day : 01/03/2023 11 results

We recently spotted that Halloween holdover in Highland Park, costumed as a Girl Scout Cookies promoter. Until now, it’s just been advance/online cookie-sales time, but starting Friday, cookie booths will pop up around West Seattle (and of course elsewhere) for in-person purchases. Here’s the lookup to see where, by zip code, you’ll find cookie booths. And Scouts and their families are excited – we’ve heard from two today, in fact.

–Troop 46258 will be outside Husky Deli on Sunday the 5th from Noon to 2 pm and outside West Seattle Thriftway at Morgan Junction on Wednesday the 15th from 6 to 8 pm. That information is courtesy of Scout Norah and her family, who also shared her cookie-selling website if you won’t be able to get to a booth and want to order by mail (deadline March 13) or order for free home delivery (by March 20).

–Troop 41268‘s co-cookie manager Antoinette sends word that “Our Daisies (5-6 year olds) are doing their first-ever Girl Scout cookie booth sale this Friday from 3-5 pm at Dog City. Jan, the owner, is kind enough to let us have it there and the girls are excited! We will also be at Thriftway on Saturday (10-12 pm) and True Value (10 am-12 pm Sunday) for the Farmers Market.”

Any other troops interested in a mention can email us (westseattleblog@gmail.com). Cookie booths will continue through March 19th.

P.S. Some changes this year, according to the official news release – including a new variety, Raspberry Rally, and a price increase. Plus, a reminder of what the cookie sales are all about:

Our mission at Girl Scouts of Western Washington is to build Girl Scouts of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. The Girl Scout Cookie Program supports this mission by providing hands-on experience in setting goals, making business decisions, and embarking on a lifelong leadership journey. The cookie program also provides an essential way for Girl Scouts to cover the cost of their Girl Scout experiences. Many Girl Scouts use cookie revenue to pay for membership dues, program supplies, and activities like travel, camp, and STEM exploration.

ADDED TUESDAY: We heard from Angela regarding the cookie-promoting skeleton shown above;

Thanks for featuring our skeleton friend Mr. LeBONEski! Our daughter, Harper from Troop 41169, helped her grandma design and sew the giant Girl Scout vest to help market her cookie sales. Harper will be selling in person at the Highland Park Corner Store on Sunday from 11-1 and again next Thursday evening from 5:30-7:30, while the store has the Where Ya At Matt food truck outside. Come say hi and help her push to her final fundraising goal for her big trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos in July! You can also order online for local delivery or shipping at her website: digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/harper143137 If you don’t want to purchase cookies, a donation on the website will send cookies to our troops and help Harper and our troop with fundraising – win-win-win!

Also, a HUGE thank you to the West Seattle community for supporting Harper and the rest of troop 41169! Our girls have learned so much over the last 8 years through cookies sales and they are making dreams come true with the proceeds! I have been amazed watching them transform from little five years olds selling a few boxes to true entrepreneurs- creating email marketing campaigns, taking over inventory management, planning complicated delivery routes and learning how to provide excellent customer service!

We also heard today from Jolene:

Troop 42301 will be selling at Menchie’s in the Admiral Junction Friday, March 3rd, 4-6 (we will be on the sidewalk on California), March 4th at Thriftway in the Morgan Junction 12-2 pm, and March 5th at the Roxbury Safeway, 10-2.

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FOLLOWUP: Landmarks Board agrees to consider West Seattle’s Cettolin House

March 1, 2023 8:54 pm

| 7 COMMENTS

| West Seattle history | West Seattle news

(Photo from landmark-nomination packet)

The city Landmarks Preservation Board has agreed to consider landmark status for the Cettolin House at 4022 32nd SW. That unanimous vote during the board’s meeting this afternoon is not the final word on that possible status – it just means board members agreed it’s worthy of consideration. Their vote followed a presentation by David Peterson, hired by the house’s current owners to prepare the document for its prospective nomination. The document is – and the presentation was – full of history, not just of the house and its builder and his family, but also of West Seattle itself.

