June 2008

A Ballard woman has formed her own army in the fight against breast cancer.

When the 2008 Komen Puget Sound Race for the Cure happened on June 21, Ann McMurray brought "Ann E's Army," with over 105 supporters who have raised money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure Puget Sound.

"I am very proud to be the captain of such a great group of people that I have met during my life," said McMurray. They include childhood friends, co-workers, friends from college and friends she has met through others.

"Ann E's Army," has raised $10,000 each year since 2003.

Kids are spending more time indoors with the growing popularity of technology given to them each day. Computers, video games, and television are taking over and it's getting more difficult to get kids to enjoy the simple pleasures of the outdoors.

Recently, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission has been avidly promoting Seattle to get kids outdoors through the No Child Left Inside Initiative.

The Ballard Avenue Landmark District Board considered changes in appearance of local establishments with an iron fist.

A few local business owners came before the District Board last week to discuss various changes they wanted to make to their establishments.

The majority of the meeting was spent in heated discussion over the restoration of the Olympic Athletic Club sign on Ballard Avenue.

With the start of the summer boating coming up, boaters will have limited use of the small lock at the Hiram Chittenden Locks.

The small lock has pintle bearings that are badly deteriorated and replacement parts have to be custom fabricated.

The locks were built in 1907 and are commonly referred to as the Ballard Locks.

The bearings support the four gates and act like hinge pins on a door, said Dick Devlin, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"The soonest we can have new pintle bearings fabricated is October.

There's a new feature attraction in Ballard and it's the Sea Star, one of the boats from the television series Deadliest Catch.

The boat was retired from the crabbing business in 2005 and still serves as a chase boat for the Discovery Channel crew of the Deadliest Catch.

Videographers use the Sea Star to get footage of five boats: Cornelius Green; Northwestern; Time Bandit; Wizard; and Early Dawn.

"The boat to boat action, that was us. You see a lot of shots from outside those boats, all that was filmed here," said crewmember and co-owner Gary Stewart.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, a Democrat who represents Ballard, recently spoke at the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis.

The conference covered a wide array of issues from the failures of our media system to the emerging communications technologies, such as access to digital media.

The Mountain Loop Highway will be reopened Saturday, June 28, at noon, at Barlow Pass, reconnecting Granite Falls to Darrington for hiking and camping for the summer. This scenic byway through the Mt.

3 on 3 tourney to be at Seafood Fest

By Dean Wong

Local players are invited to form teams for the first 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament July 26 and 27, during the same weekend as the Ballard SeafoodFest.

The tournament is presented by Michael Johnson's Hoopaholics organization and the Olympic Athletic Club at St. Alphonsus School.

Johnson, who was a star player at Ballard High School and the University of Washington, said he hopes the tournament could be an annual event that continues to grow.

"This is going to be a fun event.

You can always tell the English. You can always tell the Dutch. You can always tell Lubahn's class, but you can't tell much. Thank Goodness it's Friday!

At Hilltop Elementary in Puyallup in the 1970s, John Lubahn's sixth grade class gathered every Friday to yell that cheer at exactly 3 o'clock. Then, just as the cheers and whistles and claps were started to fade, the class of kids burst out of the room and ran towards the buses. I remember very clearly that sense that Fridays gave you - the sense of excitement, of wonder, of joy.

I am wondering if the Ballard News-Tribute can do an article on the dangerous pedestrian corridor on 24th Avenue Northwest due to construction?

As you know, 24th Avenue Northwest was totally reconfigured recently in the interest of pedestrian safety (or so the party line went), and now there are two construction projects on 24th that frequently allow no pedestrian corridor in lieu of a sidewalk.

The construction site on the east side of the street, where the old QFC used to be, is frequently cordoned off for pedestrian access, and there is significant progress on construc