May 2011

I'd like to respond to Vera Wunderlicht's letter published last week. She stated that the water belongs to all of us, and I agree. But the land does not. Just as I can enjoy a beautiful garden as I walk past on a public street, she can enjoy the beach and the water from any public place, including the mile-long public beach at Seahurst Park. Without an invitation I can't go into her yard and she can't come into mine.

Shorelines in Burien in front of private residences are privately owned. The question asked by the city in the "Visioning Process" asking if the public should have access to private shorelines causes private shoreline owners to react. The city visioning process has not asked if the public would like more access to any other type of private property in Burien. The city "vision" should include respect for the private property rights of ALL property owners in Burien. That is not the message shoreline owners are getting from the city.

Marco Spani
Burien

Your article on the Shoreline Master Plan and Dept. of Ecology required changes was disappointing in what it left out.

It is true that the SMP went from the Citizen Advisory Committee to the Planning Commission and on to the City Council. It is also true that DOE was involved to some extent all along the way. What was left out was that most of the objections DOE has to the plan were to arbitrary changes made by the council against the recommendations of the Citizen Advisory Council and the Planning Commission. These were changes pushed by well-organized special interest groups of homeowners.

Public access to Lake Burien is one example. The Lake Burien Shore Club has strongly opposed any type of access for the public to use the public lake. They hired two "experts" who did studies and stated the expected conclusion that public access should not be allowed.

However, they had no scientific evidence in their studies to back up the conclusions. One based her conclusion on a resident's statement that residents do not use their boats on other bodies of water.

(Editor's Note: The following letter was sent to the Board of Trustees, King County Library System with a copy to the TIMES/NEWS.)

I am dismayed that the King County Library System Board of Trustees would consider consolidation of the Boulevard Park and White Center Libraries at this time.

To the best of my knowledge, a formal proposal to have staff pursue plans for consolidation first became public on May 12. To think that the KCLS Board might take action on May 24, a mere 12 days later, at a meeting scheduled to be held far from North Highline - in North Bend - is extremely dismissive of my constituents. Further, it fails to recognize their hard work in advocating for their community's needs.

SLIDESHOW: Click on the above photo to see more of Kurt Howard's shots of the game.

Seattle Lutheran succumbed to Seattle Christian, 6 - 16, on Wednesday, May 16th, 2011. It was a 6 inning game.

SLIDESHOW: For additional photos, please click on the above image.

Meet Ray Rice

He and his wife Louise have lived in Burien next to the lighthouse on the tip of Three Tree Point for fifteen years.

He is an occasional fisherman and got lucky one day last year hooking this small silver salmon, casting a spoon off the shoreline.

They lived in West Seattle for many years when he was a fuel-oil company owner, driving a truck to customers in the Fauntleroy area and all points north and south. At one time he had about 600 customers and three trucks going two shifts a day. This was during the post WW2 years before natural gas took over the heating industry. Those days during the fifties he had lots of competition from the likes of Leo Thomas, Dave Coe and a slew of ambitious others.

A former Bellingham boy, he served in the Merchant Marines during WW2.

After graduating from Broadway High where he was an all-star baseball player, he went to the University of Washington and played under famed coach Tubby Graves who told him he was the best infielder he had ever coached.

Saturday, May 21

Baseball
Seattle Lutheran 7, Napavine 4
Seattle Lutheran 18, Mossyrock 1
Seattle Lutheran of West Seattle took two more steps on its way to defending its state Class 2B championship, defeating Napavine in the first game of regional action, 7-4, and downing Mossyrock, 18-1.
The team will now spend Friday and Saturday in Yakima playing in the state final four at Parker Field.

Shorewood 3, West Seattle 0
The Wildcats’ dreams of playing in the state 3A final four at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma ended with Saturday’s shutout loss.

Boys soccer
White Salmon 4, SCS 3
Seattle Christian’s season ended with Saturday’s loss to White Salmon in Camas.

Fastpitch
Friday Harbor 11, SCS 0
The Warriors were blanked by Friday Harbor in Tri-District action Saturday at Janicki Fields in Sedro Woolley, but will still advance into Friday and Saturday’s state tournament in Spokane.
The action at Merkel Sports Complex opens with a 10 a.m. game against Castle Rock.

SPANAWAY - Highline School District high school tennis players were shut out in their efforts to earn state positions out of the Class 2A West Central/ SK Bi-District tournament in closing action held at the Sprinker Recreation Center Courts on Saturday, May 21.
Junior Sameer Vohra of Evergreen (White Center) stroked it out with Micah Roos of Port Angeles in a winner to state as the sixth seed, loser out match up in boys singles.

Vohra started quickly in the first set, holding his own serve before breaking his opponent's serve. On the verge of going up 3-0, the Wolverine athlete faltered and lost his serve. Vohra fought hard to break back, but the Roughrider player struggled hard and held serve. From this point on, Roos rushed to four consecutive games and a 6-2 first set win.

In the second set, Vohra was broken twice in the first three games to trail 0-3. The players exchanged service breaks until Roos held a 4-2 advantage. Roos then held serve before taking another service break for the game, set (6-2) and match.

Throughout the encounter, Vohra was guilty of unforced errors against his hard hitting foe.

SPANAWAY - A fine season of perseverance for the John F. Kennedy Catholic girls fastpitch softball team finally came to an end on the Sprinker Recreation fields on the morning of Saturday, May 21.

Lack of key hitting limited the Lancer effectiveness in a 3-0 loss to the Mountain View Thunder at the Class 3A West Central/Southwest Bi-District tournament as JFK finished at 15-6 overall.

Despite managing only two hits for the game, the Lancers stayed close.

Mountain View chipped away for single runs in innings one, three and four before a golden opportunity presented itself in the top of the fitfth inning. With two outs and the bases loaded junior Angie Isernio singled past the shortstop but the runner from second base then collided with the shortstop on a close call that ended with the runner being called out for interference, thus ending the threat.

In the bottom of the seventh, Kennedy Catholic again loaded the bases with two outs.

After fouling off numerous pitches, the Lancer batter grounded out to shortstop to end the game.

"We just weren't able to get key hits," said Seamount League coach of the year Dino Josie.

Tuesday, May 17
Boys soccer
Hockinson 2, Evergreen 0
Evergreen put forth a strong battle in last Tuesday's state Class 2A tournament opener but wound up on the short end of a 2-0 score against Hockinson.
The loss in the match played at Foster High School ended the Wolverines' season.
Evergreen played in the mixed Class 3A/2A Seamount League during the regular season and qualified to play in the 2A tournament.

Wednesday, May 18
Fastpitch
SCS 16, Seattle Lutheran 6
Seattle Lutheran of West Seattle went down to Seattle Christian School of SeaTac by 10 runs in action Wednesday, May 18.
Benita Beale had a big outing for the Warriors in the win, hitting 3-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI. She also won on the mound.
Mikayla Wrolstad hit 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI and Mumm hit 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBI.
Chief Sealth 12, Eastside Catholic 2
Chief Sealth started its postseason on the right foot last Wednesday, winning by a 12-2 score over Eastside Catholic.

A letter from fallen officer Jarod Newlove's mother-in-law:

Your newspaper covered the news of my son-in-law’s death in Afghanistan last summer and the subsequent fund raiser at a restaurant on Alki for Jarod Newlove. I just wanted to send you a little blurb about a burglary that happened to Kimberly (Jarod's widow) last month. I know this won’t accomplish anything except to vent my fury but maybe there is a very slight chance that Kim will get her things back.

Thank you, Mary Humphries