West Seattle, Washington
29 Friday
On the Sustainable West Seattle website, Kate Kaemerle has just published an obituary remembering Dale Roose, a former West Seattleite who died at age 55 in Tucson after a long fight with cancer. Kate’s writeup recalls Mr. Roose’s participation as a West Seattle Tool Library founding member. He and wife Tina Roose also had been WSB participants while living here, and you may also remember them for two West Seattle Crime Watch reports – he was the cancer patient whose car was stolen twice, including this past February, just as he and Tina were about to move. The first time, their story also was picked up by KING 5 TV, and both cases drew community offers of help. According to the obituary on SWS’s site, no funeral is planned, but donations can be made to the American Cancer Society in Mr. Roose’s memory.
For surface-street drivers just east of West Seattle: The recent East Marginal Way/Spokane intersection alert included a note about another upcoming project on East Marginal Way, just north of that area. Word just in from SDOT indicates that will start to affect traffic this Wednesday:
A contractor working for the Seattle Department of Transportation will reduce East Marginal Way South between South Hanford and South Horton streets to one lane in each direction starting June 15 between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. In addition, the roadway will be reduced to one shared lane for both directions of traffic, controlled by traffic flaggers, at night between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m. The work requiring this traffic pattern is expected to be completed by June 17. Drivers should expect congestion. Access to nearby businesses will be maintained.
The purpose of the work is to prepare for the bypass route that is expected to be
open to traffic on June 20 for the E. Marginal Way @ S. Horton Street Bridge
project. For more information, please see the project Web
site.
This city map shows the work zone and the bypass they hope to have in place by this time next week:
(Photo by Stephen Elser from last round of low tides earlier this month)
We’ll see low-low tides all week – -2.2 today at 9:38 am, but it’ll be lower in a few days. Meantime, first day of the last full week of school for Seattle Public Schools students; we’re also in the last full week of spring – since summer arrives a week from tomorrow. But first, on with today. From the WSB West Seattle Events calendar:
NORTH DELRIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL: NDNC meets at 6:30 pm, NOT the usual location – here’s the meeting announcement:
Join us as we head into our new format for summer meetings – we’re taking NDNC outside! We will be holding our monthly meeting in a different Delridge park each month this summer, weather permitting. (Tonight) Greg Davis Park at Brandon and 26th, less than a block away from the library. If it rains, we’ll use our regularly scheduled library conference room instead. Our special guests on Monday will be the guys from Red Star Urban Farms, giving us a tutorial on how to raise your own backyard chickens in Seattle.
(added) PIGEON POINT NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL: Also meeting tonight – 6 pm, Pathfinder K-8 school cafeteria.
RACE TO NOWHERE: The documentary critiquing the education system and sparking discussions on how to change it will be screened twice today/tonight in the Arbor Heights Elementary library, sponsored by the Arbor Heights PTSA, with discussion afterward. 3:30-5:30 pm with child care provided, ticket info here; 6:30-8:30 pm, ticket info here. Organizers are also launching the online discussion group West Seattle Education Advocates, to continue the dialogue.
LIVING GLUTEN-FREE: Living Gluten-Free. Special event all day at Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy/West Seattle (WSB sponsor); stop in and talk with a naturopathic doctor.
NIGHTLIFE: Trivia with Tom Hutyler at Christo’s on Alki, 7 pm … Karaoke with Kelli at Skylark Café and Club (WSB sponsor), 9 pm
If the school at 8402 30th SW were to stay open one more year, it would celebrate its 60th anniversary. David T. Denny Junior High School – named after the first member of the Denny Party to arrive in Seattle – opened in the fall of 1952, with 1,030 students, according to this Seattle Public Schools document telling its story, which says its enrollment peaked at more than 1,600 a decade later, with 22 portables in use.
But now, Denny’s five buildings have only a matter of days left to house students and staff. After the last classes later this month, Denny principal Jeff Clark and his team will move into their new building barely a block east, adjacent to Chief Sealth International High School, and the old buildings comprising the original Denny campus will be torn down.
This Tuesday, an informational meeting about the demolition and ensuing sports field/park construction is planned, mostly for neighbors and other interested community members.
But for the sentimental side of a school about to be turned into rubble, a gathering this weekend packed the punch.
