05/2019 10 results

Boating season officially starts this weekend. Before you get out on the water – get safety education. The US Coast Guard Auxiliary tells us there’s still room in a safety class this Sunday here in West Seattle. If you haven’t already seen it in our calendar, here’s the announcement:

Are you ready for a safe boating season?

About Boating Safely class
Offered by the US Coast Guard Auxiliary
May 5, 2019, 8:30 am to 5 pm

Venue: West Seattle Veterans Center
3618 SW Alaska St (a few blocks east of The Junction).

This course qualifies all those who successfully complete it to get a Washington State Boater Education Card. Topics include boating safety equipment and skills for a variety of types of boats including power, sail, personal watercraft and paddlecraft. Instructors from the US Coast Guard Auxiliary will cover how to prevent accidents, choose the right life jackets and other boating gear, best practices for trailering your boat, local laws and “rules of the road,” and the basics of navigation. Ages 12 and up. Younger teens should attend with an adult.

Course fee: $35. Second person sharing the same book: $20. Please pre-register.

For online registration and more information, go here.

For questions, contact flotillatwentyfour@gmail.com

FOLLOWUP: Felony charges, six-figure bail for repeat DUI driver arrested after hit-run sent teen to hospital

May 2, 2019 6:00 pm

| 26 COMMENTS

| Crime | West Seattle news

That was the scene on Monday along SW Thistle by Chief Sealth International High School, after a hit-run driver struck a 16-year-old student, sending him to the hospital (WSB coverage here). At least one witness got a license-plate number that led police to Top Hat, where they arrested 29-year-old Carlos M. Villalovos on suspicion of DUI and hit-run. He’s been in jail ever since, and today the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office filed felony charges of vehicular assault, hit and run, and reckless driving. His bail is set at $302,000.

This isn’t Villalovos’s first DUI arrest, according to online records and the charging documents, which list one case in 2008 and two in 2016. In yet other traffic stops, prosecutors say, he was cited for violations including cell-phone use while driving, not having insurance, and driving with a suspended license. He also was found guilty last year of attempted vehicle trespass after a Burien incident in which he was described as acting aggressively, while intoxicated, toward a couple whose car he kept trying to get into. At the time of this week’s arrest, prosecutors say, warrants were out for Villalovos, related to his failure to appear for separate hearings last month in two prior DUI cases. Prosecutors called Villalovos “a grave danger to the community,” saying he’s apparently been through substance-abuse treatment and a “victim impact panel” yet refuses to stop driving while impaired.

On Monday, the probable-cause document says, when officers found Villalovos’s car before finding him, bottles of beer and hard lemonade were in clear evidence. His Honda CR-V also was reported to have damage consistent with what would have happened when the victim – who is reported to have suffered a broken pelvis – was hit. Police say Villalovos blew .16 – twice the legal threshold for DUI – three hours after the crash. We’ve looked up records from his past cases; in one of them, he was described as having blown .19. In another, when he was found driving without the ignition interlock he was under orders to use, he told officers he just used a screwdriver to start his car. His arraignment is set for May 15th.

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BIZNOTE: Phoenecia announces new location

May 2, 2019 4:56 pm

| 19 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle restaurants

They promised their Alki closure at the end of 2018 wasn’t the end of their acclaimed restaurant … and indeed, it wasn’t. The Khazaal family has announced they’ll reopen Phoenecia in The Junction this summer. The new space, 4717 42nd SW, was previously home to Alchemy (evicted last December). The Junction is a past home as well as future home for Phoenecia; as noted when the family patriarch Hussein Khazaal died a decade ago, it is where he founded the restaurant in the 1970s.

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New details of Terminal 5 project, plus Department of Neighborhoods ‘pivot,’ @ Southwest District Council

May 2, 2019 3:14 pm

| 4 COMMENTS

| Port of Seattle | Southwest District Council | West Seattle news

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The half-billion dollar project that’s about to start on West Seattle’s eastern shore was the first of two big focuses at this month’s Southwest District Council meeting.

That’s the slide deck from the briefing on Terminal 5 (see it here in full-size PDF).

The Port of Seattle/Northwest Seaport Alliance sent a team of five for the occasion, almost equal to the SWDC attendance. They offered more construction details than we’ve heard in previous briefings, as well as other updates about T-5 activity, including Matson having moved its weekly cargo calls to T-5 as of last week (as reported here).

(WSB photo, last Friday)

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Replacing Fauntleroy Creek culverts: Still time to comment

May 2, 2019 1:27 pm

| 4 COMMENTS

| Environment | Fauntleroy | Utilities | West Seattle news

As we showed you earlier this week, it’s salmon-release season at Fauntleroy Creek – part of the annual lifecycle since community advocacy led to work that brought the creek back to life. Part of it remains underground, carried in culverts, and some sections need to be replaced, so Seattle Public Utilities is in the early stages of figuring out how. Back in March, SPU offered opportunities to offer early-stage comments. If you missed those, it’s not too late to comment – SPU reopened its online survey seeking your opinion. As the (short) survey explains:

Design options present tradeoffs. This includes the opportunity to enhance creek habitat with open channel sections. However, these features require retaining walls and potential realignment that can have greater short-term construction impacts, as well as require long-term changes to existing site conditions.

