April 2010

Just one deadly dose of double "D" was more than enough for the Rogers Rams to handle in a boys soccer game as Dominique Dismuke, a fast-footed Decatur sophomore, took a pass from fullback Ryan Baranntes and short-kicked a shot past the fingertips of the Rams’ keeper late in the game for a 1-0 Gators win at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup Wednesday.

"They are a really good side," said Gators coach Sean Smith of Rogers. 'It's going to be close with the top four teams."

Good parity.

Certainly this season is shaping up that way after the first half's nearly through and the South Puget Sound League 'South' Division title is definitely still up for grabs for a lot of teams' hands, er, feet, to grab.

With the win Decatur keeps afoot with the league leaders. Halfway through this season now, it's Curtis and Puyallup tied for first place at 4-1-1, then it's Emerald Ridge second, at 3-0-2 followed right behind by Beamer and Decatur at 3-1-1.

The King County Water Taxi will begin 2010 service on the West Seattle-Downtown Seattle route on Monday, April 5.
The West Seattle water taxi operates between Seacrest Park, 1660 Harbor Avenue SW, in West Seattle and Pier 50 on the downtown Seattle waterfront. The pier at Alaskan Way and Yesler Way is a new location for the downtown boardings.

The 2010 season will usher in a new vessel and improvements to the dock at Seacrest Park – including a wider, longer, non-slip gangway to meet accessibility guidelines, new concrete floats, and a change in docking orientation for safer and easier vessel docking.

“For riders, opening day for the West Seattle Water Taxi marks the return of a convenient and enjoyable transportation option. For the King County Ferry District, this season signals the start of an energetic effort to visualize the future of our water taxi service and how we can best serve our communities with water-borne transit options,” said Ferry District Chair and King County Councilmember Jan Drago. Drago’s council district includes West Seattle and Vashon Island – the two communities that the King County Water Taxi currently serves.

The Ballard High School softball team finished up an impressive tear through its 2010 nonconference schedule by beating Blanchet 11-3 April 1.

The Beavers lead 2-1 after the first inning and never looked back, using a seven-run fourth inning to put Blancet away.

Junior Bernie Cardon was a perfect four-for-four from the plate with three RBIs. Sophomore Amry Kimmerly was flawless offensively as well, going three-for-three with an RBI.

In her first game back after spraining an ankle two weeks ago, senior pitcher Sophie Overlock-Pauley pitched all seven innings, giving up two hits and five walks while throwing seven strikeouts.

Ballard outscored its opponents 30-6 over the last three games and will head into conference play with a 4-0 record.

Coach Kyle Gray said starting the season with four straight victories has built up a lot of confidence in his players.

He said the players want to keep working and playing well because they understand how tough KingCo competition can be.

"As long as they stay focused and keep working hard in practice, we'll be fine," Gray said.

The Beavers open the KingCo season against Roosevelt at 4 p.m. on April 5 at Lower Woodland.

I was at the library the other day and went to get a drink of water when another man arrived at the fountain at the same time. He graciously offered to let me use the taller one, but I declined and used the smaller one instead.

We began talking, and he told me how he had come from the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana to Seattle to look for work. This was the second time he had come to Seattle to work. There aren’t many jobs available on or near the reservation right now.

When he was here two years ago, he had been able to find a lot of good-paying work on the docks and doing landscaping. Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t going as well because his other backpack with his clothes, extra shoes and important items had been stolen.

Despite this setback, he wasn’t too worried, as he had been through worse scrapes before. He was hoping to find some of his old friends who he had stayed with when he was last in town, but he hadn’t been able to find them yet.

He remarked at how much Ballard had changed since his last visit. He gave me directions to the reservation and told me when was a good time to visit and the name of his family to look up when I was there.

Full Tilt Ice Cream opened in White Center during the summer of 2008 and immediately became a popular neighborhood hangout with its combination of handcrafted ice cream, vintage pinball machines and video games, local artwork, and live music. Two more stores have opened and a fourth location is planned.

Managing partner Justin Cline develops the recipes for Full Tilt’s products and makes them in a small, crowded back room at the White Center location. I met him there for a look behind the scenes.

The Concept

Cline and his wife, Ann Magyar, moved from Seattle to White Center in 2004. They missed their favorite pinball arcades and live-music venues, so when a 2007 survey mentioned their neighborhood’s desire for an ice-cream shop, they decided to open one that would double as an all-ages hangout.

