February 2010

The Admiral Congregational United Church of Christ, 4320 Southwest Hill Street, welcomes the Rev. Dr. Donald Schmidt as its new pastor. Formerly the West Seattle Congregational, the church was founded in 1899 and is among West Seattle’s oldest churches. (Since this article was written, we found that, according to the book "West Side Story" published by the West Seattle Herald, St. John's Episcopal Church is the oldest and had its beginning in West Seattle in 1892.)

And now Donald Schmidt is West Seattle’s newest pastor. While the church’s search committee did an exhaustive searched nationwide, Schmidt was just across Lake Washington, finishing up his two-year interim as pastor at the 500-member Bellevue First Congregational Church, also a United Church of Christ. Admiral Congregational currently has 103 members.

Beginning at 2:00 am Friday morning, Jan. 29, some 978 volunteers counted homeless people sleeping outdoors in King County through the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness (SKCCH). This was the 30th annual official 2010 One Night Count.

The count totaled 2,759, including children, adults, and seniors sleeping in doorways, cars, and camped under highway bridges and against buildings. Over 130 teams were organized through ten area headquarters. Counters returned to historical and new count areas in Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Woodinville, Shoreline, Kenmore Bothell, Seattle, White Center, Federal Way, Kent, Renton and Auburn. Also collected was information from select hospitals about emergency room usage, and from Metro night owl buses operating throughout the county.

The outdoor count was five percent higher in 2009.
While 47 homeless were counted in White Center, no specific data is released by neighborhood, so we do not know the West Seattle total.

Josh Smith and the No. 2 SPSL North Kentwood Conquerors hit the accelerator quickly to drive past the No.2 SPSL South Decatur Gators 62-42 in Thursday, February 9th SPSL boys basketball tournament action at the Showare Center.

The 6-foot, 9-inch Smith, who signed with UCLA and was named to the McDonald's All-American team on Thursday, tallied 21 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked four shots against Decatur.

"Give credit to Smith and Kentwood," said Gator head coach Kevin Olson. "They outplayed us on both ends of the court. They're just playing really well right now. They're utilizing Josh and I don't think anyone can guard him mano a mano. They had a hard time handling the press at some of those national tournaments, but they're not having any trouble now. Josh is just unbelievable."

At approximately 12:19 a.m. on Feb. 13, a 17-year-old male was consuming alcohol with a friend in the garage area of his residence in the 8000 block of 28th Avenue Northwest.

While with this friend, the 17-year-old suspect produced a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol and shot his friend in the lower leg.

Both parties said the shooting was accidental, but the suspect fled from the scene and hid the gun.

The suspect initially refused to show officerss where the firearm was but changed his mind once he was placed inside a patrol car.

The suspect then appeared to want to cooperate but claimed he couldn’t remember where he “tossed” the gun.

He was later booked into Youth Service Center for Violation of Uniform Firearms Act with recommended charges of minor in possession of alcohol.

The victim’s condition is unknown.

The Ballard High School girls basketball team lost its 10th game in a row Feb. 12 to finish out the season with a 1-15 KingCo record and a 3-17 record overall.

Roosevelt jumped on Ballard early, and the team offered little resistance. After one quarter, it was 15-7 Roosevelt. Af the half, it was 30-13. By the end of the third quarter, the Beavers were trailing 41-16.

The 46-21 final score represents Ballard's worst offensive output of the season.

Junior Theresa Moriarty led the Beavers with six points. Senior Kayla Wenger finished with five.

Junior Elena DeWeese was this season's scoring-leader for Ballard, averaging 10.5 points per game. Moriarty averaged 8.4 and senior Alexandria Lawrence averaged 7.7.

Ballard is only losing two players – Lawrence and Wenger – to graduation after this season.

With a playoff appearance already assured, the Ballard High School boys basketball team closed out the regular season with a 57-48 loss to Roosevelt Feb. 12.

Senior Gary Smith led Ballard with 14 points. Junior Salim Gloyd and senior Kyler Korsmo each had nine.

