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North Delridge Neighborhood Council: Playground, skatepark $
May 6, 2009 9:40 pm
|    Comments Off on North Delridge Neighborhood Council: Playground, skatepark $
 |   Delridge | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

Though the meeting was held at Delridge Library as usual, much of the attention at tonight’s North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting was focused north, on future projects at the Delridge Community Center playground and park grounds. First, the plan we’ve been telling you about to build a new playground there, with the help of KaBoom; the times are now set for the park-designing session that Betsy Hoffmeister announced Monday — 4 till 8:30 pm next Tuesday (May 12) at DCC. Child-care provided; the schedule is: Kids’ meeting 4-5 pm; spaghetti dinner 5-5:30 pm; adults’ meeting 5:30-8:30 pm. Betsy said at tonight’s meeting that she’s looking for volunteers to work on the playground July 17th; it would open the following week, after the cement cures. As also mentioned in our Monday report, $4,000 is needed to match money that KaBoom has put up, and some brainstorming went on tonight, including the idea of a plant sale at Delridge Day on May 30th. Also discussed tonight, the future Delridge Skatepark (planned for the northeast side of the park grounds), which as reported here two weeks ago, now may be in line for funding after all, since other city projects are coming in under budget. As a result of tonight’s discussion, Nancy Folsom is getting a letter of support from NDNC to take to next Monday night’s Skatepark Advisory Committee meeting, showing the city that the neighborhood supports the skatepark. It seems there’s some potential dissonance right now between what’s possible size-wise and maybe even big-picture-money-wise and what the city is looking at, according to this report by West Seattle skating advocate Matthew Lee Johnston at seattleskateparks.org.; he’s also planning to advocate for Delridge at Monday’s meeting, which is at 7 pm at Parks Department HQ downtown (map), public welcome.

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Happening tonight: 2 councils, plus your Park Levy $ ideas
May 6, 2009 7:39 am
|      17 COMMENTS
 |   Delridge | Southwest District Council | West Seattle parks

Here’s hoping you feel more like the osprey in Alkimac‘s photo today than the crow – unless you prefer to be the scrappy outsider! Anyway, once your great Wednesday is in the books, here are tonight’s highlights for how to make a difference in your neighborhood (and beyond):

NORTH DELRIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL: 6:30 pm, Delridge Library. Discussion is certain to include the big Delridge Community Center playground breakthrough reported here earlier this week.

SOUTHWEST DISTRICT COUNCIL: 7 pm, South Seattle Community College board room. Agenda includes a presentation on the changes ahead (reported here three weeks ago) in the Restricted Parking Zone program (here’s the city’s official page).

PARK LEVY $ AND HOW YOU THINK IT SHOULD BE SPENT: 7 pm, West Seattle Golf Course. Not all of the money in last fall’s Parks and Green Spaces Levy was earmarked for certain projects, so the city’s going into neighborhoods to talk about the possibilities (as well as the already-set projects).

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Morgan Junction park officially named “Morgan Junction Park”
May 5, 2009 2:11 pm
|      6 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

We broke the news a week and a half ago that the city Parks Department had recommended naming the new Morgan Junction park “Morgan Junction Park,” pending Superintendent Tim Gallagher‘s approval, and today the department announced that’s been finalized as its official name. The park, which opened last month after construction concluded, is to be dedicated June 13 during the Morgan Community Festival. The official announcement explains, “The Parks Naming Committee considered some 17 nominations, and after applying the criteria in the Park Naming Policy, unanimously recommended the name Morgan Junction Park because it acknowledges the history and location of the park.” (Among the other nominations was, of course, Tim St. Clair Park, in honor of the longtime West Seattle journalist who died last year; department naming policy says it can’t be done till someone’s been gone three years.) The park is on California SW, just north of the newly revitalized business block with Zeeks Pizza (opened May 1st), Feedback Lounge (opened April 25th) and Beveridge Place Pub (moved a year ago), near the Morgan/Fauntleroy/California “junction” intersection, and was the former site of an auto-repair shop, once purchased with the intent of development as a future monorail station before that transit project was killed. West Seattle still has three more new parks in the works — Junction Plaza Park, the newly covered Myrtle Reservoir site, and new parkland where West Seattle Reservoir in Westcrest Park is being covered. P.S. Got ideas for where money from last year’s Parks Levy should be spent? Wednesday night is your chance to offer comments at a meeting at West Seattle Golf Course, 7 pm.

