December 2010

Photographer Kurt Howard captured these images of Sealth's 60-42 victory over Evergreen on December 21. SLIDESHOW: CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO PLAY SLIDESHOW.

Monday, Dec. 20
Girls basketball
Sumner 69,, Decatur 30
Decatur took a lopsided non-league loss in Monday, Dec. 20 action.
Mt. Rainier 57, Lakeside 53
The Rams rolled to a close victory over perennially tough Lakeside last Monday.
Tyee 56, Foss 39
Tyee trounced the Falcons in a Monday, Dec. 20 battle.

Tuesday, Dec. 21
Boys basketball
Bonney Lake 80, Foster 74
Foster fell short against Bonney Lake last Tuesday.
Inglemoor 49, Highline 47
Two points separated the Pirates from victory last Tuesday.
Evergreen 52, Centralia 50
The Wolverines also fell two points shy in Tuesday, Dec. 21 non-league action.
Bear Creek 55, Tyee 47
Last Tuesday the Totems took a non-league loss to Bear Creek.
Girls basketball
Chief Sealth 60, Evergreen 42
Evergreen went up against its close but non-league rivals from Chief Sealth on Tuesday, Dec. 21.
Foster 50, Blanchet 47
The Bulldogs chalked up a non-league victory over Banchet last Tuesday.

Wednesday, Dec. 22
Boys basketball
Decatur 86, Wenatchee 68
The Gators reversed the score on Wenatchee in a lopsided non-league win last Wednesday.
Cascade Chr. 81, Foster 69

KENT - First quarter action capsulized the content of the entire game as Mount Rainier dominated Graham-Kapowsin, 59-26, in girls basketball action at the ShoWare Shootout presented by Allied Waste on Tuesday, Dec. 21.

Ram freshman Brittany McPhee took charge in the first quarter with 10 Ram points inside while Mount Rainier built a 17-1 lead before settling for a 17-3 margin heading into the second quarter.

"I just try to go hard the whole game and stay intense," explained the 5-foot, 10-inch player of the game. "We worked hard at rebounding."

For the duration, McPhee earned 21 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and five steals.

Mount Rainier's defense came out trapping to imprison the Eagles in back court while pilfering the ball regularly to set up high percentage shots. Adding control of the backboards, the Rams substituted liberally while cruising to victory.

All this week Metro buses will be running on a reduces holiday schedule.

More than 100 routes are running on reduced schedules and nearly 40 routes are canceled all together.

A full list of all affected routes can be found on Metro's website.

Metro will run on this reduced schedule through New Year's Eve and buses will run on a Sunday schedule on Saturday, January 1.

The following Ballard routes have bee affected:

Cancelled: 46, 48 EX
Reduced: 18, 17, 44, 15, 48

A mudslide that occurred on the 10000 block of 47th Ave. s.w. in the early morning hours of Dec. 28 closed the road and drew media attention with the King5 helicopter hovering over the scene.

David Roser, a neighbor said it was a broken pipe from a sprinkler system and said, "A lesson to be learned is that during the winter you turn off your sprinker system. (...)The wind was blowing in the middle of the night (...) there's no protection from the Olympics we're a little south of that and the storms kind of funnel up here and we get more wind than a lot of folks. What happened here is that a tree snapped a water line."

The mud is up to a foot deep over the road.

Roser, wore a headlamp and went up the hill, found the broken pipe and shut off the water main where the water was coming from.

The Seattle Fire Department had been to the scene and left.

SDOT crews were on the scene early and said they were letting residents out but not in.

A vacuum truck was on its way to clean up the mud since as one SDOT person said, "it's too mucky to go in a dump truck."

To see a large photo of the mucky mess click on the photo link above.

Press Release:
The City of Seattle’s North Recycling and Disposal Station in the Fremont/Wallingford area and the South Recycling and Disposal Station in the South Park area will be closed on New Year’s Day, January 1.

Seattle residents who subscribe to curbside food and yard waste collection can put their trees and greens out on their regular collection day at no extra charge from Dec. 26, 2010 to Jan. 9, 2011. Trees should be cut into sections of six feet long or shorter, with branches trimmed to less than four feet to fit into the collection trucks. Sections should be bundled with string or twine. Multi-family buildings can put out one tree next to each yard waste cart at no extra charge.

