July 2007

Gary Merlino Construction, the city's Admiral Way contractor, plans to pave the main arterial from 41st to Olga Street next week, depending on weather conditions.

The contractor plans to start at 7 p.m. and end by 6 a.m. the next morning. Admiral Way will be closed to through traffic in both directions. Local access will be provided for residents in the area.

Traffic will be detoured at the West Seattle Bridge exit to Fauntleroy Way.

To ease the crush of commuters expected when lanes of Interstate 5 are closed for repairs later this month, the Elliott Bay water taxi is adding a morning trip to its schedule, plus a second shuttle bus August 13 to August 29.

King County Metro also applied to the U.S. Coast Guard for permission to increase the number of passengers the water taxi can carry on each sailing, from the current 149 passengers to 250.

Transit buses will continue to use Third Avenue as a priority corridor when the downtown transit tunnel opens next month.

The decision was made based on "the outstanding success in moving buses quickly and efficiently through downtown," said Mayor Greg Nickels.

The decision to continue bus service on Third Avenue during peak hours will allow Metro Transit to reorganize surface bus routes and balance transit traffic across downtown.

"By every measure, using Third Avenue for buses has been a very smart move," said Nickels.

Marching bands

1st Seattle All-City Marching Band

2nd Kennedy High School

Drill teams Jr.

1st Electronettes

2nd Baby Dolls

3rd Seattle City Light

Drill Teams Sr.

1st North Queens

2nd Dangerettes

The Seattle City Council trashed plans to build a new garbage transfer station in Georgetown.

On July 16, the council passed a "zero waste" strategy introduced by Councilman Richard Conlin that calls for the city to increase its total recycling to 72 percent by 2025.

The resolution calls for a number of components, including recycling of organic materials such as food scraps, eventually eliminating self-haul trips to the dump and rebuilding the city's two existing garbage transfer stations.

The north and south recycling and disposal stations will need to be alm

The following local students from West Seattle and White Center have graduated from Seattle Pacific University. Founded in 1891, Seattle Pacific University is a premier Christian university that equips people to engage the culture and change the world. Its comprehensive academic program serves more than 3,800 undergraduate and graduate students.

At 14th and Henderson, officers stopped a woman driving a stolen PT Cruiser. The woman explained that she had met the car's owner "over crack (cocaine) and a smile" a few days earlier, and he had asked her to drive a couple of his friends home. After running this errand, the woman liked the car so much that she decided to keep it. She told the officer, "I was actually doing him a favor.

The editorial "Warning! Food Has Calories" seems obvious but it would be a reminder to people to eat healthier. Overeating and eating the wrong things creates many health problems.

I would like the King County Board of Health to consider the health problems associated with sex. There are many items (magazines, books, movies, and newspapers) that use sexuality to entice people to buy. Could the Board of Health require these items to carry a label stating "Sex can transmit life and or diseases.

Thousands converged in downtown Ballard last weekend to take the advice of the 2007 Ballard SeafoodFest's slogan, "Feed Your Inner Viking." Almost 100 sponsors, via the Ballard Chamber of Commerce, and over 100 vendors, pulled off the successful event. Saturday's weather was storybook perfect. Sunday got off to a damper start.

Warren Aakervik, of Ballard Oil, held court over 2,000 pounds of salmon fillet, donated by Trident Seafoods, at the Alder-smoked Salmon Barbecue cookout. The cooking and eating area spanned over 300 feet of 22nd Avenue Northwest, north of Market Street.

Average Seattle incomes aren't keeping up with rising housing costs and home ownership and rental opportunities are moving beyond the reach of wageworkers.

That fact prompted Mayor Greg Nickels to unveil his new housing program last week, which aims to put more homes within reach of Seattle's working class.