ADDED 5:22 PM: Couldn’t resist asking Dewey Potter at Parks what the other name suggestions were. The reply:

Morgan Park
Deputy Steve Cox Park
Eddie Alvarez Park
Charlie Chong Park
Beveridge Place Park
Bicycle Park
The Whistle Stop Plaza
Walter R. Hundley Park
Quincy Jones Park

or after:
Ken Griffey Jr.
Tina Turner
Dorothy Dandridge
Lena Horne
Jesse Owens

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New Delridge playground: Date set, sponsor revealed, $ needed
May 4, 2009 10:43 am
|      6 COMMENTS
 |   Delridge | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

Another big development this morning in the Delridge Playground saga. As reported here last week, Delridge Community Center has a chance to get a new, safer playground for a dramatically reduced cost. Community volunteers jumped in — and this morning Betsy Hoffmeister reports, a date is set and a sponsor has come forward for the project involving an organization called KaBoom that, with volunteer and sponsor help, builds new playgrounds in a day. Here’s what we just received from her, including more on the help that’s still needed from the community right now:

I am thrilled to be the one to report that Delridge Community Center will be getting a new playground on JULY 17. The project sponsor is Bank of America! Thank you, Bank of America. Volunteers from BOA will be there on July 17 to help our whole community build our new playground.

Important dates:

On May 6 or so, we will be getting many more details on the scope of the project.

On the afternoon of Tuesday, MAY 12, a playground designer will be at the Community Center to meet with children and their parents to choose design elements for the playground. The kids who will get the most priority in participating in the design will be kids from the community, especially kids from the Community Center’s own preschool and after school care, as well as any kids from the SWY&FS preschool. I am not sure how many people there will be physical room for. The parents will have time to give input, as well. There will be translators.

After one week, KaBoom will send us three playground designs to choose from. After the Parks Department swiftly confirms that all three designs are safe and appropriate for our space, there will be significant public process to do that selection and make sure everyone is on board with the design.

What we need to accomplish in the next few weeks is raising $4000 extra to cover some extra bits. If you have volunteered to help with the playground, now is the time to contact me to get serious!

Very excited!
Betsy Hoffmeister
North Delridge Neighborhood Council

You can reach Betsy at betsy (at) hoffmeisters (dot) com.

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What should Parks do with Manning/Admiral site? Your turn
May 2, 2009 10:01 pm
|      4 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

As reported here in March, that city-owned parcel at Manning and Admiral just north of The Bridge, known for its big sequoia, is no longer proposed to be sold off as surplus property – City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen helped facilitate a deal for the Parks Department to take it over. As he mentioned when first announcing that, a public meeting will provide your big chance to have a say in what happens to it and what you’d like to see done with it – and that meeting is set for next Tuesday, 7 pm, Hiawatha Community Center. The city originally bought the 14,400-square-foot site as bridge right-of-way in 1961.

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Earth Month finale: JFK HS, EarthCorps in Lincoln Park today
April 30, 2009 8:39 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   Environment | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

With Earth Month in its final hours, we have two stories to share with you tonight, starting with this one: Hundreds of volunteers swarmed Lincoln Park today in a huge EarthCorps-led event. Ron Richardson covered it for WSB:

By Ron Richardson
Special to West Seattle Blog

In a project coordinated by Liz White of EarthCorps and teacher Jenny Farrell of Burien’s John F. Kennedy High School (from right in photo above), the entire JFK sophomore class set out today to work on ridding Lincoln Park of invasive plants such as ivy and blackberry bushes.

(A sampling of young leaders of the Lincoln Park cleanup. They represent EarthCorps, AmeriCorps, Kennedy High leaders and volunteers from around the world)
White explained that the mission of the organization is to “create healthy habitats, empower young leaders, and build communities around local environmental services.”

