May 2011

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K2 Sports, formerly based on Vashon Island, now in a quarter-mile long Georgetown building with over 250 employees, many from West Seattle, shot a high-energy ad, complete with smoke machines costumed band and audience in ski gear to go worldwide this fall and winter. The photo shoot utilized the Easy Street Records Cafe at the Alaska Junction Wednesday night, May 18.

Employees and professional skiers sponsored by K2 Sports crammed together and rocked the house as former ski-pro Stefan Stankalla crowd-surfed with skis on. Many passers-by stopped to ask 'Who is the band tonight?' as the music, and participants, spilled out on California Ave.

"I was born in Germany," said Stankalla, who must be good as he has his own Wiki page. He lives in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a mountainous region in Bavaria. "I came here for the shoot. I was a professional skier. Now I'm working for K2 doing ski development, mountain performance skis, and doing clinic work and sales promotion."

Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight to Salt Lake City were taken off the plane Wednesday afternoon at Sea-Tac International Airport after a report of a burnt plastic smell.
Firefighters reported some haze from a rear vent of the plane but did not see smoke.
The plane was a Boeing 737 that was about to take off.

The first signs of some real work being done on the upcoming Trader Joe's location at 4545 Fauntleroy Way were spotted on Wednesday, May 18 with the arrival of telephone and electrical contractors on the site.

While they asked not to be identified they did say they were asked by the building owner (Steve Huling) to come out and get the work underway today.

The company just recently, early this month, got their land use ok.

As the West Seattle Herald was the first to confirm one year ago last May, the company plans to bring their brand of unique grocery store to former site of Huling Bros. Buick (and briefly Gee Automotive) on Fauntleroy Way s.w.

As the Herald reported on May 5, the company just cleared some of their permit hurdles which has been a time consuming process.

On November 18, 1906, the Mosquito Fleet Steamer Dix was underway from Seattle to Port Blakely with 77 passengers and crew when she struck the Steamer Jeanie one mile west of Seattle's Duwamish Head. The Dix sank within minutes and only 38 survived. This is considered the worst marine casualty in the history of Puget Sound.

The Dix was discovered by wreck divers Laura James and Scott Boyd with the help of a yellow submarine. They first sited it from an ROV, which stands for an underwater "remotely operated vehicle", basically a robotic underwater camera, provided by OceanGate LLC of Everett, March 19. The week of April 14th they used OceanGate's five-person submarine, the Antipodes. Subsequent dives and high frequency sonar imaging were used to assist with the identification.

The West Seattle Herald worked with the Alki Log House Museum on this story two years ago interpreting sonar photographs released to the museum of what may have been the Dix, but that ship photographed was off Magnolia, and all involved felt it was probably a different wreck.

Many who have cruised, pedalled, skateboarded, or jogged along Alki in the last couple of years have probably noticed that boarded up, neglected, L-shaped brick building called the Shoremont at 2460-2464 Alki Ave. SW and 57th Ave. SW. New owner, Dennis Schilling to the rescue. He spoke to the West Seattle Herald about his project. The amicable Mercer Islander also said you might spot him on the roof these days as he begins transforming the shell to an 8-unit apartment complex. It was a 6-unit building.

"I own it and I'm doing the work on it," he said. "I bought it from some entity of the FDIC around November. In April I finally got my building permit. We're upgrading the wiring, plumbing, putting a new roof on it, bringing it up to energy code, and going back to the original configuration of four, one-bedroom apartments on each side. We just started. They had torn off the roof in preparation to demolish and build (new) condos. It just sat there. I like old brick buildings and it look like a good location so I thought it would be something interesting to work on.

The annual Ship Canal clean up event will be Saturday, May 21, and volunteers with small boats are needed.

For the fifteenth year, the Seattle Marine Business Coalition in partnership with the Port of Seattle, the Army Corps of Engineers and Seattle Public Utilities is organizing this event to clean up the Ship Canal from the Hiram Chittenden Locks to the Fremont Bridge.

