West Seattle, Washington
15 Tuesday
Scott C just called to report the power’s out in the Jefferson Square area – he says Safeway seems to be running on generator power, but “people are being led out of Bartell (Drugs) by flashlight.” Checking now to see what’s up (or down, in this case). Nothing on the City Light outage website or recording so far. 5:02 PM UPDATE: Co-publisher Patrick just checked out the area – while the Jefferson Square businesses are dark (including the street-level eateries on 42nd) aside from Safeway and the apartments above it, surrounding areas don’t appear to be affected. 6:48 PM UPDATE: Just drove by JS again – the 42nd-front businesses have power, as does Safeway, but the other stores around the upper parking lot still appear out.
Next time you check out the WSB Holiday Happenings page – with frequently updated listings for holiday bazaars, performances, and much more – you’ll see a new sponsor atop the page: Citilights Electric, residential specialists who want you to know this about their business: “Citilights Electric offers full-service electrical contracting. Our electricians are certified, trained professionals able to work in a high-pressure environment 
while utilizing their multi-tasking skills. This assures you that your electrical project is given the enthusiasm and expertise you deserve and expect. We strive daily to provide our customers the highest quality and greatest value. Superior workmanship, fast, dependable service, and complete customer satisfaction are what you will experience as a customer of Citilights Electric. We appreciate the opportunity to bid your next electrical project or troubleshoot your electrical problems.” For a list of some of the services Citilights Electric provides, check out this webpage. Citilights Electric invites customers in West Seattle and vicinity to call 206/937-8495; you can also send inquiries from the company’s website. WSB thanks Citilights Electric and our other sponsors for their support; for the current lineup and info on how to be part of it, just start here!
The forecast for tomorrow night into Wednesday now calls for rain “heavy at times” plus fairly serious wind (up to 45 mph). And that explains why this advisory came in from Seattle City Light – some of it you’ve heard before, but worth revisiting at the start of winter storm season:Read More
Words and their meanings came into play more than once during Tuesday’s all-day hearing downtown for the Alki neighbors appealing the city’s approval of eight more cell-phone antennas for the “nonconforming” apartment building near their homes (photo above; previous coverage here). Dictionary definitions even were introduced as evidence, and the bottom line to the city and cell company’s arguments seemed to be “more” means “less” – read our full report to see why, including dueling simulations of what the new installation might look like:Read More
That’s the apartment building at 6609 Admiral Way (map), immediately west of Bar-S Playfield, whose fencing you can see on the left. Because of its spot high over Alki Point, this building’s roof has been home to cell-phone antennas for more than a decade (you can see part of the history on the site’s official city-permit webpage) – here’s a closer look at one group on the northeast section of the roof:
In April 2007, we told you about neighbors’ concern over a plan to add more antennas; this past June, we reported that the city had approved the plan to expand a group of Verizon antennas from 3 to 11. (You can read the decision here.) Neighbors challenged that decision, and after various delays, their case comes before the city Hearing Examiner on Tuesday morning, and they sent WSB a letter inviting anyone who shares their concern to show up and support them. Their major concerns are twofold — read on:Read More
That and other questions about the recycling/yard waste program are posed in a survey that Seattle Public Utilities hopes you will spend a moment taking. We just ran through it; a few possible slogans are offered, including Waste Not Seattle, Everyday Green, Recycling Matters, and Routine Green (or you can suggest your own). The survey starts here.
Another note from last night’s Morgan Community Association meeting (in addition to our Fauntleroy Way paving report; still to come, new information about the Morgan Junction park): Martha Tuttle from King County was there with updates on the Murray Avenue Pump Station project, which will dig up a major chunk of Lowman Beach Park when construction begins – read on to see what she announced:Read More
FIRST UPDATE: We promised to check on the cause of the outage that left an estimated 4,000-plus south West Seattle homes and businesses without power for more than an hour, right about this time yesterday. Just heard back from Scott Thomsen at Seattle City Light; he says it’s listed as an underground cable failure – those happen from time to time for a variety of reasons, anything from age to damage caused by weather conditions in earlier months and years. SECOND UPDATE: We checked on the Arbor Heights/Fauntleroy Comcast outage reported by Hopey this morning in comments on this post; Comcast’s Shauna Causey tells WSB that two technicians are in the area right now and if it’s not fixed yet, it should be shortly.
Working on details – more shortly.
City Light says about 4000 customers are without power as of 1:15 this afternoon. The boundaries are listed as Webster SW on the north down to 113th Place SW, 30th SW on the east to Puget Sound on the west. Crews have been dispatched and as of 1:45 no time was given for when power would be restored.
Update 2 pm: According to Mike it’s affecting some traffic signals near Lincoln Park.
Update 2 pm: The Webster and Cloverdale signals are out (Webster shown in photo above, taken just before 2 pm), as are the ferry dock toll booths.
Update 2 pm: Fauntleroy power just came back on. Still waiting to hear back from City Light about the cause. Thanks to everyone who sent e-mail/text tips about the outage!