This is not the first time the EarthCorps program has worked at Lincoln Park.

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Art installation ahead for Camp Long – and you can help make it
April 30, 2009 5:17 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks | WS culture/arts

The Mater Matrix Mother website has been documenting artist Mandy Greer‘s creation of a crocheted art installation – she’s been visiting West Seattle libraries, too, and will be at the Sustainable West Seattle Festival this Sunday, as well as at Delridge Day coming up May 30th. Now there’s word her work her installation has found a future home, Camp Long’s Polliwog Pond – read the update just sent by Camp Long’s Sheila Brown:Read More

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Red-tape trouble? Delridge playground plan may need help
April 29, 2009 11:33 am
|      7 COMMENTS
 |   Delridge | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

At this month’s North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting (WSB coverage here), NDNC co-vice chair Betsy Hoffmeister reported a new development in the campaign for playground improvements in the area – instead of focusing on Cottage Grove Park, the attention turned to a proposal targeting the Delridge Community Center‘s playground. We got this update from her late last night – it includes some concern about the process, an offer of help, and the potential need for more:

Amazing things keep happening in Delridge! Kaboom, a national nonprofit organization, works with communities to help them build safe places to play. Occasionally, a corporate sponsor approaches Kaboom!, offering to fund a playground in a specific area. The organization helps the community group plan the playground, and comes in on one specific day and builds the whole thing.

In late March, Kaboom asked the Delridge Community Center to make a proposal to overhaul their 15 year old playground which, by the way, no longer meets federal safety standards. A donor corporation targeted the Delridge area, and the Community Center specifically and asked them to put together a proposal – by April 11. When the North Delridge Neighborhood Council (playground committee) heard this amazing news, we dropped our Neighborhood Matching Grant Proposal about Cottage Grove Playground, asked all the donors to switch allegiance to the Community Center proposal, and asked all the volunteers if they’d be willing to help out one mile north. Every single donor and volunteer agreed.

The Delridge Community Center whipped together a proposal which Kaboom really liked. Their advisory council recommended they apply to the City’s Small and Simple matching fund for additional resources, knowing they would need City oversight as the project is part of the Parks Department. They had less than two days to get a Small and Simple proposal together but managed to get everything together and get their proposal in.

On April 18, Kaboom had a conference call with the Community Center, representatives of the Parks Department, the SSCC, NDNC, and their advisory council. Kaboom was thrilled what they heard and asked for a second round which took place today, April 28. They as much as said as this proposal is the top contender. Unfortunately, the funding from the Parks Department, to cover the Parks Department oversight and the preparation of the site is far from certain. There are 74 proposals to the Small and Simple round from all over the City, with much less money available to spread around. The Kaboom folks were extremely worried to hear that the City wouldn’t be able to make a decision until after the Kaboom deadline. They called the NDNC (and basically said look, you are our top contender, it would be really sad if you didn’t get the grant because the City’s deadline is after ours) to ask if there was anything the neighbors could do … any way to come up with the site preparation/excavation without the city.

Amazingly, a neighbor who happens to be a licensed and bonded excavator volunteered to do the site preparation for FREE! We do not yet know whether the City will allow this company to volunteer their services to prepare the site. We also don’t know how we can pay the Parks employees to usher the playground designs through all of the reviews it needs to go through, and to oversee site preparation and installation. We are waiting extremely anxiously to hear from the City whether they will permit such an unorthodox approach. They have so many rules!

If you’ve read this far, you are a diehard Delridge Groupie. And you can ask yourself, how can I be helping make this amazing thing come true? And you might be feeling a little frustrated – why does the City tend to make things harder – here’s a golden opportunity to leverage a really big grant and upgrade a really needy playground really fast. So, what can you do? Approach any business that is not suffering horribly right now and ask them for a pledge – just a pledge – of $250, $500, $1000, or more. We don’t need cash in hand, we need pledges that folks will follow through on. Think about your tax return and see if you have a spare $50 (or $100, or $1000) to pledge. Go to the Community Center and sign a form stating you will pledge volunteer hours. Think if you know a licensed and bonded contractor who might be willing to donate excavation services. Imagine your vision of the Delridge Community Center with a new, safe, up to date, accessible playground for children of all ages, and respond to this with enthusiasm so I can send your responses on to the City, Kaboom, and maybe even our Councilmembers to ask for their help. Write to me with suggestions. If you are an artist or musician, think about how you could help hold an instant fundraiser for the playground to help us raise a few hundred or thousand bucks. (before you ask, we have a huge donation already from Nucor and from BECU).

