May 2009

Senior Lauren Hammerle, a late-add after the withdrawal of a Garfield student, will join three other athletes from the Ballard High School track and field team as they compete in districts May 22 and May 23.

Hammerle will be competing in the 3,200 meters. She made it to state in the event last year.

The three other Beavers headed to districts are senior thrower Linton Rowan and senior triple jumpers Carlos Stanley and Julian Montante.

A carved raven holds a purloined ring in its mouth and huge golden ants march headfirst down the chimney. The bungalow barely needs the Raven’s Nest Studio sign on the porch to proclaim an artist lives here.

Although Rosemary Sylvanus Antel could equally advertise her background in chemistry and public administration, it’s clear that she would never be able to hide that she’s been an artist all of her life.

When I first met Rosemary at The Scoop at Walter’s, where 26 of her oil paintings are on display through the end of the month, I was struck by the beauty she’d revealed in a house that I might not usually even notice. All of the paintings are outdoor scenes; almost all of them Ballard landmarks or homes that caught her eye, often because of the light.

There are two painting of the Ballard Bridge, several of the Locks and Magnolia as seen from the public access beach on Seaview Avenue.

Rosemary told me that her work is considered realist. I read later that the style is characterized by rendering what the artist sees in a realistic way, without exaggeration or abstraction.

The Seattle Public School District announced Friday that 172 teachers and staff members, or 5 percent of the district's total certificated workforce, will be laid off in response to significant cuts in state funding, including 10 staff members at West Seattle High.

Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson explained that the cuts were made in response to an estimated $34 million budget shortfall for the upcoming school year.

West Seattle High School was the hardest hit, with 10 teaching positions cut.

"I was in Shock, that (the cuts) went so deep,” said West Seattle High School Bruce Bivins. “My first intentions were ‘how do I get them back?’ I did not want to lose these teachers that have developed curriculum in their department and are integral to our school.”

Four language arts instructors were laid off, half of that department.

“I was surprised that it hit our school so badly in that department,” said Laura Turner, one of the language arts teachers who was laid off.

A fifth instructor taught for the Pathways Reading program, which assists students struggling with reading.

The final community meeting before the Calvary Lutheran shelter moves into the vacant Calvary Lutheran Church building saw neighbors divided over welcoming the 20-person SHARE shelter and addressing perceived shortcomings on the part of SHARE and the shelter's host, Our Redeemer's Lutheran Church.

About 50 people attended the May 20 meeting. Some came to welcome the shelter's residents, but the most vocal attendees came to voice concerns about safety and accountability.

Residents remained upset over SHARE's refusal to conduct background checks, specifically for Level 3 sex offenders.

SHARE conducts background checks for its tent cities but not for its indoor shelters.

Our Redeemer Pastor Steve Grumm said he, and the members of the Our Redeemer congregation who voted to host the shelter, are satisfied by SHARE's screening practices and self-policing procedures.

Shelter residents screen prospective residents downtown before allowing them to join the shelter and make sure other shelter residents are following the rules, such as completing chores and maintaining sobriety.

This Saturday, May 23, the West Seattle Edible Garden Fair, a free event, will teach residents how to grow their own groceries.

The fair will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the South Seattle Community College landscape horticulture buildings, with five rooms of interactive workshops, gardening demonstrations, and “ask the expert” panel discussions to teach you how to grow your own groceries right outside your door.

But if you don't have a yard, no problem. Don't be discouraged said Helen Shampain, a volunteer who will have a booth at the fair.

"I mentor people and help them find a way to grow food in whatever environment they have," said Shampain. "If you live in an apartment or condo you can take any container and take a certain kind of soil mix and plant kitchen herbs which make your salads, soups, stir fry (foods) taste wonderful and exotic."

While Shampain does have a garden in her Pigeon Point front yard, she also has several garden-buckets alive with cilantro, celery, chives, onions, garlic greens and mustards she will display at the fair to help demonstrate.

