January 2006

The drug related deaths of two people living in a motor home last month has focused attention on the proliferation of homeless people living in vehicles on Ballard Streets.

The bodies of Sarah Gregory, 24, and Richie Owens, 33, were found in a 1976 Dodge Motor home on December 16. The vehicle was parked on Northwest 49th Street near 14th Avenue Northwest.

The address listed in the official police report for Gregory was the same as that of the Ballard Food Bank. The food bank has about 600 people who use the agency's address to receive mail.

2006 should bring more victories for Ballard High School sports. Here's a forecast for some of the winter and spring Beaver teams.

Former Beavers brings new energy and intensity

Winning has been in short supply for the Ballard Beavers girls and boys basketball programs in recent years. That's going to change with new head coach Billy Rodgers.

The former Beaver has returned to his old school to revive the boys program.

Unforgettable characters, surprising plot twists and vivid settings make these the best reviewed books of 2005.

Best Realistic Fiction - Black and White by Paul Volponi

Eddie and Marcus are longtime basketball buddies who are tearing up the court during their senior year at a Long Island high school. Such close interracial friendships aren't the norm, so they're called Black and White by their friends. Both come from poor families and the need for new basketball shoes at the same time they must pay $150 for their senior activities leaves them scraping for money.

New Year's resolutions can be very secret things, whispered in hushed tones, only after furtive glances over one's shoulder.

Just ask Agatha. Sitting at a table outside Verite Caf/ on NW Market Street, the young Ballard resident was deeply engrossed in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. When asked what her resolution for 2006 is, Agatha paused and agreed to tell me only if I did not use her real name.

Nicole Bowman has been selected for an Ambassadorial Scholarship through the Ballard Rotary Club and will travel to Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia where she plans to study for a Masters Degree in International Communication.

The Rotary Foundation's Ambassadorial Scholarships are one of their oldest and most well-known programs. The program was started in 1947 and since then 37,000 men and women representing 100 nations have taken part.

The award helps further understanding and promote relationships among people of different countries.

Ballard's housing stock is undergoing tremendous change. We have large condominium developments underway, we are seeing so called "mega houses" replacing smaller bungalows and we are witness to an outcrop of many new townhouses. I would like to offer some of my personal observations on the latter phenomenon.

Specifically, on the West side of 24th Ave the past 18 months there has been a flurry of townhouse construction. As there was little vacant land to start with, most townhouses projects are kicked off with the destruction of what I have come to call a "tear-down" house.

The biggest story in the pages of the Ballard News-Tribune in 2005, measured in pages, was the life and death of the monorail. 30 monorail stories graced the pages of this newspaper, edging out news about schools and education (26 stories) and parks and playfields (21 stories). But none of these stories may have the same short term impact as the Ballard building boom. By 2010, there will be a few thousand more faces in the downtown Ballard area, bringing a few thousand more parking spaces with them. The influx of people has already sparked a merchant boom.

"There's a story in the numbers," said Anne Ricker, a market analyst who recently completed a three-month, in-depth study of Federal Way's economic climate.

The good news is that the story she tells sounds generally uplifting.

And while it includes plenty of hard work ahead for the city and local businesses, it's a story she believes will have a happy ending for Federal Way businesses.

After months of business surveys and number crunching, Federal Way's market analysts delivered their initial findings to the city council before Memorial Day, wrapping up the ope

I had this great idea to make some buttermilk pancakes for Elsbeth. She always gets short shrift because her birthday is on the 23rd of December and things get pretty hectic around our house that close to Christmas.

So I bought some blueberries and put them in the fridge and told her I would fix her breakfast. I was going to serve her in bed like my friend Ken Sealander has done for 40 years which is likely a world Guinness book record .

First I made the coffee. That is pretty easy.

When Tacoma-area Boy Scouts had nowhere to go, William Kilworth bought them a new home.

During the Great Depression, Kilworth, a Tacoma Rotarian and a strong supporter of Scouting, purchased the land that encompasses the camp from Dr. Kilgore for $4,500. The next day, February 28, 1934, he deeded the property over to the Scouts.

Two years later, the Tacoma Rotary added the lodge that sits on a bluff overlooking Puget Sound. From the front porch of the timbered building, Scouts can enjoy unobstructed views of Vashon Island and the snow-capped Olympic Range.