Best case scenario – the people who need to respond, respond very quickly in the morning, and we have our answer right away, and they say “yes, of course the volunteer can do the excavation,” and then Kaboom is happy, and we’re happy, and it’s all good. But if Delridge needs help – and needs it fast – we need to know who is on deck to help out.

So far today, she hasn’t heard from the city – but you can e-mail her with offers of help, ideas, etc., at betsy (at) hoffmeisters.com.

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Preliminary name recommendation for Morgan Junction’s park
April 25, 2009 7:58 pm
|      10 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks | West Seattle people

The final word rests with Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher, but the Parks Department naming committee has announced its recommendation for what to call Morgan Junction’s new park (on the ex-Fauntleroy Auto, ex-planned-monorail-station site north of ex-Video Vault-turned-Beveridge Place Pub). The recommended name, disclosed at this week’s Parks Board meeting … Morgan Junction Park. As reported here in recent months, a community petition drive had been under way to get the park nameed in memory of Tim St. Clair, the longtime West Seattle Herald reporter who died in March of last year; he lived near Morgan Junction and spent years covering issues that led up to the creation of the park, including the monorail. Supporters, including major West Seattle-area community leaders and groups, asked Parks to make an exception in the department’s naming policy, which says a park can’t be named after someone until at least three years after their death. Again, the final park-naming decision is up to Superintendent Gallagher; if you are interested in contacting him with your comments on the proposed name, you’ll find his contact info here. Whatever name is finalized, the park will be officially dedicated during the Morgan Junction Community Festival on June 13th.

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New hope for Delridge Skatepark – and more from Parks Board
April 23, 2009 10:39 pm
|      3 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

By Keri DeTore
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

A variety of West Seattle-related issues came up — on and off the agenda — during tonight’s Parks Board meeting downtown, including new hope for construction of the Delridge Skatepark, plus other items from the golf-course plan vote to the stadium situation to Hiawatha bids and even a warning that swimmers will want to hear:

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West Seattle Golf Course driving range? Parks Board, this week
April 20, 2009 3:17 pm
|      13 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

Warm weather got you in the mood for golf? A big decision about the West Seattle Golf Course‘s future is days away. Thursday, the Seattle Board of Park Commissioners is scheduled to make its final recommendations on the citywide Golf Course Master Plan. After previous hearings and discussions, what’s known as “Option 4B” (see a summary of costs and timetables here) is in the forefront; under that plan, the first two elements slated for construction in West Seattle would be a double-level driving range ($3.4 million) and cart paths ($155,000), both scheduled for planning/design next year and construction in 2011. As shown in the Parks schematic above, the driving range would be on the western side of the golf course, south of the stadium and parking lot. Four other improvements — clubhouse, cart barn, maintenance facilities and perimeter trails — would be scheduled, under that “option,” for planning/design in 2013, construction in 2014. The Parks Board meets at 7 pm Thursday, department HQ at Denny Park (map); full documentation for this agenda item, and other agenda topics including athletic-field scheduling and park operating hours citywide, is linked from the board’s webpage.

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Park problem: Illegal scooter “offroading” at Solstice Park
April 19, 2009 9:42 pm
|      20 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

James sent photos with this explanation:

I was walking through Solstice Park with my baby and dog and noticed a bunch of skinny-tired donut (360 skid-out) tracks in the groomed gravel of the lookout. Following the tracks, they led to the culprits fixing their scooters up the trail.

He says the riders were 3 male teenagers/young men: “… the broken (scooter) was blue.” One of the other two, he says, had a license plate that starts with 78 and ends in 52; he says some of the ruts left behind in this small park, formerly known as Lincoln Park Annex — uphill east of the tennis courts across from Lincoln Park’s north end, and also home to a P-Patch — were almost half a foot deep.