The Beavers backed their way into the postseason, losing their final two games. Losses by three other teams combined to lock up the eighth and final playoff spot for Ballard Feb. 9.

Ballard finished the regular season with a 6-10 record in KingCo and a 7-13 record overall.

That represents a drop-off from last season's 8-8 conference record and 11-9 record overall. But, the Beavers lost John Barnes, who many saw as their best player coming into the season, after two games.

Gloyd averaged 14.7 points per game in the regular season, placing seventh in KingCo. Smith's 13.2 points per game put him at 10th. Korsmo finished third on the team in scoring with 9.5 points per game.

This is only the second time Ballard has made the KingCo playoffs, having done it last year as well.

Last season, the Beavers lost their only two games in the double-elimination format.

By Sarah Boon, Ballard High School ASB vice president

Ballard senior Jimena Diaz has been working in overdrive to achieve her goals all throughout high school.

Her extensive effort has paid off and she has been accepted early decision to Dartmouth College.

She has been president of Key Club, the treasurer for the National Honor Society and during her junior year she was vice president of composting for Ballard Earth Service Corps. She is also a mentor for freshmen as a Link Crew Leader.

Diaz stays involved at Ballard through sports as well. She has played tennis all four years of high school and played soccer for two years. During her sophomore year she received the most improved award for tennis.

Diaz has been recognized in other ways at Ballard as well. She received an honorable mention at the Student Bio Expo her junior year, and she has earned the Above and Beyond Service Learning Award.

She has been working with Rainier Scholars, a nonprofit college prep program for minorities, since before high school.

She had an internship at Seattle Children’s Hospital last summer, and she has worked with New Horizons, a teen homeless shelter.

Ed. Note: This week marks the return of 101 Things To Do In Ballard as a regular feature on www.BallardNewsTribune.com. Crown Hill resident Jill Irwin is taking the column over from Esther Shin.

So maybe you thought birdwatching was sorta boring? Think again.

We’re fortunate here in Ballard to have a prime spot to watch the birds and waterfowl at the north end of Golden Gardens Park. It’s a nonstop avian party down there from fall through spring when the migratory birds and ducks swing by.

To get to the prime birdwatching area, walk as far as you can north in the park until you come to a bridge between two restored wetland ponds just before the north beach.

The waterfowl and birds generally linger in and around the ponds, but be sure to go out to the northern beach, and you’ll likely see some waterfowl out fishing or lounging in the Sound.

Today I’m tagging along with Carolyn Bell, a Ballard resident who goes to the park pretty much every morning to check out the birds and ducks (after coffee and pastry at Café Besalu).

King County Superior Court Judge Catherine Shaffer in a 2 p.m. hearing today struck down Seattle's illegal gun ban in Seattle Parks and facilities.

Judge Shaffer, in a blunt opinion, found the Mayor Nickel-inspired rule to be in direct violation of Washington State's firearm pre-emption law. In issuing summary judgement in favor of Plaintiffs Chan, et al, Judge Shaffer also granted an injunction vacating any further enforcement of the illegal rule.

"This was the other lawsuit that was filed before mine, " said Bob Warden who filed a lawsuit of his own seeking to overturn the ban. He brought the suit following a very public challenge of the law on November 14th. Our original coverage is here It was filed by 5 or 6 individual plaintiffs that was also joined by the N.R.A. Warden said his suit is going forward, to get a ruling on the Washington State and U.S. Constitution 2nd Amendment part of the rule.

Whether most east Ballard residents know it or not, the identity and future of their neighborhood is being shaped in a large part by two women whose disparate personalities and skill sets have fused together to create a formidable community-organizing team.

In the past two years, Dawn Hemminger and Shannon Dunn have worked together under the banner of the East Ballard Community Association to spearhead projects, such as installation of planter's on 14th Avenue Northwest this April, and events, such as last summer's East Ballard Walking Tour.

Hemminger, after her involvement with the 14th Avenue Visioning Project, took over the East Ballard Community Association's seat at the Ballard District Council. Set met Dunn in early summer 2008 and found they shared similar goals and desires.

They shared an important connection, Dunn said.

"We both want to live in a certain kind of world," she said.