The annual Ship Canal clean up is intended to bring together members of our maritime community to improve the working waterfront, maintain a healthy marine environment and have fun.

There will be coffee and donuts for the volunteers at the 9 a.m. start time and volunteers will be treated to seafood barbecue after the clean up.

Volunteers should gather at Dock 10 of Fishermen's Terminal to get equipment, bags, grabbers, scoop nets and special instructions. Then all the kayaks, skiffs and other boats will fan out, retrieve debris from the water and shoreline and offload debris to dumpsters aboard mother ships, including several tug boats. Western Towboat's tug Fearless will be among the mother ships.

The girls' club pledge never promised camping would be easy...for the moms anyway.

During a storming night in a backwoods campout, a squall threatens to erupt inside the parental cabin where diverse backgrounds and differing walks of life collide, spurring hilarious but meaningful conversations about race, religion and parenting.

Making its West Coast premiere at Taproot Theatre on Friday, May 20, Janece Shaffer's Brownie Points explores the question of ‘what is more powerful: the shared experience of motherhood or the divisiveness of race?'.

Brownie Points premiered to sold‐out crowds at Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta last year and now the dialogue continues on the West Coast thanks to director Karen Lund who's bringing the award-winning dramedy to Seattle.

"I love Schafer's plays and think Brownie Points is hilarious," Lund said, who had been looking for a modern comedy with substance.

"Taproot is a theatre of hope," Lund said. "In all of our plays you're asked a tough question but always led to the hope that there is an answer. I don't think that there will ever be a time when people don't need hope."

By David Rosen

The warm temperature and today's super low-tide recorded at a -3.2, marking the lowest tide so far of this month brought out crowds to Alki Beach today. Some people were sun tanning on the beach, kids digging in the sand, and young adults playing volleyball.

The perfect combination of todays warm weather, low-tide and early dismissal from schools, Jonathan picked up his son Elijah from school and headed to the beach to go skim-boarding.

The forecast for the remainder of the week is calling for sunny skies and warm temperatures reaching 72 degrees by Friday.

In a series of upcoming public workshops, the Department of Transportation wants to hear your thoughts and ideas regarding transportation to help shape the future of transportation in Seattle.

In January, Mayor McGinn and the City Council convened a 14-member Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee III (CTAC) to advise them on priorities for maintaining and improving Seattle streets and sidewalks and to evaluate funding options including a potential ballot measure.

Input from the community will inform the CTAC’s decisions and recommendations.

The North Seattle public workshop is coming up on May 24th and will be held at the Fremont Library from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. Mayor Mike McGinn will be in attendance to hear what North Seattlites have to say.

The Fremont Library is located at 731 N. 35th Street.

The agenda for the event is as follows:

5:30-6:00 p.m. Open house
6:00-6:30 p.m. Presentations by CTAC members and Seattle Dept. of Transportation Director Peter Hahn
6:30-7:30 p.m. Small group discussions

CTAC members and Seattle Department of Transportation staff will participate in each event to answer questions and hear comments.

On November 18, 1906, the Mosquito Fleet Steamer Dix was underway from Seattle to Port Blakely with 77 passengers and crew when she struck the Steamer Jeanie one mile west of Seattle's Duwamish Head. The Dix sank within minutes and only 38 survived. This is considered the worst marine casualty in the history of Puget Sound.

The Dix was discovered by wreck divers Laura James and Scott Boyd with the help of a yellow submarine. They first sited it from an ROV, which stands for an underwater "remotely operated vehicle", basically a robotic underwater camera, provided by OceanGate LLC of Everett, March 19. The week of April 14th they used OceanGate's five-person submarine, the Antipodes. Subsequent dives and high frequency sonar imaging were used to assist with the identification.

The West Seattle Herald worked with the Alki Log House Museum on this story two years ago interpreting sonar photographs released to the museum of what may have been the Dix, but that ship photographed was off Magnolia, and all involved felt it was probably a different wreck.