November 2009

King County Metro Transit will operate with a Sunday schedule on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26, and will have a reduced weekday schedule on Friday, Nov. 27. Metro reminds bus riders that it will be operating on a reduced weekday schedule on several days through January – including a full week of reduced service at the end of December. For more details, visit King County Metro’s Web site.

This holiday season, help bring joy to local people in need. Hiawatha Community Center, 2700 California Ave. SW, is holding a Giving Tree from now through December 17.

Bring in an unwrapped gift to the center, and it will be wrapped and donated to a local charity. For every donation, the donor will receive a ticket for one meal at the center’s Holiday Feast from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, December 18. The cost is $8 for each additional meal.

The Holiday Feast will feature dinner and a craft table for creating holiday decorations to take home. Last year’s dinner featured fried turkey, vegetables, vegetarian offerings, desserts, and more.

Please bring in gifts early. For more information, please call the center at 206-684-7441 or see www.seattle.gov/.

SDOT crews will repair a guardrail in the northbound, left hand lane on the Alaskan Way Viaduct at Yesler Way from approximately 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. today. An area on the ground beneath the repair area will also be closed for safety during the repair. The guardrail was damaged earlier today by a vehicle.

The Ballard NW Senior Center needs the help of neighborhood theater-lovers.

The Dec. 1 showing of Taproot Theatre's "It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play," was meant to be a fundraiser for the senior center. But, after an Oct. 23 arson damaged Taproot, it was unclear if the show would go on.

Ticket sales for the show stopped, and now the senior center needs to sell 100 tickets in the next few days, Sue Allegra at the Ballard Chamber of Commerce said in an email.

"It's a Wonderful Life" is taking place at Stage One Theater at North Seattle Community College. Tickets are $25 for the 7:30 p.m. show or $35 for the show and a 6 p.m. wine reception.

"There's great parking at NSCC, a wonderful cast, an excellent way to spread good cheer and help out a wonderful Ballard institution as well," Allegra said.

Tickets for the Dec. 1 fundraiser show are available only at Ballard NW Senior Center, located at 5429 32nd Ave. N.W. They can be purchased over the phone at 206.297.0403. If calling over the weekend or Thanksgiving holiday, leave a name and phone number.

By Sarah Boon, Ballard High School Associated Student Body Vice President

Marcus Heim and Ali Youngman have been named Ballard High School's Students of the Month for November.

Heim is a star athlete and an exceptional scholar at Ballard.

He has been a leader in his community, working with the Student Conservation Association for more than 170 hours. He has also worked as a basketball coach for Boys and Girls Club, and he was the junior varsity captain of the Ballard boys basketball team his junior year.

Heim has been playing basketball at Ballard for four years and played football as a freshman.

As a freshman, he was chosen as student of the month for his work in the Tech Department at Ballard.

Heim continues to succeed academically and plans to pursue a higher education in math and electrical engineering at Cal Poly, Berkley or Stanford.

Youngman lives and breathes Ballard High School.

She has been active on the yearbook staff for three years, and has also been a part of countless drama productions, including musicals like "Grease" and "Guys and Dolls" and plays like "The Crucible."

Thursday, Dec. 3

Boys swimming: Federal Way at Auburn, 3:30 p.m.; Tahoma, TJ at Federal Way Rec., 3 p.m.; Beamer at Curtis, 6:45 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 4

Boys swimming: Decatur at Emerald Ridge, 3:30 p.m.

Boys basketball: TJ at Auburn; Federal Way at Auburn-Riverside; Decatur at Spanaway Lake; Emerald Ridge at Beamer, 7:30 p.m.

Girls basketball: Auburn at TJ; Auburn-Riverside at Federal Way; Spanaway Lake at Decatur; Beamer at Emerald Ridge, 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Dec. 8

Boys basketball: Kent-Meridian at TJ; Federal Way at Kentwood; Rogers at Decatur, 7:30 p.m.

Girls basketball: TJ at Kent-Meridian; Kentwood at Federal Way; Decatur at Rogers, 7:30 p.m.

Boys swimming: Federal Way at Kentlake; Puyallup at Decatur; Beamer at Emerald Ridge, 3:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 9

Gymnastics: Beamer, Decatur at Federal Way; Kent-Meridian, TJ at Kentlake, 7 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 10

Boys basketball: Kentlake at TJ; Beamer at Curtis; Emerald Ridge at Decatur, 7:30 p.m.

Girls basketball: TJ at Kentlake; Curtis at Beamer; Decatur at Emerald Ridge, 7:30 p.m.

Gov. Chris Gregoire and the state Department of Ecology approved clean water projects in Ballard, as well as Spokane and Olympia, worth a total of $5.6 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding Nov. 24.

Project proponents estimate the projects will support approximately 75 construction jobs.

The low-impact development projects will provide enhanced stormwater treatment. Such projects mimic nature to capture or slow stormwater runoff so it can naturally infiltrate back into the ground.

Seattle Public Utilities’ Ballard Green Streets project gets $1.54 million of the $5.6 million.

The utility will install 10 blocks of swales to naturally detain and infiltrate stormwater.

This Green Streets project will control runoff from 2.6 acres of hard surfaces, reducing sewer/storm overflows. The swales will help reduce stormwater pollution in the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which serves as a key migration corridor for threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead, coho salmon and regionally significant sockeye salmon.

Today, Tuesday, November 24, a Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) crew will be making emergency repairs to an expansion joint on the Alaskan Way Viaduct southbound just past the First Avenue S exit. From 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. the left and center lane will be closed southbound just south of the First Avenue off-ramp and will not hinder traffic taking that exit. Then, from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., the center and right lane will be closed at the same location. Please use caution through the work zone.

The Seattle Department of Transportation will nearly double the number of cameras providing real-time information to the city and the public by adding 57 traffic cameras this year.

“Crews are installing traffic cameras in Ballard, City Center, SODO and West Seattle this year, which will significantly address congestion when they come on-line,” Seattle Department of Transportation Director Grace Crunican said in a press release. “With more information available to our Traffic Management Center, we can immediately improve roadway conditions by remotely adjusting signal timing or bridge operations."

The public will be able to access information from these cameras at the Department of Transportation's online Traveler’s Information Map

These cameras are not to be confused with red light cameras installed at intersections to aid in ticketing.

The installation of these new closed-circuit television cameras, which will be operational by early 2010, is just one of many significant enhancements occurring this year to the city’s Intelligent Transportation System.

On November 18, at approximately 3:40 p.m., the listed suspect carried out a bank robbery at the Key Bank, located at 1918 SW Campus Drive, in the City of Federal Way.

The suspect demanded "all the 100's" from the teller and received approximately $1,600 before fleeing on foot. The suspect did not display nor imply a weapon. The suspect is described as a black male, approximately 6'0" tall with a slender build and thirty years old.

At the time of the robbery, he was wearing what appeared to be prescription eyewear, and except for a thin mustache or goatee, was clean shaven. The male had no discernable accent or impediment in his voice. He was wearing a gray hoodie, a dark colored jacket with what appears to be a gray stripe running horizontal, and a blue knit "beanie" with a New York or "NY" logo on the left side.

The Federal Way Police Department is asking for assistance from anyone who may know the identity of this person. Anyone with information is asked to please contact the Federal Way Police by dialing 9-1-1.