September 2010

Orphan Relief and Rescue (ORR) held its Open House Wednesday, Sept. 1, at its new headquarters, 1416 SW 151 St. Burien, next to Lake Burien Presbyterian Church that renovated the space for ORR, which moved from eastern Texas. Orphan Relief and Rescue calls itself “a voice with action for orphans and vulnerable children in West Africa.”

Tim Pratt and his wife Rebecca founded ORR with Matt LaPage, and moved here from Texas, but once lived in this area. The Pratts met at South Whidbey High School, on Whidbey Island. They now live in Normandy Park with their three children, Joshua, 15, Desiree, 17, and Brianna, 20. Their kids lived in Liberia for almost three years, starting about seven years ago. Tim and Rebecca were with Mercy Ships where Tim was renovations manager. Mercy Ships operates the largest non-governmental hospital ship in the world, providing free health care, community development, agriculture and water projects, and mental health programs.

Just out of her freshman year at West Seattle High School, 15 year-old Michiko Yoshino, a High Point resident, was hired as a paid summer intern with Skanska USA Building, Inc., the Swedish-based construction and project development company, at 221 Yale Avenue North in downtown Seattle.

Although Yoshino said she felt fortunate to be chosen for the position, her supervisor, Kris Beason, Skanska Project Executive and Special Projects Division Head, said it was the company that hit the jackpot when the motivated teen clocked in.

The two met at a jobs fair sponsored by the YWCA’s Girls First Program. Beason has volunteered for the YWCA, and Skanska has done renovation projects for them.

According to its website, “The mission of YWCA GirlsFirstSM is to encourage leadership, instill confidence,
develop skills, and provide opportunities to
girls of color (…) Our program includes a three-week Summer Leadership Academy, weekend overnight retreat at Seattle University, weekly afterschool sessions, and monthly Leadership in Action Days. Alumnae opportunities include mentoring, tutoring, and paid summer internships.”

By Dr. Leslie Kasper, DVM

What are the reasons dogs bark?

It is important to understand why dogs bark so you will be able to deal with the root of the problem rather than just the symptom. Three of the most common reasons include to act as an alarm to potential intruders (which many pet parents encourage), due to stress and/or boredom when left alone, and to get attention and elicit play.

The last is a reason that is often inadvertently trained by owners who open the door, give a treat, speak to or pet their dog when he or she barks and tend to ignore the dog when he or she is quiet.

Barking is a normal part of dog behavior, so the goal is not to create a barkless dog, rather to be able to manage barking so that it does not become excessive and disturbing to us or our neighbors.

How can you control your dog's barking?
1. First, try to determine the potential underlying cause of the barking, then:
2. Provide your dog with plenty of mental exercise in the form of environmental enrichment. Feed them exclusively from food stuffable toys.

By Sharon Hofstra Haugen
Class of 1960
Highline High School

(Editor's Note: The Highline High School Class of 1960 is celebrating its 50th reunion Sept. 10-11. To mark the occasion, Sharon Hofstra Haugen took a nostalgic look back at those times around Burien and the Highline area a half-century ago.)

My father Don Hofstra owned and operated the HIGHLINE POLICE PATROL serving the Burien/Highline area. He was a member of the Burien Lions for over 20 yrs with his good friend Dr. Odd Valle and the Fairwood Lions until 1999, over a total of 40 yrs.

We came here from Chicago crossing the country through blizzards in November around Thanksgiving of 1951, my mother and father, Don and Alberta Hofstra and me, Sharon Hofstra, age 91/2 , with my dog Skippy sharing the backseat of a brand new 1951 pale green (the color of the time) 2 door Chevy!

As Des Moines works to re-envision it's downtown it struggles to blend its vision without being too restrictive on the businesses that are already there.

Earlier this year the council discussed design guidelines for downtown, called the Marina District. Now the Council is looking at updating the code for allowed uses in the Marina District.

At the September 2 Council meeting one of the changes being considered is the number of bays an auto repair shop is allowed to have. In the draft of the ordinance being considered by the Council the number of bays would be limited to one bay for every 7,500 square feet.

