January 2011

Seattle City Light has found three faulty streetlights in the 12800 block of Shorewood Drive Southwest in north Burien.
According to Seattle pi.com, the three streetlights with contact-voltage problems are at 12841, with 31 volts, caused by deteriorated wiring, repairs were pending; 12854, 31 volts, worn wiring repaired; and 12882, 50 volts, faulty lamp fixture found, repairs are pending.
City Light immediately cut off power to the lights and began repairs. There were no injuries reported.
Seattle is testing metal streetlights and ground covers following the electrocution of a dog in Queen Anne on Thanksgiving.

4Culture, King County’s Cultural Services Agency, announced the 2011 opportunities and deadlines for funding programs in the fields of arts, heritage and historic preservation and send out the following information in a press release:

4Culture funding programs, supported by King County Lodging Tax revenue, are available to King County residents and organizations. Awards granted through these programs develop and maintain the cultural resources, creative expression and unique character of King County people and communities.

Application deadlines for 2011 funding programs are listed below. Applications and guidelines for each opportunity will be posted at least 6 weeks prior to the application deadline. King County-based administrators, practitioners, specialists and community representatives in the applicable field evaluate applications based on a set of published criteria. Panel recommendations are submitted to the 4Culture Board for final approval.

Gertrude Finney, legendary White Center head librarian and community volunteer, died Tuesday, Jan. 4 at the age of 100 years, three months.

“She was an incredibly sweet woman,” Robinson Newspapers Publisher Jerry Robinson said upon hearing about her death. “She never said an unkind word about anyone.
“She was a dear friend.”

The Times/News has been publishing her diary entries, detailing life in early White Center.
Mrs. Finney moved to the Dumar Hill area of White Center in 1924 with her family and graduated from Highline High School in 1928.

Shortly after World War II, Mrs. Finney moved with her husband, Roy, to a house her mother had found them.
She started working part-time at the old White Center Library, tucked in a space under the White Center Fieldhouse steps on 104th Avenue Southwest. Mrs. Finney became the head librarian after the work got too much for her predecessor.

Mrs. Finney recalled those cramped beginnings.

Souvenir, the decorative arts gallery on Ballard Avenue has been a unique Ballard attraction since it opened in 1999. The shop was among the first to transform Ballard Avenue into the popular shopping and dining destination it is today. Now, after 12 years, it is forced to leave to make way for an elevator shaft.

“When I came here, there was parking as far as the eye could see,” Steiner said.

“I was one of the first here and I brought new and sophisticated retail to Ballard."

Steiner also spearheaded the idea to bring the Ballard Sunday Farmers Market to the street.

“I knew it would be successful because I lived in Fremont in the eighties and saw what the Fremont Market did for that area. People will travel 10 miles for a head of cabbage and they come back,” he said.

Steiner is being forced to close so that his landlord from Mycon Property Management can turn the space into an elevator shaft and stairwell for the upper floors.

The upper floors have been condemned for the past two decades and no one has been allowed to set foot in it, said Steiner. Now that Ballard Ave is a popular destination, the landlords are planning to renovate the upper floors.

Press Release:
Who really sparkled in 2010? Honor those in our community who make West Seattle a great place to live and work by nominating a business or individual for the annual Westside Award!

The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce sponsors this annual program to celebrate West Seattle's entrepreneurial spirit and personal commitment to the Westside.

Award information and nomination forms are now available online at www.WSChamber.com web site or at this link http://tinyurl.com/39mywo4. You may email nominations with your name and phone number to:
pmullen@wschamber.com of via fax: 206-938-7437.

Four categories of awards will be presented:

Westside Business of the Year

Westside Emerging Business of the Year

Westside Not-For-Profit of the Year

Westsider of the Year

Nominations are open to any West Seattle business or individual and due by January 31, 2011 at 5pm to The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

Award recipients will be honored at the Westside Awards Breakfast at Salty's on Alki on April 6, 2011. For more information, contact the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, 206-932-5685.

Locöl Barley and Vine at 7902 35th Ave. s.w. will finally open on Monday, Jan 10 at noon.

A series of soft opens have been taking place to get their product and systems working properly up to now.

The wine and beer pub will also serve food that will include snacks such as a cheese plate, bread and olive oil, soups like Butternut Squash and White Bean and Pistou, a shaved fennel salad among others and sandwiches like horseradish pulled pork with apple and pickled onion slaw. You will also find a Pasta Gratin which they describe as "grown up Mac & Cheese."

The restaurant features wood panels built on tracks to permit easy art display (they will be part of the West Seattle Artwalk on Jan 13) and has a gas fireplace. 50 people can crowd in the cozy space but when the weather permits, the deck built out back will accommodate a few more.

The entire theme of the restaurant is embodied in the name. The beers, wines, food, employees, and customers are all local. It's really about building a business that's sustainable and that serves a neighborhood.

Ballard's golden child of film, Jesse Harris placed 33rd on City Arts Magazine's Top 50 Culture Makers in Seattle.

Harris was still a student at Ballard High School when he became the youngest American ever to write and direct a feature film that was theatrically released and featured internationally on HBO. He was 17.

Now, seven years later, Harris is the cofounder and Executive Director of the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) which has become the largest youth film festival in the world.

Harris was named on City Arts' power list with 49 other movers and shakers in Seattle's art scene.
"These aren’t necessarily the people running the show, but they are the ones who, as far as we can tell, are making the tough decisions about who gets to take the stage at that show. These aren’t all of them, mind you, but a good few that our gut told us deserved a bit of the spotlight too," writes Mark Baum Garten in his introduction of January issue.

Mike Jaworski, the booking agent of the Sunset Tavern was spotlighted as well.

Press Release:
Between January and March, Seattle Public Schools invites families to tour schools and attend open houses to learn more about their attendance area school, option schools, or other attendance area schools to which they may be interested in applying. Families are encouraged to attend these events to meet the principal and staff and have the opportunity to learn about the school. 

Tour schedules are updated regularly. For the most current schedule, visit our website at HYPERLINK "http://www.seattleschools.org" www.seattleschools.org. Click on Enrollment, and then follow the link on the left to School Tours.

Thursday, Jan. 6, at 3:00 pm at the Port of Seattle Headquarters, the Secretary of Transportation, Paula Hammond, signed a $1.09 billion contract with Seattle Tunneling Partners to build the deep bore tunnel. According to Hammond and other officials present, this makes the tunnel project a done deal with work to begin next week by the Seattle Tunnel Partners and construction workers building the tunnel. They will start boring the 58-foot diameter hole "when we get the Environmental Impact Statement this summer," Hammond said. She suggested this was a formality and that all funding was in place and workers were ready to start immediately.

By Michael Miller

On a recent visit to the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle I was saddened to see that yet another landmark has disappeared. The Totem House, Seafood and Chowder, Family recipes since 1948, has given up the fight leaving a note on their door stating, 



“Goodbye friends, 
 the economy has overtaken us, we will miss you greatly!”

Four people signed the note.

It seems to me that more and more funky sites are morphing into condominiums, apartment houses and most unbelievably into - out of state banks bearing names foreign to the local tongue. Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase Manhattan Bank have replaced Peoples Bank, Rainer Bank and Seattle First National Bank, all absorbed by these and other larger institutions.