April 2010

Monday, April 19th marked the soft re-opening for the Evergreen Pool. The pool was closed by King County in August after they said they could no longer afford to keep it open.

Shortly after the closure of the pool member's of the swim team who used to swim there began looking for a way to open it again. White Water Aquatics swim team formed White Water Aquatics Management who first looked for funding and have now taken over management of the pool. The center is located at 606 SW 116th Street near Evergreen High School.
A grand opening will be held on May 1.

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT

On Monday night, April 19th , Women in Film/Seattle, and West Seattle’s Historic Admiral Theater partnered to pay homage to two films by Northwest bred cinema pioneer, Nell Shipman. Money raised was donated to the Seattle Humane Society.

Shipman is one of the first women who wrote, directed, produced, and starred in many of her own productions. By the '20s, she had set up her own production company where she specialized in outdoor adventure films involving an assortment of wild animals including skunks, raccoons, wolves, and bears that would later become her trademark as a filmmaker. Shipman played a role that would occur throughout her film career: a strong, resourceful female who came through to save the day.

This marked the premier performance at the Admiral of the renowned revivalist musician of live silent film accompaniment, Dennis James. James specially orchestrated scores for the two films that will screen; "Something New," 1920 - and the 1921 classic, "A Bear, a Boy, and a Dog," which co-star Nell’s dog Laddie and her bear, Brownie. He played on a Hammond B3 organ.

Jeff Bridges is a lucky man. “Crazy Heart” caught him in a perfect storm that swept him to the Oscars. The role, his co-star and the story itself wrapped around him in way that doesn’t happen every day. And, Bridges, smart as well as lucky, made the most of it.
Bridges plays Bad Blake, a country-music legend who’s thrown away every good thing in his life. Reduced to playing his music in bowling alleys and bars, he’s usually drunk before his set starts and is out in the alley throwing up before it’s over. In the morning he wakes up in a cheap motel with a woman who looked a lot better when he had a few belts in him. Then Bad stumbles out to his beat up car and does it all over again.
For the role to work, Bad’s life of dissipation needs to feel like a release valve for a ferocious vitality. You have to see the hunger that made him a star and at the same time marvel that he’s still breathing. Bridges has a knack for inhabiting characters that thrive miles away from any moral code. But, with Bad he also exposes the broken edges that make him a prisoner as much as a libertine.

King County Sheriff's deputies arrested a suspect at a bus stop after a man was assaulted and killed in a SeaTac motel Monday morning.
Police received a call from a Motel 6, across the street from the SeaTac police precinct, about 2 a.m.

Reportedly, there was a group of men in the room when the fight happened.
Police found one man dead. The name of the victim and suspect were not immediately released.

Seattle Department of Transportation paving crews will improve the sidewalk on the northwest corner of the intersection of 42nd Avenue SW and SW Alaska Street, at the Junction Plaza Park site, beginning Wednesday, April 21. The crew expects to complete the work before the end of May.

Work hours will be 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. On-street parking will be restricted and the sidewalk will be closed. Pedestrians may cross 42nd Avenue SW on the south side of Alaska Street. This project is funded by the Bridging the Gap transportation initiative approved by Seattle voters.

Tom Rusmussen began as a question mark and ended as an exclamation point when he voted against Council Bill Number: 116807 sponsored by Tim Burgess, the so-called anti-harassment of panhandlers bill. during an emotionally charged Seattle City Council meeting this afternoon. The bill passed 5-4, but Mayor McGinn promised he would veto it. So for now it will not pass.

Voting for it, in addition to Tim Burgess, were Sally Clark, Richard Conlin, Jean Godden, and Sally Bagshaw. Voting agains it, in addition to Tom Rasmussen, Mike O'Brien, Bruce Harrell, and its main opponent Nick Licata.

Burien added 14,292 people to the city on April 1.
That's the official number counted in the north Burien census of the area annexed into the city. Burien staffers had estimated the southern portion of North Highline contained 14,000-14,500 people.

Every household in the annexation was visited by a census worker and the number of residents recorded. The figure will determine the amount of funding the city receives from the state.

The north Burien census was separate from the U.S. Census currently being conducted.

In the north Burien census, a total of 5,528 housing units were counted, with an average pf 2.75 persons per residence. The vacancy rate for single family residences was 5 percent, while for multi-family residences it was 12 percent.
The city is also opening a "Burien City Hall North" to serve residents in the newly annexed area.

Located at 11846 Des Moines Memorial Drive, the city hall annex will be open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m.-noon.
The office opens May 3 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 11 at 9:45 p.m.

Liberty Belle, the most recently restored World War II Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress will take to the skies over Seattle on April 24-25.

Flight hours are 10am to 5pm each day and flights are open to the public. The media was given advance access to the aircraft and our publisher Jerry Robinson, who at 90 was not prepared to take the flight does have some memories to share of his days at Boeing in the story that follows. The Liberty Foundation’s B-17 “Liberty Belle” is one of only 14 B-17’s that still fly today.

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS

The B-17 dubbed the “Flying Fortress” as a result of her defensive fire power saw action in every theater of operation during WWII. The majority of all WWII B-17’s were operated by the 8th Airforce in Europe and participated in countless missions from bases in England deep into enemy territory. There were 12,732 B-17’s produced between 1935 and 1945, of these 4,735 were lost in combat. Following WWII, the B-17 saw combat in three more wars, B-17’s saw service in Korea, Israel used them in the war of 1948 and was even used during Vietnam.

Old Fashioned Bake Sale, Plant Sale and Mini Bazaar
Friday, April 30th from 9 am to 4 pm. Providence Mount St. Vincent, front lobby,
4831 35th Ave SW (between SW Hudson and SW Edmunds).
Funds raised benefit the residents and programs of The Mount.

Morgan Community Association Quarterly Meeting
The Kenney Home
7125 Fauntleroy Way S.W.
253-835-2405
djb124@earthlink.net
Wednesday, April 21, 7-9 p.m. Agenda: Crime Prevention and Neighborhood Safety; Neighborhood Street Fund project status; Spokane Street Viaduct Status; Morgan Junction annual festival; Murray CSO Project Update; Announcements.

Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Program Corridor Hearing and Open Houses - The Program Team wants your input about proposed change to SR 99 along the waterfront in downtown Seattle. www.alaskanwayviaduct.org.

Hearing and open house - Pioneer Square
Thursday, April 22, 5-7 p.m. Hearing presentation begins at 6 p.m. Silver Cloud Inn - Stadium Ave. One Ballroom
1046 First Ave. S.

Open house - West Seattle
Tuesday, April 27, 6-8 p.m.
Madison Middle School, Commons

In mid-May, the city of Seattle begins a new phase of its project to widen the Spokane Street Viaduct between Interstate 5 and the West Seattle Bridge. Construction of this project is expected to affect local bus service to West Seattle, White Center, Harbor Island and Vashon Island for more than a year.

On May 17, the city is scheduled to permanently close the westbound on-ramp from First Avenue South to the Spokane Street Viaduct to build a new on and off-ramp at First Avenue South. The new ramp is expected to open in fall 2011. Until then, buses that normally use the westbound on-ramp will be rerouted from First Avenue South to:

West on South Hanford Street;
South on East Marginal Way South;
West over the Duwamish Waterway on the low-level bridge to West Seattle.
This routing is expected to add several minutes to the travel times of buses heading south and westbound when traffic levels are light or normal. But increased congestion is expected over the low bridge, which means buses could be delayed significantly longer. Buses could also be slowed by trains crossing Hanford Street or openings of the low bridge for ships.