West Seattle, Washington
20 Wednesday
1:20 PM: Blustery weather continues – though there’s no wind advisory in effect, we’ve noticed some strong gusts, and one has apparently taken down some lines in Gatewood. Seattle Fire has checked out the report at 41st/Southern [map] and assessed one wire as electrical, so Seattle City Light is being summoned. No outage reported, though.
5:17 PM: Just got a chance to go back and look; tape’s down, road’s open.
Mark sent the video, saying that prowler was recorded in his “back driveway” around 1 am Saturday, near 35th/Holden in Gatewood. Checking the SPD tweet log (which you can scroll through any time atop the WSB Crime Watch page), we note that Saturday also brought two auto-theft reports in Gatewood, 4100 block of SW Monroe and 4100 block of SW Portland – haven’t heard from the victims, so no details.
That’s Scott‘s truck, stolen overnight from 39th/Webster in Gatewood. It’s a 1989 Ford F250. Call 911 if you see it.
Tonight’s West Seattle Christmas lights spotlight are courtesy of Mark Bader, who sent the photo and video of his music-synched lights in Gatewood:
“Austin Street Christmas Lights” is at 3711 SW Austin Street. I have about 2000 lights; all of them are LED lights that can change to any color. There are 5 songs that are synced to the lights, if you stay and watch all of them, it’s about 15 minutes of music. The lights run from 4 pm to 10 pm nightly – tune your car radio to 99.5 to hear the music.
To see other lights we’ve featured, scroll through this archive. And if you have tips – your own lights or someone else’s, with or without photos – westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
The report and photo are from Peter:
Last night my 1987 Toyota 4Runner was stolen from the front of my house near the intersection of Woodside and Myrtle. It is black with a black fabric top on the rear. WA plates BBC2458. A police report has been filed.
If you see it, call 911.
UPDATE: Peter reports it was found, abandoned in White Center.
The SPD log shows another burglary reported in Gatewood today – and this time we’ve heard from the victim. Mark reports:
While work(ing) on my security cameras this afternoon (!!!) , I stepped inside and left my garage doors open for several minutes. A guy drove by, stopped, and came into the garage. Fortunately he only stole a bike pump. Attached are pictures of the guy and his truck.
I literally was out of the garage for 90 seconds at the time of the theft.
This was in an alley behind the 6700 block of 38th SW. If you have any information about the person in Mark’s images, the SPD case # is 2019-443068.
That’s one of the items that were on display as Peace Lutheran Church in Gatewood celebrated its 75th anniversary. 1945 would have been the church’s first full calendar year – from the announcement of today’s celebration, some history:
Peace Lutheran Church was founded just as World War II was ending, choosing a name that expressed its hope for the future. The congregation organized in November 1944, and held its first service as a new congregation the first Sunday in December 1944, in a portable classroom at E.C. Hughes School. Using materials reclaimed from former army barracks, members built a chapel on 39th Ave SW and SW Thistle, dedicating it in 1946, Ten years later, the congregation, in a major expansion of its original building, dedicated a new sanctuary which is in use today.
The church’s Fellowship Hall was full of photos and other memorabilia before today’s service:
Pastor Erik Kindem (below), who has served at Peace Lutheran for almost 15 years, was joined by recently installed regional Bishop Shelley Bryan Wee for festival worship this morning.
The celebration continued after the service with a luncheon. One more note: Churchgoers wanted to point out Donna, the crossing guard, helping people get safely across Thistle (not far from the scene of an early-morning crash):
Logged police calls indicate a burglary spike in West Seattle. So does what Erin was told after her home was broken into:
Our home in Gatewood (39th and Southern Street) was burglarized in the middle of the day (Tuesday). The burglars entered through an unlocked kitchen window and took jewelry, computers, a wallet, and rifled through our entire house. The police officers who responded said the area has seen increased burglaries in the past couple days.
We checked Tweets by Beat and found these West Seattle residential burglaries logged so far this week:
-3700 block of SW Tillman
-2200 block of SW Myrtle
-5600 block of 38h SW
-5400 block of 37th SW
-10100 block of 31st SW
-3800 block of 45th SW
Report details aren’t routinely posted so that’s why we appreciate reader reports so we can share information – westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you.
P.S. Southwest Precinct crime-prevention coordinator Jennifer Danner reminds us that she offers “free residential safety/security assessments, as well as burglary follow-ups” – jennifer.danner@seattle.gov is how to reach her.
