February 2012

By Kyle Howard
The Chief Sealth boys basketball team found themselves in a do or die situation as they went up against Bainbridge Thursday night for a playoff game. The Seahawks lost by 18 against Eastside Catholic in their first playoff game earlier in the week. After losing twice to Bainbridge during the regular season they picked a good time to seek their revenge as they pull off the close win 52-44.

Chief Sealth’s defense and clutch scoring down the stretch proved to be the difference in this one. The Seahawks forced 16 Spartan turnovers, with 10 of them coming from steals. On the offensive side Seahawk guard Charlie Smith had a great game finishing with a game high 22 points and knocking down 3 three pointers. Pepe Hernandez had a quieter game than usual as he finished with 13. Bainbridge guard scored nearly half of the Spartans points and ended with 21.

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Every person who has ever written a story knows that communication is not always easy. Where do you begin? What goes in the middle? How do you end your story? Giving children those answers and the tools to find them on their own is the mission of Alki Elementary and Kindergarten teachers Terry Kegel, Alexis Boeger and Stevie Kramer who for the third year were the guiding light behind The Alki Kindergarten Film Festival.

Held at the Admiral Theater on Thursday, Feb 9, the festival featured the work of 72 students and the house was packed to capacity for the showing of student written and made short films. Most were 30 seconds, and some were a bit longer but all were assembled by Kegel with titles and music where appropriate.

Each story reflected ideas and experiences the students chose to write about with many featuring their own artwork and all with their own narration. Some were about people they knew, or experiences they had. The films were interspersed with Titles indicating questions asked of the students or sections of the presentation.

While many local residents enjoy visiting the modern Burien Library, some may find a trip to the SW 152nd St. facility either inconvenient or impossible. Enormous bookmobiles are great, but for many they park too far from their homes.

The King County Public Library System's Library2Go vans fill that gap. They can park at apartment complexes, civic buildings, and daycare centers with more agility than their larger cousins. They are also designed to pull in and drive out quickly which allows for multiple stops in one day. The program began in 2010. There are four vans total, each containing about 1,000 items, including books and DVD's, and a fifth van is dedicated to computer graphic equipment.

That the Ballard population is changing is old news, but now the Department of Planning has data to prove it. At this month's Ballard District Council meeting, demographer Diana Canzoneri presented Ballard specific data taken from the 2010 US Census.

The decennial data not only provides an updated count of people needed to re-appropriate seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, it also provides an interesting look inside Seattle's population.

The data showed that Seattle's population as a whole had increased by eight percent since 2000, which, while slower than the 1990s, is healthy for a U.S. city, said Canzoneri.

The Ballard District, which includes two urban cores - the Ballard Urban Village and Crown Hill Urban Village, has grown by 24 percent.

Canzoneri said that what stood out to her was the significant decline in senior population, something Ballard was formerly known for.

Additionally, the average household size is decreasing in the Ballard District Area, with almost half of the households in the Ballard Urban Village being one person families or unrelated occupants.

The Ballard High School invites the public to a screening of short films produced by students in the very successful Ballard High School Video Production Program.

The showing will be the BHS premiere of Safe at Last, the winner of the Young People’s Film Festival, as well as several other honored productions.

In addition to short comedies and dramas, the program will include news features and advertisements.

Tickets are $10, or $7 for students with an activity pass, and will be sold at the door. All proceeds benefit students in the Video Production Program.

The Showing will take place Thursday, February 9 and Friday, February 10 at 7 p.m. at the Ballard High School auditorium, 1418 NW 65th Street.

King County Metro representatives Ashley DeForest and Ted Day visited the Ballard District Council on Wednesday evening to present the revised recommendations for transit service changes affecting the Ballard District come September.

Last November, Metro asked the public to comment on the suggested service changes and revise its recommendation accordingly.

DeForest started off the presentation by thanking Ballard for the input they received.

"The Ballard District Council helped shape the revisions seen in tonight's revision," DeForest said.

The biggest and most welcoming news came from transit planner Ted Day who announced that the 15 Express will be saved.

"We heard loud and clear that people wanted to keep the 15 Express and that's what we'll do," said Day. "But we are pushing the envelop by putting the 15 Express back in there and it is going to be something we'll have to monitor to see which service people will actually be using."

Residents living in the Sunrise Heights and Westwood neighborhoods of West Seattle, whose streets will eventually be transformed into a series of rain gardens to reduce combined sewer overflows reaching Puget Sounds, met with King County officials on Wednesday night, Feb. 9 for an update on the project and an opportunity to ask questions.

Since September of 2011 work crews have been on the streets surveying the land – both surface and subsurface, digging testing wells, evaluating soil types and depths and groundwater locations in an effort to ultimately build a system of rain gardens, or “bioretention swales” to get technical. The goal, according to King County, is “to capture and reduce the amount of peak stormwater flows that would enter the combined sewer system by up to 15 million gallons a day.”

The field work has caused a few neighborhood headaches due to the sound and clutter of heavy machinery drilling into the earth on residential streets, and the purpose of the Feb. 8 meeting was the explain the progress and purpose of the commotion.

press release:
On January 31st, Washington State Attorney General and Gubernatorial Candidate Rob Mckenna showed his dedication to education and service by spending his afternoon visiting Roxhill Elementary School and the City Year JPMorgan Chase Team.

Attorney General Mckenna was greeted at the doors by very excited Roxhill students who have been mentored and tutored by City Year corps members. Roxhill Principal, Carmela Dellino, and City Year corps member, Ruchi Bagrodia, gave the Attorney General a tour of Roxhill Elementary and spent time in a classroom that demonstrated how teachers, students and City Year corps members work together to generate academic success.

Following the tour of the school, Attorney General Mckenna was invited to a discussion about the partnership between Roxhill and City Year. The students shared how they have been impacted by City Year interventions and Principal Dellino described City Year’s positive influence on school climate and academic gains City.

The Alki Elementary Film festival featuring stories written independently by all Alki Kindergarten students, adapted for the big screen as short films is tonight at 6pm at the Admiral Theater. Admission is one cent.

All families and friends are invited to join in this special celebration of our hard work in Writer's Workshop. Theater capacity is 345! The bigger and more supportive the audience, the more we will motivate these young authors. Spread the word!

The event is free. Admiral Theater will be offering a special deal – one small popcorn and one small drink for $4, cash only.

They will start on time, so that they can finish by 7:45pm. It is a school night after all!

Thursday, February 9th, 2012
Doors open at 6pm
Showtime at 6:15pm
Admiral Theater, 2343 California Ave. S.W., West Seattle

Update for Nov. 7
Frank Gross, proprietor of Thunder Road Guitars who has until now been working out of a live-work space on Harbor Ave S.W. and plying his trade on the web, shared the news that his vintage and used guitar business has found a brick and mortar home in West Seattle.

Thunder Road Guitars hopes to open up mid-November at 3916 California Ave S.W. (the old Olivia's Consignment for Kids shop), according to Gross.

A grand opening celebration is set for Nov. 23 and 24 (please see the flyer link above for more details).

Their hours will be Wednesday - Saturday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. and by appointment Sunday - Tuesday.

"The idea behind our By Appointment days is to offer customers the opportunity to have the shop to themselves to test drive their dream guitar and have our undivided attention," Gross said in an email.

Thunder Road intends to offer vintage amps and effects pedals along with the basic necessities of a "gigging musician" including strings, picks, cables and the like, according to Gross.

To read more on Thunder Road Guitars and the man behind it, please check out Steve Shay's feature from February below.