December 2010

The Sunset Hill Community Association and longtime community members Regnor Reinholdtsen and Carrie Gustafson invite the Ballard community to celebrate the shortest days of the year with a Winter Solstice Potluck and party on Saturday, Dec 18.

The winter potluck is a community tradition on Sunset Hill: it was hosted by the adjoining potters Carrie and Regnor on 32nd NW for over a decade. Sunset Hill Community Association is proud to continue the tradition of inviting the community to gather on the Saturday closest to solstice to share food and beverages, enjoy local musicians and have the opportunity to purchase pottery, jewelry, artwork and books by local small presses and authors.

The Hall opens at 5 p.m. for sales and a kids' storytelling hour and the potluck starts at 6 p.m.

Attendees are asked to bring food and beverages to share.

“Carrie and Regnor’s” Winter Solstice Community Potluck and Party is hosted by Sunset Hill Community Association on 3003 NW 66th Street.

For more information, please visitvwww.sunsethillcommunity.com

The Seattle Parks Levy Oversight Committee has allocated $1.5 million for the Park Boulevard on 14th Ave NW Project.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Peter Locke of the East Ballard Community Association. When Locke moved into his house on 61 street and 14th Avenue NW in 1998 he realized there was some underutilized space and, being an architect by training, started sketching.

“We were lacking green space,” he said. “We can’t access green space without crossing a major arterial.”

Zack Thomas, WASLA landscape architect said Locke became interested in the “what if” and got ideas flowing.

After various studies, community meetings and bouncing around of ideas, the East Ballard Community Association came up with the idea of narrowing 14th Avenue between 59th and 61st street and turn the underutilized space into a Street Boulevard.

“We applied for funds from the Parks Levy targeted at urban village areas which are underserved in park space,” Thomas said.

Similar to the Bell Street project in Belltown, money from the 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy Acquisition Fund were redirected as a development fund because the property is in the right-of-way, Thomas said.

Paddington is the pride of Robin Dalton who along with David Dorn take the 1 year old Labradoodle for walks in the neighborhood or in Lincoln Park. Dalton got Paddy from Seattle Labradoodle, a breed that is a combination of Labrador and a Standard Poodle. Paddy is hypo allergenic. She has fur not hair. Consequently everyone wants to pet her soft curly apricot colored coat.

Dalton said," I went up to the breeder to see the puppies when they were about five weeks old and I was holding her then. I picked her out of the whole litter. She was the darkest and curliest and was just a chewing little thing at that time and I kept going back up there to see her. I was really drawn to her but the funny thing is, the third time I went up there to see her (...) she was being a little pistol." Dalton had second thoughts about Paddy thinking she might be a problem dog, "So David said, 'You need that one. But I almost chickened out. But I'm so glad that I did not."

Detectives from the King County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Squad have arrested a 46 year-old man as the suspect in a homicide that occurred 27 years ago.
The homicide occurred in a motel room at the Motel 6, 18900 47th Ave South, SeaTac.
John Wayne Folds was arrested without incident about 7 a.m. (Pacific time) Tuesay. Dec.14 in Florida, with the assistance of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office. He was booked into jail on a Washington arrest warrant for Murder in the 2nd Degree, pending extradition.
Folds has been charged in the case by the Prosecutor's Office, and the bail on his arrest warrant is set at $1,000,000.
The case was solved as a result of recent DNA work by the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab. Folds' DNA was found at the scene of the homicide.
The body of Frank T. Kuony, Jr. was found by a maid on February 15, 1983. He had been stabbed multiple times. He was 36 years old at the time of his death.
An investigation by the Sheriff's Office determined Kuony was a resident of San Francisco, and had flown to Seattle overnight to set up a display at a gift show.

On Dec. 13 students and their parents at Denny International Middle School had a chance to meet two Seahawks cheerleaders and learn cheer techniques, shoot some hoops with professional basketball player Rosell Ellis, and try out yoga and circuit training.

The event, Family Fitness Night, was put on by Communities in Schools of Seattle (CISS), a non-profit whose mission is to “champion the connection of needed resources with schools to help young people successfully learn, stay in school and prepare for life,” and sponsored by Seattle-Tacoma Subway (restaurants) and the Seattle Seahawks.

“The goal of Communities in Schools is basically to fill in the gaps,” said Makela Steward, who coordinated the fitness night for CISS. “We want to make sure students have all the resources they need to graduate from high school.”

Steward said Family Fitness Night fits that goal in promoting family engagement in student’s lives.

In addition to the fitness activities in the gym, the school cafeteria was set up with information booths for parents on group health, community health centers, Denny Wellness Center and the Department of Social and Health Services.

A High Point Providence Elizabeth House resident said she had a stand-off with a coyote Monday night, Dec. 14, while protecting a colony of five feral "resident" cats. Lacey Gannon, 68, told the West Seattle Herald that she has been feeding feral cats regularly for two years who live by the parking lot. Last night was different.

He came right up the street just as bold as can be," she said of the coyote. "He wanted to eat the feral cats and I threw anything I could find around me at him for two hours. Finally a neighbor's dog started barking and he went away. I think he was looking for cats to eat day and night. Coyotes are usually a scrawny looking animal, but this one is so fat, and absolutely beautiful, thick fur, all silver. big ears that stand way up into point. I want to warn neighbors to keep your animals indoors and don't leave food outside. I see norices posted all over the neighborhood of missing cats. I think these coyotes eat them."

Press release:

A project to provide 20 acres of new usable public open space on top of the newly lidded reservoir at West Seattle Park, and to create an innovative addition adjacent to the existing Westcrest Park, is poised to receive a $500,000 grant from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program.

“This West Seattle Park is a great example of how local citizens can work with WWRP to obtain funding for a wonderful community space,” said Senator Sharon Nelson. “I am very pleased that this grant request was highly rated.”

The state Recreation and Conservation Office in October formally approved the final rankings for projects across the state, including Reservoir Park. The go-ahead to proceed is contingent upon the Legislature approving the Coalition’s request for funding. To learn more about the project, visit the Coalition’s project webpage, HYPERLINK "http://WildlifeRecreation.org/wwrp-projects/counties/King_County" WildlifeRecreation.org/wwrp-projects/counties/King_County.

Press Release:
A detailed analysis of the intense Pineapple Express rainstorm that hit Seattle over the weekend shows that most of Seattle received 3 to 4 inches of precipitation, with some areas receiving more.

“This was a very significant event,” said James Rufo-Hill, a meteorologist for Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), who worked on the analysis.

The map-based analysis, based on data from 22 local rain gauges, shows that at several locations—including West Seattle, Green Lake, and South Park—the amount of rain that fell was close to that of a historical 100-year event.

For much of the rest of the city, it was a 20- to 30-year storm.

The rain gauge data shows that:

Generally, South Seattle received more precipitation than North Seattle.
The most rain fell on West Seattle, which received over 4 inches in at least one location.
Learn more about Seattle Public Utilities, at: http://www.seattle.gov/util.

Follow SPU on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SeattleSPU.

This Seola Beach house of prominent criminal defense attorney, Kris Jensen, and wife Molly, is about a mile and a half south of the Fauntleroy Ferry, and was hammered by a tree Tuesday morning, Dec. 14. The tree broke windows in a neighbor's house, too.

Another neighbor, Dawnelle Anderson, said that several mudslides occurred in their area but did not appear to affect roads there. She said that the Jensens' neighbors were helping clear some of the tree limbs that damaged the house,