Unless you live near the century-old Alki Point Lighthouse – or have been out on the water in the area this week – you probably haven’t noticed, but it’s shining less brightly than usual. Sarah, a lighthouse neighbor, noticed, and e-mailed us to ask about it. She feared it might be a permanent replacement, a dimmer LED-type light – and certainly, some lighthouses around the country have made that change, we discovered while researching. In this case, however, the U.S. Coast Guard tells WSB, it’s a temporary situation, one that’s even resulted in a special alert atop the USCG’s latest regional Local Notice to Mariners. According to the Coast Guard spokesperson we reached, there is a power problem at the lighthouse, so they had to put in a temporary light run by a DC battery, which means “the light can’t be energized enough to project a typical visibility range of 15 (nautical) miles – it is at five miles.” No estimate yet how long it will take to fix the problem so the full-power light can return to service. (2010 photo by Keri DeTore for WSB)

12:19 PM: Out of the WSB inbox, from Cathy in the 39th/Morgan vicinity:

Shortly after 11:00 AM this morning I saw a guy in my neighbors yard, looking towards my window with some kind of binocular. As he was leaving the neighbors’ yard I yelled out to him asking him what he was doing. He said reading my electrical meter. He did have on a Seattle City Light shirt or vest, and a yellow hard hat. It didn’t seem right and I called the police (they still aren’t here 11:42). I called Seattle City Light and they confirmed, they DO NOT have anyone working in West Seattle today. They also had a similar call from someone on Ambaum earlier. I did not see a City Light truck in the alley or on the street. Keep your eyes open for this (person) and call 911. Black guy, early 30s, 6 ft or so, fit.

1:01 PM: See the comments, in which it’s noted that regardless of what the city said, there IS apparently meter-reading going on today …

(Video and photos by Nick Adams for WSB)
You heard here about the plan for Seattle Fire Department trainees to practice their skills at the soon-to-be-demolished structures on the future Murray Combined Sewer Overflow storage-tank site across from Lowman Beach. Now, see (and in the clip above, hear Capt. Eddie Nelson explain) for yourself what happened. WSB contributing photojournalist Nick Adams shadowed them during the first day of their two-day training session:

That’s trainee Josh Milton readying his air pack. Next, trainee Ricardo Cuevas, putting on his breathing mask:

After getting geared up, trainees headed up to practice cutting a roof for “vertical ventilation:

More scenes from the firefighter trainees’ work – which comes about midway through their training – ahead:

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(SPD deputy chief Nick Metz with the mayor; photo by Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times, republished with permission)
Just in – results announced from last Saturday’s first-in-20-years Seattle gun “buyback” event:

Saturday’s gun buyback event collected 716 guns in less than four hours, and handed out $68,000 in gift cards. Mayor Mike McGinn, King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle-King County Public Health Director Dr. David Fleming, and Deputy Chief Nick Metz of the Seattle Police Department briefed members of the media this morning on the results of the gun buyback operation.

The news release continues after the jump, including the sponsor/partner shoutouts (West Seattle’s Nucor Steel and Skylark Café/Club owner Jessie SK among them), and what’s next:

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(WSB photo taken this morning, looking southeast at the slide zone)
Five months after the city announced a settlement in the legal fight over the Beach Drive slide zone, there’s finally a sign that slope-stabilization work will start soon. As reported here in August of last year, mediation led to an agreement for “insurance monies and private funds” to pay for retaining walls and a drainage system to stabilize the slope below the 6000 block of Atlas (map), site of repeated slides, including this one in 2010:

Homeowners below the slope had sued the city and Atlas homeowner Peter Saladino, who, for agreeing to build the walls and drainage, would be spared “the majority of fines” the city could have levied (they had sued him too). Browsing the city Department of Planning and Development site last night, we discovered permits had been issued for at least some of the work, so we followed up today with DPD spokesperson Bryan Stevens, who explains:

Permit #6239617 includes 6067 Atlas, 6053 Atlas, and 6049 Atlas. This permit covers the construction of two retaining walls (one upper, one lower along Beach Drive), installation of subsurface drainage and revegetation of the hillside across the three properties.

Work can begin on the lower wall, as we have conditionally granted their request to work in this area during the wet season. The upper wall is in a more sensitive location and will have to wait until after April 1st, when conditions are typically dryer.

This work is of interest not just to those who live in the area, but also to those who use that much-rutted stretch of Beach Drive – once the slope work is done, the road can be fixed. (After last year’s agreement was announced, the city repaved a nearby section of Beach Drive that wasn’t directly beneath the unstable slope.) The whole mess even came before the City Council Transportation Committee two years ago this month. We don’t know yet exactly when the first phase of work will start, but we’ll update whenever we find out.

If you’ve driven up or down the California SW hill through Gatewood today and noticed that wrecked car in the 7300 block … so did Lawrence, who sent the photo. It’s from an incident just before 6 am today involving something of a double crash. Seattle Police spokesperson Det. Renée Witt says first two vehicles collided and while the drivers were exchanging information, another car came along and hit one of them. The police records note – as you are probably well aware – roads were icy at the time. Seattle Fire spokesperson Kyle Moore says they responded to what originally was called in as a car versus a pedestrian, with a 26-year-old woman hurt; she had “minor pain and a few lacerations” and didn’t need to be taken to the hospital, he said.

8:21 PM UPDATE: Commenter Kira says that contrary to what SFD told us, two people were hurt and did go to the hospital, along with sharing some additional clarifications – see Kira’s comment here.

(Post-event note: We’ve taken down the video window but will add the recorded version once it’s available. Photo above, in the meantime, is from the mayor’s Twitter feed.)

