January 2010

Twenty-six Highline teachers who earned national board certification in 2009 were honored Jan. 13 by the Highline school board.
They join 33 other Highline teachers who have achieved national certification.

The certification process involves creation of a professional portfolio and a rigorous assessment of teaching practices.
The state provides a $5,090 bonus for nationally certified teachers with an additional $5,000 for those working in "high needs" schools.
In other business at the Jan. 13 board meeting, Superintendent John Welch told board members, "The state budget picture looks bleak right now. It will be a tough road ahead, not just for this year but also for the next biennium.

"I am surprised the number of community people who don't know how this impacts schools."
Welch said community members assume that K-12 funding is protected but schools do much more than what is currently defined as basic education.
The board will be provided with a budget update at its Feb. 12 meeting.

Kim Nichols is a lifelong West Seattle resident and her love for this area has led her to create a page on Facebook she calls
I Lived in West Seattle Before it Was Cool. The page contains many photos of the area, including pages from yearbooks and student photos from Lafayette Elementary, Madison Junior High, and also because Facebook is after all a social networking site, many
memories shared by those who have lived in this area for more than just a few years. As of mid January the site has over 1200 members
and Kim is encouraging more to join, send in their photos and share their West Seattle memories. "We were talking about it and there were
some facebook pages about reunions and my sister (Mieka) said 'I'd never get to see the people I'd really like to see' so that's what gave me the idea."

Here's an excerpt from the text on the site that reads almost like a quiz for West Seattleites of long standing.

"For those of us who lived in West Seattle before Eddie Vedder and Capers.

I Lived in West Seattle Before it Was Cool

Greenwood residents voiced a desire for greater visibility and public safety when community members and leaders gathered Jan. 13 at the Greenwood Public Library to discuss upcoming renovations to Sandel Park.

The meeting, led by project manager Kelly Davidson, kicked off with an overview of the park's current design and the standing ideas for renovation before opening up to suggestions for community members.

The Parks and Green Spaces Levy, which passed in Seattle in 2008, provides $146 million in funding to upgrade the city’s parks. Most of the money will go toward renovating playgrounds throughout the city.

The project budget for Sandel is $350,000, and renovations will take place between April and October of 2010.

Sandel Park renovation plans were drawn up in 2002, but the renovations never proceeded.

Drawings displayed at the meeting were taken from the 2002 plans, but Davidson said that although safety standards have changed little since then, accessibility standards have, and the plans must be brought up to date.

Seattle Parks and Recreation has developed a new code of conduct that would consolidate previously disallowed activities as well as newly disallowed activities, such as smoking and spitting, into one document.

The code of conduct, which will be looked at for adoption by the Board of Park Commissioners Feb. 11, would apply to all Seattle parks and park-owned facilities.

Prohibited behaviors contained within the code of conduct are behaviors that violate a section of the Seattle Municipal Code, are prohibited by a rule adopted on the superintendent of Parks' authority, or have been newly identified in the code of conduct.

The newly prohibited activities are patterns of behavior observed by Parks staff, said Parks spokesperson Dewey Potter. They are anything staff observed frequently that they saw as uncivil. she said.

According to a Parks and Recreation memo, the intent of the code of conduct is to create a single document that brings together the most common and egregious behaviors that can result in an exclusion order.

It will be a useful tool for police officers and park rangers to educate park users and issue exclusion orders, according to the memo.

The Historical Society of Federal Way has copies of their recently published book on the history of Federal Way for sale at their office.

"Images of America - Federal Way" looks back on the history of Federal Way from it's early days through incorporation in 1989.

You can purchase your copy at the Society's office, 2645 South 312th St, across the street from Steel Lake Park.

HSFW is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm. For more information about the book, please contact us contactus@federalwayhistory.org or 253.945.7842.

Seattle Public Utilities wants residents in certain areas of Ballard to make landscape improvements to help control storm water runoff and is willing to foot about 90 percent of the bill.