This update just in from King County Wastewater Treatment, which is overseeing the 53rd Avenue Pump Station project at 53rd/Alki:
In order to excavate to the full depth necessary for pump station construction, King County’s contractor has brought in large machinery which must be set in the pedestrian and bike path adjacent to the construction site. During the week of September 22, pedestrians and cyclists will be shifted to the sidewalk on Alki Ave. SW. The temporary shift is necessary to provide a safe pathway for the public. Flaggers will be on site during work hours to assist pedestrians and cyclists.
It may sound like one of those “don’t run with scissors” reminders – but in case you just aren’t accustomed to thinking about your drains this early in the year, a couple West Seattleites suggested a reminder here. And not just because of the storm — in fact, it was hours before yesterday’s deluge when we got a note from Paul suggesting some seasonal reminders including clearing your storm drain. Then, shortly after the cloudburst, Nancy from North Delridge sent the photo you see above, with the note:
Noticed the drain in the attached photo during the adopt-a-street (cleanup) Saturday.
I got home from unclogging it just a few minutes before the current deluge.
It’s not too early to start keeping on eye on neighborhood drains.
Seattle Public Utilities offers a few tips here; chief among them, planning a weekly check of drains and downspouts. Last year, SPU even offered supplies for an “adopt-a-drain” program, to encourage people to help with the drains on neighborhood streets; we’ll be checking to see if that’s in the works again this year. And if yesterday wasn’t enough of a reminder about what the weather can do, revisit the December 2007 flooding coverage!
(photo added 2:59 pm, through-the-windshield shot showing part of the big SCL presence at scene)
We don’t have any official Seattle City Light info on this but CL reports power trouble in his building and possibly others in the 1100 block of Alki Ave (map) – unofficial word on the scene is water trouble with a transformer, though this was before the rain arrived, so it may not be THAT kind of water trouble.
Just saw this, regarding the power problem. We’ll start watching traffic early just in case. Seattle City Light is having a media briefing at 1:30 pm. Here’s the news release SCL sent literally a minute after we originally published this:Read More
Just got word from the county that the next phase of noisier-than-usual work in the Alki pump-station project, pile driving — which literally will shake things up in the area, too — may start as soon as tomorrow. (First warning of the impending pile driving was reported here four weeks ago.) As it’s described in the county’s online project update:
Approximately 120 shoring sheets will be installed which are 20 inches wide by 35 feet long. A crane will be used to pick up the sheets and a vibratory driver will be used to vibrate them into the ground. After installation, the sheet piling will be left in place and additional excavation will occur.
Residents in the area can expect to see large construction equipment on site, such as a 200-ton crane and a large power unit, and should expect to hear additional noise. Residents may feel some vibrations during this work and may want to pack up breakable valuables as a precaution. King County’s contractor will closely monitor vibration levels to minimize disruption and protect against property damage.
If you have a construction-related complaint or question, the county has a 24-hour hotline: 206-205-5656.
Just in from the city, a request to raise rates for water and trash/recycling service. Much fine print in the proposal, but basically, Seattle Public Utilities says, the average household solid-waste bill would go up more than $6, the average household water bill would go up more than $5. City Council approval is required. Here’s the city news release with full details:Read More
“D” wanted to pass along an alert to fellow T-Mobile cell users – she says her phone’s not working in the Alki area, except for text messages (they live near 62nd/Alki). She says the customer-service department reported “network problems in (the) area” are being worked on.
We went back a little while ago to check on the 45th/Trenton (map) tree, finally taken down today (WSB coverage from this morning, including links to previous reports, here) after years of conflict with power lines and trimming work related to those lines. Looking at the circumference of its remains, we realized the tree obviously was there long before the power lines – how long, you ask?
Nearby resident Elise, who provided photos for this morning’s story, sent that one, and the one below, with the report that a neighbor had decided to estimate the tree’s age. On its rings, he marked a timeline:
Final estimate: About 140 years, dating back to about 1868, only 17 years after the Denny Party got here. One notable West Seattle event in 1868, according to HistoryLink: Doc Maynard sold his 320-acre farm on Alki Point for $450. The first electric service in Seattle was still 18 years away, according to Seattle City Light‘s history webpage.
The Schuck’s/Hancock building (Fauntleroy Place) isn’t all that’s coming down today. Elise sent the shown-above photo of the tree on the southwest corner of 45th/Trenton — known at her house, she says, as “the sad tree” — posted last month for removal (June WSB coverage here) after utility-related tree trimming in the area (May WSB coverage here) left it in somewhat unsustainable shape:
City Light had told WSB that its owner agreed to have it removed (at city expense), with two “power-line-appropriate” trees to be planted in the spot. From one of our previous stories, Jenny had sent this photo of how what she called the “candelabra tree” once looked:
Though City Light said the work on this tree was done appropriately, and its demise can instead be blamed on the unfortunate fact it grew under power lines, the utility also told us in May that the trimming on another tree nearby was botched badly enough that the crew that did it was removed from the contract.
