November 2009

Once again, the Burien City Council has created a breach of trust with the citizens of Burien.

Your city council is in the process of deciding to raise property taxes to help pay for the new annexation area of North Highline.

We citizens were told, on many occasions by Mike Martin and the council, that the annexation would be "revenue neutral," and not require new taxes to support it.

All of us who looked hard at the numbers of the annexation proposal told the council, again on numerous occasions, that there was too much red ink for annexation to make sense.

But of course, the council serves their own interest, not those of the citizens of Burien, so they went ahead with annexation and now we are stuck with paying the bill for this ill-advised decision.

Could timing possibly be worse for a tax increase, during the worst recession in 50 years? No other local city is raising property taxes at this time.

A badly managed 1st avenue redevelopment, a shiny new expensive city hall that was not needed and a downtown that looks like a ghost town are all the result of mismanagement by this illustrious group, led by Mayor Joan McGilton.

Man gets life in prison

Leemah Carneh was charged in 2001 with four counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of a high school cheerleader, her boyfriend and his grandparents. Their bodies were found March 2001 in the grandparents' Des Moines home. Investigators said Carneh, who was 19 at the time, gunned down Mark's grandparents and hid their bodies then waited for Josie Peterson who he was obsessed with.

Original charges against Carneh were dismissed in 2005 and again in 2008 after doctors diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia and therefore not competent to stand trial. In 2009 a judge ruled he was competent to stand trial and charges were re-filed. Carneh said he is responsible for the killings.

He was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday.

Assault with a handgun

Police were called to the Windsor Apartments at 200 S. 156th St, for a report of a possible assault. The victim allegedly was held at gunpoint for over an hour in the apartment.

During that hour, the victim was pistol whipped with the handgun. There was no sign of forced entry into the apartment, reports did not say if the victim knew the suspect.

Middle school.

Those two words alone are enough to strike fear in the hearts of mortal women everywhere. It was a scary time for many of us, a time when we learned about bullying, about not fitting in.

Me, I survived it. I did OK and held my own, while not exactly the belle of the ball.

High school finally came and I hit my stride, becoming a happy, busy teenager.

But middle school? Like I said, I survived.

For many girls, middle school is a time of uncertainty, of loss of connection. It is a feeling of not being part of things. Kids who were kind yesterday suddenly change and become bullies. And for many girls, the emotions go crazy.

That's why I am loving so much that my middle child is having the "un-middle school" experience.

They key for our daughter has been her friends. She is a part of a tight network of girls. They play sports together. They sing together.

They work hard in school together.

Here is something else I know of these girls: I am crazy about them.

The memories all came flooding back.

All it took was the first sentence of Lauri Hennessey's column, printed on page 5, about her daughter's entry into middle school.

For me, it was Burien's Sylvester at the dawning of the sixties or the death throes of the fifties, depending on how you look at it.

Back then they called it junior high, instead of middle school. They kept you for ninth grade, so they could torture you for one more year.

Having the same core group of elementary school friends move with you into middle school is the key to a successful transition, Lauri writes.

For sixth grade, my final elementary school year, I was wrenched from comfortable Sunnydale where Mathisons had been matriculating for two decades and sent to a brand new school, called Sunny Terrace. (Years later, my sixth-grade elementary school became a mental health center named after my mother, but that's another story.)

Meet Mark and Beth Gasser

When I spotted a very tall man walking his wife and a tiny dog last week I stopped the car and asked where he got the Chihuahua.

He said that is not a Chihuahua; that is my wife and the poodle she is hanging onto is not a poodle. It is also not a holy terrier but is really a Dachshund.

Meet Beth and Mark Gasser who live on Three Tree Point with the wiener dog and two sons Hans and Sven, who were not with them.

Mark is a former basketball player who at 6 foot, nine was the fifth tallest player for the Arizona State team and is married to Beth who is only 5 foot, nine so she could never play for the team, which she never wanted to do in the first place.

Mark works for Boeing, proving airplane systems will work after they are installed and before the plane takes off, which is nice to know.

He and his family and the wiener dog (named Chunk) love to kayak around the local waters and Mark has several he built himself.

Beth did not play basketball but is an accomplished fine artist and is also a skilled boater

I was with Elsbeth who thinks 6 feet (me) is tall as she is five feet.

Aviation High School kicked off a major capital campaign at an event last week at the home of James and Sherry Raisbeck.

The Raisbecks and their foundation have pledged $4 million toward the effort to construct a facility for the school at The Museum of Flight in Tukwila.

