April 2010

Ciscoe Morris, host of KING 5's "Gardening with Ciscoe," stopped by North Beach Elementary School April 8 to talk to Ms. Niemeyer's first-graders about butterflies and show them how to plant a garden to attract the insects, prompting the following outbursts from the students.

"I know it's a fly because it's gross."

"If I ever touch a butterfly's wings, I'm going to make sure I clipped my fingernails."

"You really know a lot about gardening."

Combining a school-wide gardening project and a science unit on organisms, the students, with help from Morris, planted a variety of plants that will serve as a habitat to the class' butterflies, which will be emerging from their cocoons soon.

Karen Kazanjian, parent coordinator for the school's garden, said gardening is a hands-on way for students to learn and is more memorable than simply reading text books.

"They love it," Kazanjian said. "I have kids saying, 'I've never had this much fun in class.'"

Seattle Public Schools has scheduled two community meetings to provide information about how schools are funded and strategies to close the funding gap for the 2010-11 school year. We will also seek feedback on plans to address the shortfall.

In addition, families are invited to share their ideas on what SPS programs and services are most important for them to have protected as the district begins to address a projected $26 million budget gap for the 2011-12 school year.

Interpreters will be available at both community meetings, which will include a question-and-answer session. Dates, times and locations are as follows:

Saturday, April 17, from 1 to 3 p.m.
Aki Kurose Middle School
3928 S. Graham St.
Seattle, WA 98118

Tuesday, April 20, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Roosevelt High School
1410 N.E. 66 St.
Seattle, WA 98115

The Bohemian at 3405 California Avenue Southwest is sponsoring a fundraiser in support of breast cancer research on April, 17 from 4PM to 1AM.
The event will feature artwork up for auction by Scott W. Pietz, Charles Smith, Jay Cates, James Francis, Pamela Farrington, Tom Norton,
Alejandra Escobedo, Shanna Marie Duncan, Jada-Moon Gridle, Dave Blank, Young Handsome, T.S. Pew and more.

Rane Stone will be performing original music. 8 - 12:00pm

Other auction items offered include:
- WARM 106.9, Seattle’s radio station for Today’s Soft Favorites, has donated a pair of tickets to the Dave Matthews Band concert, at the Gorge, on Friday, September 3, 2010 at 6:00PM.
- Showbox gift certificates. Each is good for 2 tickets (good for pretty much any show at either the Market of SoDo locations), 2 meals and 2 beverages. Each gift certificate is valued at $100 - $150.
- Drum head FROM Alice-N-Chains
- SWAG From TACOMA BAND Hide the Scarz

Throughout the evening the Bohemian will provide free food samples from their extensive menu and other specialities.

At the April 14 Committee on the Built Environment meeting of the Seattle City Council, the sommittee will consider amendments to Council Bill 116775, which deals with rezone of three industrial areas in Ballard.

The proposed amendments would be alternatives to a proposal by the Department of Planning and Development to Subarea 1, an area described generally as the half blocks north of Market Street between 24th Avenue Northwest and 30th Avenue Northwest.

All alternatives would retain the existing Industrial Buffer with a 45-foot height limit zone for the area west of 26th Avenue Northwest.

Alternatives for the area east of 26th Avenue, which includes the entire block bounded by Northwest 56th Street to the north, 24th Avenue Northwest to the east, Market Street to the south and 26th Avenue to the west, include:

• Retaining the existing zoning, which includes Industrial Buffer with a 45-foot height limit.
• Rezoning a portion of the block to Neighborhood Commercial with a 65-foot height limit to consolidate zoning for that entire block as Neighborhood Commercial.

Highline and Evergreen both took time out from their spring break last Tuesday, April 6 to compete in the 12-team Bill Harris Invitational meet held at Federal Way Memorial.

The Pirates posted a seventh place finish with a combined boys and girls score of 79 and Evergreen came in 12th with 21 points.

The 47th annual meet is called the Bill Harris Invitational in honor of the retired longtime coach and teacher at Federal Way High School.

Tracey Stolz of Highline won the 800-meter run in a time of 2:25.89 and teammate Latu Tuipulotu was fourth in the 110-meter hurdles race in 18.68 ahead of Evergreen's Leslie Diaz (20.22). Breana Brookbank of Highline was fifth in the 400 in 1:06.86.

Michelle Stolz took third for the Pirates in the 300-meter hurdles in 47.54 and the Highline team of Colleen Pacholski, Brookbank, Bianca Hooks and Darshell Walker was third in the 400-meter relay in 53.31.