That photo is courtesy of Martha Tuttle with the King County Wastewater Treatment Division, who just sent this update on the short-term 53rd Ave. Pump Station “bypass” that the county acknowledges made last night an extra-noisy one for Alki-area folks – she says its duration will be closer to 24 hours than the possible 36:
King County expects that the work will be completed this evening . The pipe installation is completed. This afternoon the County will use TV/video cameras to inspect the force main before restarting the pump station. We understand that this part of the construction was extremely noisy and disruptive and we appreciate how patient the nearby residents have been.
Till that’s done, all those orange trucks have been taking wastewater out of the system at 53rd and trucking it over to the pump station in the 3500 block of Harbor – more than a dozen 3,500-gallon trucks – and the pedestrian walkway on the water side of the work zone is closed, with flaggers helping people cross at both ends of it. The entire project at 53rd, which started in February, isn’t scheduled to be done till fall of next year.
Almost lost amid all the other news, till the county just called with an update: Tonight’s the night that they’ve started to use pump trucks to move sewage flow from the 53rd Ave construction site (first warning posted here last week), so that it can briefly bypass the regular pipes. County spokesperson Martha Tuttle says, “It’s a bit more chaotic than we expected.” 15 trucks are operating right now – probably fewer later as the flow slows. Here’s the route the trucks are taking.
Trucks traveling to the West Seattle Pump Station will follow Alki Avenue Southwest to Harbor Avenue Southwest. Trucks traveling to the Alki Stormwater Treatment Plant will follow this route: Alki Avenue Southwest to 63rd Avenue Southwest to Beach Drive Southwest to 64th Avenue Southwest to Southwest Wilton Court.
The trucks involved are similar to the rigs involved in this afternoon’s Avalon rescue – “Vactors.” We just talked to another worker at the scene – she says traffic is down to one lane for the duration of this (24 to 36 hours, so possibly all the way till Friday morning); the pedestrian walkway on the water side is closed for a few blocks, so flaggers are helping people get to the other side of the street to use the sidewalk there. The county also stresses that if you have a major problem, please call their 24-hour construction hotline – it’s linked to a pager so you need to leave name/number – 206-205-5656.
Seattle Public Utilities‘ reservoir-construction open house tonight at Highland Park Elementary is one of the four events we’re just back from (other reports to come: Police Appreciation Day wrap-up, Hi-Yu Concert in the Park, and the latest info on how the project to replace the south end of The Viaduct will start changing your life next year). The work to put West Seattle Reservoir (north of Westcrest Park) underground really is imminent — SPU reservoir-program manager Stephanie Murphy told us the “notice to proceed” is expected Thursday; then site-preparation work will begin. The existing 68-million-gallon open reservoir will be demolished over the next few months, and an underground 30-million-gallon reservoir will be built in what SPU calls “the northern portion of the existing basin.” It’ll take about 2 years (completion is scheduled for June 2010), with construction crews planning to work between 6 am and 7 pm, Mondays-Fridays. Once they’re almost done – before the water’s piped in – it’ll look something like the Beacon Hill Reservoir where we shot this video a few weeks ago:
Beacon is 50 million gallons, West Seattle Reservoir is 30 million, but Murphy says “the footprint is almost the same” — it’s just going to be shallower. (It’s still a lot bigger than just-covered Myrtle Reservoir, “only” 5 million gallons.) As with the Myrtle work, undergrounding this reservoir will create new park space; a whole different process will be initiated, involving the city Parks Department, to determine what that will include. P.S. You can read the history of the soon-to-BE-history reservoir on this city webpage.
Thanks to Dina Johnson from Highland Park Action Committee for that photo of West Seattle Reservoir at Westcrest Park and a reminder about a meeting tonight that you might not have heard about if you don’t live in the immediate area — Seattle Public Utilities plans a community meeting at Highland Park Elementary (10th/Trenton), 6:30 pm-7:30 pm. We just checked with Stephanie Murphy, SPU’s reservoir-program manager, and she explained it’s an informal meeting to answer questions about “construction impacts” once the project to underground that reservoir (as has just been done at Myrtle Reservoir in West Seattle, as well as Beacon Hill Reservoir, where we joined the media tour and brought back fascinating underground video) gets under way.
Another not-just-West-Seattle item, but as with the previous one, your tax dollars are involved here, so you ought to know. Just announced by Seattle Public Utilities:
The city of Seattle’s five automatic public toilets, the subject of intense controversy even before their installation in 2004, will be auctioned on eBay, beginning tomorrow (July 16).
Minimum bid on the Hering-Bau automatic public toilets is $89,000 each. A public meeting on the surplus sales process for the toilets is set for Wednesday, July 23, 2008, at 3 p.m., in the Bertha Knight Landes Room on the first floor of Seattle City Hall, 600 4th Ave.
The toilets will be removed from service — locked and fenced in — on Aug. 1. The units are expected to be physically removed by their new owner sometime later in August.
P.S. Also from eBay, the West Seattle Pizza Time auction has ended with no bidders. (Thanks to Marge for spotting the item.)
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