“Elemental” will be on the big screen Friday, August 30, at dusk, in the Camp Long meadow (5200 35th SW). Camp Long’s Matt Kostle announced earlier this summer that it was one of the three movies that won the community vote for what to show. Free, all ages, bring your own blanket or chair! (Sunset that night will be 7:52 pm.)

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Sailboat is aground in kelp bed today as the tide is going out. It’s north end of Lincoln Park. It is anchored but the heavy winds made it move toward shore. Maybe the owner will see it today in the blog and move it at high tide.

Low tide was just half an hour ago; next high tide is just before 7 pm.

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The restoration work party is planned from 10 am to noon Sunday, August 25 – followed by ice cream! Forest steward Lisa McGinty sent the invitation:

August 25th is BRUUN IDUN DAY in Seattle! Celebrate with our much-loved troll in Lincoln Park. We’ll be working to restore natural areas surrounding the troll and making space for winter planting season. After our work is done, Scan Design Foundation will be treating all to an ICE CREAM SOCIAL as we honor Bruun Idun and the land and sea where she calls home. Great opportunity for student service hours!

All ages are welcome; bring your own gloves if you have them, but if you don’t, you’ll be able to borrow a pair, with tools available too. You’re asked to RSVP – you can do that right now, here.

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*Lights at Delridge Skatepark

*Duwamish art and signage at Herring’s House Park

*Covered shelter at Roxhill Park

*Accessible playground surfacing at Southwest Teen Life Center

*Outdoor exercise equipment in South Park

The West Region page also includes three citywide proposals. You can vote in the other regions too, regardless of where you live – voting for all four regions starts here. Read more about the CommUNITY Fund voting here; voting continues through the end of this month. Then Parks staff will assess the results and make announcements this fall.

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The wading pool at EC Hughes Playground (2805 SW Holden) was closed when wading-pool season started six weeks ago, because of what Seattle Parks described as a pipe problem. Now it’s finally open again, but not for long; the pool is open 12-7 pm Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays, and August 18th – one week from this Sunday – is the scheduled end of its season. Most other wading pools close in mid-August too; the only West Seattle wading pool open through Labor Day will be 7-days-a-week Lincoln Park.

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5:10 PM: Southwest Pool will be closing for maintenance during the two weeks leading up to Labor Day. Outdoor Colman Pool will still be open during that time, if you’re looking for an alternative. We have an inquiry out to Seattle Parks for more information on the work that’ll be done during the closure.

ADDED 5:45 PM: Parks’ Christina Hirsch tells WSB, “The Southwest Pool closure is our standard 18-month interval maintenance closure. The pool is drained to allow for repairs of various mechanical systems. This closure is also supposed to include a Health Department mandated replacement of our deep end drain covers. It is timed to coincide with the floor closure for the Teen Life Center.”

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The heavy equipment that arrived last week was put into action today, as the next phase of work begins at the Morgan Junction Park expansion site. The city bought it 10 years ago for $1.9 million; two years later, the convenience store and dry cleaners that were on the site closed, and the building was demolished that summer (August 2016). The current work is to demolish the foundation and dig down 15 feet to remove contaminated dirt, then replacing it with clean fill, over the next two months; the park addition is to be built next year.

The plan now includes an all-wheel area to be incorporated into the current park site, with a separate community-led effort continuing for that. This is one of three “landbanked” sites in West Seattle where the city plans new parks; the other two are on 40th north of Edmunds in The Junction – also planned for construction within the next year – and 48th/Charlestown, not expected to be complete until early 2026.

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In July 2017, the Lincoln Park South Play Area was closed for safety concerns, later described as wood damage from termites. At the time they warned repairs or replacement might take until the following year. Instead, it took seven years. Most of the fencing finally came down this afternoon, and the play area was open when we went to the park this evening to confirm.

Besides the spyhopping orca, the marine features requested by community members in 2017-2018 include this:

Set into the concrete are footprints telling a story:

Fresh bark chips surround all the features.

You’ll still find a few spots of fencing, including mesh around areas that either have been or will be seeded:

Work on the $600,000 project was started in January but shelved for a while when the contractor redirected efforts to finish the Westcrest Park play area first.

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This weekend’s salmon fishing is a reminder that Don Armeni Boat Ramp can be a very busy place. Back in April, we reported that its float-replacement project was mostly done, with a few remaining touches. In correspondence with Seattle Parks, boater Steve King – who had observed “something missing” – learned it’s a little more complicated. At the heart of it was what remained of a sawmill from more than a century ago – the wood debris shown in these photos taken during construction. He shared this detailed explanation he received from Steve Levengood, Parks’ Capital Projects Coordinator Senior Built Environment Accessibility Compliance Lead:

The work is not yet completed. The original design had 4 piles on each side. Unfortunately, the #3 of 4 piles (counting from near shore outward) and the #4 of 4 piles could not be installed because, as we discovered during construction, the remains of an old sawmill was buried under the mudline. (We removed about 25 truckloads of old lumber before stopping since at that point, we were concerned we would undermine the boat ramp itself.) This means the float manufacturer needs to design more rigid connections to install the last floats. We have not yet received their proposal to review.

The float designer is also the designer of record, since the floats are a design-build element, and is very busy, so it may take months to get anything installed unfortunately. (They are also the only firm who does this work in Washington State, so we are dealing with a monopoly situation as well.) The Contractor, American Construction, is also eager to complete the work, and has been pressing them to complete their engineering work. The south floats, since the missing floats will just bridge the gap between the 2nd and 4th piles, should be doable. I have some doubts about the outer north floats since it will be unsupported by any piles, so we will need to see if that is actually doable once they finish their analysis, including the impacts of tidal, waves and wind.

I am attaching photos of the lumber that was removed. When we looked at historical photos, there was a sawmill at that location prior to World War I. In those days, when decommissioning a facility, they would apparently just cut the piles and drop the whole thing in the water. It is frustrating, and indeed would be criminal if done now, but it is what it is.

The Don Armeni webpage says Parks is hoping to install the added floats by the end of the year.

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Not far from where one years-delayed Seattle Parks project is finally wrapping up, another is about to start its next phase. Morgan Community Association president Deb Barker sent the photo of heavy equipment and a portable toilet in place at the Morgan Junction Park expansion site, just north of the park in the 6300-6400 block of California SW. Parks announced at MoCA’s meeting two weeks ago that soil-cleanup work at the site is scheduled to start next Thursday (August 8). Once 15 feet of soil is dug up, taken away, replaced, and hydroseeded – expected to take about eight weeks – the site will be interim open space before park construction, currently planned for next year. Ten years have passed since the city bought the site for just under $1.9 million; it’s been “landbanked” ever since.

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6:51 PM: For three consecutive Thursday night, the Admiral Neighborhood Association has brought music to local parks that aren’t often used for sizable events. Tonight’s the final Admiral Music in the Parks show, featuring The ABBAgraphs playing the hits of Swedish supergroup ABBA, at Hamilton Viewpoint Park (1120 California SW).

Most of the band members are West Seattleites, they’ve told the crowd.

The city skyline’s in the background, there’s room to dance in the foreground, and all the fun will continue until at least 8 pm, so there’s still time to bring your chair or blanket and join the crowd!

8:04 PM: Show’s over – lively enough that most of the crowd (counted by ANA as 500+) were on their feet dancing to the last song, “Dancing Queen.”

11:56 PM: Video and more photos added above.

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Last estimate from Seattle Parks on the completion of Lincoln Park South Play Area construction, seven years after safety concerns closed the old play structure, was a reiteration of “July.” July is now over, so we went to the park this morning, and noted that fencing is still up and the play area appears to have a few finishing touches left (our photos were taken looking over the fence):

So we then pinged Parks. Their update: “Final inspections took place Wednesday 7/31 and the contractor is addressing items that need to be corrected through the end of this week. The fence will be removed by this weekend.” You can browse our past coverage of the project here. The marine theme for the new play area was chosen with community participation in 2018.

FRIDAY EVENING UPDATE: As noted below in comments, the fencing really is down and the play area is open; we just went over for pics and will write a separate update later.

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Matt says, “After voting, there was overwhelming support for the following movies: Barbie, Wakanda Forever and Elemental! Thanks to all who voted and please come join us for these movies throughout the next month!” Sunset this Friday will be at 8:41 pm; temperature should be in the 70s. Camp Long’s main entrance is at 5200 35th SW.

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A fallen limb on the path from the north parking lot towards the water is blocked off this afternoon. You can still take other side paths but along the way I noticed some other fallen limbs/trees, although not blocking paths.

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