October 2010

Three people were hospitalized after a three-car collision Oct. 21 on 15th Avenue Northwest. Witnesses described the scene simply as “awful, awful, awful.”

At approximately 6:15 p.m., a man was driving his black Ford sedan northbound on 15th Avenue. According to witnesses, the suspect was traveling at a high rate of speed. 

At Northwest 70th Street, the suspect struck an occupied vehicle and continued northbound without stopping.  The occupants of the struck vehicle were not injured. 

As the suspect approached the intersection of 15th Avenue and Northwest 75th Street, he collided into the rear end of a Subaru that was occupied by a male driver and a 3 to 4-year-old girl, who was in a car seat positioned in the rear seat of the vehicle. 

According to the Seattle Police Department, that collision initiated a chain reaction of collisions: the Subaru subsequently was pushed into the rear of a white Dodge pickup truck that was pushed into another Subaru and a Volvo that were all facing northbound. 

For reasons yet to be determined, the first Subaru caught on fire with the injured driver and young girl trapped inside the vehicle, according to police.

A special community meeting has been called for Nov. 1 to get public input on the potential of a stormwater management facility or CSO proposed for the south parking lot at Lincoln Park.

CSOs are discharges of untreated stormwater and sewage during heavy rains that can exceed the capacity of the sewer system in areas where stormwater and wastewater flows are combined.

King County’s goal is to reduce the number of CSOs each year from the Barton and Murray Pump Stations to no more than one untreated discharge per year on average at each station to meet state regulations.

The King County Department of Natural Resources and Park/ Wastewater Treatment Division has held a series of meeting since 2007 to develop a plan to control combined sewer overflows in Puget Sound.

The Murray Community Advisory Group, or CAG, has recommended a water storage tank under the Lincoln Park south parking lot. The West Seattle Herald previously reported on the opposition to the location of the project near Lowman Park.

On Monday, October 25, from 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. at Joeseppi's Italian Ristorante located at 2207 North Pearl St. in Tacoma, South King Firefighters Foundation will take the restaurant over and bring folks in to eat a dinner with food proceeds going to the South King Firefighters Foundation and the Federal Way Police Department Officer Brian Walsh Memorial Fund.

South King serves Des Moines and Federal Way.

The Foundation raises funds through employee donations and fundraiser events to support worthy activities or charity events. The take-over event at Joeseppi's Italian Restaurant is the first for the Foundation and the Board will donate the funds to Federal Way Police Officer Brian Walsh's memorial fund.

"The family has had its challenges since Officer Walsh's death and this is an opportunity to help out where there is a definite need as well as a an opportunity to work with the police department on another fundraiser," said Capt. Kevin Crossen, president of the Foundation.

On a Nov. 2 general election ballot that includes a U.S. senatorial race and numerous state initiatives, local Highline contests may be overlooked.

But some Highline voters will have a hand in selecting a new King County Council member and state representative in the 34th Legislative district.

Local election results will be posted at www.highlinetimes.com.

State Sen. Joe McDermott is seeking the County Council seat held by Dow Constantine before he was elected County Executive. McDermott currently represents the 34th district in the state senate.

Diana Toledo, a former county enforcement coordinator, animal cruelty investigator and licensing supervisor, opposes him. She characterizes herself as a whistleblower.

In the 34th District two young Democrats are running against each other for the state House of Representatives post held by Sharon Nelson. Nelson is running unopposed for McDermott's Senate seat.
Joe Fitzgibbon is currently the legislative assistant to Nelson and has also served as a King County Council legislative aide. He is also chair of the Burien Planning Commission.

7 professional nature photographers (including 2 who live in West Seattle and 1 on Vashon Island), will be presenting 42 large framed fine art photographic prints in an exhibition themed "The National Parks in Washington State" to be presented 10/23/10 to 1/13/11 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in downtown Seattle.

The 2 West Seattle photographers are Natalie Fobes and Dave Schiefelbein (also co-organizer and co-curator); the Vashon Island photographer is Mary Liz Austin.

The other photographers are residents of Seattle, Bellevue and Sammamish, WA.