Trees that are flocked and/or have tinsel or ornaments will be collected as extra garbage. Customers will need to cut the tree into three-foot pieces and each piece will be charged as extra garbage. Starting January 1, each unit of extra garbage will cost $8.10. Plastic trees are not recyclable.

Dear Editor,
I was so sad to read about Ronni Peterson and the fire in her rented home.

I hate to use her tragedy as a cautionary tale, but I am sure she would be happy that something good would come of it. Please, please, please folks - buy renter's insurance! It is so inexpensive - I just looked up the policy for one of my co-workers, another West Seattle resident. Her policy covers $20,000 of personal property and is $139 a YEAR. This policy would have paid Ronni $20,000 to replace personal items as well as additional living expenses while she found another apartment to rent.

Most importantly, it also pays for $500,000 of liability insurance. If Ronni is liable for the damage to the home - if she left a candle burning, for example, the insurance company of her landlord would hold her responsible for the damage to the home and her policy would cover THAT also - so important!

Pick up the phone and buy some insurance, all of you renters! Really? $12/month. That is a couple of coffees. Please. My mom always says that when we are the most poor and vulnerable is when we most need insurance. Listen to Mom! She is right (most of the time)!

The King County Solid Waste Division has issued its recommendations for Christmas tree recycling
Recycled Christmas trees are turned into woodchips that can be used as a landscaping material, or combined with other organic material to become a compost soil amendment for gardens.__ More importantly, when you recycle the family Christmas tree, you're saving room in the landfill for the stuff that really needs to be there.__
Curbside pickup: If you have curbside yard waste collection service, you can place your tree at the curb with your regular yard waste. Restrictions vary, so call your city or garbage hauler for information.
Private companies: Many private yard waste facilities in King County collect Christmas trees for recycling - at rates much cheaper than disposal. Visit http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/garbage-recycling/tree-cycling.asp
Fundraising events: Many community groups sponsor Christmas tree-cycling fundraising events. For a small donation, they will deliver your tree to a commercial recycler. Flyers will be available in your neighborhood during the holiday season. By recycling at these events, you can support a worthy cause while helping the environment.

Discovery Shop BOGO Sale
4535 California Ave. S.W.
206-937-7169
Monday, Jan. 3 to Saturday, Jan. 8 only. All clothing - Buy One and Get One Free (of equal or lesser value). Blue tagged items are 50% off starting Jan. 3. The Shop is open on Sundays, 11-3 p.m. All other days (except New Years Day) the Shop is open for our valued customers and donors (contributing goods, estates or financial assistance) from 10-4:30 p.m. The Discover Shop welcomes with open arms new volunteers.

Sleep Country USA’s Foster Kids Shoe Drive
Jan. 3 - Jan. 30. Donations of new shoes for boys & girls in all sizes can be dropped off at the nearest Sleep Country and they’ll be matched with an area foster child in need. The gift of new shoes is a small but important step towards helping foster kids put their best foot forward. For information: www.sleepcountry.com or 1-888-88-SLEEP.

Tap Dance Class for Beginners
Alki Community Center
5817 S.W. Stevens St.
Thursdays beginning Jan. 6, 11:30 a.m. $45 for 11 weeks. Info: 206-935-2162.

Read the Qur’an
First Lutheran Church of West Seattle
4105 California Ave S.W.

Early last week officers responded to an attempted burglary at an apartment on 16th Ave s.w. around 11 p.m. The victim told police she was sitting on the couch, watching TV with a neighbor/friend when a male appeared trying to open a living room window. The two women ran to the kitchen to hide and shortly saw the same man attempting to open a kitchen window. The victim got a good, unobstructed view of the white male with short blonde spiky hair and a tattoo of unknown letters on his neck. Suddenly, she realized it was the same man that, approximately seven years ago, had grabbed her in the alley behind the same apartment and tried to wrestle her into the back seat of a car. She told police she had struggled free from her attacker and ran away before calling 911. Back to modern times, the woman took a proactive approach and ran to the window, screaming and pounding on the glass which scared the suspect away. Police took fingerprints from the windows and submitted them to evidence.