August 2011

The paving of 16th Ave. s.w. in White Center is underway and Chamber of Commerce President Mark Ufkes shared the letter sent to members by the King County Department of Transportation.

Here's an excerpt:

Friday 8/26 the contractor will begin paving the west half (southbound lane) of the roadway. The paving crew will start at Roxbury and work their way south. In an effort to minimize the disruption to businesses and on-street parking along 16th Ave SW, we’ve decided to move the contractor’s start time from 8:00AM to 6:30AM.

The contractor will begin placing their traffic control signs at 6:30AM andpaving will start close to 7:00AM.

Sat. & Sun. – No work

Monday 8/29, the contractor will be paving the east half of the roadway. Again, starting at Roxbury at 6:30AM and working their way south.

Tuesday 8/30, the contractor will start paving from wherever Friday’s paving ended and pave towards S 112th St.

Wednesday 8/31, should be the final day of paving.

Please keep in mind that paving work is weather sensitive work and while the long range forecast looks good, things could change between now and next Wednesday.

There’s a new conductor in town.

Brian Winnie has arrived from Philadelphia and has taken over the musical directorship of Burien’s ChoralSounds Northwest.

The 60-member mixed community chorus is known for its popular Christmas and spring concerts at Burien’s Highline Performing Arts Center that intermingle beautiful choral arrangements with fun family fare and entertaining choreography.

The ChoralSounds formula is popular with Highline audiences but the young conductor – he doesn’t turn 30 until April – intends to shake things up a bit.

Usually the Christmas concert features a first act with mainly religious choral arrangements. The second half transitions to more secular holiday music with frequent solos and maybe a little acting.

“We are going to make the concert more of a production with a storyline going forward,” Winnie declared.
He even promises to add videography to the mix.

The title of the Christmas show is “Angels Watching” with the theme of a new family welcoming a child.

ChoralSounds’ general manager, Paul Bauer ,points out the theme lends itself to both a religious and secular interpretation.

The 2011 Seattle Parks and Recreation Golf Invitational, a benefit event for the Seattle Parks Department Childcare Scholarship Fund will tee off promptly on Monday, September 19th at West Seattle Golf Course starting at 8:30 am.

The $50 cost includes your greens fee and lunch.

This event also features a $10,000 hole in one opportunity plus the Straightest drive and Closest to the pin contests.

Sponsored by Chaffey Inner City Baseball the invitational is in a 4-Person Scramble format.

For more information call Seattle's Director of Golf Paul Wilkinson at 206 615-0514 or via E-mail: Paul.wilkinson@seattle.gov

Sponsored by Seattle Parks and Recreation Chaffey Baseball Club and West Seattle Golf Course

The closing of long time iconic bowling establishment Magic Lanes in White Center came as a surprise to many people who over the years spent a lot of time there. A party to say good bye is set to happen Saturday Aug. 27 at Roxbury Lanes 2823 s.w. Roxbury Street.

The party starts at 5:00pm and will run until midnight

Victoria Rae is person behind the event and wants to make clear that there is a special discount available for those attending. "Heres the deal, " she writes," you must say you are friends of Magic to get the Magic rate FIRST GAME FREE AND ALL ADDITIONAL GAMES ONLY $1.00. She said, "Like alot of other West Seattle and White center people I grew up bowling there and it was a long time WC establishment well known to the community. I feel it would be great to be able to share memories of Magic Lanes with other bowlers and patrons one last time."

There will be drink specials in the bar, some food specials. The organizers are asking that if you plan to attend that you RSVP through their Facebook event page.

If you have any pictures you are urged to bring them

The day had finally arrived. All the work, training and dedication will tell them how prepared they really are. They haven’t been training all these weeks not to finish. The soon-to-be triathletes, Wendy Cooney and Bethany McGinn, both 32, and my wife Karen Howard, 51 (only 2 days away from 52) were just 3 of the 3,000 participants in this year’s Seattle Danskin Women’s Triathlon at Genesee Park held August 14th.

