January 2010

Burien will officially annex the southern portion of North Highline on April 1.
The Burien City Council voted Jan. 11 to mark April Fools Day as the annexation's official start date.

The vote was 6-1 with Councilwoman Lucy Krakowiak voting no.
With Dow Constantine, who represented Burien and North Highline on the county council, as the new King County Executive, Burien officials are expecting improved relationships with county government.

The first result of the new cooperation is an agreement announced Jan. 6 to transfer ownership of Puget Sound Park to the city of Burien.
That clears the way for April 1 as the recommended formal date that Burien will annex the southern portion of North Highline.

Voters in the area approved the annexation in August. Burien officials were hoping to complete the annexation on March 2 but decided to hold off because of the dispute over the county's proposed sale of a part of Puget Sound Park to be used as a county library.

The park is located at Southwest 128th Street and First Avenue South. The location is the former site of Puget Sound Junior High School.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) kicks off the 5th Annual Relay For Life celebration, the largest non-profit fundraiser in the world, on Wednesday, Jan. 21, from 6:30 - 8 p.m., at Somers Auditorium in Highline Medical Center.

Founded 26 years ago by Tacoma physician Dr. Gordy Klatt, Relay For Life has grown to be the most recognized fund-raising event for cancer nationwide, held in more than 5,000 communities and raising more than $3 billion toward cancer research, advocacy, education and patient services.

Over the past 4 years, the Relay For Life of Highline has brought over 600 people together from the cities of Burien, Des Moines, Normandy Park and SeaTac participating on 86 teams, and raising over $272,000 total for the fight against cancer.

The Kickoff Celebration will provide information about Relay For Life and how volunteers can get involved in the fight against cancer. Attendees will enjoy food from Sal's Deli, music, and coffee provided by Starbucks as they visit with volunteers, sharing stories of hope.

Newly elected King County Executive spoke before the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. He said he's been asked many times what taking the new role on is like. "It's like jumping aboard a 14,000 passenger ship, (that's how many employees King County has) that's going full speed, and trying to turn it around while half the crew is battling you for control of the steering wheel."

In speaking about his plans he said, "What we're doing during this first 100 days is putting together a blueprint for genuine reform in county government." He plans to make a series of speeches on his progress at the 100 day mark.
"When I took office we reduced the number of Executive office employees by 15%," Constantine said, " and asked everyone who we hired to start with a lower pay. I'm doing the same. I'm deferring 10% of my salary."

He's appointed a "Director of Customer Service", the idea being to treat people in the county like customers for a business. They will handle issues like responding to emails in a more timely fashion, talking to people instead of letting them negotiate through phone systems and address other matters in how people deal with the county.

Seattle Department of Transportation’s Urban Forestry crews expect to complete work this afternoon at the landslide on Beach Drive SW. They plan to reopen one lane by 5 p.m. today. One lane will remain closed at the site (in the 6000 block of Beach Drive SW) until Tuesday as a precaution. Cars will take turns using the single lane at this location.
The crews expect to open the street by 5 p.m. today.

The West Seattle Wildcats boys basketball team were defeated at home last night by the Ingraham Rams, for their third loss in a row.
West Seattle guard senior Joe Bell Austin was the highest scorer of the game with 24 points. Second highest scorer was Ingraham Sophomore Malik Barnes with 16 points, followed by Ingraham Senior Erick Pape with 12.

Ingraham beat West Seattle by 10 points, with a final score of 68-58.
Dominating the entire game, Ingraham never gave up the lead. At halftime they were up 35-37. In the following quarters West Seattle rallied, playing hard but only managing to maintain the point gap in points, not close it.

West Seattle’s season record is now 4-6. Their conference record is 0-2. After winning four games in a row they have now lost the last three. With the win over West Seattle Ingraham improves their season record to 4-7. Their conference record is also 0-2.
West Seattle’s next game is an away game on Friday, Jan. 15 against Seattle Prep at 6:15 p.m. Ingraham play against Rainier Beach at home on Friday, Jan. 15 at 6:15 p.m.

SeaTac lawmakers are on the verge of rescinding a controversial condemnation proceeding against a surface parking lot next to the airport light-rail station.
The local action had received national and regional attention from property rights advocates.

