June 2011

Des Moines, which has been undergoing growing pains as lawmakers work on revitalizing the City, and it’s tax base, grew a little bit taller tonight.

In a highly impassioned discussion Des Moines City Council voted 5-2 on Thursday night to raise the building height downtown.

Councilmember Scott Thomasson described the changes, which he voted against, as a wholesale change to the downtown.

“This is going to drastically change the character of the downtown, and the City,” Thomasson said. “This ordinance will effect the change some of you are hoping for, but it is not the change the City needs or wants.”

Councilmember Matt Pina said he has lived in Des Moines for 40 years, and he finds the direction the city is heading in concerning. He said he used to ride his bike as a kid around 7th Ave. and the vacant lots he rode passed then are still there.

“We have to have ordinances in place that encourage people (to redevelop),” Pina said.

Eight years ago this month, West Seattle's Judith (Escano) Davis, the "ultimate cat lady" as she was known to friends, and perhaps, felines, was stalking stray cats to rescue when the former High Point public-housing project was being bull-dozed. Well over 100 cats lived under the homes there, hiding during the day and coming out at night to hunt for food. The cats were trapped as the houses were surrounded by a chain-link fence, and some stayed put to protect their kittens.

Davis, director of the West Seattle-based cat-rescue group Friends of the Animals Foundation, or FAF, had lived in the High Point since 1991. "They've gotten used to the sound of my truck," said Davis in a Seattle Times article on July 5, 2003. "They know it means food."

She humanely trapped and rescued many of the cats, both the former house pets left by vacated residents, and feral felines.

Davis died last May 28. She was 66.

Seattle City Light crews were busy removing the tops of electrical service poles on the site of he 10,000-square foot Parish Life Center/Gymnasium to be built at Our Lady of Guadalupe at 7000 35th s.w. The work done today was to remove the powerlines and modernize the entire system. "One of our jobs was to replace all the 4KV service with with 256KV service," said Gary Legere, Seattle City Light Crew Chief.

The completed $3 million project will include spaces for large events, a full kitchen, outdoor play areas, and a gymnasium. The ceremonial groundbreaking June 12 set the project in motion.

You can view the project site plan here.

You can learn more about the project here http://www.olgfuture.org/about-the-building.html

Press release:
Earlier this month representatives of The Clowes Fund announced that Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras (SYSO) will receive a three year $90,000 grant to support its SYSO-in-the-Schools program. Developed in partnership with Seattle Public Schools, the program expands Seattle's elementary and middle school instrumental music programs and provides information on the benefits of participatory instrumental music education programs.

Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras will receive $90,000 over three years to continue the instrumental music programs established in elementary schools and at Denny International Middle School in Southwest Seattle. This project was initiated three years ago through a $500,000 Excellence Award from the Wallace Foundation to Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras. The Clowes Fund support ensures program sustainability after the term of the Wallace Foundation award so that students in Southwest Seattle Schools continue to benefit from instrumental music lessons, peer-to-peer mentoring, public performances and community and parental engagement.

It was duel of championship level caliber that decided a winners bracket victor.

Starting pitcher Trevor Morine's five innings of shutout ball highlighted South Highline National Little League's 3-2 edging out of Pac West on Wednesday, June 28, in District 7 winners bracket 9-10 age All-Star baseball. The right hander struck out seven batters before yielding the mound with two runners on base.

South Highline moved itself one win away from a state tournament berth by qualifying for the Saturday championship round game to be held on Saturday. Pac West still had an opportunity to reach the championship by way of the loser-out round of games.

"It was important for me to throw strikes with different speeds and locations," Morine said. "It was mostly fastballs and curves."

Top level pitching dominated the game for three innings as Pac West's Larry Siler matched Morine with goose eggs on the scoreboard.

On June 28th at approximately 10:15 p.m. officers responded to a 911 call from an employee at a bar in the 8500 Block of 15th Avenue NW.  The caller stated that he believed one of the patrons inside the bar looked very similar to the suspect depicted in surveillance photos released to the media last week from the Greenwood abduction and rape incident. 

