June 2007

Housing developments dominated the attention of Des Moines City Council members at their June 14 meeting.

A preliminary design for the Landmarque townhouse modified subdivision on 10 acres at Pacific Highway South and South 263rd Street received approval after affirmative action was recommended by city staff.

The subdivision will include 66 attached single-family townhouses, two detached single-family lots and one commercial lot.

"It's a large, vacant, undeveloped site between Pacific Highway and a single family residential neighborhood," said Jason Sullivan, a

Several hundred volunteers representing 30 fundraising teams will take over Memorial Stadium and Highline High School Friday and Saturday, June 23-24.

Their goal is to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Team members will take turns walking around the track continuously for 18 hours at the second annual Relay For Life of Highline.

King County Councilmember Dow Constantine, a long-time supporter of Relay For Life, will be the special guest speaker at the Opening Ceremony for the event, beginning at 3 p.m.

Chinook Middle School parents urged Highline Schools board members on June 13 to continue programs to foster parent and community involvement in schools.

Due to proposed budget cuts, a community liaison position at the SeaTac school has been eliminated.

Chinook already faces advanced sanctions from the federal Leave No Child Behind act because of poor student scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL).

Principal Todd Moorhead is moving to the Puget Sound Skills Center, formerly the SeaTac Occupational Skills Center, as assistant principal in

Highline residents have a stake in a transportation funding package approved by the three-county Regional Transportation Investment District Planning Committee.

If voters agree this fall, money would be included to improve freight movement by extending the southern end of State Route 509.

Dubbing her effort, "Project Happy Toes," Burien resident Jeanene Laegreid is working to gather 600 pairs of shoes and socks for needy grade-schoolers and their younger siblings in the Highline School District.

The drive is directed at Madrona Elementary in SeaTac this year but Laegreid hopes to expand it to other schools.

Over 80 percent of Madrona students qualify for free or reduced meals.

It was a fun, rainy good time for Burien and Des Moines middle schools, having kids from Chinook, Cascade, Sylvester and Pacific getting to finish off their season championships for first to fourth place in soccer and also to meet Seattle Sounder forward, Colin Rigby, at Highline Memorial Field Saturday June 11.

Cascade finished best, winning the game for first and second place, beating Chinook, 1-0, on Jorge Delgado's second-half, free kick goal with 15 minutes left in the game.

Stan Geddes is coach of year

By Dean Wong

Stan Geddes, head coach of the Ballard Beavers girl's golf team has been honored by his peers who voted him Coach of the Year in KingCo.

Geddes, lead the team to an unexpected third place finish in the KingCo Medalist Tournament last month behind Redmond and Eastlake.

The state of Ballard in 1900

By Kay F. Reinartz

The May 30 issue of the Ballard News Tribune, commemorating the annexation of the City of Ballard to the City of Seattle, provided a basic outline of the work of the mayor and city council during Ballard's brief time as a city.

Today I will give a brief overview of Ballard at the turn of the 19th century.

By the end of the 1890s Ballard was enjoying a good deal of attention as the fastest growing municipality and industrial center on Puget Sound.

Dandelion should be on your list

Dandelion

5809 24th Ave. N.W.

706-8088

Tuesday-Thursday 5 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Friday-Saturday 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Most people take a break at lunch, but Paul Weyn grabs his camera bag and tripod to photograph birds at Golden Gardens instead.

Weyn works for an electronic manufacturer on Shilshole Avenue and likes to spend an hour each day at the park.

As a photographer, Weyn finds birds to be a perfect design of nature.

"The seagull is an ordinary bird.