Former Mayor Ralph Shape blocked an attempt by Deputy Mayor Gene Fisher to rescind the eminent domain action at the end of a four-hour regular council meeting. The lawmakers also had met in a 1-1/2 hour executive session before the meeting.

Shortly after 11 p.m., Fisher introduced the resolution that would have rescinded the condemnation proceeding against the Dollar parking facility owned by James and Doris Cassan. The action is contingent on the Cassans dropping a lawsuit against the city.
Fisher said the city could reintroduce the condemnation if negotiations failed between SeaTac and the Cassans.
SeaTac officials say they want to locate a parking garage on the Cassans' property to serve patrons of a downtown/entertainment district next to the new light-rail station.

The Cassans have submitted proposals for a mixed-use development on the property.

Ruth Nelson, who moved to Ballard after World War II and lived in her Sunset Hill home for six decades, lived a life of adventure that took her all over the globe. But at the end of the day, she found there is simply no place like Ballard.

Nelson grew up in a family of Kansas farmers. She said life there was far different than one in Ballard.

"We have no trees in Kansas," she said. "But, it has its beauty."

Nelson was a teacher during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. She said she remembers sweeping dirt and snakes out of the classroom every morning before the students arrived.

During World War II, Nelson worked in a Denver factory making bullets. President Roosevelt personally visited the factory one day to thank the workers for their help, she said.

"They brought him in on a big flatbed," Nelson said. "There sat Roosevelt with his hat on and his cloak with his cigarette in his hand and his little dog."

After the war, Nelson headed west for adventure, settling in Ballard, she said.

When she arrived in Ballard, it was almost entirely Scandinavian, she said.

"It was a delightful village," Nelson said. "I called it a village."

A big third quarter helped the Ballard High School boys basketball team to a 65-53 victory over Issaquah Jan. 12.

The Beavers went into halftime trailing their opponent by five point but outscored Issaquah 20-9 in the third quarter to take control of the game.

Senior Gary Smith had a game-high 22 points, and junior Salim Gloyd added 15.

With a little less than half the season to go, Ballard is 3-4 in the conference and 4-7 overall.

The Beavers take on Roosevelt at 8 p.m. on Jan. 15 at Roosevelt High School.

A landslide along the 6000 block of Beach Drive has closed the road for approximately 1 mile from the junction of 48th S.W. and Beach Drive.

January 13th 5 PM Update:

Beach Drive has been reopened.

The original story follows:

According to neighbors south of the area a partial slide has also occurred along the north trail inside Lincoln Park.

City work crews are trying to prevent the slide from moving any further onto the road and toward several homes in the area.

Neighbors are watching as inspectors figure out how to stabilize an embankment that started to slowly come down late yesterday afternoon, pushing several large trees onto Beach Drive near the intersection with Atlas Place.

Nobody was injured and no homes were damaged.

Mike Winter lives in a house across the street from the slide and potentially in its path if it were to continue down the hill.

He said another landslide came down a couple years ago, and he and his wife are wondering if they're safe.

"When we get the rain this time of year and the ground gets saturated, we get nervous," Winter said. "It's real disconcerting."

It was a winning experience of a slightly different nature on Friday, January 9, for the Evergreen Lutheran girls basketball team.

Pressure on the ball and fine shooting from guards Markelle Lance and Erica Hansen led the Eagles to a nonleague 57-46 victory at Darrington.

"It was a great effort," said Evergreen Lutheran head coach Jeff Kurbis. "Markelle and Erica had a great shooting night and we really got going after the first quarter."

Darrington took advantage of a slow start by the visitors from Des Moines to lead, 10-5, after one quarter. Lance and Hansen benefitted from the Eagle defensive pressure to clear themselves for drives and outside shots that included deadly missiles from three-point land as Evergreen Lutheran rushed away to a 24-15 lead at the half.

Despite 11-for-24 free throw shooting, the Eagles cleared away to double digit leads and maintained the distance the rest of the way.

"It was really diffferent," explained Lance, who canned a pair of three-point goals to tie teammate Hansen for game high honors with 15 points. "The backboards were fan-shaped and we had to get used to the different bounce of the ball off these backboards."