November 2008

This season the Ballard Knights Juniors football team did their part to make up for the a disappointing year in local sports by going 7-1 on the season and winning the league championship Nov. 1.

Jason "Coach Buzz" Busbe said this year's success was gratifying after a one-win 2007 season and especially impressive because his team of seventh and eighth-graders played and defeated high school freshmen teams.

"There was a lot of talent on the team," Coach Buzz said.

Two Ballard High School cross country runners participated in the 4A state championship meet Nov.

Reuven Carlyle defeated fellow Democrat John Burbank by a decisive margin in the Nov. 4 general election to become the new state representative from the 36th District, replacing long-serving Rep. Helen Sommers.

According to a letter from Burbank to the community, he called Carlyle on the morning of Nov. 5 to offer his congratulations on the victory.

My Ballard-born daughter is 17 years old but until tonight I hadn't removed the latch for her baby gate that was attached to the doorframe at the bottom of the stairs. I don't think that I've even noticed it for at least 15 years even though it has been inches from my hand each and every time I opened my front door to the world.

We take our everyday surroundings for granted until they are gone then we can spend decades attempting to recreate the details.

Miro Tea is so fabulously Ballard it's enough to make me consider converting from coffee to tea (although I don't think I can ever give up my coffee).

With nearly 200 different types of loose leaf tea and knowledge learned from her family's successful local tea business, Jeannie Liu brings her expertise to Ballard to create a perfect gathering place for customers to hang out, study, play games, and expand their knowledge of tea.

More than five years ago, Liu helped conceptualize her family's business, the popular bubble tea hangout spot Oasis.

With some cool logic, a bank economist almost made the dark clouds go away last week with his predictions that by mid to late 2009 things will begin to bloom again in Seattle.

William B. Conerly is the consulting economist for small and vibrant Viking Bank, started a few years ago by a doctor who grew to dislike the way big banks operate.

I am the volunteer coordinator for Bergen Place Park. A recent article (News-Tribune, Nov. 5) about the Swedish-Finnish Society leaving Ballard has me troubled in a few ways. First, I'm sorry to see them leave Ballard, but most of us with Nordic heritage consider the Swedish Cultural Center an extension of Ballard anyway. Her comments about Bergen Place though have me a little baffled.

I know there are many people who do not like the sculptures in Bergen Place. There is a history about them, which I am not going into detail about now.

A recent Wall Street Journal article listed Seattle as the number one market in the nation to being begin bouncing back from the economic slump. That news brings a smile to the faces of Phyllis and David Danforth, who have some news of their own. They have just completed the purchase Coldwell Banker Del Bianco realty in Burien.??The Danforths have been a Coldwell Banker affiliate since 1993, with principal offices in Federal Way and boasting 250 agents on their roster. The new combination adds 48 Del Bianco agents making it the largest single realty agency in the nation.

Dick Dahlgard, --"Mr. Burien" to many-- died suddenly on Wednesday at his Lake Burien residence.

Mr. Dahlgard turned 73 on July 19.

He was a true Burienite.

He attended Sunnydale Elementary and graduated from Highline High in 1954.

Mr. Dahlgard opened Dick's Camera in 1969 and operated it successfully before retiring a couple of years ago.

But it was his community work that brought him his most important recognition.

A recent Wall Street Journal article listed Seattle as the number one market in the nation to being begin bouncing back from the economic slump. That news brings a smile to the faces of Phyllis and David Danforth, who have some news of their own. They have just completed the purchase Coldwell Banker Del Bianco realty in Burien.

The Danforths have been a Coldwell Banker affiliate since 1993, with principal offices in Federal Way and boasting 250 agents on their roster.