April 2011

The raw seafood tasting at the West Seattle Farmers Market is POSTPONED!

We are so sorry, but a last minute emergency precluded our oyster folks from attending this weekend, so we'll be rescheduling the Seafood Sultans event for later in May.

This weekend is the start of "high season" at the market, and we're welcoming back more and more farmers in spite of the cold wet spring! Langley Fine Gardens is starting at the market this Sunday with lots of beautiful edible plant starts for your garden, and Skagit River Ranch is back this weekend with their famous organic meats. Come say hello and celebrate the coming of May!

The West Seattle Farmers Market takes place every Sunday – rain or shine – in “downtown West Seattle” - The Alaska Junction - on the corner of California and Alaska in the parking lot behind Key Bank. Hours are 10 am – 2 pm.

As the West Seattle reported here, City Attorney Pete Holmes is suing the Protect Seattle Now Coalition for collecting what he believes is enough signatures to put the deep bore tunnel project to a vote on their referendum. He filed the suit the morning of March 29, just one hour after the organization filed 29,000 signatures with the City Clerk's office. He said referenda only apply to legislative policy actions, not administrative actions, and so this may not be legal.

Then, on April 13, Holmes sued again, this time to block citizens to vote for Initiative-101 after its sponsors turned in enough signatures. Holmes said that Initiative-101 "is beyond the scope of the local initiative power" that rests, instead, with the city's governing body (i.e., the Seattle City Council, which overwhelmingly support the tunnel).

A vessel that sunk near the Ballard Locks in 1980 is being surveyed by a dive team from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today.

As part of the EPA's Puget Sound Initiative, divers will inspect the vessel for potentially hazardous materials like batteries and leaking oil, said Mark MacIntyre from the EPA.

Submerged in 25 feet of water, the vessel is a Coast Guard ice breaker that has been underwater for 20 years.

"We're not addressing this issue because of an immediate threat (that we know of) or because it's a ship that has recently sunk due to a crash," MacIntyre said.

"We know that when vessels sit underwater for a long time, they collect a lot of debris and wild life. While it doesn't pose an immediate threat, we do want to examine it to see if it could potentially harm water life and Lake Union."

Being in close proximity to the Ballard Locks, which sees a lot of commercial activity, state officials wanted more information on the status of the vessel, MacIntyre said.

Sammy, a five year old Cock-a-Poo, belongs to Rick Lambert who found him "at a place in Montana online. I was living in D.C. working for XM Satellite Radio at the time so they actually drove him to D.C., instead of flying (...) and we picked him up at a pet store there. He was kind of a loopy dog, loved running around and it's actually what I wanted," Lambert said.

Sammy loves to go on hikes with Lambert and they have gone many places together. "We can hike for 10 to 12 miles," Lambert explained, "We've been to the alpine lakes up in the Cascades including Snow Lake, Talapus, Ollalie, Melakwa he hikes them all. At first he was one of those that would get up to the lake and look back and ask for permission. He doesn't ask for permission that much anymore. He'll just slowly walk into the lake, eases his belly down in and then slowly swims off like a graceful swimmer. He loves alpine lakes."

This dog has a ton of toys but "his ultimate favorite is one of those squeaky tennis balls."

Press release:
Weather permitting, SDOT paving crews will grind the old surface off SW Orchard Street between Delridge and Dumar Way SW today, April 27, and lay new asphalt on Friday, April 29. Two Police Officers will assist traffic as well as two traffic flaggers. Traffic will be restricted to one way at a time, with eastbound and westbound traffic taking turns.

Yesterday the paving crews finished spot paving on SW Sylvan Street.

Monday's rain cancelled many games but not ultimate frisbee. The Ballard girls ultimate team took on SAAS and improved their record to  3-1 with a 12 to 7 victory .

The boys ultimate team played yesterday and lost to Northwest School 13-6 and fell to 3-2 on the season while Northwest remained unbeaten.

Baseball:

The varsity baseball team suffered a devastating 17 to 6 loss to Inglemoor last night. While the Beavers got ahead three to one in the first inning, they gave away 11 runs in the second inning and another six in the third. Ballard tried to make a comeback and scored two runs in the fourth inning. When the Beavers were unable to score in the fifth inning, the game was over due to the 10-point rule.