10:09 AM: As reported here last night, the city and county are announcing a new gun-safety initiative this morning, including a “buyback” program. Click above to see live Seattle Channel web-only video of the announcement event, happening at Mount Zion Baptist Church in the Central District, as it happens live; we’ll publish key points here during and after the announcement.

NOTES: “If we can take one gun off the street, and save one life, it will be worth it,” said Mount Zion’s senior pastor Rev. Aaron Williams, opening the event, paraphrasing a Biblical saying by suggesting that guns could be “beaten into laptops.” The mayor, speaking next, noted the 1992 buyback program (mentioned in our preview last night) as the most recent one in Seattle. Details:

-‘Monetary incentive … process will be simple and anonymous … bring unloaded gun to dropoff site … police will take possession of the weapon and offer a gift card in return … valued up to $100 for handguns, rifles, shotguns, up to $200 for weapons qualified as assault weapons’

-First event: January 26th, location: Under I-5 between Cherry and James. [Added: 9 am-3 pm] Gift cards will be offered in exchange for guns – up to $100 for most types, up to $200 for “assault weapons.” More dates – “would like to make this a sustainable program,” says the mayor. “We’re looking for more partners.” Amazon is the first to donate gift cards.

-“This is one tool in the toolbox,” says the mayor, who also noted that trigger locks and gun-safety information would be offered at the buyback event(s). Honorary co-chairs include four former mayors; two are there, two not (including West Seattleite Greg Nickels).

10:16 AM: King County Executive Dow Constantine speaking now. “Buyback programs – they get guns off the street,” he begins, noting the recent L.A. program bringing in 2,000. He notes that by law, he is not allowed to enact gun regulations, and adds that “gun violence is a public-health issue” – that includes mental health. He is followed by county Public Health Officer David Fleming, who says dealing with gun violence “on a community-wide basis” is part of his job: “We have to do better.” He says “guns are no different” from other public-health challenges, from tobacco to seat belts.”If you can turn in a gun, do it; if you choose to keep one at home, be sure that it’s stored, unloaded, in a safe location.” He says gun violence is a leading cause of premature death in the U.S. and “This is a fixable problem.”

10:21 AM: Seattle Deputy Police Chief Nick Metz talks about having seen the aftermath of countless deaths involving guns. “We’ve seen so many shattered lives,” he says, mentioning accidental shootings involving children outside Seattle as cases in point, moving on to “the intentional shootings … it’s not uncommon to find out that the gun that was used was stolen.” Storing guns safely would mean “that particular gun would not have been used in that situation,” he said, saying that a gun can be “a time bomb waiting to go off,” particularly if there is one in your home or office that you don’t really want. “If we are able to take one unwanted gun out of circulation, we can guarantee that at least one life will not be harmed by that gun … and if we can get a thousand unwanted guns out of circulation, that’s a thousand lives we can guarantee will not be harmed by those guns.” He is followed by Renee Hopkins, the West Seattleite who leads the Seattle Police Foundation, who says SPF is proud to be a founding sponsor of this initiative.

10:29 AM: Former mayors Norm Rice and Charles Royer speak. Royer recalls the public-health campaigns against indoor smoking and unsafe automobiles. “We gotta do this thing, although it’s a small piece of the puzzle,” he says. “…I think we can beat this thing.” After him, Mayor McGinn returns to the podium to answer questions. What will happen to the guns? West Seattle’s Nucor Steel will melt them down (and what happens to that metal/steel hasn’t yet been decided), he says. Will any of the guns “be preserved”? he’s asked. “That is not our intention,” he replied, adding that none will be kept for criminal investigations, and none will be resold.** How much money do they have for this so far? $70,000, and they’re hoping to launch with at least $100,000. (That’s much more than the $20,000 with which the 1992 “$50 for a gun” program started, it was later pointed out.)

10:43 AM: As Q/A continue, Deputy Chief Metz: “Ask yourself how you are going to feel” if you have an unsecured gun in your home, it’s stolen in a burglary, and then you find out it was used in a homicide. “(This can) ensure a gun won’t be used to destroy a life.” Even if a “tiny fraction” of the guns in the city are turned in, that’s still a potential saving of lives, he continues. Meantime, if people want to turn over a gun and don’t care about getting compensation, he adds, you can call police and they’ll come pick it up. **Metz also clarifies something said earlier – the turned-in guns WILL be checked to see if they’re stolen, and if they are, the owners will be contacted.

10:49 AM: The event has just concluded. Last to answer a question was County Executive Constantine, who said, “I reject the cynicism” that he saw in the questions about whether this would do enough to fight crime or violence – anything accomplished, any life potentially saved, is enough, he declared.

11:04 AM: Read the official county news release here. City news release is here.

ADDED 5:31 PM: More donors have come forward, says the mayor’s office in this update – including at least one from West Seattle, Jessie SK of Skylark Café and Club.

A media event is planned tomorrow morning at Mount Zion Baptist Church in the Central District to announce the Seattle-King County Gun Safety Initiative, described as including “a new gun-buyback effort in Seattle and the surrounding region.” The invitation says it’ll be announced by leaders including County Executive Dow Constantine and Mayor Mike McGinn, with four former mayors co-chairing the initiative, including West Seattleite Greg Nickels. Business and community sponsors listed include West Seattle’s Nucor Steel as well as the Seattle Police Foundation, Amazon, and others, with community partners including the Associated Recreation Council (which runs programs at community centers and park facilities around Seattle). This is all from an e-mail invitation sent to media organizations including ours; we’ll add any other details we find. P.S. This won’t be the first one in our area – in 1992, this Seattle Times (WSB partner) story reminds us, more than 1,200 guns were collected in a matter of days. Some of them were “entombed” in a sculpture donated to the city two years later by the group that sponsored the buyback.