April 2010

The Ballard High School boys soccer team shut out Lake Washington in the teams' April 6 match. Unfortunately for the Beavers, they too were shutout.

The match ended in a 0-0 tie, leaving Ballard still looking for its first win of the season.

The Beavers are 0-2-2 in KingCo and 0-4-3 overall.

Ballard will look to turn its offense around against nonconference opponent Blanchet at 1 p.m. on April 10 at Bishop Blanchet High School.

One day after a tough loss to Woodinville, the Ballard High School baseball team regrouped and put together possibly its best outings of the season, defeating Newport 8-6 April 6.

"Last night was a good one, considering that against Woodinville everything that could go wrong, did," coach John Lamm said. "It was just one of those games."

He said it feels good that his players were able to come back after the 5-1 loss to Woodinville and get a win over Newport, one of the best teams in the division.

Lamm said Ballard is heading in the right direction with the team batting average climbing toward .300.

"Yesterday's game was nothing but clutch hit after clutch hit," he said.

Newport, after being down 3-1 in the first inning, was able to pull into a 3-3 tie in the third inning. The Beavers were able to fight back to regain the lead 8-3 and hold on for the win.

Senior David Doerr went two-for three with four RBIs and a run scored.

Senior pitcher Charlie Beaudoin earned his second win of the season, pitching six innings. He gave up three runs on five hits while striking out eight and walking two.

"Charlie Beaudoin has been our ace," Lamm said. "He's our guy."

Come and participate in the meeting for the development of the 20 acres of open space at the West Seattle Reservoir Park at Westcrest. Community ideas and direction have been incorporated into schematic designs and together Seattle Parks and Recreation and Site Workshops will present those designs and gather input for a preferred schematic design.

Your input is essential for the planning of this new and unique park for the Highland Park neighborhood on the West Seattle Reservoir lid. A final meeting to present a preferred design will be held in June. Whether you’re hearing about it for the first time, or participated in previous meetings we invite you to bring your ideas and creative thoughts.

The West Seattle Reservoir is located at 9000 8th Ave SW. This park project is funded by the Parks and Green Spaces Levy approved by Seattle voters in November 2008.

You are encouraged to attend, and join in the Planning for your new park.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
10 a.m. – noon Southwest Community Center 2801 SW Thistle St, Seattle, WA 98126

For more information or if you require special meeting accomodations, Please visit:

Ed. Note: This letter to the editor is in response to the March 26 article "Swedish engineer takes on union."

I've been an employee of the Swedish engineering department for 13 years and a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers over 15. I was elected shop steward for the membership over eight years ago.

Our employer, Swedish Health Services, has a contractual agreement with the International Union of Operating Engineers' local chapter 286.

"The union" (in this case) consists of our engineering employees over four campuses and various other locations. Of the roughly 50 persons of varied job classifications, 95 percent are members that make up eligible voting engineers for Swedish.

The remaining 5 percent were those employee who chose not to join at the time of the contract conception but were covered under the contract between medical facility and the union just like the members.

Chief Sealth International High School is sponsoring Healthapalooza, a health information fair for Chief Sealth students, their families, teachers and staff April 9.

Chief Sealth Administrative Secretary Marta Sanchez came up with the idea for the Healthapalooza fair as a way for the school to recognize National Public Health Week April 5-11. Details on National Public Health Week can be found at www.apha.org/programs/healthweek/.

Sixteen Healthapalooza exhibitors, including the University of Washington School of Dentistry (dental health), the Willie Austin Foundation (youth physical movement), Seattle Children’s Hospital/Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic (nutrition), Asian Counseling Referral Service (emotional/mental health) and the YMCA (exercise). In addition, three Chief Sealth teachers will provide health-related science and physics demonstrations on topics ranging from motion and movement to the chemical content of junk food. Whole Foods has also donated healthy snacks for students to sample.

The event runs on Friday, April 9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Chief Sealth International High School (@Boren) Commons, 5950 Delridge Way S.W., Seattle

The Bainbridge Spartan’s continued their undefeated season, shutting out the West Seattle Wildcat’s 5-0.
The Wildcat’s played hard, but despite some good attempts in the second half they were never able to get the ball past the net.

