West Seattle, Washington
03 Wednesday
With next month’s deadline approaching for the Fauntleroy Community Services Agency to make a deal with Seattle Public Schools to buy the historic schoolhouse – now that the district’s selling it as “surplus” — here’s the latest update from FCSA, including word of a new possible use for the “back lot,” which previously has been mentioned as a possible development site:Read More
For the first time in months, Metro sent out a major update on the year-and-a-half-long 53rd Ave. Pump Station expansion project that’s been under way along Alki since March. Major points: Next week, for a period lasting up to 36 hours (likely Tuesday/Wednesday), a particular phase of the project will require wastewater to be trucked away from the spot instead of channeled through pipes. Crews will work around the clock, but Metro warns people to expect “increased noise, more truck traffic on the road and potentially odor.” Here’s how the “Vactor” trucks will get to and from the site:
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.
Then in late July, four to five weeks of “sheet pile driving” will commence, to stabilize the site for excavation, and residents are warned this is likely to bring vibrations as well as more noise. You can read the entire Metro project update here; the project’s main infopage is here.
Jam-packed agenda last night for the Southwest District Council (representatives from neighborhood groups and other key organizations in the area of West Seattle that the city defines as the “Southwest District”; you can see the map here), with a Spokane Street Viaduct project update, the latest from Seattle City Light on street lights, and more – read on:Read More
Last year, some controversy simmered in the Alki/west end of Admiral area over proposals to add more antennas to the top of 6609 Admiral (over Alki Point). Today’s Land Use Information Bulletin, just posted by the city, includes a land-use decision allowing 8 more antennas on the building (construction permit still pending); you can see the history of this project (and others at the site) here.
(clip no longer available)
That video clip shows something we might never get to see again – the underground view of a 50-million-gallon reservoir before it’s filled. (That’s 250 times what it takes to fill Southwest Pool.) This is Beacon Hill Reservoir (map), one of four reservoirs the city is putting underground — two of the other three are in West Seattle, and when we joined various city officials including Mayor Nickels for the Beacon Hill underground media tour this morning, we learned about a milestone happening today at Myrtle Reservoir here in West Seattle:
You can’t see it from that above-ground photo, of course, but “final acceptance testing” has begun at Myrtle today – testing all systems together for about a week, after a period of testing each system individually – and if that goes well, the reservoir could be filled as soon as next week. We also got some info on the Highland Park project to put West Seattle Reservoir (map) underground – read on for that, other views beneath Beacon Hill, and some words from the mayor:Read More
Thanks to Jenny for sending new photos including that one showing the notice posted a few days ago on the 45th/Trenton tree we wrote about last month – marked for removal by agreement with the city, after the latest round of city-contracted trimming to try to create clearance around power lines just didn’t work out (near another tree that was botched in a way that led to one crew’s removal from the city contract). This is what’s currently left of the to-be-removed tree itself:
Jenny also sent a view we didn’t have before, this tree “in happier times” – she knows it as “the candelabra tree”:
As the notice says, it’s to be replaced with two “power line-appropriate” trees. The notice also says comments will be accepted by the City Arborist until June 28th (next Saturday) – here’s the phone/e-mail/postal-mail info.
(scroll down/refresh for the latest, we are adding updates and pix to the bottom of this post)
(added 9:35 pm: photo of Admiral Safeway service station, which is dark though the nearby store is not)
ORIGINAL REPORT: Just collecting info on this – Seattle City Light has very broad boundaries for what it describes as an “Alki outage,” while e-mail we’ve received describes it as North Admiral. More to come. 9:10 PM UPDATE: City Light says this is one of several outages affecting more than 10,000 homes and businesses in different areas of the city – here’s an excerpt from a news release received minutes ago:
Seattle City Light repair crews were responding to several scattered power outages throughout the utility’s service territory … after steady winds approached 35 mph.
By 8:30 p.m. about 12,000 customers were affected by the outages in Tukwila, unincorporated King County, Alki Beach and the Sacajawea neighborhood of northeast Seattle.