The Highline combination of Enjoli Fowler, Tracey Stolz, Michelle Stolz and Pacholski won the 800-meter relay in 1:50.99.

Jamila Culcleasure of Highline took second in the shot put at 34 feet, 4.50 inches and she took third in the discus at 99-10.

Federal Way shook off a cold wind and the post spring break blahs to win its own invitational track and field meet last Tuesday, April 6.

The Bill Harris Invitational meet, held annually in retired longtime Eagles track and field coach Bill Harris' honor, combines the boys and girls scores, and Federal Way came out front with 246.50 points ahead of the 194.50 score of White River.

"It could have been a lot worse," said Eagle girls coach Jean Licari. "There's rain and there's wind, and we just got the one. It was cold and off the (Puget) Sound, as usual."

The student athletes on the Federal Way track and field team also just got off of spring break the day before, and also presented a challenge.

"They were off for spring break, and some went to practices but not all of them," Licari said.

But the Eagles came on strong for the 47th annual running of the meet, led by the boys team coached by Sam Beesley.

"The boys are just where we want them to be as a team," said Beesley.

Decatur also competed in the meet, taking fourth place with 119 points behind the 166.50 score of third place Fife.

At the first public meeting for the replacement of the Golden Gardens playground April 7, a new location for the play area was all but decided on. The types of play equipment it would feature was a bit more controversial.

The upgrade of the 20-year-old playground that sits adjacent to the barbeque area is being funded by the Pro Parks Levy.

The city wants to bring the playground into safety and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and also move it to a larger space away from a high-traffic area, said Virginia Hassinger, project coordinator for Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Dean Koonts, an architect from HBB Landscape Architecture working on the project, said the current playground, which features four swings and a small play structure, has a small range of equipment, caters to a small age group and has little separation from traffic.

After a site analysis by HBB that ruled out areas within 200 feet of the shoreline, areas that are habitat-sensitive or already highly used and a portion of Golden Gardens that may have contaminated soil, the city is proposing relocating the playground to the grass-covered area immediately east of the Golden Gardens Bathhouse.

Last week, I asked a friend if she could watch my son while I was at the courthouse finalizing my divorce.

“Sure,” she said. “But, didn’t you get divorced a year ago?”

“I filed for divorce a year ago, but it’s taken the court over a year to catch up to where I am emotionally.”

“Right,” she smiled, probably having no clue to what I was babbling about.

“How long do you need?”

“I hear it’s pretty quick, so I’m guessing an hour or so should do it.”

If this were a horror movie, now would be the time the audience stats screaming to the heroine, “You are such an idiot! Don’t do it! Turn around, turn around!”

Unfortunately for me, I don’t have an audience to tell me when I’m being stupid, until it’s too late. Even more unfortunate is that even though I have written a Courthouse Part I and Courthouse Part II column, I conveniently forgot that when it came time for my Courthouse III experience.

Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Associated Recreation Council (ARC) invite youth ages 14-18 to apply for work as interns in the Recreation Technology or “RecTech” program in the summer of 2010.

These internships provide young people with important skills in today’s tech-savvy world. The program will bring them up to date on various tech skills and help make them more employable.

There are openings for interns in these technology areas in:
· Digital Darkroom and Photojournalism at Delridge Community Center. This internship will provide an overview of the digital imaging process and will cover the basics of photojournalism.

· Video Production at Garfield Community Center. In this session, the interns will spend the summer behind a camera and holding a microphone. It will include workshops in video production, theater, and creative writing.

· Web Design at South Park Community Center. Interns in this program will learn web design, graphic design, HTML, and interactive animations.

All internships run from July 12 through August 26, Monday through Friday, 1 to 5 p.m.
Applicants should be sure:

On Wednesday, April 15 Cedar Grove Composting will be delivering a bag of compost at the curbside of 2,000 households three neighborhoods from Puget Ridge to South Seattle Community College. The households that receive the compost will be the same households that received mailings about Natural Yard Care Neighborhood Classes.

Cedar Grove is interested in marketing the compost they are making from materials collected from Seattle households. Seattle Public Utilities shares the fact that there has been a 47% increase in the amount of food that Seattle households are recycling into compost between 2008 and 2009.

For people who don¹t want the compost, Cedar Grove will return two days later to pick up the compost that has been left at the curbside. This compost will be donated to one or more community projects in the neighborhood. If residents have ideas for where that compost could best be donated, they are asked to contact Carl Woestwin, Landscape Conservation & Waste Prevention Team Lead via email carl.woestwin@seattle.gov with a name for the project and a contact person.