May 2009

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, city council member Tom Rasmussen, Seattle Fire Department chief Gregory Dean and a small group of community members gathered today for the groundbreaking of a new Fire Station 37 at 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Holden Street.

The project is part of the 2003 Fire Facilities and Emergency Response Levy, which will upgrade 11 fire stations across the city this year.

The existing station 37, located to the north on 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Othello Street, was built in 1925, and like many other stations being upgraded across the city, is not large enough or seismically sound. Its age was one factor considered when the Fleets and Facilities determined which stations would be upgraded first.

Station 37 only measures 4,148 square feet and is not large enough for modern equipment. In the new facility, which will be twice as large, Dean explained that fire fighters will be able to work more easily. They will have a specific area used to decontaminate toxic materials when they return from an emergency and will better be able to fit modern fire apparatus (engines and ladder trucks).

“The space will be invaluable,” said Dean.

After coming together in 2004 to create a one time sound as the Arts Ballard Festival Choir for the September Ballard Art Walk, five years later the now known Market Street Singers still sings on and will be celebrating their 5th anniversary with a free concert in Ballard this month.

The Arts Ballard Festival Choir was created in 2004 and grew out of a community desire for a performance art festival associated with the Ballard Art Walk.

“One of the members wanted a musical performance and they came to me to possibly pull a choir together,” said Chris Vincent, artistic director of Market Street Singers.

Posting flyers around the neighborhood and advertising in the News-Tribune, Vincent said by mid-summer they were able to pull together 30 singers, calling themselves the Arts Ballard Festival Choir. The group's first performance was for Art’fisk 2004.

After that, Vincent got a number of requests for the choir to continue on.

“We renamed ourselves as the Market Street Singers, kept rehearsing and added to our membership,” Vincent said. “It has become a 55- voice ensemble since that time.”

Dozens of neighbors and a handful of elected officials braved steep slopes and loose dirt May 11 to break ground on a small plot of land that will become a new Fremont P-Patch.

The Hazel Heights p-patch at 4200 Baker Ave. N.W. will hold 19 gardening plots and should be ready to use by this fall.

The lot was purchased by the neighborhood after the death of the lot's neighbor and namesake Hazel Hurlbert in 2003. In 2005, the Hazel Heights steering committee was formed.

After that, it was a matter of raising money and waiting for city funds to be available.

Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, a featured guest at the event, said it is a goal to provide enough funding for P-Patches in the future so that there is never a waiting list.

The steeply sloping lot is the only P-Patch in the city to require a master use permit and an environmental review, escalating costs.

But because of its location, Hazel Heights offers views of Fremont, Ballard, the Lake Washington Ship Canal and the Olympic Mountains.

It didn't get the win, but the Ballard softball team played leaps and bounds better against Woodinville May 11 than they did in the teams' previous meeting this season.

On April 15, Woodinville handed the Beavers their worst loss of the season, 17-0. Woodinville earned its 17 runs on only nine hits.

On Monday, Ballard held Woodinville, a team in second place in KingCo 4A, to seven runs on eight hits, losing 7-2.

Amanda Hawley went two-for-three, and Sophie Overlock-Pauley went one-for-three with an RBI.

Overlock-Pauley pitched all seven innings, throwing nine strikeouts and giving up only four earned runs.

The loss was the Beavers 13th in a row. The team, at 1-16, has not won since April 8.

Ballard has one game left at 6:30 p.m., May 13 at Inglemoor. Inglemoor beat the Beavers 6-0 April 17.

Mayor Greg Nickels wants to implement changes that are aimed to make gardening in planting strips easier for Seattle’s residents, according to his office.

The new planting strip policy, issued by the Seattle Department of Transportation, eliminates any permit requirements for gardens and ends fees previously required for hardscape improvements, such as planter boxes or pavers.

“This change makes it easier to plant flowers and vegetables in the strip between the sidewalk and the street," said Nickels in a statement. "For many gardeners, that’s prime space. It’s one of the things that makes Seattle special, and, with planting season upon us, it’s time to get those green thumbs going.”

Under the new rules announced May 11, residents no longer need to obtain a $225 permit for hardscape improvements, such as raised gardens or stepping stones. Instead, they can obtain a free online permit for these improvements and to plant a tree here.

Acting on recommendations from a result of a series of public meetings with citizens, business owners, community leaders, and experts on the economy, the Seattle City Council approved a resolution designed to ease the effects of the recession on residents and businesses, and to help promote the city’s economic recovery.

Introduced by the council’s Committee of the Whole on Economic Recovery May 11, the resolution outlines a range of strategies to provide relief to small businesses, support individuals affected by the economic recession, set priorities for city services, and achieve operational efficiencies.  

The resolution also calls for refining the mission of the city’s Office of Economic Development to improve Seattle’s overall business climate, reviewing the city’s taxes, fees and utility rates, and investing available resources in actions that will aid recovery.

Holy Rosary Church, one of the longest continuously established Catholic parishes in the Puget Sound region, will be honoring more than two dozen priests and nuns who were formerly assigned to the parish at a celebration Sunday, June 7.

It's the first major event of the parish’s centennial celebration, will be held at a Mass at the church at 11:15 a.m., and will be followed by a homecoming luncheon to be held at the parish to honor the returning clergy and religious.

The Seattle City Council today passed a bill unanimously to accept $4.9 million from the federal government to go toward homelessness prevention and rent stabilization for those who need help due to job loss or other impacts from the slumping economy.

Sharon Lee, executive director of the Low-Income Housing Institute in Seattle, said at the council' s May 6 Housing and Economic Development Committee meeting that she would like to see a portion of the three-year, one-time funds go toward helping existing tenants who face job losses and homelessness.

"We would want to make sure the families and individuals don't lose their housing and become homeless," she said.

Lee said there are 7,000 people on a waiting list for her program's services, so the need is great.

The funds are coming from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for funds from the Homelessness Prevention Fund allocated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ands would be allocated to help with rent stabilization, legal fees and more.

Residents of unincorporated King County who live in the southern portion of the North Highline community will have a chance to decide if they want to join the city of Burien, after the King County Council today placed an annexation proposal on the August 18 primary ballot.

“This is a historic day for North Highline," said Council Chair Dow Constantine, sponsor of the legislation and representative of Council District Eight, which includes all of North Highline.

"We have discussed and debated governance issues for this area since I joined this council in 2002 and we will finally have the opportunity for the voters to weigh in," he said. "This proposal is the product of a lot of hard work by the city of Burien, the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, King County, and many citizens in the annexation area.”

The Burien annexation proposal has been approved by the Washington State Boundary Review Board of King County, and negotiations have been completed regarding the continued provision of fire protection services in the area.

Don Gulden, owner of 8701 Crown LLC, is one step closer to building a 15-unit apartment building at 1520 N.W. 87th St. using the city's multi-family tax exemption program, which requires some of the units to be affordable to those earning 80 percent of area median income in exchange for a property tax break.

The council's Housing and Economic Development Committee had approved the proposal on May 6 in part because they said a project that provides more affordable rents in the Crown Hill neighborhood utilizing the city's program has never been proposed.

The full Seattle City Council passed the item 9-0 today.

Under the city's multi-family tax exemption program, or "Homes Within Reach," developers can get a break on property taxes in exchange for building at least 20 percent of the units in a development to be affordable to those earning at or below 80 percent of median for studio and 1-bedroom units (roughly $47,200 for an individual and rent cannot exceed $1,180), or 90 percent of median for 2-bedroom and larger units ($53,100 for an individual and rent cannot exceed $1,328).

Under the city's program, the units must remain at those rental rates for 12 years.