The specific causes of the outages were not immediately known. Until crews discovered the cause, it was impossible to provide an estimate for when power might be restored. Additional crews were being called in to
help restore power.
A WSB team member is heading north to report back on who’s out and who’s not; we’ll also be checking with City Light for progress reports. 9:20 PM UPDATE: We’re collecting weather links too. Here’s the hourly observations from the National Weather Service — “K91S” is Alki Point, with 34 mph sustained at 9 pm. Thanks to Lou for including this live weather link from Our Lady of Guadalupe (near High Point) in comments. 9:22 PM UPDATE: On California, the outage starts north of Admiral Safeway (which has power), and continues north to Walker (map). We’re checking east and west boundaries – stand by — to the east, Jack in the Box is dark; more to come. 9:27 PM UPDATE: Power is out along Admiral all the way downhill to The Bridge, according to our roving reporter, who is now heading west on Admiral to see how far it stretches toward Alki/Beach Drive. Keep the updates coming in comments – where Pete has reported downed-tree trouble in Pigeon Point – thanks! 9:33 PM UPDATE: On the west side, the outage ends at about 45th SW/Admiral – if you know of any pockets west of there that are out, please post a comment or e-mail us. Note that in the outage zone, businesses that are out include Metropolitan Market and the Admiral Theater. 9:43 PM UPDATE: Avalon is out of power too – up to Genesee (map). That includes the Luna Park Cafe area. 9:50 PM UPDATE: North of Fauntleroy on 35th, power is out on the east side of 35th (and downhill from there), but the west side seems OK. 9:55 PM UPDATE: City Light has put up its webpage with outage info – but the West Seattle boundaries are the same ones listed in the news release which are not the same ones we’ve verified (it mentions Alki Ave but we’re told Alki is OK, for example); it says almost 3,000 homes/businesses are out in West Seattle. Still no estimate on restoring power. 10:03 PM UPDATE: This photo just in from Elena Daly (thank you!), who photographed the seawall wave action at Constellation Park south of Alki Point about an hour ago:
10:12 PM UPDATE: City Light outage hotline has an update of sorts on the West Seattle situation – but there’s no new info – just “no known cause and no known time for restoration.” 10:27 PM UPDATE: Just uploaded this video from Admiral – camera sat on the dash as we drove from the outage zone (alley by Admiral Library, past Metropolitan Market, toward Admiral Safeway gas station) and into the not-out zone (Admiral Safeway itself):
11:04 PM UPDATE: City Light just sent another update but there are no West Seattle specifics; the utility reiterates that it’s called in extra crews and will work through the night as needed. We will continue checking for updates and will also head back out in a bit to see if anyone’s gotten power back in affected West Seattle areas yet. 11:37 PM UPDATE: No new outage info, but the “forecast discussion” promises things will calm down overnight. 12:06 AM UPDATE: Comments probably beat us to this report, but we’re just back from a quick spin through the FORMERLY blacked-out zone, and looks like everyone’s back on.
Just re-checked the City Light outages hotline. They are now saying 2 am is when they expect to have power back in the north West Seattle areas that lost power in tonight’s pole fire. (206/684-7400 is that hotline, by the way.)
The power’s out tonight for parts of Alki and some of the northern parts of West Seattle. A pole fire caused City Light to pull the plug for a couple of hours in order to make repairs. An update on City Light’s phone line said that work was underway as of 5:50 pm and the outage should last approximately two hours.
