March 2007

School closures and consolidations this fall will shuffle around some elementary school principals in this part of the city.

Joanne Bowers, principal of Viewlands Elementary School, will take charge of North Beach Elementary next year. Jeanne Smart will remain principal at Broadview-Thomson Elementary, which merges with Viewlands this fall.

Ed James, a retired Seattle Public School principal, has been filling in on an interim basis at North Beach since last September.

We have all heard the old adage, "Where are the police when you need them?"

With so many drivers refusing to take responsibility for their poor driving habits from speeding, running red lights, failing to stop at posted stop signs and many other in fractions of the law, where is enforcement?

But even a worse problem is drivers not stopping at crosswalks for pedestrians.

Recent experience: Ambaum Boulevard just north of Southwest 128th Street is a crosswalk with painted markings on the pavement and overhead flashing warning lights.

A young girl maybe

"I am not going to mince words," King County Councilwoman Julia Patterson told participants at an open house on regional transportation at Highline Community College last week.

"This would be the largest investment of tax revenue in the past 50 years."

Patterson was referring to a roads and transit-funding measure slated for the Nov.

Metro Transit Police introduced their new explosives-sniffing dog "Stevie" to the public last week.

Stevie is the King County Sheriff's Office second explosive-sniffing dog, and the first assigned to Metro Transit fulltime.

He and his handler, Deputy Tim Morgan, will patrol Metro Transit facilities in Highline and elsewhere daily, always on the lookout.

Stevie joins another sheriff's office explosives dog, Jones, and handler Deputy John Decker.

The duties of Morgan and Stevie include random sweeps of Metro facilities and coaches.

A new dance troupe is entertaining audiences at restaurants in Seattle's Pioneer Square.

But "Amira's Dancers," which started their live performances in February, isn't just another group of performers.

They are from Burien-and they are belly dancers.

Members of Amira's Dancers have been practicing two days a week for the past year in a dance studio at Southwest 152nd Street and 21st Avenue S.W.

There, instructed by Amira the Belly Dancer, also known as Joy Bueling of Normandy Park, they have been learning a style called Egyptian cabaret.

SeaTac Mayor Gene Fisher received recently the Platinum Leadership Statesman award from the National League of Cities' Leadership Training Institute at the group's congressional conference in Washington D.C.

Only 72 officials have earned the award since 1999.

Fisher also participated in the organization's Public Safety and Crime Prevention policy board.

While in the nation's capital, Mayor Fisher met with Sen.

The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) has named state Sen.

Burien City Councilwoman Sally Nelson, vice chairwoman of The Equity and Opportunity Panel for the National League of Cities, was a keynote speaker at a recent workshop in Washington, D.C.

Nelson spoke on "Inclusiveness ...

The Times/News presents a weekly summary of actions on bills by Highline-area legislators.

For complete information, go to www.WashingtonVotes.org-a free, non-partisan Website with plain-English explanations of bills and a record of each legislator's votes-which is the source for this report.

Highline is represented by:

District 11-Sen. Margarita Prentice; Rep Zack Hudgins, Rep. Bob Hasagawa.

District 33-Sen. Karen Keiser; Rep. Shay Schual-Berke, Rep. Dave Upthegrove.

District 34-Sen. Erik Poulsen; Rep. Eileen Cody; Rep. Joe McDermott.

Development company representatives spoke before the Des Moines council on March 22, providing input for the city's vision for Pacific Ridge and suggestions for zoning in the neighborhood along Pacific Highway South.

By the time the hour and a half long dialogue ended, however, the issue was no longer just about Pacific Ridge.

The issue quickly had turned to improvement throughout the city of Des Moines.

All of the developers agreed that Pacific Ridge, just north of Kent-Des Moines Road, is not the area that Des Moines should be putting its time and money into