May 2010

Water District 54 is not trying to back out of the project to improve water flow in Downtown Des Moines, they are simply continuing to negotiate how much of the project the District will pay for, Water District 54 Superintendent Eric Clarke said.

Loren Reinhold, assistant director of utilities and environmental engineering for Des Moines confirmed the City was still working with the Water District to come to an agreement on who will pay for what parts of the project.

“As far as I am aware both parties are still interested in doing this project,” Reinhold said. He predicted it might take three to six months to iron out the details but he believes the City and the District will come to an agreement and move forward with the project.

Clarke said the Water District is in now way trying to back out of the project.

“It is discouraging the Mayor gets from our letter we are trying to renege on the project,” Clarke said.

The project being looked at would connect water lines east to west from 8th Ave. to 7 Ave. at each intersection along Marine View Drive as well as install a 12 inch water line down Marine View Drive.

A sober sequel to the contentious April 27 meeting hosted by King County Department of Transportation Executive Harold Tanigucho on the South Park Bridge closing was played out Tuesday night, May 26, also at Machinists Hall, two miles south of the bridge's south entrance. After 79 years of service, the bridge is still scheduled to close June 30 at 7:00 p.m.

See the West Seattle Herald story on that meeting here:

http://www.westseattleherald.com/2010/04/28/news/update-kcdot-hot-seat-…

This time around, the South Park residents, merchants, and neighborhood activists packed in the room seemed to accept their fate, as they see it, to try to survive on an underserved island with no practical way out, once the bridge is barricaded, then dismantled.

About 20,000 cars and trucks cross the bridge each day. When it closes, many of those vehicles will be diverted to First Avenue South Bridge. Traffic concerns about this alternate route have escalated, especially since boats may pass under during rush hour causing gridlock.

Less than two weeks after euthanizing its female ostrich, the Woodland Park Zoo euthanized its 12-year-old, male ostrich earlier this week due to injuries apparently caused by a fall in its African Savanna exhibit.

The bird, named Ozzie, was the sole remaining ostrich at the zoo.

Despite emergency treatments and supportive care interventions by zoo veterinary staff to stabilize the bird and treat his injuries, the ostrich was in obvious pain from severe injuries, according to a Woodland Park Zoo press release.

“The bird progressively declined and euthanasia was the most humane option,” Dr. Darin Collins, director of Woodland Park Zoo’s Animal Health, said in the press release.

Preliminary necropsy findings confirmed leg and head trauma with extensive soft tissue muscle damage.

The zoo lost its female ostrich two weeks ago after it suffered a critical leg injury during a diagnostic medical procedure to treat a chronic fungal infection. A post-mortem examination confirmed a pelvic bone fracture and a life-threatening systemic infection of the reproductive tract.

The generous students at Green Gables Elementary have chosen to award Friends of the Hylebos with their Penny Harvest Grant.

Green Gables Elementary is one of 65 schools in King County to participate in the Penny Harvest, a program of Solid Ground and Common Cents. The program is a year round service learning project made up of a series of activities that help students apply classroom learning to real world problems. This year, the Penny Harvest raised $78,836.45!

In October students conduct a coin drive and in January, a Philanthropy Roundtable is formed by the students. These Philanthropy Roundtables identify neighborhood needs, make grants, and complete neighborhood service projects.

Friends of the Hylebos was invited to speak alongside EarthCorps to Green Gables Elementary about environmental restoration in the King County area, specifically Federal Way. (A big Hylebos thanks to our friends at Earthcorps who recommended the students invite the Friends)

The grant will go directly to protecting and restoring the forest health of the Dumas Bay Wildlife Preserve.

What do the terms ADD and EBD mean to educators and what re-thinking might be appropriate?

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Emotional or Behavioral Disorder (EBD) are the traditional definitions the education community gives for syndromes that didn’t seem to exist until about 30 years ago. Evidently these disorders are a result of something that has happened in recent time. Could it be that the “D” in this should be for “Distraction” or “Discipline (lack of)?”

I have tutored many kids who were supposed to have ADD over the past few years. I checked this question with a high school friend of mine who was a school psychologist for most of his career, and another friend who taught in high school for his entire career.