As Peterson explained, the house was built by steelworker Fausto Cettolin on nights and weekends between 1926 and 1939, when he wasn’t at work at the nearby steel mill, to which he walked from home. Its architecture was inspired by Cettolin’s native Italy, from which both he and his wife Erma emigrated in 1913, though they didn’t meet until years later in West Seattle. The Cettolins raised six children in the house; Fausto retired in 1961 and died in 1969, three years after his wife. Their youngest child Virginia, a nun now in her 80s, was present for today’s meeting at (location corrected) City Hall. Peterson said she provided many of the photos in the document, as well as a diagram of how the house and its grounds were laid out before subsequent owners sold off two of the original three lots on its site.

Two people spoke in the public-comment period, both in support of landmark status. In board discussion, one member asked a question that’s come up previously: If the house gets landmark status, how might that affect the West Seattle Sound Transit light-rail project? City staffer Erin Doherty said that since the route isn’t finalized yet, they don’t know, and it’s not appropriate to consider “what about” anyway – just consider the nominated site on its own merits. So they agreed it’s worth nominating, and will decide on April 19th whether it’s worth designating as a landmark. (Read about the process here.) To comment before that meeting, you can use the same options offered in this notice for today’s meeting.

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GRATITUDE: Springsteen fans give big to West Seattle Food Bank

March 1, 2023 7:33 pm

| 4 COMMENTS

| How to help | West Seattle news

We promised to follow up on the West Seattle Food Bank‘s spotlight at Bruce Springsteen‘s Climate Pledge Arena concert night before last. They not only had a spot at the arena but also got a shoutout from The Boss himself, and concertgoers responded – today the WSFB sent that photo of its contingent at the arena, plus this: “We raised $19,632.57 to help our neighbors in West Seattle.”

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FERRIES: New date estimates for restoring 3-boat service on Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route

March 1, 2023 5:31 pm

| 4 COMMENTS

| Fauntleroy | Transportation | West Seattle news

(2021 photo of Fauntleroy ferry, by Theresa Arbow-O’Connor)

Washington State Ferries has released its latest report on service-restoration progress. Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth – also known as the “Triangle Route” – is still on reduced service, 2 boats instead of 3. It’s now estimating that three-boat service can be partially restored in May, fully restored in fall. From the report:

Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth
Estimated restoration: May 2023 (weekday service); Fall 2023 (full service)

• WSF expects to begin trialing full weekday three-boat service in early-April, or once a vessel and crewing is available. Because the three-boat schedule is so different from the two boat schedule, the Trial Service stage will be more challenging than trials on other
routes. WSF will communicate with customers regularly about each day’s expected schedule and anticipates it may take longer than three weeks to reach full route restoration.

• The route will be considered fully restored once it reaches 95% reliability on the threeboat schedule for a period of three weeks. At this time, WSF expects weekday service on the Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route to be restored by the end of May 2023 and to be operating the full weekly schedule by Fall 2023.

• While waiting for both the vessel and crewing availability necessary to trial three-boat service, WSF will add some additional midday and evening service to fill gaps in the two-boat schedule.

The report also details fleet and staff status; on the latter, citing “unprecedented” staff shortages, WSF says, “The number of licensed deck officers (captains and mates) is the biggest crewing challenge facing WSF. Ideally, WSF would have approximately 200 licensed deck officers in the system. As of Feb. 15, 2023, WSF has 165 LDOs. These highly skilled and highly credentialed positions are challenging to fill.” Regarding the fleet, WSF recounts the need to extend the usage of three vessels slated to be retired this decade, and notes that it’s running so close to bare minimum that unscheduled problems result in unavoidable service reductions: “Vessel availability has recovered from the maintenance backlog in the initial months of the pandemic; however, the vessel pillar remains at high risk because of an aging, diminishing fleet.”

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FOLLOWUP: After busy spawning season, ‘home hatch’ in Fauntleroy Creek

March 1, 2023 4:21 pm

| 4 COMMENTS

| Fauntleroy | West Seattle news | Wildlife

(Video by Tom Trulin)

By Judy Pickens
Special to West Seattle Blog

Lower Fauntleroy Creek is again teeming with fish – not the 254 big spawners of last fall but the tiny “home hatch” from the eggs they left.