No football, no rain (yet) – here’s an option this afternoon: It’s all about the home-made and hand-made at Peace Lutheran Church‘s holiday bazaar, on until 3 pm. Above, the card for the kimchi is right next to the bake-sale tables. Other tables offer sewn, knitted, crocheted creations at bargain prices:
The bazaar’s in the church’s daylight basement, entrance just north of the northeast corner of 39th/Thistle in Gatewood.
P.S. One week from today – on Sunday, November 24 – Peace Lutheran celebrates its 75th anniversary. Events start at 9:30 am and continue into the afternoon – details in our calendar listing.
Just noticed this one while headed out on an errand – Ray Charles, painted by Desmond Hansen on the cabinet at the northwest corner of 35th/Thistle. Unless we’ve missed one, this is the first one we’ve heard about since these two months ago.
(WSB photo from Wednesday, new tower at left)
On Wednesday, thanks to a reader tip and photos, we reported on the new emergency-communications tower going up by Myrtle Reservoir Park, at the city’s highest elevation. Our initial inquiries left a lot of questions unanswered but we connected with the right people today and they answered those questions by putting together this news release:
The Puget Sound Emergency Radio Network (PSERN) Project is upgrading and expanding the current, aging King County Emergency Radio Communications System (KCERCS). A West Seattle radio tower, located on land owned by the City of Seattle is part of that. It’s located on an existing KCERCS site and the PSERN Project is replacing the tower as part of a critical emergency radio system upgrade.
PSERN will primarily be used by law enforcement, fire fighters, and other emergency personnel to communicate with each other during E-911 activities – from small incident responses to major emergencies like earthquakes. The PSERN system is comprised of 61 radio towers engineered to provide the best coverage available using direct, line-of-sight technology between towers to communicate with each other, in combination with other technologies. This is not a 5G cellular site; the technologies are different.
The tower will be ready to respond to emergencies after construction and testing is complete. Construction of the new PSERN tower and equipment installation will take another six to nine months to complete. The old tower will then be torn down.
The project began its work on the West Seattle tower location in late summer 2019 and has followed local jurisdiction permitting requirements, including a land use sign on site. Additionally, the project chose to pay an additional cost to paint the tower a color allowing it to better blend in with its surroundings.
Construction and materials costs for the PSERN West Seattle tower equipment are approximately $800,000, paid for out of the PSERN Project.
Other FAQs:
PSERN was approved by King County voters in April 2015.
PSERN is an 800 MHz digital network.The system will cover all populated portions of King County, along with the three major highways in the eastern part of the county.
It is a large, complex program comprised of more than 80 subprojects. That includes the 61 radio sites based around the county in a wide variety of terrain, 19 dispatch centers, deployment of up to 19,000 radios, and other system components.
PSERN Project Partners/Owners:
Eastside Public Safety Communications Agency (EPSCA)
King County – lead agency
City of Seattle
Valley Communications CenterThe system vendor is Motorola.
When the project is complete, the system and all project assets will be operated by a new municipal nonprofit corporation, the PSERN Operator.
P.S. We found documents for the project permits in city files, which shows it’s been in the works for four years. The tower is 140 feet tall.
2:20 PM: Thanks to Mike for the photos and word of a tower-replacement project under way by Myrtle Reservoir in Gatewood.
Mike says a city rep on scene “told me they’re replacing the current radio tower (used for public safety agencies, police, fire, and also Metro) with a more rigid tower that will be the same height.”
The city tells us this is a Puget Sound Emergency Radio Network project. The PSERN website explains that “PSERN is jointly owned by the City of Seattle, King County, Eastside Public Safety Communications Agency, and Valley Communications Center” and notes that funding to upgrade it comes from a ballot measure approved by voters in 2015. The tower site, if you are not familiar with that part of West Seattle, is at the highest elevation in city limits. We are pursuing a little more information about this and will add anything more we find out.
6:11 PM: Work’s not done yet, but here’s how it looked before sunset (new tower at left):
From the “fireworks or gunshots?” file, several explosions heard in Gatewood a short time ago were definitely fireworks. At least one person called them in to 911 as gunshots, but they were close to our HQ and we heard them. In addition, a nearby resident said she found “tubes” from the fireworks – apparently placed/tossed by someone in a vehicle – along SW Thistle.
9:26 AM: SFD has a big response headed for the 4100 block of SW Othello. More to come.
9:30 AM: Per radio communication, this is an exterior fire and it’s out aside from smoldering. All but a few units are being dismissed.
