February 2011

Last week 65 people attended the Salmon Bay Playground Renovation design workshop and raised $2,000 toward the matching-grant fund.

The three designs presented at the workshop are now available online, giving the community another opportunity to weigh in.

The architect will take the community input and use it in the final design to be presented on March 15th. People are encouraged to have their comments in by March 4th.

Robin Wise Lofstrom, Project Manager of Salmon Bay Playground Renovation said the concepts will also be available at the school when after winter break. He will be there in person on the Tuesday, March 1 to answer questions.

"I’m tremendously grateful to the playground committee.  And we’re all very, very pleased with the concepts that the architect designed; not only are they budget conscious, but they are totally in the spirit of our playground design, the focus of which has been to better serve the needs of kids with ASD," Lofstrom said in an email.  

"The nice thing about an ASD playground is that it’s just plain fun for other kids, too."

Despite snow in the forecast, Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) wants customers to treat Wednesday as a normal day for garbage, recycling, and waste collection.

Ggarbage, recycling, and food/yard waste should be out by 7 a.m. to ensure pickup.

If your collection is missed, please leave your materials out for one more day. If your materials still have not been collected by 5 p.m. Thursday, please bring them inside until your next regularly scheduled pickup day.

For SPU collection schedule, please visit there website.

Cion Charmer at only 11 months old is the constant companion of Ken Stafford who describes himself as "The last hippie on Alki."

She's a pure bred Pomeranian and Stafford prefers to keep her off any kind of leash, even paying the occasional ticket just so she can run free. He got her from a breeder,"out north when my other baby went cosmic, it was a beautiful thing, now she's pushing roses."

Cion has become Stafford's closest friend. "At eleven months old we're already fused and bonded so she knows how to stop at corners already, she knows how to approach other dogs politely, so when people are on their leash (which she is not) I ask them and they're thrilled and they say 'we wish we could do that.'"

The two go for walks every morning, have walked "all the hills in West Seattle" and sometimes walking back from Green Lake after his girlfriend drops them off. "You earn what you burn," said Stafford, " it takes about four hours...but I've got a free life. I cashed my chips."

Sustainable West Seattle sponsored a Transportation forum Tuesday night Feb. 22 featuring a panel of experts to talk and interact with the audience on West Seattle's transportation future.

Led by Tom Rasmussen – Panel Facilitator and Chair of the Seattle City Council Transportation Committee, the rest of the panel consisted of Chris Arkills - King County, Transportation policy advisor in the Office of King County Executive Dow Constantine, Martin Duke – Seattle Transit Blog, Brice Maryman – SvR Design, an expert on transit planning and Peter Hahn – Director, Seattle Dept. of Transportation.

Rasmussen described some of what he's accomplished as the Chair of the Transportation Committee noting that under the "Streets for All" initiative, people have urged the city to "step up to the plate and create a funding package that would help create more sidewalks and transportation improvements (...) what the City Council did was create a Transportation Benefit District which will allow the people of Seattle to fund different transportation improvements."

Last night our neighboring counties got a taste of the snow we may be getting tonight. Weather forecasts predict a snow storm and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is gearing up. Ten snow plows will hit the streets in the north sector of Seattle and eight plows will move into action in the south sector. Starting at 9 a.m., SDOT will go into a full 24-hour response plan to keep roads open, buses moving and critical emergency services accessible.

The response plan calls for deploying 30 trucks with plows, which will be prepositioned throughout the city in key locations such as elevated structures and certain trouble spots on major arterials. SDOT started pre-treating major roadways with salt brine this afternoon in preparation for the storm.

Motorists are advised to use caution and check on current traffic conditions and roadway images on SDOT’s Traveler’s Map at: http://web5.seattle.gov/travelers/.