James says he did call police to report this. Motorized vehicles, including scooters, are prohibited on Seattle Parks trails.

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Fun and fundraising on the menu: ARK Park, Chief Sealth dinners
April 18, 2009 11:56 pm
|    Comments Off on Fun and fundraising on the menu: ARK Park, Chief Sealth dinners
 |   Arbor Heights | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

That’s the team we found in the kitchen at Arbor Heights Community Church for the ARK Park Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser tonight (the park-plan ringleaders we first introduced you to last summer were in the group – Jan Seidel with the salad, at left, Loretta Kimball with the spaghetti, second from right). We showed you the ceremonial groundbreaking last month; the church is raising money to turn a nearby parcel into a playground-centered park. Play figured into tonight’s event, too, with activities for kids in separate rooms after dinner:

By the time we arrived at the spaghetti dinner, 2 hours into the 3-hour event, they estimated they’d already fed more than 200 people! From there, we headed northeast to Delridge, where the Chief Sealth High School cafeteria was also full of good times and good food – plus good music, at the 7th annual Honor Choir and Mariachi Tamale Dinner. In addition to enjoying the talent of CSHS student musicians, diners also heard from guest groups such as Mariachi Quinto Sol, featuring University of Washington students and alumni – here’s one of the songs they performed:

While at Chief Sealth, we bumped into a former TV co-worker, Lowell Deo, who was there to work on a Seattle Channel TV feature about CSHS that will air in his ongoing CityStream series later this spring – he promised to let us know when it’s scheduled, so we can let you know to watch for it. (Lowell profiled us halfway through this CityStream episode six months ago [15 minutes into the program].)

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West Seattle scenes: Schmitz Park signs of spring
April 17, 2009 7:20 pm
|      8 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle parks | West Seattle weather

From West Seattle photojournalist Matt Durham, of mattdurhamphotography.com:

Clockwise from lower left: Spring foliage adorns the trails as hikers and naturalists tour Schmitz Park Friday. White Trillium flowers (Lily family) can be found by the keen observer. Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) sprouts from soggy soils and their flowers are short-lived. Various other plants and flowers await visitors in West Seattle’s second-generation “old growth” forest.

Never been to Schmitz Park? Here’s a map.

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California Place Park: Design workshops end – now what?
April 17, 2009 4:14 pm
|      6 COMMENTS
 |   California Place Park | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Much has changed since the first public discussion of possible changes to little California Place Park in North Admiral – and much has not.

What has changed:

*After going through the design process funded by a $15,000 city matching-funds grant, the proposal for possible park changes does not include anything resembling a children’s play area.

*The so-called “southern triangle” of city-owned land, southwest of the park itself, is now under Parks Department supervision since the process brought to light the fact it was somewhat neglected SDOT-owned right-of-way.

*Life has changed for one of the leaders of Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral — Manuela Slye is moving her Admiral District home-based bilingual Cometa Playschool — which some critics had suggested was a motivation for proposing park changes — to part of the former Prudential NW space about two miles south.

What hasn’t changed:

Those opposed to any changes in the small triangle of lawn and trees remain resolute, particularly nearby resident Jan Bailey, who has spent many hours standing in the park with her NO CHANGE TO PARK sign, gathering almost 700 petition signatures, and brought her sign and flyers to last night’s meeting, greeting neighbors at the door, then keeping vigil at the back of the room.

Also unchanged, one stark reality: The fact that intensive community fundraising would be needed to make any changes to the park.