These women met working at McMicken Elementary School in the Highline School District. For some crazy reason they decided to participate in triathlon. This sprint triathlon consists of swimming ¼ of a mile, biking 12 miles and running 3.1 miles.

As the last weekend of August rolls around, there’s still no let up in events drawing huge crowds. Tens of thousands of people are expected to turn out for the three-day PAX Expo gamer convention, the two-day Northwest Lovefest world music festival, and Josh Groban Concert. The Seattle Mariners will pull in their fans for three days of games against the Chicago White Sox while Seattle Sounders enthusiasts will be out in force for the match against the Columbus Crew on Saturday. Also in the line-up this weekend: the Seattle Marathon 10K and the Alki Beach 5K. For details about these events, please see the schedule below.

The Seattle Department of Transportation urges event-goers lessen their impact on the environment by parking the car at home and trying one of the many alternate modes of transportation available - Metro Transit, the West Seattle Water Taxi, the Sounder commuter train, Link light rail, car pool, bicycle or even walking, if feasible.

Friday, August 26
PAX Expo: 10 a.m. – 12 Midnight
Gamer convention at the Washington State Convention Center and surrounding venues
20,000 attending

Dear Editor:

I found Charles Ganong's article on white center to be totally off the wall.

My first thought was what is this guy smoking? What happened to Reality?

There have been 2 murders in the last month. White Center is already a very high crime area yet violent crime has increased 25% in the last 6 months..

If this fellow likes White Center so much then why does he live in Gregory Heights?

White Center is full of gangs and the gang violence is getting worse not better, it is NOT a safe place to be out in at night especially on the weekend.

It is the POOREST if not one of the poorest areas in the puget sound.

Annexing it will REDUCE PROPERTY VALUES IN BURIEN!
Burien will also eventually have to RAISE PROPERTY TAXES TO MAKE UP FOR THE INCREASED COSTS OF POLICING and maintenancing this area..

The LAST thing BURIEN needs especially in these times is to Annex White Center!

Mr Ganong can take a trip down memory lane ON HIS OWN DIME!

Best Regards,

John Poitras

To the Editor,
Charles Ganong has written 2 articles about what he likes about White Center as grounds for why it should be annexed to Burien. He has provided no sound financial evidence or support for why annexing this area is a wise or prudent action for the City of Burien to follow. His reasons for liking White Center are the same kind of reasons that could be given for why people like; Detroit, Michigan, Cleveland, Ohio, Oakland, Calif.
However, none of the above mentioned cities would be financially wise to annex. In terms of the stats on poverty and unemployment, Area Y/White Center would be classified as one of the 10 poorest cities in the USA. All you have to do is Google White Center and it appears as one of the poorest areas or the poorest area in all of King County.

Press release from The Knights Car Club:

The Knights, a local Classic Car Club dedicated to raising money for abused women and children hosted the 5th Annual Des Moines Classic Car Show. It was held at the Des Moines Marina on July 23rd, and drew 184 beautifully restored automobiles from yesteryear.

Today the officers of the club presented a $3,000 check to the Executive Director, Natalie Reber, for the Hospitality House in Burien.

The family of Sweetheart Failatusi, who was murdered August 16 in White Center, turned out in big numbers on Friday August, 26 to show their support and try to raise funds to counter the expense of her funeral.

Her family is a large one with 6 brothers and 2 sisters but her extended family numbers some 200 people, many of whom showed up to lend a hand. The family lives near White Center.

There was a steady stream of cars to wash and the family's efforts appeared to be successful. They were thankful. Speaking for the family Elee Noa said, "It's been wonderful and we're very grateful for everybody's love and support. I just pray everything returns back to normal."

Noa expressed his thoughts about his sister. "For those who knew Sweetheart, I would consider them blessed. They got to meet her and got to feel a sense of just what her heart was. She was a very giving person and a loving person. Her name in itself is an understatement. She was a sweetheart. (...) For those who did not know her I would say they missed out on a wonderful loving person. She was very warm and always had her arms open for anybody to give a nice big hug."