March 2011

Care about beaches? Good with people? Sign up to be a volunteer beach naturalist at an area beach this summer.

Areas include Des Moines Beach Park, Redondo Beach and Seahurst Park. Others are Carkeek Park, Constellation Park (Alki), Golden Gardens, Lincoln Park, Olympic Sculpture Park Beach and Richmond Beach.

Naturalists will attend a program orientation on Tuesday April 12, and receive training from marine and interpretative experts on four weekday evenings (April 19, May 3, 10 and 17) and three weekend days (April 23, May 7 and 21.) Once trained, volunteers spend three summer days educating visitors about beach ecology and beach etiquette.

To sign up or get more information, email beachnaturalist@seattleaquarium.org or call 206- 386-4365.
Sponsors for the Beach Naturalist Program, now in its thirteenth year, include the King Conservation District, the Forum for WRIA 9 (Green Duwamish and Central Puget Sound Watershed,) the Forum for WRIA 8 (Lake Washington/Cedar/Sammamish Watershed), Boeing Charitable Trust, Amgen, Seattle Aquarium and People for Puget Sound.

You may have noticed it already -- one of the few post offices to be open until midnight has reduced its hours.

The Riverton Heights Post Office, 15250 32nd Ave. S. in SeaTac, changed its normal closing time of midnight on weekdays to 6 p.m.

"The postal service has been in dire financial straits for several years," said USPS spokesman Ernie Swanson.
He said that the postal service was delivering less mail and has experienced a reduction in mail volume of "over 20 percent."

"[So] we needed to institute cost cutting measures across the country, which means reducing hours of operation," he said.

The early closure, which started on Monday, Feb. 28, has sparked some local opposition, including SeaTac Councilwoman Pam Fernald, who says that the 6 p.m. closure is too early.

"Because of work, people cannot get to a post office before it closes. This is the only post office open after 6 p.m. and people come from all around to use it," she wrote in a letter to the Highline Times/SeaTac News.

A free document shredding event will be held at the Riverton Post Office, 15250 32nd Ave. S., on Saturday, March 12, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in conjunction with the 13th Annual National Consumer Protection Week, March 6-12.

Sea-Dru-Nar Recycling is providing the free, on-site paper recycling activity. The public is invited to bring all clean paper goods to the location for shredding.

The U.S. Postal Service, Postal Inspection Service, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and AARP will have representatives on hand distributing literature on consumer protection and answering questions.

This year's NCPW theme - Your Information Destination - highlights resources available to consumers through various channels. The agencies involved will be promoting free resources to help people protect their privacy, manage money and debt, avoid identity theft, understand credit and mortgages, and steer clear of frauds and scams.

The year-- circa 1938.

This is the "Bluebirds Motorcycle Club," which roared up and down the streets of White Center, Burien and all around the Northwest for years.

The photo, owned by the Eyers family, was taken in front of a Gilmore Gas service station just north of the Triangle Tavern (where Center Tool Rental is now) at Roxbury and 16th Avenue in White Center.

According to lifelong resident Chuck Eyers, the Bluebirds were nicknamed the "Gunnysacks," as an inside joke in deference to the larger, more organized Seattle "Cossacks" M/C club.

The group, which included Chuck Eyers' father and mother Charlie and Ella Eyers (second from right,) rode their matching Harley-Davidsons to rallies on the coast and attended meets around the state through much of the 1930s.

Ray Swanberg (3rd from the right) owned the Mobil service station just across the street from this location.

Does anyone recognize the three gentlemen on the left side of this photo?

Pair flees on motorcycle at speeds topping 100 mph
A deputy was trying to make a "routine" traffic stop near Covington when the two occupants, a man and a woman, got out and sprinted away. Additional deputies were called and they surrounded the area where the two disappeared. As deputies searched for the pair, a motorcycle with no plates, driven by a man, with a woman passenger, peeled out of the area at high speed and almost struck a deputy.
Deputies followed the motorcycle as it wound through South King County at speeds of more than 100 mph, on Interstate 5, Highway 518 and Highway 99. When the motorcycle ended up on a jogging trail, the passenger either fell or jumped off the bike and was arrested.