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Happening now: 3rd design workshop for California Place Park
April 16, 2009 7:03 pm
|      4 COMMENTS
 |   California Place Park | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

We’re at Alki Community Center for the third and final “design workshop” in this stage of the process that could result in additions to little California Place Park next to Admiral Church (WSB sponsor) at California/Hill. Park-change opponents are here with bright lime-green mini-signs that say NO CHANGE TO PARK on one side, echoing the large sign held by Jan Bailey, greeting meeting attendees outside (then at the back of the room once the meeting began, per photo added above at 7:16 pm), while landscape architect Karen Kiest and members of Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral get ready to lead the meeting inside. About 35 people are here as the meeting starts; Steven Gray from FANNA just announced there will be a May 24 gathering, location TBA (probably at the park), to celebrate the time and energy everyone’s put into this – on both sides. Kiest will be presenting final design options for the park; we’ll add a note or two along the way as the meeting proceeds, before a separate, full writeup afterward. 8:41 PM UPDATE: The meeting just wrapped up; next steps, Kiest will write up a report within the next month and a half or so, and FANNA will decide what if anything they might pursue funding for – cost estimates presented here went all the way from less than $100,000 for one component of the “draft plan” to almost $400,000 for everything that could be done (including extending the park boundaries to green up a currently paved section of land on the north side that belongs to the park but is currently used as road). ADDED FRIDAY MORNING: While we’re working on the in-depth followup, here’s the design artwork shown at the meeting.

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Admiral Way slope-clearing mystery solved
April 16, 2009 2:17 pm
|      10 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks


View Larger Map

More than a few WSBers have asked what we know about the city crew that’s been clearing part of the slope this week along the west side of Admiral Way, about halfway uphill from the West Seattle Bridge. We checked with Parks Department spokesperson Dewey Potter, who explains:

At this site there’s a little bit of park property and mostly Seattle Department of Transportation property. Under the Green Seattle Partnership, it’s the first piece of work to be done on non-park property, and the largest piece of non-park property identified as a Green Seattle Partnership site. Here’s the partnership web site: greenseattle.org and a recent Mayor’s news release

Parks is clearing the invasive blackberries. A banner will go up soon at the site inviting volunteers to come and help, if they’d like to, on the east side (the west side is too dangerous for volunteers because of its proximity to traffic and the steepness of the slope).

By the way, we regularly feature Green Seattle Partnership-promoted work parties in our West Seattle Weekend Lineup, published every Friday – here’s the GS list of what’s coming up this weekend, a particularly big slate since it’s the weekend before Earth Day. This page on the GSP website explains the importance of clearing invasives (ivy, and more) in urban forests.

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Morgan Community Association: Updates on parks, Zeeks, more
April 15, 2009 7:38 pm
|      2 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

More to come, but first some toplines, starting with: Two park updates from the Morgan Community Association meeting that’s under way right now at The Kenney: First, the new Morgan Junction park is unofficially open; it’s not going to be dedicated until the Morgan Junction Festival on June 13th, and its name hasn’t been chosen yet, but the fences are down (photo above added 9:19 pm) and the park is open for use. Second, a trail is complete in Solstice Park (the former Lincoln Park annex), some invasive-clearing work has been complete (and more is ahead), more than half a dozen new trees will go in this fall, and “site furniture” is going in within the next month, including benches behind the tennis court and a picnic table, according to Parks Department planner Susanne Friedman, who is briefing MoCA tonight. The park discussion is just part of a busy MoCA agenda – more to come.

ADDED 8:16 PM: Also at the meeting, SDOT’s Jessica Murphy is updating the Fauntleroy repaving/restriping project; she says the contract (with Merlino) was just executed today, and the start date for the work is mid-May – no word yet exactly where along the Alaska-to-Holly route the crews will start. Murphy also says Puget Sound Energy will be doing some gas main work in the Morgan Junction area in late May — we’ll check tomorrow to find out more on that. We also are getting a Zeeks Pizza update – Dan Black from Zeeks says they’re still on track for a MAY FIRST opening in the new California/Fauntleroy location (11 am!). (More details in a Thursday followup.) The building owners are here – they say the Feedback Lounge owners (north of Zeeks) couldn’t be at this meeting but hope to be open BEFORE Zeeks; checking their MySpace site, they’re saying they will announce their grand opening date this Saturday.