Community members – alums, former staffers, anyone and everyone – were invited in for “One Last Look” on Saturday morning, concluding with memories shared in the cafetorium.
Among those reminiscing – Denny’s renowned music director, Marcus Pimpleton, also a former Denny student, talking about the support he received while studying there – and the support he has worked to give while teaching there:
The “essence” of Denny, Pimpleton insisted, will move with it to its new building. And its co-location with Sealth brings many possibilities, said Aurora Lora, the district’s executive director of West Seattle-region schools:
Many concerns and questions about the Denny/Sealth site-sharing have simmered in the years since the co-location plan surfaced; the schools’ principals answered questions just last month. But as Lora said, the focus now is on the move, and a fresh start. As for the demolition/construction project, the community meeting is at 6 pm tomorrow (Tuesday, June 14) at Southwest Community Center – we have more information on that, and the schedule for the months ahead, here.
The fields are set for the August 16 primary – and another Seattle City Council candidates’ forum is on the horizon for West Seattle. As previously noted, council candidates will be at the WS Chamber of Commerce‘s next monthly luncheon meeting June 22 for a “speed networking” event. And just announced this weekend, the next day – Thursday, June 23 – the West Seattle Democratic Women will host all four candidates for City Council Position 1 – Maurice Classen, Bobby Forch, incumbent Jean Godden, and West Seattleite Michael Taylor-Judd. Though WSDW usually meets for lunch, this will be an evening event – no-host bar at 6:30, dinner at 7, program at 7:15 pm, and the group says “candidate endorsements will be considered.” Dinner is $12 WSDW members, $15 nonmembers (or you can just get coffee/dessert for $5). Reservations or questions: wsdwomen@yahoo.com, 206-935-3216.
SIDE NOTE: All 4 Position 1 candidates participated in the 34th District Democrats‘ forum a month ago – we have it on video here; last Wednesday, the 34th DDs gave a dual endorsement to Godden and Forch.
Alki photographer extraordinaire David Hutchinson shared these photos, explaining:
There is always interesting wildlife to see while walking along Harbor Avenue. It can be Sea Lions or Harbor Seals out in Elliott Bay, Canada Geese and their goslings along the shore, or Bald Eagles being pursued by crows. The attached photos were taken recently. The first is a Bald Eagle heading home in the evening to its nest near Salty’s. The second is a Killdeer protecting its nearby nest with a typical distraction display.
For the sake of both the airborne and seagoing wildlife, it’s important to keep our shorelines clean; toward that end, as noted here previously, David and others with the Alki Community Council are involved with beach cleanups; last weekend, those cleanups were featured in this report on KING 5 News (with interviewees including Eilene Hutchinson and Seal Sitters’ Robin Lindsey).
Before we have to get back to all the seriousness, as the new week looms, yet more weekend whimsy: Stacy shared the photo, explaining, “Sunny Sunday fun on Alki today.”
If you were at Alki today, among the surrey pedalers, the sunbathers, the volleyball players, and everyone else enjoying the afternoon, you might have noticed … pom-pom-waving cheerleaders. The young women of the Chief Sealth International High School Cheer Squad spent six hours washing cars at Alki Auto Repair. Since the clouds stayed away until late afternoon, they had perfect weather – and by the time we checked in around 2:30 pm, they had already raised $500. (Side note: Last day of school for Sealth and other public high schools in Seattle is still a week and a half away – June 23rd.)
Most groundbreakings involve dignitaries, never-used-before-and-never-will-be-again shovels, and one ceremonial jab at the dirt. Not the groundbreaking at West Seattle’s Our Lady of Guadalupe this afternoon. The parish’s pastor, Father Jack Walmesley, got behind the controls of a backhoe and dug into the future site of OLG’s Parish Life Center and Gymnasium, as parishioners cheered (and, off camera, Tom Hutyler emceed). Earlier in the event, “Father Jack” wore more traditional priestly garb as he spoke about the project – we’ll add that clip laterhere’s that clip:
The new 10,000-square-foot facility will include community meeting space as well as areas for parish events and sports (read all about the project here – and see sketches – here).
