March 2007

Seattle Department of Transportation is about to begin sidewalk repair on Ballard Avenue Northwest. Paving crews will work on the west side of the street between Northwest Vernon Place and 22nd Avenue Northwest to repair damage caused by tree roots.

To reduce the impact to businesses, the crews will work on half of the block at a time, maintaining access to businesses. Parking will be restricted in the work area from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, but will be restored after 3 p.m. and on weekends.

The project is expected to take three to four weeks.

Some parents at North Beach Elementary School are wondering, "where's the math?" in curriculum being considered for district-wide adoption by the Seattle School District.

The district's goal is to streamline its math curriculum in hopes of boosting academic achievement and less than stellar state test scores. The idea is students moving from one grade to another and one school to another will have similar experiences.

Schools in Seattle have had a lot of autonomy in teaching the subject, with techniques and curriculum varying among grade levels.

Speed will be a key to success for the Ballard Beavers this year as they seek to make an impact in KingCo baseball.

League opponents are taking notice with Juanita absorbing a 19-9 loss and Eastlake coming out on the losing end 7-2 earlier this month.

"We have decent depth. We can play fairly fast. All three outfielders can play center," said Head Coach Kevin Miller.

Miller is a former Beaver himself, earning the Metro League player of the year honor in 1995.

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

Fifteen Highline Community College students will attend school on full tuition waivers after earning Academic Achievement Scholarships for spring quarter 2007.

The winning students earned the scholarships by demonstrating a commitment to future academic excellence and having significant honors and achievements.

"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 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.