Spartan’s standings are now 5-0 for the season and 4-0 in conference games. The Wildcat’s standings are now 1-1-2.
The Wildcat’s will play an away game against the Franklin Quaker’s on Thursday at 3:30 p.m.

A month before Mike Turner got in a red 1986 Pontiac Firebird and smashed into a metal pole, killing himself and two friends April 4, he was arrested on charges of driving under the influence, hit and run and four other offenses, according to police reports.

Turner, 20, Kellen Jones, 20, and Spenser Millard, 19, died when their speeding car hit a sign pole outside of a Taco Time on Northwest Market Street and Northwest 54th Street. A teenage girl who was also in the car remains in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center.

Detective Jeff Kappel with the Seattle Police Department confirmed that Turner was behind the wheel. Police still don’t know if alcohol was a factor in the crash.

At 3:59 a.m. March 6, the Seattle Police Department dispatched officers to Northwest 65th Street and 20th Avenue Northwest, where witnesses reported that a white van struck several parked vehicles.

When officers arrived at the crash scene, they saw a white Chevrolet had hit a tree and was parked on a planting strip at Northwest 67th Street and 20th Avenue Northwest, according to a police report.

It’s windy. Cold. Wet. There’s not much happening on the corner of Northwest Market Street and Northwest 54th Street except for three people who stare silently at a memorial of flowers, cards, beer cans and belated Easter chocolates at the foot of a sign pole in the Taco Time parking lot.

Max McMorrow reaches up and softly touches the pole. He gets dirt on his fingers, but he doesn’t wipe it off.

The pole bears the scars and scrapes from an early morning car crash April 4 that killed McMorrow’s close friend Mike Turner, 20, along with Kellen Jones, 20, and Spenser Millard, 19.

According to the Seattle Police Department, the red 1986 Pontiac Firebird was speeding when it slammed into the steel pole.

“He was a good guy,” McMorrow said of Turner. “He befriended anybody. He wasn’t really a judgmental person.”

All three men graduated from Ballard High School. A fourth passenger, a teenage girl, was injured. She remained in critical condition through Tuesday and was upgraded to serious on Wednesday morning, according to Harborview Medical Center.

Honk Fest West is presenting their 3rd annual festival of acoustic, mobile street bands from across North America in the
West Seattle Junction next Sunday, April 11 from 12 to 6PM. Honk Fest will close California Avenue from Alaska to Genesee Street.

The event is free to the public and will take place on 5 stages featuring 26 different bands around the nation including:

Anti-Fascist Marching Band
Artesian Rumble Arkestra
BeatCrunchers
Bolting Brassicas Marching Band
Brass Messengers
The Carnival Band
Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band
Environmental Encroachment
Extraordinary Rendition Band
Garfield High School Bulldog Drumline
The HBC Brass Band
Hubbub Club
Hungry March Band
Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB)
Minor Mishap Marching Band
Orkestar Slivovica
Orkestar Zirkonium
Samba Ja
Seattle Sounders FC Soundwave Band
Seattle Seahawks Blue Thunder Drumline
Titanium Sporkestra
Vamola
Yellow Hat Band
Yesterday's Chonies

Here's the Honk Fest West Performance Schedule

Danita Hill is very familiar with pets. She has a dog walking service called Hot to Trot and knows a lot of people and their dogs. She's licensed to do it too. Plus her family has a few pets of their own. But the one that stands out is Beardy. He's an Australian Bearded Dragon that she purchased from Petco 10 years ago.

Beardy lives in a special glass case near the kitchen with sand in the bottom, and both heat and special spectrum lighting to mimic the environment of the Australian desert where these animals come from. Bearded dragons are essentially quite docile creatures and Hill believes they are even social animals. "He's like part of the family," she said, "the neighbor kids think he's the coolest thing in the world."
Beardy even knows his name, turning his head when he is called.

Beardy eats meal worms and live crickets which present their own care questions. "You have to feed the crickets, and give them a cotton ball dipped in water so they can drink, keeping a lizard like this... it's a major commitment," she said.
Beardy eats about 60 crickets a week.