It’s been half a century since a vaccine breakthrough led to the near-eradication of polio in the U.S. But as the Rotary Club of West Seattle is explaining today in The Junction – the rest of the world is a different story, particularly isolated areas of Asia and Africa. Till 5 pm today, West Seattle Rotarians are by KeyBank with an iron lung – the device that paralyzed polio victims needed to keep breathing. Contributions will go toward the Rotary International campaign to match a nine-digit grant from the Gates Foundation for worldwide polio vaccination, to wipe out the disease once and for all. (P.S. The WS Rotary’s Berry Sale is under way too, supporting all their charity programs including the Christmas Shopping Spree – you can order online; deliveries are just weeks away.)
Five West Seattle Crime Watch reports this morning – starting with the search for a hit-run driver. Amy sent the above photo and explains:
Our 1997 Toyota Tercel was struck by a hit and run driver Saturday morning (6/11) in the 3900 block of SW Orchard. The car is totalled with front body damage on the right side. The perps lost control coming around the corner at 39th and Orchard, tore up our neighbors parking strip and came to a hard stop against our parked vehicle pushing it backward about five feet. Damage to the car that hit would be the front passenger side. We did not hear the accident but our neighbor heard the crash sometime around 12:30 to 1:00 am. It was not a pretty car, but we had it for 13 years, it ran great, and it was much needed transportation for our family. We did call the police and received a case number-11-187004
After the jump – 4 more reports, starting with a stolen tandem bicycle (photo included):Read More
As noted overnight, the Alaskan Way Viaduct closure ended much earlier than WSDOT had projected – it is fully OPEN again this morning, and the blank traffic-info sign we photographed at dawn along Fauntleroy Way SW is further proof (absent a live AWV camera). But why leave West Seattle, unless you absolutely have to? From our Events calendar:
FITNESS FOR VITALITY 5K/10K: The last race in trainer Annette Herrick‘s spring series along Alki is at 9 am this morning – you can walk or run, and same-day registration is available – starting at 8 am. More info here.
CHIEF SEALTH CHEERLEADERS’ CAR WASH: Chief Sealth International High School‘s Cheerleaders invite you to come get your vehicle cleaned and shined at their fundraising car wash at Alki Auto (56th and Alki), 10 am-4 pm.
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: 10 am-2 pm, The Junction (44th/Alaska). Market manager Catherine Burke says today’s returnees include strawberries and “live lettuce”; the kids-tent activity will be presented by Woodland Park Zoo.
POLIO-FIGHTING FUNDRAISER: Rotary Club of West Seattle plans to be in The Junction today with an iron lung, demonstrating that the fight against polio isn’t over yet. 11 am-5 pm, by KeyBank at California/Alaska.
TWO CHANCES TO ADOPT A NEW FELINE FRIEND: Friends of the Animals Foundation adoption event with cats and kittens from 11 am – 2 pm at Next to Nature in The Junction … Kitty Harbor (3422 Harbor SW) is open for its second weekend of the season, 2-6 pm today.
COOKING CLASS: At West Seattle Produce with Cinnamon Berg: Grilled Pizza, 11 am. We will make the dough, sauce and toppings, then grill up a home-cooked pizza without the hot oven or delivery charges! $30 12 and up, kids under 12 free with paid adult. Register cinnamonberg97@gmail.com (or drop by to see if there’s still room for today).
ULTIMATE FRISBEE: West Seattle Family Ultimate Frisbee – today’s the monthly 2nd Sunday event at 11 am, Hiawatha Playfield, southeast corner.
WEST SEATTLE SUNDAY SOCCER: The adult/big kid soccer pickup game every Sunday morning is at Delridge Playfield (4501 Delridge), all ages and skill levels are welcome! 8 am.
OUTDOOR SWIMMING Final pre-season weekend wraps ups for Colman Pool in Lincoln Park, starting with lap swim at noon (7-day-a-week summer operations start next Saturday).
OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE GROUNDBREAKING: The community celebration of the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Parish Life Center and Gymnasium is at 12:15 this afternoon in the lower playfield, followed by a multicultural potluck.
LAST DAY OF SIFF: Final day for the film festival, and four films are screening at the Admiral Theater in West Seattle, starting at 1 pm, concluding with “Flamenco, Flamenco” at 8:30 pm. Full schedule here.