The Seattle City Light tree-trimming that’s been under way for the past few months (WSB coverage here, here, and here) has sparked controversy and concern in a Fauntleroy neighborhood. Last week, resident John McNulty cc’d WSB on a complaint to the city and attached two photos including the one you see above, taken along SW Trenton, showing big cedar trees that he says were “badly damaged” by a trimming crew, and asking for a “public apology” to the neighborhood. We heard the next day from the owner of the property where one of the trees is located, Fred Fleischmann, who wrote, “The trimming they are doing this time is excessive and is destroying beautiful big old cedar trees that are irreplaceable.” Since then, we’ve been pursuing information from City Light, and got it today. The utility acknowledges one of the trees was trimmed too “aggressively” by an Asplundh crew which has since been removed from the contract. But the other tree’s a different story, according to the city – here’s everything we have found out:Read More
From High Point’s newly revamped website – word of a Seattle City Light alert that dozens of High Point addresses will be without power for about 10 hours starting at 7:30 tomorrow morning, because of transformer work. Here’s the alert, with a link to a list of addresses to be affected, all of whom already should have been directly notified by SCL.
Several major items on the agenda tonight as the Delridge District Council — representatives of neighborhood groups and other organizations in eastern West Seattle — gathered at the Southwest Precinct for its monthly meeting. We’re breaking them up into a few separate reports, starting tonight with two items — a Seattle City Light rep’s revelations about street lights (what to do about them and what it means when one flickers), and more details about what’s coming up during the gala Delridge Day festival later this month, including a new free “Art Lending Library” to be introduced that day:Read More
First, regarding the report two nights ago regarding someone taking pictures and claiming it was for a West Seattle High School assignment — this comment just came in:
I am one of 2 photography teachers at West Seattle High.
We do ask our students to take landscape and portrait pictures that they find beautiful, so if you see students wandering and taking pictures of each other, random people or pets (they should ask first), bushes, trees, pretty houses, architecture, they may very well be doing their coursework. However, the story of the mother taking pictures of a car is not in line with any assignments I am aware of, and just sounds weird. Students shooting pics during the school day should have a signed note from one of their teachers, indicating permission for them to be outside shooting: you can ask to see this if you feel they are acting inappropriately, and please, contact the school with their name and location if they are. Students with inappropriate behaviors of any kind should be reported immediately to the WSHS Main Office.
Second, from that same night, the ants/power pole meeting in North Delridge – we have a little more information:Read More
Just wanted to let you know we’ve got messages out on this one, though we’d love to hear from anyone who attended the meeting we didn’t hear about till it was too late (we’ve managed to get onto dozens of media-info lists but sometimes something slips through) – The community-organizing group ACORN held some kind of rally tonight in North Delridge about a reported problem involving Seattle City Light and ants. Lisa kindly transcribed the flyer as follows:
“[ACORN logo] DANGER!!! Ant Infestations and Faulty Power Lines threaten our safety!
Join us to tell City Light that we will not put up with it any more. We’re taking action to address unsafe electrical conditions and ant infestations on county property!! We need YOU there!!
What: Meeting with Seattle City Light’s Supt.
When: Tues., May 6th, 5 pm
Where: 4716 26th Ave SWTell your neighbors, bring your family and friends! Wear red for solidarity! Call ACORN today 206.723.5845
During our recent wave of doorknocker reports, a couple folks mentioned ACORN stopping by, but nothing about ants, power poles, or rallies. The e-mails we got about the event tonight (thank you!) but not in time for us to go. (Went to the area a little while ago but no trace of whatever was going on a few hours earlier.) We’ll let you know what we find out tomorrow.
An alert just in from Seattle City Light, warning about telephone scammers who are surfacing again:Read More
At least two reports will ensue from tonight’s Morgan Community Association (MoCA) quarterly meeting at The Kenney, starting with this one: If you visit Lowman Beach frequently, you’re familiar with that big white land-use sign that’s been up a long time for the 2nd phase of the county’s improvements to the underground pump station there. (Full explanation here.) MoCA president Steve Sindiong said tonight that the project is “on hold” for now, along with others, while Metro sorts out its funding situation and decides “which ones to go forward with, and which ones to hold till next year.” Sindiong says that decision is expected within the next month. (Next MoCA report, in the morning: A mini-showdown over the Myrtle Reservoir park project skateboard-feature decision.)
