August 2011

Like many people, Burien resident Marta Stahlfeld is busy juggling her career and personal life. Stahlfeld published her first book, Darkwoods, in April and continues cultivating a promising writing career. What sets her apart, however, is that she is 17 years old and this fall will begin her senior year at Des Moines’ Evergreen High School, a private, Lutheran school.

“Encouragement is priceless,” says Stahlfeld regarding her success at a relatively young age. “My parents gave a certain amount of freedom for me to choose what I wanted to do and told me to work hard at it.”

Her passion for books began when Stahlfeld’s mother read to her and her brother when they were children. She remained an avid reader and developed a particular passion for fantasy fiction. Her enthusiasm eventually overflowed into wanting to write a book and create her own magical worlds.

“What I like best is being able to write about stuff that doesn’t happen in every day life, but you wish that it could - like turning invisible sometimes,” says Stahlfeld who almost always has a notebook on hand to jot down ideas.

By Justice Bobbe J. Bridge (ret.)

Gang violence seems to be everywhere today, even right here in our own suburban neighborhoods – and it’s mobile, moving across city borders. So, how can South and East King County communities work together to deal with it?

High-profile incidents involving gang violence – such as the shootings last month at a car show in Kent – generate most of the headlines. But the pervasive influence that gangs have on vulnerable youth can be just as dangerous as the gunfire. Once lured in as teens or even pre-teens, gang members are more likely than other kids to drop out of school, become the victims of crimes or wind up in prison.

Here are just a few sobering facts:

•According to the FBI’s 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment, gangs are responsible for up to 80 percent of all crimes in communities across the nation today.

•Conservative figures from the King County Sheriff’s Department show that gang incidents increased by more than 5 percent from 2009 to 2010.

•Indications are that Seattle’s success in addressing gang issues may be driving gangs into other parts of the county.

As many West Seattleites trying to use the internet this morning into afternoon have likely noticed, internet speeds have been achingly slow.

Comcast has been tweeting they are aware of the issue and hope to have normal internet speeds up and running by 1:45 p.m.

After nearly twenty years, longtime banker and Ballardite Ozzie Kvithammer recently retired from Viking Bank, leaving behind him many memories, customers and friends.

"I will miss my associates and customers greatly. It is indeed fortunate that I live in this area," he said.

Kvithammer has been associated with Viking Bank since it's formation in 1992 and was part of the original management team.

"It has been great fun to be part of a community bank. Community banking has always been exciting and as one of the first start up community banks in the area Viking was a pioneer," he said.

"My fondest memories are those of customers in the community that we made a real difference for, as well as the long term relationships that I have developed in Ballard and the ajacent communities."

To Dan Redeker, Market Manager at Viking Bank, Kvithammer was a mentor.

When Mel Neville was 17 years old, he had already come to understand a lot about his life path. He knew he was detail oriented, and knew had the skills to create beautiful things. But when you are that age, some things are more important, so he completely rebuilt a car, doing all the work himself on the upholstery and interior, the paint and the chrome transforming it until it was truly a work of art. He confesses that it did impress the girls, but more than that, it was evidence that he was clearly headed in the right direction.

His business, the Dunville Gallery, a framing and restoration center at 9025 35th Ave s.w. for more than 37 years in West Seattle is set to close forever in September with a final auction of remaining inventory and other items coming up in October. Neviile, who is consistently ranked among the top twenty frame and painting restoration experts in the nation, somewhat reluctantly came to the decision it was time to retire as he approaches the age of 65.\

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The Ballard Chamber's second annual Ballard Urban Picnic (BURP) is coming up on Saturday, September 10 and the Chamber is looking for
a few good men and women, girls and boys to volunteer and help make the event a great success.

BURP is an all age event with music, a beer garden, great food, kid's activities, and more. It also overlaps with the Second Saturday Ballard ArtWalk.

Benefitting the Ballard Chamber of Commerce, BURP celebrates the community and highlights some of Ballard best mobile food vendors. Last year Food vendors at BURP included Dante's Inferno Dogs, Anita's Crepes, Veraci Pizza, Skillet, Here & There and Parfait Ice Cream.

Volunteers can sign up for an hour or two, or for the whole day. Visit http://tinyurl.com/BURP2011 to sign up.

Sponsorships are available at all levels starting at the 'Bread & Butter' level of $150. See the attached file for sponsorship info.

Starting this fall, Seattle Public Schools elementary and K-8 students attending their neighborhood school will have shorter bus rides, thanks to new transportation zones approved by the Seattle School Board earlier this year.

The goal behind these neighborhood-based transportation zones is to streamline bus routes for attendance-area elementary and K-8 schools, decreasing the bus ride time for neighborhood schools to 25 minutes or less and saving an estimated $4 million by using fewer buses and less gas. To accomplish this, some buses will cover three routes in the morning and afternoon instead of the more traditional two routes.

“With more efficient routing, buses are less likely to encounter the traffic delays that occur on longer routes, so families will find departure and arrival times to be more reliable,” said Tom Bishop, SPS transportation manager. “In addition, the more streamlined routes will also benefit the environment by taking up to 80 buses off the roads and reducing the district’s carbon footprint.”

Neighborhood “Boot Camp” started in April when Aeron Hansen noticed other parents walking their kids to Adams Elementary School; then going their separate ways, often in work-out clothes. A group fitness instructor at Ballard Health Club who was looking to add more personal training clients Aeron saw an opportunity at school drop-off. Why go their separate ways, she wondered. Why not exercise right on the playfield behind the Ballard Community Center?

Although the term boot camp originated in military training, its recent civilian usage usually refers to fitness programs done in groups, often in public spaces like parks. Although fathers would probably be welcome Aeron’s first participants were all women, and continue to be.

(Editor’s Note: The letter below was sent to the Burien City Council with a copy to the Times/News.)

I have reviewed the Berk study on annexation and have some questions about the report. I hope these will be answered in a future council meeting.

1. The study stated that there are no gambling establishments in Area Y. In fact there is one currently open.  This would cause the revenues in the report to be too low, which is fine.  However, it makes me wonder what else was missed, especially expenses.

a) How was this missed?

b) After finding out how it was missed has staff or Berk discovered any other corrections that are needed?

2. I did not see any numbers on how much SWM and the Road Fund Revenue would be increased.

a) How much revenue would come to SWM and the Road Fund from the annexation area?

b) Berk stated that it was unclear if the state funds could be used for capital costs in an annexation area.
What is staff’s opinion, especially the City Attorney’s on being able to use state funds to cover any deficit in capital costs?

c) Will Burien need to use existing reserves in these fund to fund these costs in the annexation area?

As usual I enjoyed Jerry’s article about Burien annexing White Center.  As a 60-year resident I watched these same changes take place in both Burien and White Center and I pretty much agree with Jerry.

This annexation makes not a lick of sense.  However, Jerry’s son-in-law (was he REALLY Harvard educated?) stirred my blood and I would like to address his 10 points one at a time.

1. I think the people are “genuine and unpretentious”, but so are us Burienites (if you don’t count the city council)

2. $200,000 house with million dollar views...maybe 20 years ago, and YOU are living in Gregory Heights because...?

3. White Center Park is a King County Park open to all regardless of annexation and is already enjoyed by all who wish to use it. 4. “A highly diverse and multicultural community which encourages interracial understanding, tolerance and cooperation” Sounds so politically correct, but wait ‘til Burien inflicts our sign code on them.

5. Evergreen High School....a lot of challenges and a lot of effort by the school district to make this a good place to learn, but what does this have to do with annexation?

6. The new track...ditto.