LOVING DAY: Celebration of the anniversary of the court ruling that led to the end of remaining laws against interracial marriage in the U.S., sponsored by MAVIN, 1-3:30 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, live music and more (details in this WSB preview story).
LIVE MUSIC: Once Minutos, 3-5 pm at C & P Coffee (5612 California SW) … All-ages show with Brian Wagner of Pablo Trucker, Lowlands, Wes SP8, 7 pm ($5 cover) at Skylark Café and Club (3803 Delridge Way SW; note, both C&P and Skylark are WSB sponsors; got a live music listing? send it so we can include it, the further in advance, the better!) …
Through both pre-sale donations and during-sale shopping, Saturday’s yard sale to raise money for Joplin, Missouri, tornado survivors was a success, reports Steve John, whose relatives were hit hard:
Thanks to the efforts of [neighbors/sale organizers] Leah and Johanna, and the generosity of all who donated items and attended the garage sale, 1,008 dollars were collected! My entire family has been overwhelmed with the support of our neighbors and fellow residents of West Seattle.
We tweeted an in-progress photo; Steve shared the after-sale photos (the one below features Leah, Johanna, and Sam).
During the Saturday night sock-hop fundraiser for West Seattle-based Family Promise of Seattle at Holy Rosary, we talked with board member Lynne Downs about the shelter service’s reopening: She tells WSB they have already helped two homeless families, 11 people in all, just since last Monday, and have met their goal of hiring a case worker.
It’s been a long road back for Family Promise, since their August announcement of a “hiatus” till they could raise enough money to resume operations, but in March, they vowed to reopen in June – and so they have. It’s a nationwide model involving a partnership with organizations (usually churches) that take turns hosting and feeding the families at night, while FP offers a day center and other help so the families can get back on their feet – and in this area, it’s the only place homeless families can stay together (instead of separating to go to men’s/women’s shelters). Miss the fundraiser? You can donate online right now, here.
WSDOT sent word late Saturday night that the Alaskan Way Viaduct closure is over: “During the closure crews successfully removed and temporarily replaced two of the structure’s support columns to make room for construction of the new SR 99 southbound roadway through SODO. Crews also tested the automated viaduct closure system.” Both directions are fully reopened. (Above, a photo tweeted by WSDOT, showing one of the columns taken down during the Saturday work.)
(Photo courtesy Serevi Rugby)
One more addition to our roundup of West Seattle summer camps (initiated after some camp providers sent word they still had room for kids to sign up): 2-time Rugby 7s World Cup Champion Waisale Serevi and his team from Serevi Rugby are teaching “the basics of seven-a-side rugby” in four sessions at Hiawatha Playfield this summer. The introductory camps are for ages 7-18, both genders. More info and online registration at serevirugby.com. (Our previously published list of camps is here – no guarantees they all still have room, but if you’re looking, it’s worth checking!)
Results are in, via SPD Blotter, from the bus-lane crackdown mentioned on Twitter on Friday (here and here), though it is reported as a two-day effort. Read on for the details (headline – 51 lane violations) plus another crackdown on Highland Park Way:Read More
6:39 PM: A crash that involves several cars is backing up traffic on the bridge. It’s reported on the Spokane St. Viaduct near the 4th Ave exit and one tipster says traffic is being detoured at 1st.
7:46 PM UPDATE: Multiple commenters say the scene is cleared, and the bridge cams seem to bear that out. (Thanks to everyone who e-mailed and texted about this.)
A local family is hoping you can help find their runaway son – even though that may mean he gets arrested. We talked with the mom of 16-year-old Brody Webster. He ran away more than two weeks ago, and they reported it to police shortly afterward; his mom explains he has a history of running away, but this time, they are more worried than ever about his safety, who he’s with, what he’s up to, and have decided to put up posters and ask widely for help in finding him. He has an arrest warrant, she explains, because he violated terms of a “Youth At Risk” petition (explained here); she says they just want to get him the help he needs. As you can see on the full poster his family is distributing, they ask that you call 911 if you see Brody or know where he might be. He is 5’6″, 110 pounds, brown-haired and blue-eyed, and a West Seattle High School student.