So they’re asking about your priorities – when you can spare a moment or two to comment, go here. (Background info from the March open house is here.)

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West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day 2019: Almost map time!

May 2, 2019 12:01 pm

| 3 COMMENTS

| Community Garage Sale Day | West Seattle news

Now just nine days away – the 15th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day is happening on Saturday, May 11th! 300 sales will be on the map, which will be available here (and at westseattlegaragesale.com) starting this Saturday morning, in clickable and downloadable/printable formats. Every sale is registered with a description that you’ll find in both map versions – click to open a bubble for any map marker and you’ll see its description; in the downloadable/printable version, the listings are on several pages. Official WSCGSD hours are 9 am-3 pm but some sellers are starting earlier, some ending later, and some have even added days – you’ll find that information with the map, too. We’ll get into some specific previews starting Saturday – unusual items, benefit sales, lemonade stands, more; one sale even promises a reason to stop by for a photo op! (WSB is proud to have coordinated/presented WSCGSD since its 4th year, in 2008.)

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7 for your West Seattle Thursday

May 2, 2019 11:16 am

| Comments Off on 7 for your West Seattle Thursday

| West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

(Another look at a juvenile Bald Eagle on Alki Point – photographed by Jim Borrow)

What’s ahead for the rest of your Thursday includes …

LIONS CLUB: Weekly meeting at noon, Senior Center of West Seattle. Find out about the club at wslions.com. (4217 SW Oregon)

MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR DR. ELIZABETH PLUHTA: We mentioned in Tuesday’s report on the Westside Awards that the passing of Dr. Elizabeth Pluhta, South Seattle College vice president and former West Seattle Chamber of Commerce board president, was announced. Her memorial service is at 3 pm today at >Forest Lawn in High Point. (6701 30th SW)

NEW WSHS STUDENT REGISTRATION NIGHT: 6 pm in the library at West Seattle High School:

This is an opportunity for new students and families to meet their counselors and receive assistance on the course registration process for the 2019-2020 school year. Students and families from all grade levels starting their first year at WSHS this fall are all welcome to attend.

(3000 California SW)

BASEBALL: 7 pm, the West Seattle High School Wildcats play their next Metro League playoff game vs. Ballard at Southwest Athletic Complex. (2801 SW Thistle)

CANNABIS IN NORTH HIGHLINE: King County rules have concentrated much of the unincorporated areas’ cannabis businesses in White Center and Top Hat, and that’s the spotlight topic at tonight’s meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council. 7 pm at the NH Fire District HQ. (1243 SW 112th)

‘OFFICE HOUR’ OPENS: Official opening night tonight at ArtsWest for the new play “Office Hour”:

(Christian Quinto & Naho Shioya, photo by John McLellan)

Curtain time is 7:30 pm. For ticketing and other info, see our calendar listing. (4711 California SW)

‘DRAG RACE’ & PIE: The second weekly event at A la Mode Pies in The Junction – open later on Thursday nights, until 10:30 pm, so you can watch “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and enjoy pie, boozy milkshakes, and A la Mode’s other fare. The show’s on at 9. (4225 SW Alaska)

MUCH MORE GOING ON … see our complete calendar!

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DEVELOPMENT: Admiral District mixed-use project gets OK

May 2, 2019 9:58 am

| 34 COMMENTS

| Development | West Seattle news

(Rendering from design packet by architect for project’s second Design Review Board meeting)

From today’s city-circulated Land Use Information Bulletin, a key approval is in for the mixed-use building planned at 2715 California SW, now described as a “4-story, 49-unit apartment building (44 units and 5 small efficiency units) with retail and office. Parking for 46 vehicles proposed.” We first reported on this plan 2 1/2 years ago; it went through Design Review in 2017, under the project name Admiral Station. The decision sets an appeal deadline for May 16th; this notice (PDF) explains how to file one.

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TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Thursday watch

May 2, 2019 7:01 am

| Comments Off on TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Thursday watch

| West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

(SDOT MAP with travel times/ Is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE/ West Seattle-relevant traffic cams HERE)

7:01 AM: Good morning. No incidents or alerts to report so far.

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CONGRATULATIONS! 4 more West Seattle HS athletes make college commitments

May 2, 2019 12:35 am

| 1 COMMENT

| West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS & Sports

The Wildcats continue to roar into college athletics. The latest examples gathered Wednesday afternoon at West Seattle High School to ceremonially sign letters of intent: Above, from left, cheerleader Jake Webley is going to Gonzaga University, basketball player Jayla Wilson is going to Multnomah University, her basketball teammate Jasmine Gayles is going to the University of Northern Colorado, and volleyball player Tyler Donlan is headed for Bellevue College. Family members and coaches were of course there to cheer them on: