West Seattle, Washington
30 Thursday
Barely a block from High Point Playfield (subject of our previous story), construction is finally about to start for the park atop newly buried Myrtle Reservoir. It came up in the WSB Forums last week; now Cindi Barker of Morgan Community Association has confirmation from Parks’ project manager Virginia Hassinger that the project’s going out to bid, with bids to be opened May 12th, construction to follow. (This’ll be on the agenda at MoCA’s quarterly meeting Wednesday night, 7 pm @ The Kenney.)
(WSB photo of High Point Playfield, taken this afternoon)
A few days ago, the city circulated a news release seeking name suggestions for three parks around Seattle. One is High Point Playfield. The news release didn’t explain why a not-new park was in the market for a new name, but we followed up, and just got the answer – it’s the first step toward potentially naming the playfield in honor of trailblazing former Parks Superintendent Walt Hundley. Read on for more:Read More
Another view of tonight’s sunset, this time from Alki’s David Hutchinson, and it reminds us of one thing we hadn’t included in our report on last night’s Alki Community Council meeting – the latest update on the ongoing brick/plaque sale to raise money for Statue of Liberty Plaza maintenance. Since the committee that raised money for the plaza has disbanded as planned, the ACC now is accountable for this part of the project. According to information presented at last night’s meeting, since mid-November, they’ve sold more than 250 bricks, plus 4 tribute plaques; 5 plaques are still available, and an undetermined number of bricks. The next round of installation is set for early May. If you’re interested in a brick or plaque, all the info’s on the ACC website.
The agenda for this Thursday’s Seattle Design Commission meeting just arrived, and a West Seattle project is on the schedule: The West Seattle (Westcrest) Reservoir Park “concept design” is scheduled for review at 10:30 am Thursday. This will come nine days before the next scheduled public meeting on the project (that’s set for 10 am April 24 at Southwest Community Center). The new park is being built on what is in essence new land, created by the undergrounding of what was an open reservoir. Thursday’s Design Commission meeting is open to the public and will be in the Boards and Commissions Room at City Hall downtown.
From left, Susan Melrose from the West Seattle Junction Association (WSB sponsor) and Cari Day Day wielded the shovels this morning at the ceremonial groundbreaking for Junction Plaza Park (northwest corner of 42nd/Alaska). The park will have both grass and paved areas, as well as numerous native plantings, and work should be done by June. Here’s a rendering from last fall, showing landscape architect Karen Kiest‘s design:
As soon as the park’s done, there will be a special community event to help with plantings, and everyone’s encouraged to join in – to get on the notification list for that, e-mail Melrose at susan@wsjunction.org. ADDED 1:12 PM: Early this morning, a few hours before the groundbreaking, the park contractor was out taking soil samples; Christopher Boffoli spotted the work and got this photograph:
After the ceremony, Seattle Parks project manager Gary Gibbons explained in a short interview what the sampling is for, and what happens next:
As we’ve been reporting over the past year-plus (here’s our coverage archive), while Junction Plaza Park has been in the works for more than a few years – the site was purchased in 2005 – one last major community-contribution push involving WSJA and the Junction Neighborhood Organization helped make the long-held dream a reality.
(Photo added 12:19 pm – Sheryl and Donna at the Youth Activities Fair, on behalf of creek stewardship)
First – go check out the Summer Youth Activities Fair happening right now, continuing till 2 pm today at High Point Community Center (map) – tons of info and ideas to make this a lively summer for West Seattle kids and teens. And here’s another idea:
The group shown in that photo we published during last year’s West Seattle Summer Fest was Delridge Community Center‘s class of “Digital Darkroom” interns. They worked on multimedia projects, and you saw some of their work here on WSB. Seattle Parks and the Associated Recreation Council are now recruiting interns for this year’s “RecTech” program, which includes Digital Darkroom as well as different programs at sites in South Park and the Central District – read on for the official announcement:Read More
From the WSB Forums: Lowman Beach Park neighbor Dr. Ron Sterling has set up a website to rally those concerned about the possibility of the park being dug up to place a large wastewater-storage tank underground if King County chooses that as the solution to “combined sewer overflows” (CSO) into Puget Sound. He had the most to say at the county-led public meeting last week on what the county has announced as its 3 options for the Lowman Beach (formally known as Murray) pump station’s CSO solution. His new website is at soundangels.org. As he writes on the site, the next chance for public discussion is the April 21st Morgan Community Association meeting (7 pm, The Kenney), but in the meantime, some of those commenting on our coverage of last week’s meeting had asked how to get involved. In addition to sending official comments to the county (go here), those who are concerned can join an online petition just linked from the soundangels.org website.
Just confirmed with the Parks Department that Monday will mark the official groundbreaking at Junction Plaza Park – two weeks after Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher announced at a Parks Board meeting that the construction contract was finalized. The pocket park on the northwest corner of 42nd/Alaska in The Junction has been years in the making; the city bought the site five years ago with ProParks Levy money, but it languished without construction funding until a new community effort revved into high gear a little more than a year ago. You can see the park design at its official city webpage; it’s scheduled to be finished in time for summer events in The Junction, including West Seattle Summer Fest. ADDED 5:49 PM: The West Seattle Junction Association has issued an official announcement of Monday’s groundbreaking, which includes a 10 am ceremony. Read on:Read More
(Easel display from February reservoir-park meeting; photo by Dina Johnson)
As reported here in February, the third city meeting about the new park at the West Seattle/Westcrest Reservoir is set for April 24. Today, the city is sending official reminders about that meeting (here’s the flyer), which like the last one will be at 10 am on a Saturday morning at Southwest Community Center. We covered the first two meetings – here’s our report from December, and our report from February.
(Photos courtesy Tilden School)
It’s all about partnerships. Our previous story included a public-private partnership to fix up a stretch of local sidewalk, and here we have what you might call a public-private partnership with local students adopting a park. In this case, Tilden School‘s fifth-grade class has been taking care of their closest park, and sent along this story:
Tilden School has officially adopted the beautiful Dakota Place Park, and we, the fifth grade class, are enjoying being park stewards! We will visit the park weekly to clean up trash, pull weeds, and remove invasive species. Before the end of the school year, we will teach the fourth graders how to care for the park so they can be the park stewards next year.
We would like to thank MARK SINDELL of GGLO for designing such a beautiful green space for the West Seattle community and for all of the many small mammals, birds, and insects that are native to the area. Mark gave us a tour of the park to explain its history, design, and plant life.
We would also like to thank all of the kind donors for giving us the tools we needed to begin our stewardship project. Thanks to JUNCTION TRUE VALUE, MCLENDON HARDWARE WHITE CENTER, and WEST SEATTLE NURSERY. Your generosity is truly appreciated!
Come visit the extraordinary Dakota Place Park, and bring all your friends and Fido on a leash!
Dakota Place Park is at California/Dakota (map) and itself, like many local park projects, involves community partnership, with community volunteers playing a huge role in making it a reality. Tilden is less than a block south of the park.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
For the second time in two weeks, King County Wastewater Treatment brought a team to West Seattle to explain and discuss proposed solutions for a problem that sends more than a million gallons of untreated wastewater and stormwater into this part of Puget Sound in the average year.
This time, at Monday night’s meeting about proposals for the area feeding the Murray pump station at Lowman Beach, the proposed trio of solutions drew even more concern than the trio explained earlier this month for the area served by the Barton pump station by the Fauntleroy ferry dock. (The entire meeting presentation, by the way, is now online – see it here.)
One of them would involve digging up most of Lowman Beach Park, including its unique beachfront tennis court and two century-old trees. Another would involve acquiring homes across the street from Lowman, through eminent domain if necessary. Read on for a look at all three and what the crowd of about 40 at the Southwest Community Center meeting heard and said about them:Read More
That’s Rebecca Hall, assistant coordinator at High Point Community Center, getting ready to give the starting signal to dozens of little ones (and parents) during the week’s 1st West Seattle egg hunt, part of the annual Toddler Eggstravaganza. So what did it look like when the toddlers (and parents) descended?
More egg hunts are coming up starting Friday (nighttime events for tweens/teens) and Saturday – see the list on our West Seattle Easter page.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Seattle Parks Finance Director Carol Everson would have rather been almost anywhere else than in front of the Parks Board last night downtown, presenting a grim look ahead.
“I wish I weren’t here talking about this,” she grimaced from the podium at one point.
But talking is essential – not just to plan ahead for possible midyear cuts this year and all-but-certain cuts for the next two years, but to make sure you understand what Parks is facing, and what might eventually be requested to minimize the misery – maybe even the formation of a Metropolitan Park District (explained here) taxing authority.
Before the board meeting, we met briefly with the West Seattleites who are chair and vice chair of the board, Jackie Ramels and Neal Adams, and Superintendent Tim Gallagher.
Their message: If you care about city park services, please listen up and pay attention, because whatever is done to bridge the budget gap, it will affect the services delivered to you. And that was hammered home again during Everson’s briefing.
Part of the problem is good news with an underside of bad news.
Just in from the Port of Seattle – it’s offering a tour of two of its West Seattle parks, two facilities that some don’t realize are port-owned/managed. Read on for the announcement and how to sign up:Read More
7:06 PM: Also at the Seattle Parks Board meeting downtown: This hasn’t been announced by the county yet, but Superintendent Tim Gallagher has just told the board that a celebration at/for the King County Water Taxi’s new dock at Seacrest is set for Sunday, April 11, noon-2 pm – that’s the first Sunday after the Water Taxi season starts on April 5. 9:49 PM UPDATE: This is now on the Water Taxi/King County Ferry District website too. Free rides!
(Junction Plaza Park design from last round of meetings in 2009)
We’re at the Seattle Parks Board meeting downtown – where the big news will be a briefing on the Parks budget situation, which we were just told in a pre-meeting conversation with board leaders, is a lot worse than you might think. One big problem: No money to maintain the new parks facilities funded by the Parks and Green Spaces Levy, and barely enough to maintain what the department has now. But that’s not the reason we’re writing this in-progress update: Speaking of new parks (though this was NOT in that levy), Superintendent Tim Gallagher has just told the Parks Board that a contract has been issued for construction of Junction Plaza Park, and work should start soon, with completion in time for “several summer events.” (The park is on the northwest corner of Alaska/42nd.) We’ll be tracking that; meantime, we’ll have the full Parks Board story later after the budget briefing.
(Photo by Savanna Nichols)
Thanks to North Delridge Neighborhood Council co-secretary Holli Margell for sharing these photos from Saturday’s Delridge Community Center Playground (and vicinity) cleanup by adding them to the West Seattle Blog photo group on Flickr. As that first photo shows – teamwork spanned the generations. 8 months have passed since the huge volunteer effort that built the playground; volunteer help will keep it in good shape, too, and here are more of the folks who joined forces Saturday morning to pitch in:
(Photo by Savanna Nichols)
You have more chances to help brighten West Seattle neighborhoods, today and both days next weekend (here’s our roundup with details).
At tonight’s Alki Community Council meeting: Carol Baker from the Parks Department was there mostly to talk about spring planting plans for Statue of Liberty Plaza, but wound up spending time defending the new landscaping along sections of Alki Avenue. Part of the newly landscaped area was planted with trees, on the water side, and residents are worried about blocked views. Those upset about the trees wanted to know why they had no say; 
Baker explained it was a small project, not subject to public review, and that the trees will help them deal with “irrigation problems” along that stretch of the waterfront. There had to have been a better solution that wouldn’t have affected the view, residents retorted. Baker stressed that the trees won’t grow to be very tall – how tall, though, she couldn’t say. That was no consolation to the concerned residents, who insisted they want the trees removed. Finally she suggested they directly contact the Parks landscape-architecture point person on the project, Joe Neiford. Meantime, back on the topic of Liberty Plaza, Baker said she had met with ACC reps to look at areas where plants didn’t make it through the winter; the dead plants have been removed, but she says the Parks budget has no money to replace them right now – maybe in fall, and in the meantime, the area’s been mulched. One other Statue of Liberty note; David Hutchinson reported that 237 bricks and 1 plaque have been sold by September, for more than $32,000 in revenue, with 7 percent going to the ACC. The new bricks went off to engraving this week and will be ready around start of May for installation. The group also heard tonight from School Board rep Steve Sundquist. (If you have education issues to discuss with him, by the way, his next community meeting is Saturday morning, 11 am, High Point Library.)
The Alki Community Council usually meets on the third Thursday, 7 pm, Alki UCC; next meeting, April 15th.
That photo’s by Christopher Boffoli, who went to Lincoln Park to check out a big fire/medic callout this past hour – the Fire Department transported a girl (we don’t know her age) to Harborview Medical Center after she fell off the zipline just east of the playground by the park’s south parking lot. Witnesses told Christopher the girl was one of two people riding it when she fell off, took a hard fall, and told her mom she couldn’t get up, then got sick, which can be a sign of head injury, so medics were called. The scene has now cleared, but at one point two medic units and three engines were summoned, so if you saw all the commotion, that’s what it was about.
A new ruling on the city’s ban on guns in certain park/community center facilities – and this time, the judge says it’s constitutional, according to this story just published by our citywide-news partners at the Seattle Times. They were ruling on the challenge that happened here in West Seattle last year, filed by the Kent man who went into Southwest Community Center last November (after letting the city and media know of his intention) and was asked to leave (WSB coverage here). This follows a county ruling in a separate challenge, overturning the ban (here’s that story). The Times says the city’s trying to sort out what this all means. 6:12 PM: The city has sent out a news release – more of a summary than a reaction – read on (also added, the ruling document itself):Read More
Seattle Parks has split its furlough days so that the entire department isn’t completely closed all on one day – the next two-day split is just a few days away, so here’s the announcement of what facilities are affected – read on:Read More
Checked with Garrett Farrell from Seattle Parks and he says that as of mid-afternoon, Don Armeni Boat Ramp and its parking lot was open again, as planned, after two days of long-overdue repaving (first previewed here).
We’re at City Hall downtown, where the Seattle Design Commission has just reviewed the Delridge Skatepark 
project for the second time, and has given its final blessing to the skatepark’s design. “Good luck!” chair Mary Johnston said to Parks Department project manager Kelly Davidson, after the unanimous vote. Commissioners had just a few lingering concerns they recommend Davidson and the designers, West Seattle-based Grindline, address – in particular, to make sure there’s maximum functionality for an element between the skatepark and the nearby wading pool, considered as a barrier to keep little kids from bolting across the 25 feet and into the skate bowl – not just a wall. A few other tidbits: Davidson says there’s no final decision on whether to have gravel paths around the skatepark, but suspects that will be the final decision because of cost concerns (the commission remains concerned about the gravel getting “onto the skating surface” and is urging Parks to look at a “different pervious” material) … Davidson mentioned that the community-powered art project to accompany the skatepark has three muralists assigned to it, which one commissioner thought might not be optimal since the project has few planned elements suitable to that kind of painting. (The community group working on the art project is meeting tomorrow night, Davidson mentioned, to continue discussing details.) She also was urged to consider adding a bike rack, and also to keep in mind that it will be optimal if people waiting for buses along Delridge will be able to watch the skaters (provided there’s no blockage from trees, since none are to be removed as part of the project). The $750,000, 12,500-sf skatepark at the northeast corner of the Delridge Community Center park site is expected to break ground this summer and be done by fall.
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