More than two years ago, City Councilmembers Sally Clark and Tim Burgess were part of a city delegation joining Delridge activists on a “problem properties” tour. Today, they and fellow councilmember Tom Rasmussen followed a different Delridge trail, as neighborhood advocates led an “improvements” tour. Above, we photographed the group (with North Delridge Neighborhood Council‘s outreach chair Holli Margell speaking) not far from the under-construction Delridge Skatepark. From there, they headed toward the Community Center – you can see the two-year-old community-built (with help from KaBOOM!) playground off to the left:
On the other side of the community center, they stopped by the newly resurfaced Delridge Playfield, updated with money from the Parks and Green Spaces Levy the council had backed (Rasmussen chaired the Parks Committee at the time; Delridge advocate Pete Spalding, also on today’s tour, now chairs the levy’s Oversight Committee):
We had to leave the tour after that, but their full planned itinerary was detailed here; Want to get involved with helping Delridge improvements continue? The NDNC’s next meeting is just two days away – this Monday night, 6:30 pm, at Delridge Library (Delridge/Brandon). Then on Wednesday, the Delridge District Council meets at 7 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW), following an hourlong “Strategic Delridge” discussion at 6.
ADDED SUNDAY NIGHT: Amanda Leonard from NDNC has posted a thorough report on the tour, its stops, and their backstory, here – it’s a don’t-miss!
Two West Seattle supermarkets with outdoor events this afternoon: Above, Metropolitan Market (WSB sponsor) is celebrating its 40th anniversary with special offerings all month, and today the Admiral store had a Cupcake Royale cupcake-sprinkling party. Checking it out while we were there, that’s Kent Sadow from Admiral toys/candy/retro store Max and Quinn’s Atomic Boys Shop-O-Rama, and the shop’s co-namesake, son Quinn. What else is on the MM anniversary calendar? Check out the Admiral schedule here.
Meantime, on to Morgan Junction:
West Seattle Thriftway is well into benefit-barbecue season, and Michele was grilling and grinning today as the store raised money for Pencil Me In For Kids. Miss today’s benefit-b-q? No worries, they’re doing it again (also for PMIFK, which helps students who need school supplies) NEXT Saturday, 11 am.
By Megan Sheppard
On the WSBeat, for West Seattle Blog
From reports on cases handled recently by Southwest Precinct officers:
*The victim of a car prowl took matters into his own hands around 1 a.m. last Saturday, when he came outside (in the 2300 block of Barton Pl.) and punched a man who he said was breaking into his car. When officers arrived, the 55-year-old suspect (who lives in the neighborhood) was on the ground, bleeding from a cut near his eye. He was taken to Harborview for treatment and then booked into King County Jail for investigation of theft.
*A man using the business phone at a Junction grocery became loud and belligerent. When the manager told the man to hang up, he was threatened and shoved. A nearby witness happened to be a police officer, who held the intoxicated suspect down until uniformed officers arrived. The suspect, a Beacon Hill resident, was booked into jail for investigation of assault.
Six more summaries, plus new details on an incident recently covered in WSB Crime Watch, ahead:Read More
Some fire calls seem relatively simple: Food on the stove, out before engines arrive. But when the alarm goes off, firefighters don’t know what they’ll face, and they have to be ready for the worst – ready to push themselves to the max, racing up stairs, lifting heavy equipment, wielding tools to break through roofs or walls or windows or cars to get to victims and/or fire sources – and rescuing people. Some of those particularly demanding skills were showcased in a competition this morning at the city’s Joint Training Facility, on the southeastern edge of West Seattle (9401 Myers Way). Our clip shows one competition sequence from the first-ever “Battle of the Bravest: Seattle Firefighters Intramural Combat Relay Challenge” was a team relay, with proceeds going to Seattle’s Bravest Charity. The Seattle Fire Department communications team says SBC “benefits victims of fires, helps elderly residents through a Home Rescue Program, and donates bike helmets to children in need.” (They promise to let us know who won, so we’ll add that when we get word!)
12:54 PM: Just got word from SFD spokesperson Kyle Moore that the team from Station 32 in The Junction won! (Their time was 1:45, beating Station 33 by six seconds, and Moore says the six teams collectively raised $3,088 for SBC.)
3:12 PM: A photo of the winning Station 32 team, courtesy of SFD:
In the photo: Dean Ronhar, Jake Bange, Tom Hofland. Congratulations!
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