September 2011

Watch for the windowless blue van
On Sept. 7 just before 1 p.m. a man saw an old blue work van with no windows on the sides parked in front of his neighbor’s house. He watched a male with a “fuzzy mustache” loading TVs into the van, made eye contact and the two engaged in a few second stare-down. The suspect jumped into the van and sped off, leaving a 37” Sony flatscreen TV and a class ring with a blue stone sitting in the street.

In-law issues
Two intoxicated brothers showed up at their brother-in-law’s 10th Ave S.W. home after 2 a.m. because they wanted him to fix their car. The brother-in-law said he wasn’t interested in fixing a car at two in the morning on Sept. 11, causing the drunken brothers to get angry and attack him. The victim was pushed to the ground and hit on the shoulder with a hammer before a witness stepped in to break in up. The sloshed brothers drove away before police arrived. The victim said they probably went to a bar in South Park to drink more, but police were unable to find the suspects who live in either Federal Way or SeaTac.

“(Expletive), big dog”

WSU & Camp Long Challenge Course Official Opening
5200 35th Ave S.W.
206-684-7434
Sept. 24, 2 p.m course elements open to public, 4 p.m officials speak/ribbon cutting, 4:30 p.m. partners of next generation of course will speak, 5:15 p.m. hot dogs, chips, cake until we run out!. Live music from members of Rusty Gate Wood Shed String Band. Festivities located at the East Shelter in Camp Long. Opportunities to make donations to our scholarship fund for the course.

Admiral UCC’s Annual Dinner Auction “Float Your Boat”
South Seattle Community College-Brockney Center
6000 16th Ave. S.W.
Friday, Sept. 30, 5:30 p.m. A fun evening of fine dinning and a chance to bid on fantastic auction items. Tickets for the dinner/auction $26 per person (sold until Sept. 25). Call 932-8662. Proceeds will help, in part, to support the many community outreach efforts of Admiral UCC.

WSLL Membership meeting Sept. 23

West Seattle Little League general membership meeting will be held on Thursday September 29th 6:30 pm at The Heartland Cafe, 4210 Southwest Admiral Way

All members interested in joining the WSLL Board are encouraged to attend.

The Leif Erikson Lodge will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the building of Ballard's Leif Erikson Lodge in October and the community is invited to witness this historic event.

This anniversary will be celebrated on Saturday, October 1, with a special dinner, a video and slideshow of the dedication 25 years ago and dancing.

The schedule for the event is as follows:

5:00 p.m. Social Hour (no host bar – appetizers will be served)

5:30 p.m. Video and pictures from the dedication 25 years ago.

6:30 p.m. Dinner

The dinner menu consists of:

Roast pork brined and slowly roasted, served with a chutney of apples, tart cherries, and red onions

Roasted potatoes

Au Gratin vegetable casserole: cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and broccoli

Daim Ice Cake for dessert

Dinner is followed by dancing to the music of Harold Nygaard.

The cost of the dinner is $25 per person and reservations are requested.

Call (206) 783-1274 for reservations.

White Center and Triangle Park, the tiny piece of real estate at the joining of Delridge Way, 16th s.w. and Roxbury Street was the scene for the ceremony that rededicated the space as a memorial to military veterans on Sunday, Sept. 18. A

On hand for the event were the owner of Mac's Triangle Pub, Geoffrey "Mac" McElroy, Mark Ufkes, White Center Chamber of Commerce President, members of Boy Scout Troop 375, Jeff Fahey (who sang the national anthem) and an active duty color guard from the U.S. Air Force stationed at Joint Base Lewis McChord near Tacoma.

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McElroy spoke at the event and just prior said, "This is a way that we used to remember people. If you go to Washington D.C. we've some of the most incredible memorials to past accomplishments of our countrymen. This is a smaller scale of that. It means to me that my grandfathers who both served in the Pacific Theater during WWII are going to be remembered. It means to me that the people coming home from Aghanistan and Iraq will have a symbol of community support, appreciation and acknowledgement for their sacrifices."

There is a power outage in the Ballard/Fremont area leaving 3,289 customers without power.