In the spring of 2008, they rented a space on 16th Avenue and painted the walls lime green. They leased pinball machines (Dr. Who) and video games (Pac-Man), bought some mixers and freezers, and the rest is history.

The Back Room

On March 31, city councilmembers Sally Clark and Tim Burgess toured the three areas of the Ballard urban village that are facing a rezone to get an impression of the areas before a possible April 2 vote.

Clark, who chairs the council's Committee on the Built Environment, said one of the purposes of the tour was to look at what businesses are on the land now and whether they would be allowed to stay there under a zoning change.

"I'm really cautious about that," Clark said. "Suddenly the map changes under you and the rules are very different for what you can do on the property."

In September, the Seattle Department of Planning and Development proposed a rezone of three industrial areas in Ballard.

The city planned to rezone Subarea 1, a section along the north side of Market Street from 25th Avenue Northwest to 30th Avenue Northwest, from an Industrial Buffer zone to a Neighborhood Commercial zone, which could include housing, office space and retail.

Burien passed the state capitol in population on Thursday, April 1, as Burien officially annexed the southern part of unincorporated North Highline.

Burien has jumped up ten spots from the 31s largest city in the state to 21st, passing Olympia. About 14,500 people joined Burien's 31,000 residents.

The city won't be growing anymore in the near future after the City Council decided to delay consideration of annexing White Center and the rest of the remaining unincorporated portion.

Voters in the newly annexed area approved the move to Burien in August by a 55 percent to 45 percent margin.

No official ceremony is planned for Thursday but Burien will hold a welcoming reception before the April 5 council meeting.

Burien staffers have maintained that the addition will be revenue neutral-new tax collections generated from the new neighbors will match the cost of new services to the area.

Burien will receive up to $700,000 per year for 10 years in state sales tax credit for annexing the area.

A local woman walking near the Des Moines Marina pier Monday evening was the first to capture photo evidence of the recent string of sightings of "Desi," the Des Moines sea serpent of legendary fame.

Local fishermen have sought the elusive creature for decades.

"I was completely petrified. I couldn't move the first time this enormous thing rose out of the water," said Marion Yoshino, who is a resident of Normandy Park. "I was walking the dog along the pier, we both froze-- I think my dog was too frightened to even bark. It happened so fast that I didn't have a chance to think about taking a picture.

"But after I calmed down I pulled out my camera, hoping to get a glimpse of something in the water. Then it came back again! If I hadn't gotten this photo I don't think that I could tell the story, because, who would believe it?"

"It just makes sense that, as more people carry cell phone cameras, we will finally have photos of the sea creature that boaters have been telling us about for so many years," said Joe Dusenbury, Harbormaster at the Des Moines Marina. "We have drawings from captains' logs 200 years ago of a giant sea serpent, so the history goes way back.

The Seattle Department of Transportation is considering designating the right-hand lanes on Market Street at the intersection of 24th Avenue Northwest as turn-only lanes as part of a series of transit improvements to Market Street.

The department is proposing a time-limited demonstration period for the turn-only lanes at 24th Avenue for sometime this summer, said department spokesperson Bill Bryant.

He said the department will be discussing the demonstration period with neighborhood groups in the coming weeks before deciding whether to move forward with it.

Bryant said the turn-only lanes would make a noticeable improvement in reliability and trip speed for Metro routes 44, 17, 18, 75 and 46. Buses would be allowed to go straight through the intersection in the turn-only lanes.

If the demonstration period occurs and is a success, the turn-only lanes would be permanently incorporated into the Market Street/45th Street transit project, he said.

On March 25, 2010 at approximately 3:20 p.m., an unknown white male executed a bank robbery at the Bank of America branch located at 32011 Pacific Highway South.

The suspect presented a handwritten demand note that he took with him.

The suspect was provided an undisclosed amount of money in cash by the teller. The suspect did not display or imply a weapon and later left the scene in an unknown manner.

This suspect may be responsible for other bank robberies along the I-5 corridor, including one in Vancouver, WA in December 2009 and an additional Federal Way robbery in January 2010.

The suspect is a white male, reportedly in his 50’s, but as seen in the surveillance photographs, may be younger.

He is approximately 5’05” tall, weighing about 215 lbs. At the time of the robbery he was wearing prescription glasses, a navy blue parka with a black shirt underneath, and a dark colored baseball style cap with an unknown design or printing on the front. The suspect is reported to have brown hair with gray mixed in.