NATALIE FOBES

A resident of West Seattle, Washington, and one of the most diverse photographers in the country, the Pulitzer prize finalist has shot assignments for National Geographic, Smithsonian, Audubon and other major magazines.

Her images of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill are iconographic and she is known as the “Salmon Lady” due to her 10 year project photographing and writing about the salmon and the cultures of the salmon around the Pacific Rim. Her stock photography is in Getty, Corbis and National Geographic Image Collection. 

It was standing room only at last night’s Ballard Authors and Neighbors event at Sunset Hill Community Club.

The event brought together 35 Ballard writers in all genres—self-published, poets, comic books and more. The only unifying factor was that they all needed to live in Ballard or set their books in Ballard.

During a panel discussion moderated by author Erica Bauermeister, writers discussed building an audience and how the book market has changed with the advent of electronic readers and other technologies.

Secret Garden Books even sold books by all of the authors — even those that were self-published. A percentage of the proceeds were donated to Sunset Hill Community Association.

For author and event organizer Peggy Sturdivant, it was a chance to build community back in the local bookstores, many of which have gone out of business with the combination of a sour economy and rise of electronic books.

“It made me proud to be a Ballardite,” food writer Nicole Aloni said.

The Seattle Parks Department has completed the final inspection at the newly renovated Fairmount Playground at 5400 Fauntleroy Way s.w.

There are a couple of minor items to be fixed before the site can be opened, but these should all be completed by next week with the plan being to open the playground on Friday, October 29.

The contractor for the work was RN Faulk.

Parks approved additional funding of $45,000 to move forward with Design Option #2 that was shown at the final community meeting.

A West Seattle element was incorporated into the design, in the form of a ferry boat play structure.

The budget for the work was $170,000.

Central Washington University kicker and Todd Beamer graduate Sean Davis kicks a field goal against Western Oregon at QWest Field in Great Northwest Athletic Conference game Saturday, Oct. 16. Davis and the Wildcats emerged from the "Battle in Seattle" game with a 19-0 victory.

Davis has kicked a 52-yard field goal this year and he also kicked field goals of 43 and 46 yards in a 43-21 win over Dixie State of Utah to earn GNAC Special Teams Player of the Week honors for Sept. 12-18.

Mount Rainier head soccer coach Jerry Cappodanno has found plenty of reason to be happy with the Rams' first season in the Class 4A South Puget Sound League North Division.

They held off perennial power Thomas Jefferson by a 1-0 score Thursday, Oct. 14 to improve their record to 6-5-1. The Raiders and Rams tied, 2-2, the first time they met.

"There's five pretty good teams and we make six," said Cappodanno in comparing this years SPSL North to the recent seasons his team dominated in the Seamount League. ""That's good for everyone. The league is better. You tie teams 1-1 and 2-2, not beating them 10-0."

"This was a good win," said goalkeeper Justine Park, who now has three shutouts to show for the season.

The win over Thomas Jefferson at Highline Stadium allowed the Rams to pull into fourth place in their division, which will send four teams on to the postseason.

Mount Rainier now has 19 points in the standings ahead of the 17 by Thomas Jefferson.

"They were ahead of us in the standings, so that was fun," said Mount Rainier senior captain Clarissa Strayer.

Nick Tanielu threw his shoe down in disgust coming off the field.

The embattled Federal Way quarterback had just taken a painful hit when he scrambled outside the pocket to make a play. He was tackled for a 10-yard loss, losing his shoe.

It was a sign of the futility his team faced, down 28-0 to No. 10-ranked Rogers late in the first half.

In his stead, reserve senior quarterback Blake Koler promptly ran 15 yards up the middle on a keeper, giving the Eagles a first down at the Rogers 32 with less than a minute to go in the half.

Two plays later Koler's pass was intercepted at the 1-yard line by Rogers defensive back Kellen Westering. Westering cut upfield and then down the left sideline. Koler, in hot pursuit, upended Westering with a fine open-field tackle at the FW 30, stopping a sure touchdown as time expired.

It signaled that the Eagles weren't about to quit.

FW came out firing in the second half, scoring 28 points to make it a two-score game midway through the fourth quarter, but it turned out to be too little too late.