18 month old Pumpkin belongs to Jenny now but originally, he was a farm cat from Ridgefield, Washington. Her newphew Dallas gave him away as a gift. He was the only male out of a litter of five. "Most red cats are male," Jenny explained. "He's a good cat. He fetches. He's made friends with the neighbor's pit bull, probably because he grew up with two dogs as early friends.
Milla is a pure bred Bernese Mountain Dog who according to her owner Jahn Leonard, "knows everyone on the beach." She is 22 months old, weighs about 105 pounds and while she carries the distinctive tri-color markings of the breed, she has something uncommon about her. She has one blue eye. "It's a recessive gene," Jahn explained,"Not normally something people look for in this breed but it's why we chose her." Jahn and his girlfriend have trained Milla with hand signals and voice commands to perform a few tricks after watching "The Dog Whisperer" on television.
In my last column I traced the history of the many parks that were included in the Olmsted brothers' plan for the Ballard community. In the end only two of these parks were ever developed. However, largely through the herculean efforts of the grassroots organization, Groundswell Northwest, this is slowly being corrected.
Formed in 1989 and incorporated in 1992, Groundswell has been impressively successful in fulfilling is mission of creating more parks, open space and natural habitat in our beloved Northwest corner of Seattle.
Webster Park (the park at the Nordic Heritage Museum) is currently owned by the Seattle School District and leased by the Seattle Parks Department. The School District has been given instructions to sell the property, along with four other properties.
The proposal is that the Parks Dept buys the park for the asking amount of $1.6 million, or the value of seven residential lots. The potential problem is that the Parks Department may not have that kind of money, and the representative from the school district said they would pursue other buyers if the parks couldn't pay.
Editor's Note: This was sent in response to the Sunset Hill Community Association letter about the sale of Webster Playground.
The Seattle School District is having a series of required public meetings on surplus properties that they are planning to sell. Recently the School District held a meeting at the Nordic Heritage Museum to discuss Webster Playground. Many Ballard residents apparently came away from the meeting or heard second hand that there was some risk that Webster Playground might be lost or sold for other purposes.
Nothing could be farther from the truth!
Yesterday I had my car window smashed in and my purse stolen from inside my car. This would not seem so unusual except that it happened on 24th Street in front of Ballard Escrow, near the old QFC, was in the middle of the day with people everywhere.
It concerns me because I thought Ballard - especially this area - was very safe. I would normally never leave my purse in the car, but I was gone for only three minutes dropping off my dry-cleaning, when the kids waiting for the bus smashed in my window, grabbed my purse and ran - and amazingly, no one saw it actually happen.
Former students and long-time community members gave emotional testimony last week as to why the school district should sell the former Allen School to its current tenant, the Phinney Neighborhood Association, keeping it a "public asset."
Executive director of the Phinney Neighborhood Association, Ed Mederios, is negotiating with the school district for purchase of the former school buildings and said last week he'd be ready to make an offer by the end of April.
The official assessed fair market value isn't public information while the district is in negotiations with the
Two Ballard men are keeping the tradition of piston-powered hydroplanes alive through the Miss Thriftway boat which they built from scratch, a boat this is just for show, not for racing.
Steve Payne and Stuart Jones both graduated from Ballard High school in 1966.
The Ballard Historical Society is focusing on something it doesn't do all that often; looking to the future instead of the past as it loses long-term members, and with them, a wealth of institutional knowledge about the once independent city.
Ten-year member and former president of the society Mary Fortino left in December. Current vice-president Martha Obenauer is resigning this summer after eight years on the board.
Both women's personal lives caught up with them.
The 2008 Ballard Jazz Festival is April 23 through 27 at venues along Ballard Avenue and at the Nordic Heritage Museum where two Mainstage Concerts featuring the Hadley Caliman and the Hal Galper Trio on Friday, April 25 and the Lee Konitz Sam Yahel Trio on Saturday, April 26 Both shows begin at 7:30 p.m. and are for all ages.
The Brotherhood of the drum concerts at the Sunset Tavern presents the percussion sounds of former Santana drummer Michael Shrieve on April 23. Ballard favorite Matt Jorgensen is scheduled on April 24.