Those beautiful tail feathers belong to a young Cooper’s Hawk. The photos are from Vlad Oustimovitch, who explains:
The Urban Raptor Conservancy has been banding Cooper’s Hawks as part of a study for several years. This juvenile male was banded this morning by Jake, a volunteer from the conservancy. It is one of four offspring from a nest next to our Gatewood property in the Orchard Street Ravine.
The URC explains that ongoing study here, saying that Seattle is one of several major cities where Cooper’s Hawks are studied, after they began expanding their range into urban areas a quarter-century ago. The URC summarizes, “Since 2012, the number of nesting pairs has increased each year, with high nest success rates, high fledgling productivity, little evidence of migration, strong site fidelity, and mostly short post-fledging dispersal distances.” Last year they documented “46 nesting attempts, 40 successful nests, and 145 fledglings” in Seattle; the year’s full report is here (including some West Seattle photos).
The photo and report are from David:
Stolen between 11 pm and 11 am from the corner of Willow and 39th in Gatewood. 1992 Toyota Pickup regular cab with white canopy. License C30416C.
If you see it, call 911.
Don’t know how long ago this appeared on the southwest side of Myrtle Reservoir Park, but Giles – who sent the photos – is the first person who mentioned it to us. It’s near similar-sized boulders lining the edge of the buried reservoir, and on its side:
Looking up that word brings us here – ” shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore.” (Certainly appropriate for one to “appear” over an underground reservoir.)
Both of these reports came in within the past few hours, both from Gatewood:
BIKE BATTERY STOLEN: The crew at Swedish Automotive (WSB sponsor) saw someone leap out of this truck, steal the battery off a Lime bike, and take off:
The plate started with C957. No police report # yet.
CAR BREAK-IN: A reader reports a car prowl in the 4300 block of SW Orchard. Preliminary tracking # from SPD online eport: T19002926.
The photo shows a bathtub full of the brown water that at least one Gatewood household has been dealing with today. They’ve reported it but didn’t get an explanation. Anyone else? Any time this happens, be sure to report it via the Seattle Public Utilities 24/7 line, 206-386-1800.
12:09 AM: Police and fire are headed to what was dispatched as a flipped-car crash in the 3700 block of SW Thistle. Updates to come.
12:29 AM: No serious injuries; the driver was out even before SFD arrived, and they’d already departed before we arrived at the scene. The car is blocking SW Thistle just west of 37th SW. Photo added.
10:51 AM: The log notation this morning shows this incident is under investigation as DUI.
Several West Seattle churches share their campuses with schools. One asked us to share this news as they search for a new tenant:
Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation in the Gatewood neighborhood is very sad to receive the news that our tenant of eight years, “Sweet Pea Preschool of the Arts,” will be closing their West Seattle campus in our building as of June 30, 2019. We have very much enjoyed sharing space with Sweet Pea and wish this group the best. Westside UU Church will have space available for a new non-profit organization to rent. If interested, please contact our administrator at office@wsuu.org.
We have a message out to the school, which also has campuses in other Seattle neighborhoods, to ask about their future plans. WSUU is at 7141 California SW.
(WSB photo)
2:19 PM: Thanks for the tip – those tree limbs that fell on SW Othello east of California SW in Gatewood [map] are the first effects we’ve seen of the bursts of wind and rain that have moved through a few times so far this afternoon. Inbetween – some sunbreaks like the one we’re in right now. The National Weather Service’s Wind Advisory alert remains in effect until 7 tonight. If the weather causes any trouble where you are, text or call 206-293-6302 to let us know – thanks!
4:39 PM: The NWS just announced it’s ending the Wind Advisory early.
ORIGINAL REPORT, 9:34 AM: Thanks for the tips. Gatewood Elementary briefly sheltered in place this morning – it was over before we even could confirm it, and now we have details. Seattle Public Schools spokesperson Tim Robinson tells WSB, “Around 7:45 am today, a crossing guard was parking her car in the school parking lot. A woman jumped in and said she had a gun. The crossing guard jumped out, the woman who made the threat took off in the car. Police came and took a report. Just as a precaution, the school was put into shelter-in-place (a step below “lockdown”) as the students and staff were arriving to school. The shelter-in-place was lifted at 8:10 am.” We’re following up with police.
11:56 AM: As is sometimes the case, now that some investigation has ensued, the story is different. The case number finally appeared, categorized as “harassment/threats,” so SPD media relations was able to look it up for us. The car was NOT taken, they say; a woman did threaten to take the car, the victim ran away in fear for her safety, and at some point the person who threatened her left the area and was not found.
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