"For anyone who wants to redo their lawn, here is a way to get motivated," Seattle Public Utilities' Tracy Tackett told attendees at the Jan. 13 Ballard District Council meeting.

In March, Seattle Public Utilities will be starting its RainWise program to encourage city residents to add storm water control features, such as cisterns, rain gardens and porous pavement, to their property.

The area of Ballard between Northwest 65th Street and Northwest 85th Street and 15th Avenue Northwest and 33rd Avenue Northwest is a combined sewer overflow area. Because of this, anything that is done to improve runoff on private property affects the whole system, Tackett said.

Seattle Public Utilities will offer a rebate, which is often worth about 90 percent of the cost of a project, to homeowners in that area who add RainWise features to their property, Tackett said.

Issaquah, a team undefeated in KingCo and ranked sixth in the state, showed why in a Jan. 13 game at Ballard High School, defeating the Beavers 45-23.

Ballard got off to a solid enough start, trailing 7-6 at the end of the first quarter. But, affter that it was all Issaquah, as the Eagles went on a 38-17 run to finish the game, including a 15-0 shutout of the Beavers in the third quarter.

Ballard's 23 points were a season low.

Senior Kayla Wenger accounted for most of the Beaver offense, finishing with 14 points. Juniors Tai Tautolo and Theresa Moriarty scored four apiece.

With the loss, Ballard is sitting at 1-6 in the conference and 3-8 overall.

Next up for the Beavers is Roosevelt at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 15 at Roosevelt High School.

A number of Ballard residents have complained about the noise and appearance of the rooftop HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) units that were installed recently on the Ballard on the Park development.

One resident told the Ballard Neighborhood Service Center that the units, which look like large metal boxes, detract from the aesthetics of the neighborhood, and the noise emitted from them ruins the peacefulness of Ballard Commons Park.

Jeanne Muir, spokesperson for the developers of the Ballard on the Park Apartments, said the HVAC system was tested recently and was fairly loud.

The system will be running continuously in the future, but will be screened from sight and will include sound dampeners, she said.

Muir said these additional components to the rooftop HVAC units should be installed sometime in March.

Ballard on the Park's 268 units at 5700 24th Ave. N.W. will open for leasing around mid-February, Muir said. The QFC below the apartments opened Jan. 13.

Frederick Johns, Ballard resident for the past 23 years, published his first novel, "Whistler in the Rough," in December.

The book focuses on a fictional narrative set prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and is written mainly for outdoor sports enthusiasts, though it spans many genres.

The book is the first for Johns, who said he has not done any prior fiction writing.

He is currently employed writing medical transcription for Harborview Medical Center, and although he has always wanted to write, he did not want to pursue a career in journalism and did not see any other avenues toward a lucrative writing profession.

Johns’ previous nonfiction writing, none of which has been published, centered around his travels.

Fifteen years ago on a two-year sailing trip, he kept a meticulous daily journal, and on a seven month bus trip through Latin America with his wife, he sent email updates to his friends and family.

Writing the emails took about three hours, not counting the outlining beforehand, and spanned the previous five or six weeks.

The viaduct will stand another sixty plus years by replacing the one section that is failing at Yesler Way. Propaganda about extensive foundation problems has some merit: however, a prominent consulting civil engineer (Victor Gray) has publicly stated that those problems can be economically solved.

In the 1970s, a gasoline truck hit the east column of the lower road at Yesler. The resulting huge fire damaged the reinforced concrete. I was amazed that this section of the viaduct was not replaced immediately. Reinforced concrete structures are susceptible to failure from fire damage.

Prior to construction in 1945 there was a 6+ earthquake; hence builders drove 80 to 100 foot concrete piles under each column foundation to withstand the possibility of the surface soil sliding caused by liquefaction in the area. The viaduct structure is steel-reinforced concrete that withstands earthquake shearing of column supports and keeps the beams from separating from the columns.

The State proposes a two-mile long tunnel estimated at $4.5 billion ($450,000 per foot!) Citizens pay the cost overruns. Voters rejected a tunnel twice. Our State has budget problems in the billions.