Volunteer Tom Trulin spotted the first coho fry on Feb. 20, a day later than last year. Within a week, dozens were darting around.

Water temperature determines how long coho eggs take to hatch, then how long alevin take to develop into fry. They start life under the protection of loose gravel and emerge as free-swimming fry. To protect themselves from predators while foraging for food, they stay near the bank or overhanging vegetation.

“The fry are less than an inch long and vary in color from light tan to very dark,” said volunteer Dennis Hinton. “Seeing them takes a lot of patience because they don’t want to be seen and are easily spooked.” He discouraged visitors to the lower creek while the fish are so fragile.

Based on the last observed spawning during the week of Nov. 15, these fry are about 13 weeks old. They will grow into fingerlings (parr), then smolts, over their year in the creek. Next spring, those that survive will migrate to salt water, then return to fresh water after two years to spawn.

The upper creek will soon be teeming, as well, when at least 500 students release the coho fry they are rearing now through the Salmon in the Schools program. Tom, Dennis, and other Fauntleroy Watershed Council volunteers are expecting to host at least 13 release field trips in May in Fauntleroy Park.

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MYSTERY: Who crocheted – and donated – dozens of snowflakes?

March 1, 2023 2:22 pm

| 14 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

The photo and request are from Caroline:

Over the weekend, while visiting the Senior Center of West Seattle, I came across these crocheted snowflakes. They were selling for $1 each.

I thought about the time and love that someone out into making them and decided that the best outcome for the set would be to keep them together, so I purchased all 49 snowflakes.

I am interested in donating these snowflakes to a folk art museum, and I’m trying to find out who crocheted them so that their name may be identified with the snowflakes. Hopefully one of your readers will recognize the snowflakes and let me know who crocheted them.

Caroline said the Stop ‘n’ Shop thrift shop at the Senior Center, where she bought the snowflakes, told her there was no name attached to the donation, which isn’t unusual. If you have a clue, post a comment and/or email us and we’ll connect you!

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SEEN OFF WEST SEATTLE: Submarine, inbound

March 1, 2023 12:42 pm

| 35 COMMENTS

| Seen at sea | West Seattle news

Thanks for the photo and tips. Another submarine sighting off West Seattle this morning, this time inbound to Bremerton. We have an inquiry out to Naval Base Kitsap. The last passing-submarine sighting reported here, on February 10th, was eventually reported by the Kitsap Sun to have been the USS Key West, arriving for decommissioning. The one seen the day before that was the USS Louisiana, outbound after a 41-month overhaul.

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BIZNOTE: Canna West Seattle relaunches recycling program and campaigns for ‘industry change’

March 1, 2023 10:39 am

| 3 COMMENTS

| Environment | West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

Those candles are part of a revived recycling program that Canna West Seattle (WSB sponsor) is relaunching starting today. The program is the resumption of a pre-pandemic commitment, and also an initiative led by Canna’s owner to encourage change in her entire industry. Here’s the announcement explaining the return of Canna Collect:

Back in 2019, Canna West Seattle launched a one-of-a-kind recycling program to collect all cannabis and hemp packaging sold through both its stores. With an incentivized program called Canna Collect, customers were encouraged to bring back their packaging in exchange for loyalty points and discounts within the Culture Shop (Canna’s sister lifestyle store).

Behind the scenes, the team putting the program together intended to collect the packaging and commission an artist who could convert the materials into a massive sculpture. The sculpture was meant to help raise awareness as a symbol of the damaging environmental impact the cannabis industry is responsible for. What they learned was that the various materials collected actually could not be safely merged. Much of it couldn’t even be recycled, Mylar being the number-one pollutant.

The program resonated with thousands of customers donating monthly, but due to unexpected regulations and roadblocks, the actual result was just collecting and storing empty cannabis packaging. Canna worked hard to find innovative companies to potentially partner with – companies that could possibly find use for or convert the materials – but had no luck.