Crews are enroute to determine the cause and make repairs. The boundaries are on the north; North 48th St., on the south, North 34th St., on the east, Stone Way North and on the west, 11th Avenue NW. There are early reports of arcing atop a pole.

The estimated time of restoration is 2 p.m. today.

For more information, call the Outage Hotline at (206) 684-7400

More than 100 classic cars and hot rods jammed in the Junction Sept. 18 for the West Seattle Junction Car Show.

Throughout the day the event featured raffles from area merchants and 50/50 tickets on sale benefitting Pencil Me In for Kids for the West Seattle Rotary Club. 27 items are being raffled off today.

The raffled items included:

• $25 RockAuto.com online parts store gift certificate
• Free Tom's automotive 3000 mile service
• Easy Street Records Large T-Shirt and a coffee card
• Elliott Bay Brewery a hat, a growler and engraved mug a $65 gift certificate and one year of free beer
• Menashe and Sons Jewelers black coral necklace worth $200
• A Terrible Beauty Irish Pub Irish Gift basket with a Jersey, a $25 gift card with a growler, and a book on the history of Guinness
• 2 $50 gift cards to Talarico's Pizza
• West Seattle Autoworks - complete vehicle inspection and free eco-friendly oil change

The beloved J.P. Patches made his final public appearance at the Fishermen's Fall Fest on Saturday, September 17, entertaining fans young and old.

Although Chris Wedes, the man behind the Julius Pierpont Patches persona, was diagnosed with acute myeloma in 2007, he seemed to still have a spring in his step and sass in his shtick. The 83-year-old playfully taunted kids and adults on stage playing "Simon Says" and other games in front of a cheering cast of thousands, well, several hundred easily. Many sported round red clown noses and wore T-shrts with his likeness. After the show, he marched over to a booth selling bobble heads, bumper stickers, coloring books and t-shirts of Gertrude and him, and he patiently autographed these items, plus vintage novelty items Patches pals brought. At least two hundred fans stood in line to say "Hello", "Goodbye", and "Thank you" to a Seattle icon and father figure and hero to many.

Crew members from the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch signed autographs and chatted it up with fans at Seattle's Fishermen's Terminal today, Sept. 17, during the annual Fishermen's Fall Festival there. A long line formed to greet Captain Keith Colburn, Gary Soper, Lynn Guitard, Freddy Maugatai and Danny Maki, get some autographs and hear some stories.

"Right now we're down here in Fishermen's Terminal supporting Fishermen's Fall Festival for the Seattle Fishermen's Memorial," said Captain Keith. "Everybody wants to go on the boat but the boat's in a major reconstructive surgery mode right now with the deck, new crane, a lot of new hardware. Season 8 is going to be shot when we're in Alaska. What's going to happen? Your guess is as good as mine."

"The king crab season will start October 15 and that will go for about a month, a month and a half maybe, and then the opie (ophelia crab) will start in January," said Soper. "You get used to getting filmed. We only have one guy (filming) out on deck with us. They try to stay out of the way. If they don't you get them out of the way."

WestSide Baby's "Re-Ride" car seat recycling campaign kickoff event was successful in getting people to show up, drop off unused (or unsafe) child car seats in their effort to be able to redistribute those that can be and keep out of the landfill, those that cannot.

Executive Director of WestSide Baby, Nancy Woodland said, "We received about 50 seats today with about 15 ready for reuse and the rest are getting recycled.  Lots of great energy from the donors and lots of items that will NOT be in the landfill.

One person dropping off a seat was Katie Winemann. Her car seat was for a baby born in 2003. "Now I have a new baby and I wasn't going to use it again because it was too old."

Delridge Day celebrated the opening of the new Delridge Skatepark, located at 4458 Delridge Way s.w. on Saturday, Sept. 17 with tents and tables but primarily hundreds of skaters and hundreds more onlookers enjoying the new 13,000 square foot facility. There were kids picnic games and lots to do before the ribbon cutting with prizes to be won.

One of the original West Seattle builders of the now legendary skate bowl under the Schimtz Park Bridge, Steve Swervo, now 45 was there skating and having a great time. "We got arrested in 1991 for building that. So I love this. It's either this or the treadmill," he said.

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