Nearly 40 years ago, near Gregory Heights Elementary School, I shared a "peeler-log" home with a roommate. Designed and built by Bill Hines, the 680 square-foot, two-bedroom bungalow was perfect for a couple of bachelors with low paying jobs.

Bill lived next door with his wife Cora, she a retired school teacher in the Highline district.

He was a terrific landlord, always at the door on the 1st of the month with a smile. We got along well. He let me put a garden in the middle of the back yard.

I added a chicken coop. I even saved a couple of brown eggs for them each week.

The dog-run was special with a wire cable running from the corner of the house over to a tree in the back of the lot. I tied up my German Shepherd-Collie mix each morning when I left for work. Sadly "big dog" was struck by a truck the first day I let him off the cable for a bit of freedom. I didn't know he was trying to protect me from that over-sized four wheel monster coming around the corner.

I am an idea man. I've known it for sometime but it took a hobo in the Depression to help me understand how to sell them.

I'm a win-win guy. Here is my story:

When I was ten and alone down by the northwest side of the Vancouver Avenue Viaduct in Portland, Oregon I wandered under the bridge supports. It was 1930. The viaduct passes over the railroad tracks. a favorite hangout for us kids. I noticed several cuss words scrawled on the underpinnings by others, sometimes using a rock as a scribe.

I decided, while sitting there, to yell each word out loud. I was not permitted to use swear words at home. In the process, a hobo appeared and asked me what I was mad about. I explained why I was yelling. He nodded his understanding.

He must have seen opportunity in a young boy as he walked back down by the tracks. Dressed in tattered shirt and pants, some unlaced, hobnail boots and a weathered hat, the hobo asked if I'd ever had mulligan stew. I said I hadn't so the hobo asked me if I lived nearby and had a garden. I did not correlate the two questions at the time.

For the third year in a row, the Highline Schools Foundation for Excellence is helping low income girls to attend their prom.
Dubbed “Project PROMise,” the effort involves collecting prom dresses, shoes and accessories for young women in the Highline School District.
Those wishing to donate may bring clean and new or slightly used items to one of four locations by March 15. They are Puget Sound Skills Center, 18010 8th Ave. S.; Mt. Rainier High School, 615 S. 200th St.; Highline High School, 225 S. 152nd St., and the Foundation office, located inside district headquarters (ERAC) at 15675 Ambaum Blvd. S.
Poroject PROMise will accept all sizes but there is a special need for small, large and plus sizes.
Those wishing to make a cash donation should call 206-248-5196. To volunteer, email info@highlineschoolsfoundation.org.

Press Release:
Seattle Public Schools on Monday announced the appointment of Robert S. Boesche as the district’s interim Chief Financial Officer. The announcement was made by Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield and Seattle School Board Vice President Michael DeBell and Director Sherry Carr, who chairs the board’s Audit and Finance Committee.

Boesche, who started his job Monday, has served as an interim Chief Financial Officer for several Puget Sound school districts, including Edmonds, Shoreline, Vashon Island, Monroe and Kent. He also was employed as Chief Financial Officer for the Northshore School District from June 1989 until he retired in November 2001.

Boesche will fill the interim CFO role while the School Board conducts a national search for an individual to fill the role permanently. The board, which made the decision to separate the former Chief Finance and Operations Officer job into two distinct positions, will also be seeking a permanent Chief Operating Officer.

By Tom Fucoloro

As anticipated, opponents of the plan to complete the Burke-Gilman Missing Link through Ballard have appealed the city’s recent Determination of Non-Significance (DNS). This appeal will further delay the project.

The appeal was anticipated, and this group of big Ballard tenants like Ballard Oil and Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel have vowed to use any legal maneuvers they can to stop or delay the project. Meanwhile, both the city and the group are racking up shiploads of legal costs.

The group has appealed to the Hearing Examiner challenging the city’s determination that a bike trail along Shilshole Ave will not have an adverse impact on the environment. If the Hearing Examiner gives the trail a pass, the project will go back to Judge Jim Rogers of King County Superior Court, whose decision last year forced the city to complete the study. If Judge Rogers gives it a pass, the group could appeal to Washington Appellate Court.

Without these appeals, trail construction could have started this year. If the group continues appealing as far as they can, construction will probably not start until 2012.