Included is the 21-page pdf of Mayor Mike McGinn's text of the 2011 State of the City. On page 17 and 18 he refers to the deep bore tunnel controversy:

"By now the public knows that Council and I are divided on the deep bore tunnel. I believe the project is too expensive and too risky. Council doesn’t share that view.
We need to let the public decide. Given that it is the taxpayers of Seattle who will be at risk if this project goes over budget, they are entitled to a vote on this project. When we are talking about a project of this magnitude, this expense, and this risk, the public deserves to make the choice."

The mayor backs President Obama's plan for increased high speed railroads.

West Seattle Nursery is exhibiting at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show from Feb. 23 -27 again this year and appropriately for the weather we've all been experiencing they've taken it inside this time. "We focused on containers with indoor plants this year as it has been so cold outside," said office manager Galen Guffy.

The name of the exhibit is “The Treasure Within: and it wascreated by the staff at West Seattle Nursery.

"Our in-house Container Designer, Mary Holdsworth created the large containers and our Houseplant Buyer, Ingrid Nokes created the small terrariums," said Guffy.

This exhibit is part of the Container Design Exhibit at the NW Flower and Garden Show. You can locate it on the sky bridge of the Convention Center where the show is held each year.

"We participate in this exhibit each year and frankly this is the biggest turn out of designers we’ve seen. The designs are really over the top. Definitely a highlight of the show," Guffy said.

Avalon Restaurant at 2940 s.w. Avalon Way is launching something new for West Seattle, $2 Tapas Tuesday.

Many of the items are found on the regular menu but this represents a way for "guests the opportunity to try our food in smaller portions for a fraction of the cost," said owner and chef Deborah Breuler.

"We are also featuring some bargains in the wine department. 6 different wines available for 15 dollars" said Breuler.

CLICK ON THE PHOTO ABOVE TO SEE MORE

The restaurant, which opened on January 3, will feature such items as:

• Crab Cake with Lemon Aioli
• Crispy Calamari Salad
• Lentil Soup with Grilled Bread
• Butternut Squash Ravioli
• Mini Smoked Duck with Pear Flat Bread
• Chorizo Meatball Slider
• Truffle Salt Shoestring Fries
• Shrimp in Cazuela
• Veal Meatballs in Moroccan Spiced Tomato and Currant Sauce
• Stuffed Clams Casino with Crispy Bacon
• Onion Rings with Harissa Sauce

Press Release:

Weather forecasters are predicting cold temperatures and snow will increase during the day on Wednesday. King County Metro Transit advises bus riders to plan ahead for rapidly changing travel conditions on Wednesday, and into Thursday.

Wednesday’s snowfall may start out light in some areas, but transit users should plan ahead for bus trips that could be disrupted, delayed, and on snow routing. Even though weather in the morning may not be bad in your area, you should leave from a bus stop or park-and-ride that also has service when buses are on snow routes in case travel conditions deteriorate by the afternoon commute.

Also, give yourself extra time to reach your evening destination. Buses are often very crowded in the early part of the afternoon commute when everyone tries to get home before snowfall is the heaviest.

Metro is urging bus riders to prepare by making sure they are signed up for Transit Alerts and know the snow routing for the buses they will ride tomorrow.

The National Weather Service has updated it's forecast calling for a possible additional 2 inches of snow today across the Seattle area.

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
3:12 AM PST THU FEB 24 2011

SNOW SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE THIS MORNING WITH THE SNOW LEVEL AT
SEA LEVEL. LOCALIZED SNOW ACCUMULATION UP TO 2 INCHES IS EXPECTED. LOCALLY ICY ROADS ARE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE MORNING HOURS.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW SHOWERS AND A SNOW LEVEL NEAR SEA LEVEL.

LOCAL ADDITIONAL SNOW ACCUMULATION UP TO 2 INCHES IS POSSIBLE THIS MORNING. EXPECT LOCALLY ICY ROADS THIS MORNING. THE WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW HAS ENDED.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

THIS WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THAT SNOW AND LOCALLY ICY ROADS WILL CAUSE SOME TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. MOTORISTS SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR SLIPPERY ROADS AND USE CAUTION.