When we saw half a dozen Seattle City Light trucks lined up along the west side of Fauntleroy yesterday, just west/southwest of Morgan Junction, we wondered what they were up to — especially remembering that the area where they were working, north of Holly, was one of the troublespots during the December 2006 windstorm outage (12/21/06 coverage here). Scott Thomsen from SCL checked it out for us and explains it’s “part of an upgrade in the service lines for that area. The crews are changing out a 4 Kilovolt line with a 26 Kilovolt line, which is our current standard. There are a couple dozen poles involved … and crews will be in the West Seattle area through the spring, then off and on through the summer continuing this work.” Today, they’re further east on Fauntleroy (this picture is from just past the Corner Inn):
We have new information on last night’s power outage – which, as discussed in comments on the original report, continued well into the night for some. City Light spokesperson Scott Thomsen explains repairs were particularly difficult: “The outage started Monday about 6:50 p.m. when a car crash near the corner of 4th Avenue and 96th Street took out two utility poles. In addition to the downed lines, the damage involved four or five transformers. Repair crews had to replace both poles, the transformers and rework the overhead lines for the street. Power was routed around the damage to restore service to as many customers as possible. We still have 51 customers without power while the crews are hanging the last of the new overhead lines. We expect full restoration about noon.” 4th/96th is in unincorporated King County (here’s a map) but still within City Light territory.
Thanks to those who e-mailed and texted us about an outage in parts of east West Seattle – the City Light recording says the boundaries are Brandon to 97th, 8th to 26th, with more than 800 homes/businesses affected, no word on the cause. Heading out to find out more. 7:55 PM UPDATE: One e-mail and one comment says at least some of the power’s back on – we still have a team member driving the area to see if anyone’s still out. 8:40 PM UPDATE: Found a City Light crew (photo left) patroling Delridge but no signs of lingering outage.
You’ve probably seen the NO PARKING signs now up along Alki Ave (thanks to Angela for sending the photo) for the major project that’s about to start to expand the 53rd SW (underground) Pump Station. So how soon will the major work start in earnest? We just got another update this afternoon (after the first version of this post was published) from Erika Peterson from the county Wastewater Treatment Division; she says excavation work is likely to start next week, and work crews are in and out for “limited activity” between now and then, including some work in the street today. This project is going to last more than a year and a half, so it will be a fixture on Alki for not just this summer, but summer ’09 as well, with traffic effects along the way; you can find lots of details online, including this “what to expect during construction” page with a 24-hour hotline to call. (By the way, the pump-station project at Lowman Beach north of Lincoln Park is scheduled to start work next year.)
Almost missed this one – city news release from yesterday with future recycling changes, including the end of separation requirements for glass and “everything else” (yay), plus an expansion of the kinds of plastic that can be recycled.
Just out of the inbox from Seattle City Light, a warning about a new scam – somebody who might try to make an appointment to get into your house:Read More
Spotting this Seattle City Light crew at work in Fairmount Springs a little while ago reminded us we want to share an update from Scott Thomsen at SCL, who says feedback at the open house a few weeks ago (WSB coverage here) has led to an addition to the plan:
Several of our customers who attended that meeting were served by a 4 kilovolt conversation bank on feeder 2744 out of the Delridge Substation. Their biggest concern was the two block stretch that was in the unimproved alley between 37th Avenue SW and Fairmount Park. Before the meeting that area was not on the schedule for trimming.
We’ve taken a look at our work plan for the year and have decided to add that entire feeder to the mix. It’s a short feeder coming up the hill from the Delridge Substation and going directly over to the Fairmount Park neighborhood. We’ll begin work there after we do the Alki feeder (2746) and the North Admiral feeder (2740) that you saw on our maps at the meeting.
We’d like to thank everyone who came to the meeting for their comments, ideas and interest. As you can see, we were listening and appreciate what our customers tell us.
By the way, if anyone still wants to see a digital copy of the map shown at that meeting – the one in the photograph shown with our meeting report – we’re having a little bit of trouble uploading it but can e-mail it to you; send us a note.
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