Just as the program was really gaining momentum through community support and national media coverage, the pandemic hit, and everything came to an instant halt. Priorities shifted to keep the staff safe and serve the community, while the recycling program was put on the back burner until further notice.

Stalled for an unpredictable amount of time, the program was always intended to be resumed once everyone felt it was safe again to do so. Now almost 3 years later, the Canna Collect recycling program is relaunching with a new aim.

“We desperately need industry change to decrease industry waste.” says Maryam Mirnateghi, CEO and Founder of Canna West Seattle. “If climate is truly a priority to our representatives, then they need to look at the regulations that they are imposing on the cannabis industry that are directly impacting the environment and hurting small business.”

The original end goal was to bring awareness to the pollution cannabis packaging is causing, and to motivate industry leaders and state representatives to work together to change regulations and create business and environmentally friendly alternatives. It is meant to make customers more aware of what kind of cannabis packaging they are purchasing their products in, and in turn, to create more eco-conscious consumers.

“While we’ve had to make some modifications to our recycling program, our end goal still remains the same,” Mirnateghi continues. “Only now we’ve partnered with Northwest Island Botanicals, who is upcycling the glass jars we collect into therapeutic candles that will be sold at our Culture Shop. A portion of those proceeds will be donated to customer-choice local charities. In addition, we will be encouraging and helping our customers to contact our legislators.”

To learn more about the Canna Collect Recycling Program, visit cannawestseattle.com. There you’ll find details about what packaging will now be accepted, who to contact in Olympia which includes a simple copy and paste letter to send to your local politicians. Keep an eye out for future petitions or initiatives! “It’s time to bring the cannabis community together to create real environmental change,” Mirnateghi concludes.

Canna West Seattle is at 5440 California SW; the Culture Shop is across the street at 5435 California SW.

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Landmark-proposal hearing, D1CN meeting, more for your West Seattle Wednesday

March 1, 2023 9:45 am

| 3 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | WS Weekend Lineup

(Tuesday night sunset, photographed by James Tilley)

Here’s what’s happening in the hours ahead, mostly from our West Seattle Event Calendar:

AMERICAN MAHJONG: 1-3 pm at the Senior Center of West Seattle (4217 SW Oregon): “Stimulate your brain by playing this ancient Chinese tile game that is similar to the card game Rummy. Meet new people and have fun. All levels of players are welcome.”

LANDMARK NOMINATION: Today’s the first Landmarks Preservation Board hearing on the proposal to nominate West Seattle’s Cettolin House for landmark status, 3:30 pm in-person downtown or online. Details are in our preview.

FREE INDOOR PLAYSPACE: Toddler Gym weekday afternoons at the Salvation Army Center (9050 16th SW), ages 2-6, 3:30-5 pm.

TRIVIA x 6: At 6 pm, Locust Cider (2820 Alki SW) now offers trivia … at 7 pm, you can play trivia at the West Seattle Brewing Mothership (4415 Fauntleroy Way SW); Larry’s Tavern (3405 California SW) hosts Wednesday-night trivia starting at 8 pm; there’s 7:30 and 8:30 pm Sporcle Pub Quiz at The Lodge (4209 SW Alaska); trivia starts at 8 pm at Beveridge Place Pub (6413 California SW); at 8:30 pm, trivia at Talarico’s (4718 California SW).

LIVE AT EPHESUS: Kimball & The Fugitive Trio now plays Ephesus Greek Restaurant (5245 California SW), 6:30 pm Wednesdays.

DISTRICT 1 COMMUNITY NETWORK: This coalition of local community advocates is meeting in-person tonight for the first time since before the pandemic, 7 pm at Neighborhood House High Point (6400 Sylvan Way SW), all welcome/

MUSIC BINGO: Play weekly at The Good Society (California/Lander), 7 pm.