Ballard had 11 hits, Inglemoor 16.

Soccer:

The boys spring soccer team tied Roosevelt last night. Ballard was ahead one to zero at half time but Roosevelt scored the equalizer. But mere minutes later, Ballard scored again to put the Beavers ahead two to one. In the 62nd minute Roosevelt's Mikko Kerranen scored the equalizer and the game ended two to two.

LAX:

By Christy Wolyniak, Intern

From its humble Ballard roots, the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) has exploded into the world's largest youth film festival, with filmmakers 22 and younger converging to network with other filmmakers and showcase their unique films.

Founded by Ballard High School alum, Jesse Harris and two friends, NFFTY was created with the intention to screen a handful of films; beginning with 14 film screenings in 2007, it has now grown to 225 films that are screened in NFFTY’s fourth annual event.

“Demographics [at film festivals were] less than 5 percent [of people] under 25. No young people were going to film festivals. However, our [NFFTY’s] demographics are roughly 67 percent young people. It’s cool they can go see something made by their peers and people their age, and they get inspired. Want-to-be filmmakers come to the festival; others come because they heard we screen really great films,” said Harris.

High school and college students from across the globe journey out to Seattle for the film-packed festival that draws participants from over 15 countries and 30 states.

“I’ll probably read about your trip to Barcelona in the Ballard News,” my dentist teased me a few days before I left town. While in Barcelona I didn’t give Ballard a thought. What cats? What column? What bell tower?

Ignorance can only last so long. I flew back by way of New York for a visit with family in the Boston area. During a layover at JFK Airport I was confused by the frenzy, not sure if it was NYC normal. It wasn’t. I learned that tornadoes had been ripping their way up the Southeastern states, devastating towns and cities and leaving travelers stranded, and worried about home.

The following morning I was awake when “The Boston Globe” hit the doorstep at my sister’s house with a pre-dawn thud. My sister’s family was still out of town for their spring break so it was just me and her lonely cat reading the paper before sunrise. The headline was painful even before I read the words on the top line of front page of the Metro section, “Emerson student dies in fall from building.” Justin Amorratanasuchad, hometown Seattle.

Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray toured Ballard's Pacific Fisherman Shipyard with local workers, businesses owners and students to discuss the importance of making sure workers have the skills and training they need to fill local jobs.

Doug Dixon, General Manager of the Pacific Fisherman Shipyard, led the tour and pointed out the various new editions to the shipyard funded by a $1 million dollar Small Shipyard Stimulus Funding Grant under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This funding also paid, in part, for worker training, Dixon said.

"The maritime industry is a perfect example of an industry that's changing. They have an aging workforce and a need to attract young blood," Senator Patty Murray said.

Murray said in Seattle there are around 19,000 open positions but that business are having a hard time finding workers with the skills and training they need to fill those open positions.

"This doesn’t make sense—we have workers who want to work, and we have businesses that want to hire. But we need to do a better job of bridging that skills gap," she said.

Press Release:

All West Seattle Water Taxi trips for Wednesday, April 27 are cancelled through that warranty repairs can be made to a small defective weld in the vessel hull. Tomorrow’s cancellation will allow the King County Marine Division to take advantage of available dry dock space.

West Seattle Water Taxi service has been canceled for the remainder of today, Wednesday, April 27, due to a delay in completing the vessel repair.

Service is expected to resume Thursday morning; please watch for service alerts, check the website, www.kingcounty.gov/watertaxi, or call 206-684-1551 for confirmation.

Alternative service is available on Metro Transit service:
21 Downtown Seattle, 35th Av SW & Arbor Heights
22 Downtown Seattle, West Seattle Junction, Gatewood, Westwood Village & White Center
37 Downtown Seattle, Alki & West Seattle Junction
51 West Seattle Junction, Genesee Hill, Admiral District & Belvedere
53 West Seattle Junction, Alki & Harbor Av
54 Downtown Seattle, West Seattle Junction, Fauntleroy, Westwood Village & White Center
55 Downtown Seattle, West Seattle Junction & Admiral District