There were no reservations about my contention. The psychologist even suggested in some terms, I will not use in this column, that lack of discipline was a major factor in both of these “syndromes.”

The City of Federal Way wrote rebate checks to 154 low-income seniors and low-income disabled citizens this year for a total of $20,474.

That beats last year’s total of 93 seniors/disabled citizens and a total of $13,455 rebated.

“It was great that we could help many people this year,” said Bryant Enge, Financial Services Administrator for the City. “We really have a citizen to thank for that--Lynn Bennett. She gave us some ideas for expanding our outreach of the program and it really made a difference.
We hope to do even more next year.”

The rebate program, in existence since 2003, covers the City utility tax portion (7.75%) on gas, electricity, telephone, cell phones, pagers, garbage/recycling, and cable TV charges. This year, rebates averaged $133. Actual amounts vary depending on utility consumption. Taxes
on wastewater/water charges are not eligible.

Applications for the 2010 tax year will be mailed in December and will be due in April 2011. For more information or to receive an application, contact Brook Lindquist at 253.835.2403.

For Anne Baumgartner and Pam Gray, two artists sharing a cramped and cluttered Ballard studio around the corner from Cafe Bambino with a handful of other artists, it must be hard to see good space go to waste.

On June 1, Baumgartner and Gray will be putting up the first stages of their "On the Fence" installation at the future Avalon Ballard and former Sunset Bowl site at 1400 N.W. Market St., which has sat vacant since the former bowling alley was torn down in January.

The two artists, who have shared their studio space for three years and known each other for a decade since they were Seattle Public Schools teachers, had an idea they thought would be cool for an empty lot.

After receiving one of four grants for outdoor installations from Seattle Print Arts in March, Gray and Baumgartner set out to look for a usable lot in Ballard.

Baumgartner said they didn't think the project would happen at first because coordinating with property representatives and liability issues were proving to be difficult.

The public is invited to the next committee meeting to plan the 2011 Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. The meeting will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. on June 18 at City Hall in the Hylebos Room, 33325 8th Ave. S.

The meeting was originally scheduled for June 11, but has been changed. Subsequent committee meetings will be advertised through the City’s regular public notices process. To sign up for email notice of meetings, visit www.cityoffederalway.com and click on e-subscribe in the top left-hand corner.

The meeting is free. No RSVPs necessary. For more information, contact Brook Lindquist, Executive Assistant to the City Manager and City Council, 253.835.2401 or brook.lindquist@cityoffederalway.com.

It was smooth sailing for Thomas Jefferson after the Raiders got past a tough game against crosstown rival Todd Beamer.

The Raiders edged the Titans, 8-7, in a loser-out game Tuesday morning and then ran away with a loser-out, winner-to-state game against Central Kitsap, 10-5, immediately thereafter.

TJ advances to the state tournament Friday at the South End Recreation Area in Tacoma.
It will be the Raiders' third trip to state out of four years.

"Three out of four, that says something," said a pleased TJ head coach Chad Fahnlander. "We had a chance yesterday and didn't get it done. We talked a lot about getting things done."

Freshman Katie Jackson got a lot done as the pitcher for the Raiders on a youthful team.

"We've got a very young team and we made young mistakes out there," Fahnlander said after the West Central District games played at Sprinker Recreation Area in Spanaway.

The team advances as the district's No. 5 seed to state out of a tournament that was shortened by rain fall -- sometimes very hard rain fall.

Most of the tournament was played Monday and Tuesday instead of Friday and Saturday.

This month the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has made “real time” views from 38 new traffic cameras around the city available on the Internet to detect congestion and collisions and to monitor traffic and road conditions (see the list of locations below). The public is using information from the cameras to help make travel decisions, and SDOT traffic engineers are using the information to identify locations where they can make changes to improve traffic flow.

There are also eight new electronic “Dynamic Message Signs” (“DMS”) (locations also listed below) now operating on major arterials, providing travel alerts to people already on the road.

By the end of August, SDOT will add a few more cameras and six DMS signs. In addition, by the end of the year WSDOT will add six traffic cameras and six DMS signs that SDOT will own and operate, on State Route 99.