March 2007

On behalf of the entire staff at the Alaska Junction Liquor Store, I would like to thank everyone in the community who donated the many items of non-perishable food during our holiday food drive. It was such a success we extended it through park of January. All of the donations were given to two local food banks and they were very appreciative.

Once again, thanks to the West Seattle folks who donated t5o this worthy cause. We look forward to hosting another holiday food drive next season.

Jason Skidmore

Manager

Alaska Junction Liquor Store

Sometimes the most dangerous course of action is doing nothing.

If we do nothing, then global climate changes already making their mark on our weather, glaciers and air quality will harm our environment in irrevocable and dire ways.

Washington is especially vulnerable to climate change because of our dependence on snow pack for summer stream flows and because any rise in sea levels would threaten our many coastal communities.

If greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked, temperatures will rise by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, acc

Architects of Fauntleroy Place are redesigning the most prominent corner of the planned six-story housing and retail development at Alaska Street and Fauntleroy Way.

The West Seattle Design Review Board told architects from Stricker Cato Murphy Associates the glass cylinder proposed at that busy corner isn't playful or colorful enough. (See architect's drawing, Page 12.)

Fauntleroy Place is proposed to have about 185 apartments in two residential towers.

Work is scheduled to resume Monday, March 19 on repaving California Avenue Southwest.

Now that most of the winter is over and outdoor temperatures are getting warm enough to work with asphalt, workers from Gary Merlino Construction Co. next will start repaving California Avenue from Southwest Genesee to Spokane Street.

Traffic through the work zone on California Avenue will be allowed to continue although cars will be restricted to one lane during morning and evening commuting hours. The restriction will be in place from 6 a.m. until 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Forget the Safeway parking lot in the Admiral district if you want to buy groceries and then walk across the street to pick up clothes or go to the bank.

Safeway will give you a $35 ticket. If not paid within 15 days, it increases to $60.

Shoppers in the Admiral business district are returning to their cars at the Safeway parking lot to find the parking penalty notices on their windshields.

That's a departure from Safeway's past forgiving attitude about allowing non-customers to use the outer edges of its large parking lot at 2622 California Ave. S.W.

Burien City Councilman Jack Block Jr., a second-generation longshoreman, hopes to become a second-generation Seattle port commissioner in November.

Block announced last week that he will challenge longtime Port Commissioner Bob Edwards, whose current six-year term expires Dec.

Middle and elementary schools students in West Seattle who came close to passing the Washington Assessment of Student Learning last spring are enrolled in a new after-school program aimed at boosting their test scores.

The district's chief academic officer, Carla Santorno, initiated the program to assist fourth- and seventh-graders who scored just below standard in math and or reading, said Joanne Testa-Cross, who helped develop the district's pilot program.

Lafayette, Cooper, High Point, Gatewood, Sanislo, Highland Park and Roxhill elementary schools, as well as Madison

U.S. Rep.

Foreign high school students are scheduled to arrive soon for academic semester home-stay programs, and the sponsoring organization needs a few more local host families.

According to Pacific Intercultural Exchange Executive Director, John Doty, the students are all between the ages of 15 and 18 years, are English-speaking, have their own spending money, carry accident and health insurance and are anxious to share their cultural experiences with their new American families.

Pacific Intercultural Exchange currently has programs to match almost every family's needs, ranging

Early Sunday, a man was so eager to catch his bus that he ran across Delridge Way to the bus stop and slipped on the wet pavement directly in front of the bus. The shocked bus driver had to slam the brakes so hard that passengers fell out of their seats. The would-be passenger was unfazed and got up and started picking up his junk food that had scattered on the street when he fell. An officer witnessed the incident and made sure no passengers were hurt. The suspect told the officer he had been drinking, "so it wasn't my fault." The 25-year-old north end resident lied about his identity.