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West Seattle projects in first wave of approved Parks Levy spending
April 14, 2009 11:23 am
|      1 COMMENT
 |   West Seattle parks | West Seattle politics

The City Council Parks Committee meeting that’s under way now included a major milestone: Approval for the first spending in connection with the Parks Levy approved by voters last fall – more than $24 million in all. This includes some West Seattle projects, such as the start of design work for the extra park space that will be created on the new “lid” of West Seattle Reservoir in Westcrest Park, $1 million in renovations for the Camp Long Lodge (left), $3 million for Delridge Playfield artificial turf, and $170,000 for Fairmount Playfield renovations including play-equipment replacement. The full list of projects can be found in the official legislation approved by the committee this morning (which goes to the full Council next week). Earlier in this morning’s meeting, the committee — chaired by West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen – listened to a Parks Department presentation addressing concerns about artificial turf on Seattle playfields (including 12 existing installations as well as the aforementioned Delridge plan); Parks staffers noted that the city’s preferred supplier provides a product with no lead, while adding that only one city playfield has turf with lead (Genesee, in southeast Seattle), and said the advantages of artificial turf include year-round usability and lower maintenance costs.

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Get your garage sale on: Two this weekend (and then, WSCGSD)
April 14, 2009 11:16 am
|    Comments Off on Get your garage sale on: Two this weekend (and then, WSCGSD)
 |   Community Garage Sale Day | West Seattle parks | West Seattle religion

As registration rolls on for West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (coming up Saturday 5/9 – be part of The Big Map and regional promotion! – get in on the fun at westseattlegaragesale.com, 11 days left to register), we just got word of another big church sale, starting this Friday, and they’re still looking for donations: St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church (next to West Seattle High School) has its rummage sale this Friday-Saturday, April 17-18, and again the following Friday-Saturday, 4/24-4/25, 9 am-3 pm all four days. Got something to donate? Call the church at 937-4545. (This Saturday — one day only — also features a big sale and car wash at Alki Community Center; call ACC at 684-7430 for the scoop.) Never mind the wintry weather (sunbreak as we type, actually) – it’s time for spring cleaning – and sale season!

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How to spend Parks Levy $$? 4 meetings set, 1 in West Seattle
April 7, 2009 10:29 pm
|    Comments Off on How to spend Parks Levy $$? 4 meetings set, 1 in West Seattle
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

During our four fun hours at the Gathering of Neighbors on Saturday, we published a bit of news resulting from a chat with Pete Spalding, who (among other things) is on the new Parks Levy Oversight Committee: Pete told us a series of public meetings was about to be announced, giving you the chance to speak out about how you would like to see some of that money (particularly its $15 million “Opportunity Fund” for community-generated projects) spent. Tonight, we get word from Pete that the dates/times/locations of four open houses are now set, including, as he said, one meeting in West Seattle: 7-8:30 pm May 6, West Seattle Golf Course. (The other 3 open houses: 7 pm 5/4, Rainier Community Center; 7 pm 5/12, Green Lake Community Center; 7 pm 5/13, Parks HQ downtown.)

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Love and laughter now link Lowman Beach with Wallingford
April 6, 2009 11:57 pm
|      11 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

From Wallingford’s neighborhood-news site Wallyhood comes the story behind yellow ribbons and peals of laughter at Lowman Beach over the weekend: The replacement swingset installed last fall was dedicated in memory of Emma Kowalczyk, a Wallingford baby who died one year ago today. (More photos here.)

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2nd off-leash area in West Seattle? Unleash your support!
April 6, 2009 4:27 pm
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 |   High Point | Pets | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

That’s Sophia the Italian greyhound, aka the current CityDog Magazine cover dog, companion to Wendy and Stephen Hughes-Jelen. Wendy’s High Point K9 Club has a new mission = a second off-leash area for West Seattle (the only one right now is at Westcrest Park). She explains: “The High Point K9 Club is refocusing its mission to concentrate exclusively on the creation of an off-leash exercise area for dogs in the community. The meetup group that was founded in August of 2007 will be purging inactive members so that all current active participants in the off-leash area project are plugged in and receiving communications as we go through the steps of this large project. You do not have to live within the borders of the redeveloped High Point to participate or use the off-leash area. People and their social dogs living in the surrounding communities are welcome to join and participate in the creation process and use of the park after it is done. If you have always wanted to design and build a dog park, we need you!” Just sign up for the group by going here.

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