In a previous version of the ordinance the number was flatly capped at two. The Council considered this a hardship on the businesses.

In a previous draft ordinance it was also written the auto repair businesses downtown could only have one car stored outside waiting to be repaired. The language is changed in the last draft ordinance to say number of cars awaiting repair cannot exceed the minimum number of parking spaces allowed by the City's parking code.

Academy Schools will begin the school year in a new Tukwila location.

The elementary division, Children's Academy, was founded in 1995 by Camille Cummings and a small group of educators. Their first Kent location was outgrown in 2006 and the school moved to downtown Kent.

The next two years saw the formalization of the middle and high school division, The Cummings School, named for the school's founder.

On Sept 1, Academy Schools began their 15th school year. Moving to the new Tukwila location at 14601 Interurban Avenue South, affords the school greater opportunity for expansion and program development.

Academy Schools serves children from early childhood through grade 12. The faculty and staff are excited about the opportunities for growth and expansion the new location will provide.

For more information, the school's website is www.academyschools.org

Environmental programs at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport have received the 2010 Environmental Achievement Award bestowed by Airports Council International - North America (ACI-NA).

The award describes Sea-Tac Airport's environmental strategy plan as "the linchpin for the success of its environmental program and can serve as a role model for other airports."

"We are honored by the recognition from our peers in the industry," said Elizabeth Leavitt, planning and environmental services director at Sea-Tac Airport. "The citizens of our region can be proud of our long-term vision for environmental stewardship."

The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's "Environmental Strategy Plan - A Vision for 2010 and Beyond" earned the Environmental Management Award.

Serving as a roadmap for achieving Seattle-Tacoma's ecological conception, it provides a framework for annual planning, budgeting and accountability by identifying the measurable environmental outcomes that they would like to achieve by 2014.

Police investigate woman's homicide

Des Moines police are investigating the homicide of a woman who was found in an apartment early Tuesday, Aug. 31. The landlord of the complex, who lives in an adjacent unit, called 911 just after midnight after hearing thumping sounds from the apartment in the 24000 block of 25th Avenue South. The landlord also said the dogs inside the unit were barking excessively, which was unusual, police said in a news release.

Police received no response at the door, but were able to look in a window over the front door. Officers saw the victim on the floor just inside the entryway and entered the apartment. Police say it was evident the woman had died from homicidal violence.
The victim is white, 28 years old, and she is believed to be the tenant of the apartment. The King County Medical Examiner's Office identified her as Jennifer L. Walstrand.

Son drives intoxicated mother around

Highline Historical Society has received a $3,000 grant from 4Culture for the purpose of housing threatened documents, photographs, negatives and films in the society's collections. The society owns more than 100,000 items that are subject to this grant.

"Media such as negatives need to be kept in acid free containers, sleeves and folders to prevent deterioration," said Nancy Salguero McKay, collections curator. "At the present time many of our negatives and photographs are not being correctly stored because of the cost of buying these materials. This grant from 4Culture will be extremely helpful in providing materials to appropriately preserve our communities' archival treasures."

Highline Historical Society is a 16-year old non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the history and telling the stories of Highline.

Collections are in storage pending the construction of the Highline Heritage Museum in Burien.

For more information visit the Society's web site at http://www.highlinehistory.org

We're relatively new to Burien, having only purchased our home here a little over a year ago. We love Burien, and fully support the local businesses and the city's growth and burgeoning prosperity.

That said, we're a little tired of supporting the city's burgeoning prosperity through ridiculous parking tickets. Please understand that I'm not in any way saying that parking enforcement shouldn't be done, or even that the tickets I'm referring to were written in error.

My beef is with the fact that it seems as if our local parking enforcement officers get joy in eking out any tiny little infraction they can stumble upon, in order to strengthen the city's coffers.

A perfect example happened this past weekend. My 21-year-old, full-time college student niece was visiting, and parked on the shoulder of the road across from my house on 155th Street.

As anyone that's familiar with 155th knows, there isn't a lot (if any) clearly defined shoulder parking, and there's certainly not a lot of enforcement of the vegetation overgrowth that slims down the available parking even further.