The West Seattle Herald has established a video channel on the popular video file sharing service YouTube.

The channel has 34 videos of news and features produced by the Robinson Newspapers staff over the past year.

If you look near the lower right corner of the video player you will notice on some that they are available in "HQ" or High Quality.

It's possible to subscribe to the channel and be notified when new videos are posted. The web address is http://www.youtube.com/user/WestSeattleHerald.

The Seattle City Council’s Transportation Committee will hold a public hearing next week on Council’s proposed changes to the Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) program.

The meeting will be held May 27, 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 600 4th Ave. in City Council Chambers, 2nd floor.

The committee will take public comment on their proposed amendments to the Residential Parking Zone program. The council’s amendments would:

● Manage parking demand by limiting permit sales to 4 per household with the exception for adult family homes, assisted living facilities, domestic violence shelters, and permitted congregate residences.

● Modify the business pilot to explicitly limit it to the seven Central Link Light Rail Stations and not allow its expansion to other RPZs; to establish a trigger point beyond which permits for non-residents would cease to be issued in order to keep parking demand from exceeding available on-street parking spaces in residential areas; and to set a time frame for evaluating and deciding whether or not to continue the pilot.

The crew of the F/V Northwestern and stars of the “The Deadliest Catch” are speaking out about a massive hard-rock mine that developers want to build in the heart of Alaska’s wild salmon country, according to a release from the Renewable Resources Coalition and Trout Unlimited.

The proposed mine, called Pebble, straddles the headwaters of the two of the world’s most productive salmon rivers. If developed, Pebble could be North America’s largest open-pit mine, generating 35 mine drainage and potentially catastrophic industrial accidents, according to the television stars, whose boat is based in Ballard.

“We don’t mind crab fishing in the dead of winter in the Bering Sea, but there’s no way we’d take the risk of developing the Pebble mine,” said Sig Hansen, captain of the F/V Northwestern, one of the fishing vessels featured on show, which airs on The Discovery Channel in more than 150 countries.

My brother looked at me sideways, “You’re going to take this with you?”

We were standing in my rented garden next to my rented house. Big brother Bill was visiting with his partner, Alex. Bill has been a weekend gardener for many years, and just moved into a new house in Toronto – so he knows what I’m up against when I replied, “Yep, or it’ll be a ‘You-Dig-Sale,’ but most of it will come with us when we move.”

This is not a new concept for me. I cottoned on to the idea when I lived in Vancouver, B.C., years ago, with my sister. Her neighbors were renters, too, and they landscaped the front lawn of the house into a beautiful bed of perennials that even included a small pond.

We asked them at one point if the landlord was paying them to do the garden. They sat there with a smug look on their face as if they had just eaten the Cheshire cat and said, “Nope, it’s coming with us and we’ll replant the lawn when were done too. It’ll be like we weren’t even here.” It was very inspiring.

Inspiring for two reasons: they weren’t afraid of moving the plants and they weren’t afraid of the work it took to do it.

(CLICK ON PHOTO FOR SLIDE SHOW)

Famed Washington glass artist Dale Chihuly stopped by Shilshole Marina Wednesday to present hand-blown glass "Floats" and "Seaform" sculptures to the crew of the research vessel, the Ocean Watch, which will launch May 31 in the Around the Americas cruse.

The 13-month sailing voyage will draw attention to the condition of the oceans around North and South America. The ocean environment project is tied into the Pacific Science Center, the Applied Physics Lab of the University of Washington and Sailors for the Sea, a non-profit encouraging boaters to be better stewards of the ocean. The boat will make 31 stops during its voyage to reach more people in port cities of North and South America.

For each of the 13 months at sea a Chihuly float will be dropped into the water near various ports. The floats will help demonstrate ocean tide movements and currents. The “Around the Americas Floats” will be inscribed with “If found, please contact www.aroundtheamericas.org."