Aviation High is temporarily located in the Olympic interim school in Des Moines. The district hopes to open the school as Raisbeck Aviation High School on Museum property in 2012.

James Raisbeck is a world-renowned aerodynamicist and entrepreneur. He is most well known for founding Raisbeck Engineering Inc., which engineers and manufactures performance improvement systems for thousands of business and commercial aircraft worldwide.

The Port of Seattle has contributed $10 million toward the new facility. The school hopes to raise an additional $10 million from private entities and $14 million from state and federal sources.

Aviation is an innovative public school that teaches a college-preparatory curriculum through an aviation theme. The school is administered by Highline Public Schools but accepts students from across the Puget Sound region.

Burien Little Theatre is putting on the Hollywood glitz in more ways than one with the unconventional musical comedy "Christmas with the Crawfords," created by Richard Winchester and written by Mark Sargent.

To revive her ailing career, legendary film star Joan Crawford arranges a live radio broadcast in her home on Christmas Eve, 1944, but uninvited celebrity guests hog the spotlight to sing their holiday favorites.

Featuring priceless spoofs, gorgeous holiday songs and cross-dressing, the comedy is both a tribute to and parody of Tinseltown's "Golden Age."

This holiday offering in BLT's 2009-10 "escape" themed season will run from Nov. 27 through Dec. 20. It is suitable for ages 10 and older due to occasional adult language and content.

Tickets are $7-$20, with discounts available for online purchases.

As a bonus, BLT will be hosting free readings of the popular "A Christmas Story," written by Philip Grecian, at 2 p.m. Saturdays, Nov. 28 and Dec. 12.

A performance schedule including dates, times and ticket prices is available at www.burienlittletheatre.com or call the ticket office at 206-242-5180.

By next September, all parents and guardians in the Highline School District should be able to log on to their computers and check their child's grades, attendance and academic progress, district technology director Mark Finstrom reported to board members on Nov. 16.

Parents and guardians will also be able to exchange messages with their student's teachers through the "parental portal," Finstrom noted.

Parents at Aviation High in Des Moines have been testing the system since October. Finstrom said the most popular feature for parents has the ability to check on attendance.

Cedarhurst Elementary in Burien will begin using the system in December. An information and training session will be held for Cedarhurst parents on Dec. 8.

Bonds approved by voters in 2006 fund the parental portal as well as a system for schools to share information and a district data warehouse.

In other business, board members tentatively approved a request by Mt. Rainier High senior class leaders to transfer the school's graduation ceremony from Highline Memorial Stadium to the ShoWare Center in Kent.

The ceremony will take place June 18.

King County tax advisor Barbara Alsheikh likens paying property taxes to owning a racehorse.

Just because the value of the horse diminishes doesn't mean the owner's expenses are less.

"The price of hay doesn't go down because the horse is losing," Alsheikh reminded participants in a Nov. 17 property tax forum cosponsored by the League Of Women Voters of South King County and the Highline Times.

Property taxes are based on the budgets of the many taxing districts that a homeowner lives within, Alsheikh noted. Expenses such as salaries and benefits for employees, energy costs and facility maintenance tend to go up and are unrelated to changes in home values.

Also, 2008's assessed values of homes were based on home values from previous years, so the assessments did not reflect the sudden dip in home values, she said.

That resulted in 13,000 appeals, slowing the resolution of those appeals, according to Alsheikh. In 2009, only 2,600 residential appeals have been made.

Retired King County tax assessor Bob Rosenberger also noted that assessments of home value are made as of January 1 for taxes that are due one year later, thus creating confusion.

A community Christmas party for the Highline Area Food Bank will take place Saturday, Dec. 5 in Seahurst from 7-9 p.m.

More than 500 people are expected to attend the sixth annual event which has sparked neighbors and friends to bring canned and dry goods for the needy in exchange for hot cider, holiday music from a live band, snacks and sing-alongs by a warm fire.

Santa has been seen at there as well. The event takes place in Sal and Barbara Dena's front yard at 14459 24th Ave. S.W.

Several area churches participate, including Highline Christian Church.

Seahurst and outlying community members are invited to this one night celebration. You can find on-street parking near Southwest 146th Street and 24th Avenue Southwest.

The Highline Area Food Bank is located at 18300 4th Ave S. The food bank also has donation barrels at Albertson's on South 160th Street and 1st Avenue South, Page 2 Books at 15706 1st Ave. S., John L. Scott at 930 S.W. 152nd, Burien Fred Meyer at South 144th Street and 1st Avenue South and QFC in Manhattan/Normandy Park on Normandy Road and 1st Avenue South.