April 2010

Thursday customers asked to put out all garbage, yard waste and recycling.

Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is asking its Thursday customers to put out their regularly-scheduled garbage, yard waste and recycling for collection, despite a strike by Teamsters Local 174 garbage and yard waste drivers.

Those customers whose collections were missed today – Wednesday – are asked to put all of their garbage, yard waste and recycling out on their next regular collection day.

Waste Management services approximately 18,000 residential customers on Thursdays in the following approximate areas none of them in West Seattle:

— W. of I-5 to the Sound, between N. 145th St. and N. 105th St.

— Between I-5 and SR99 from N. 85th St to Northgate Way

— S. of I-90 to S. Orcas St; from Beacon Ave. S. to Lake Washington.

View a detailed map of the affected area.

Members of Teamsters Local 174 went on strike after contract negotiations with Waste Management reached a deadlock.

Waste Management garbage haulers went on strike at 10:30 a.m. on April 21 when, according to Waste Management workers, the company was no longer willing to discuss the terms of their contract with their union, Teamsters Local 174.

Waste Management states on its Web site they expect regular garbage service to resume April 22. But, the union has said it will continue to strike until Allied Waste agrees to negotiate the contract again in good faith.

Approximately 1,600 people applied to be drivers in case of a strike in early April, but the company has not announced if and what their plans are to continue garbage service during the strike.

The strike affects garbage and yard waste pickup for 1 million people in King and Snohomish counties, including residents of Ballard, Greenwood, Fremont and Phinney.

According to Seattle Public Utilities, the yard waste of 18,000 northwest and south Seattle residents, who normally have yard waste service on Wednesday, was not picked up. Waste Management has asked the people affected to leave their garbage out for next week.

Registration is now open for the Ballard Boys and Girls Club's summer baseball camp with sessions running from July 5 to Aug. 6.

The camp is open to boys and girls ages 8 to 12 and costs $135 per session.

Session 1 is on fielding and runs July 5 to July 9.

Session 2 is on hitting and runs July 12 to July 16.

Session 3 is total baseball and runs July 19 to July 23.

Session 4 is advanced hitting and runs July 26 to July 30.

Session 5, fast pitch softball, is girls-only and runs Aug. 2 to Aug. 6.

Camp lasts from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with additional morning and afternoon supervision available for $30 per week.

Campers are asked to bring a baseball cap, mitt, long pants, water and lunch.

Click here to register or call 206.783.5775 with questions.

Fahmi Mohamud saved the Ballard High School boys soccer team from a loss with his goal in the final minutes April 20 against Newport.

Newport had put Ballard in a hole early with Taketo Suzuki's goal two minutes into the match. But, Ballard's Balin Larson was able to even things up with a score just before halftime.

In the second half, Newport again scored quickly, this time with a goal from Vlad Strava Sirbu in the 44th minute.

It looked like the Beavers would be taking a loss until Mohamud scored the tying goal off an assist from Edwin Tellez with four minutes remaining in regulation.

Ballard had a handful of chances to score in the two overtime periods, but the 2-2 tie ultimately held.

The Beavers are 1-3-3 in KingCo and 2-5-4 overall.

Ballard faces Inglemoor at 7:30 p.m. on April 23 at Inglemoor High School.

Junior Danny Thompson hit a two-run walk-off home run to beat Garfield April 20 as the Ballard High School baseball team continues to put up wins in the second half of the season.

The Beavers and Garfield were knotted at zero heading into the bottom of the seventh. Junior Oliver Guarino got on base with his first hit of the day, and Thompson brought him home with his first hit of the day.

Senior Ryan Garrett pitched all seven innings, giving up three hits while striking out seven and walking two.

Ballard, winner of two in a row for the first time this season, has won three of its last four games and four of its last six to raise its record to 5-6 in KingCo (5-8 overall) and move into third place in the KingCo Crown division.

Coach John Lamm said his players are starting to believe in the team.

"Under adversity, instead of finding ways to lose, we are beginning to find ways to win," Lamm said.

After starting out the season with four straight losses, the Beavers have five games remaining to finish the season with a winning-record.

Click here for full results from the April 15 Ballard High School track meet against Roosevelt.

On April 20, CAST Architecture presented the final design, with two alternate schemes, for the solar-generating park members of the community are hoping to build on the City Light-owned substation property behind Ristorante Picolinos on Northwest 65th Street and 32nd Avenue Northwest.

Matt Hutchins from CAST Architecture said the Wedge Scheme from the March 25 meeting was the most popular with meeting attendees and commenters on the project's blog, followed by the Big Roof scheme and the Pair scheme.

The two final schemes are variations on the Wedge, called the Double Wedge Scheme and the Single Wedge Scheme.

The Double Wedge features two hillsides, one in the northeast corner and one in the southwest corner, that create an artificial valley for the path through the middle.

The Single Wedge has a hillside in the northeast corner but a gently sloping lawn at the south end of the site, creating an open meeting area in the middle of the site.

In the Double Wedge scheme, the meeting area would be in the southwest corner where stairs lead down from the alley and create seating.

Seattle City Light crews restored power about 8:45 a.m. for about 2,800 homes and businesses affected by an outage in West Seattle.

The outage started about 5:40 a.m. when a branch from a tree came into contact with power lines near 42nd Avenue SW and SW Hill Street.

The general boundaries of the outage were Alki Avenue SW on the north, SW Juneau Street on the south, 25th Avenue SW on the east, and 44th Avenue SW on the west. Not all customers in that area were affected.

The Ballard High School orchestra traveled to New York City over spring break and brought home several awards from the Heritage Festival.

The orchestra received average scores of 96 from the three judges, received a "gold" rating for scoring in the 90s and won second place in their division. They also won an Adjudicator's Award for having average scores of 92 or higher.

Colleen Maluda won a Maestro Award for her outstanding solo in John Rutter's "Suite for Strings."

The orchestra also won the "Spirit of New York City Award" for being the one group in the festival (out of 25) that best represented their school and community.

On Sunday, May 9th from 12 Noon to 4pm Hotwire Online Coffeehouse at 4410 California Ave SW will set up an outdoor studio on their patio (now with a new cover) for photos with mom, dad, kids, pets, husband, wife or whoever you choose.

Wyn Bielaska, a local photographer, will be on hand to shoot the photos.

The fee will be $10 for a digital photograph emailed to you or $20 for an 8x10 & 2 5x7 photographs which can be picked up at Hotwire.

This is a benefit effort for Westside Baby which provides essential items to local children in need by collecting diapers, clothing, toys and equipment