Officers arrived and asked the suspect to step outside so they could talk.  The suspect professed to not knowing much English, so the officer pulled up a picture of the suspect from a media site on his cellphone and asked, “Is this you?” to which the suspect replied “yes.”  The officers quickly took the suspect into custody and during a patdown of the suspect recovered a loaded handgun in the suspect’s waistband.

Officers located the suspect’s car nearby and it matched the description of the suspect vehicle used in the abduction/rape.  The car was impounded for processing.  Detectives from the Sexual Assault Unit responded and interviewed the suspect at the precinct.

The 24 year old male suspect was subsequently booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Rape. 

Pac West Fields provided the backdrop for an extra inning thriller in the 2011 District 7 Little League Baseball 9-10 age All Star tournament.

It took seven innings, but in the end, the South Highline National All-Stars remained in the winners bracket with a tense 9-7 edging out of West Seattle on Sunday, June 26.

SHN moved on to a Wednesday game while the West Seattle All-Stars faced a loser-out game on Monday.

"It was perseverance and total team play," observed National manager Tim Fenster. "It's tough at this level to keep them focused. I'll take my chances with them any day of the week."

Visiting team South Highline opened up its arsenal for a five-run first inning bombardment. Consecutive singles by Teddy Covich and Trevor Morine plus a walk to Christopher Mills to start the game set the Nationals up for the huge at bat.

Jack Fenster's walked pushed one run home before the Normandy Park boys unleashed more hitting prowess. Tyler Kilstrom plated two runs for a single ahead of Joseph Allred's line drive, two-run double.

Tomorrow, July 1, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and the Ballard Terminal Railroad will work on a section of the Burke Gilman Trail located between NW 40th and NW 41st streets. The trail will be closed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the work area.

Bicyclists will detour to Sixth Avenue NW, and Sixth will be restricted to local traffic only, between Leary Way NW and NW 41st Street.

SDOT and the Ballard Terminal Railroad are improving the railroad crossing between NW 40th and NW 41 Street. The trail meets the train tracks at a 45 degree angle and the rubber mat that was installed in order to prevent cyclists from catching their tires in between the trail pavement and the track rails has proven to be hazardous in wet weather and caused multiple accidents.

As the Ballard Terminal Railroad is responsible for crossings of its tracks, SDOT is partnering with the railroad to realign the crossing. The mat material will be removed and the crossing will be realigned so that it is closer to 90 degrees.

Beginning July 5, 2011, vehicles in scofflaw status – those with four or more overdue, unpaid parking tickets – will get the boot.

The city is cracking down hard on those motorists who scoff at parking tickets as the city says $26 million is owed in a backlog of scofflaw citations. The city is expecting the scofflaw enforcement to recoup an estimated $3 million in the next two years.

Once a vehicle has been booted, the owner has 48 hours (excluding weekends) to settle all unpaid scofflaw-eligible parking tickets, collection fees and a $145 boot fee or risk getting his or her car impounded.

If a car is impounded and the scofflaw-eligible parking tickets and associated fees (including tow and boot fees) are not paid in full or a time payment plan is not established with the Municipal Court’s collection agency within 15 days, then the vehicle may be auctioned.

While the city sees the scofflaw enforcement as valid measure to generate some revenue, homeless supporters are speaking out against the law, fearing it will put more people on the streets.

Update for July 1:
King County Prosecutors charged John C. Siegel with first degree arson and domestic violence in addition to felony domestic violence in violation of a court order on July 1.

Siegel is accused of intentionally setting fire to the home he co-owns with his ex-wife on the 7100 block of 39th Ave S.W. King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg has also charged Siegel with domestic violence in the arson act.

Additionally, Satterberg charged Siegel with violation of a May 20 court order to stay away from his ex-wife. He violated the order by going to the West Seattle home she was living at after being released from jail (he was locked up for threatening the life of a Seattle Municipal Court judge - more information on that below).

Siegel remains in jail and is scheduled for arraignment on July 14. Prosecutors have asked for $1 million in bail.

Original story from June 30:
The man accused of trying to burn down the Gatewood neighborhood home he co-owns with his ex-wife is in jail on arson charges.