SKYLARK OPEN MIC: Time for you to shine! 7:30 pm signups @ West Seattle’s longest-running open mic – no cover to watch. (3803 Delridge Way SW)

KARAOKE AT BENBOW ROOM: New! 9 pm-2 am – info in our calendar listing. (4210 SW Admiral Way)

Planning an event – meeting, performance, reading, tour, fundraiser, or … – that could be featured on West Seattle’s only comprehensive event calendar? Tell us about it! Please email info to westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!

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Celebration of life March 24 for Frank E. Ambrozic, 1956-2023

March 1, 2023 9:00 am

| 4 COMMENTS

| Obituaries | West Seattle news

Family and friends will gather March 24 to celebrate the life of Frank Ambrozic. Here’s the remembrance they’re sharing now:

On February 8, angels gently carried Frank Edward Ambrozic to Heaven’s Field of Dreams. They have seated him next to his cherished father Frank Louis behind home plate in the best box seats. Together they are enjoying watching the Yankees’ M&M Boys, Roger Maris, and Mickey Mantle (and all of baseball’s greats) play pick-up games. Sun shining and stadium’s speakers serenading him with Sinatra, George, and all his favorite tunes.

Born in Butte, Montana, on April 27, 1956, he was described by his mom Billie as a kind and happy baby; these traits would continue to describe him as a man. Devoted to his family, friends and community, Frankie lived a life of service, always caring for others before himself.

A husband, father, son, brother, grandfather, friend, and coach, Frankie brought joy to not only those who loved him, but to everyone he met along the way. Always making friends wherever he’d go. There for others to lend an ear, offer help, share a laugh and a joke, or give you a great big hug. Thanksgiving was his favorite holiday, as he lived his life always thankful and ever giving.

Married to his love and soulmate Connie for 43 years, together they blessed the world with their three children Tyler (wife Michelle), Donna (husband Jeff), and Casey (wife Erin). “Papa” to his five cherished grandchildren, Max, Ava, Julianne, Leo, and Cooper. Never a task too big or favor too grand for this papa. Unwavering support and encouragement inspired them all and the rest of his very special family.

To quote one of his favorite singers, Jimmy Buffett, while we “cannot reason this hurricane season,” may we find comfort knowing he will forever be our guardian angel who will calm any rough waters and guide us to safe passage. To honor him, may we celebrate his life by living by his example – to be kind, happy, always thankful and ever giving.

Celebration of life at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and gym Friday, March 24th, at 11 am.

(WSB publishes West Seattle obituaries and memorial announcements by request, free of charge. Please email the text, and a photo if available, to westseattleblog@gmail.com)

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TRAFFIC, TRANSIT, WEATHER: March begins

March 1, 2023 6:01 am

| 1 COMMENT

| West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

6:01 AM: Good morning! It’s the first day of the month – Wednesday, March 1st.

WEATHER

No weather alerts this time. Mostly cloudy, high in the 40s (normal for this date would be low 50s).

TRANSIT TODAY

Water Taxi – Regular schedule.

Metro – Regular schedule, but still canceling some trips, so check notification channels such as @kcmetroalerts.

Washington State Ferries‘ Triangle Route continues on the 2-boat schedule; check here for alerts/updates and use Vessel Watch for boats’ locations.

SPOTLIGHT TRAFFIC CAMERAS

Delridge cameras: Besides the one below (Delridge/Oregon), cameras are also up at Delridge/Genesee, Delridge/Juneau, Delridge/Orchard, and Delridge/Henderson.

High Bridge – the camera at the top:

High Bridge – the view from its southwest end (when SDOT points the 35th/Avalon/Fauntleroy camera that way):

Low Bridge – looking east to west:

1st Ave. S. Bridge – another route across the river:

Highway 99: – the northbound side at Lander.

MORE TRAFFIC CAMS: See all working traffic cams citywide here, most with video options; West Seattle and vicinity-relevant cameras are on this WSB page.

BRIDGE INFO: Are movable city bridges opening for vessels? Check the @SDOTBridges Twitter feed.

If you see a problem on the bridges/streets/paths/bay, please text or call us (when you can do it safely, and after you’ve reported to authorities if needed) – 206-293-6302.

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