February 2012

A public meeting is set for Feb. 8 on the Barton Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control Project at the Westside School, 7740 34th Avenue SW, from 6:30-8:30 pm. The project team from King County will provide information on the results of field investigations and how the field work results are informing design and siting of the bioretention swales.

In late March the community will be invited to a public meeting that will identify which neighborhood blocks will receive bioretention swales.

For more information contact Kristine Cramer, Community Services and Environmental Planning,Wastewater Treatment Division, 201 South Jackson Street, or by phone at 206-263-3184.

There is also information on the King County website at http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wtd.aspx

South Seattle Community College students joined hundreds of other students from around the state at the 2012 Community College Student Legislative Rally in Olympia.

Organized this year by Student Body President Dante Obcena, the effort focuses on urging legislators to continue funding higher education. Obcena, a sophomore at the college said, "The legislature needs to prioritize where they allocate their funding. Education is the future and right now they are about to cut about $250 million in higher education and that will affect a lot of students. This is the session where they are funding education."

The purpose was to share their opinions with local legislators and the governor on topics including tuition, textbooks, and cuts to higher education funding.

"We are meeting with Eileen Cody, Sharon Nelson and Joe Fitzgibbon from our area," Obcena said. The students also met with Leslie Goldstein, the Executive Policy Advisor for Governor Christine Gregoire.

The program from 12 – 1 pm in the Rotunda featured guest speakers including Seattle Community Colleges Board of Trustees member Tom Malone.

Press release:

This Thursday, Feb. 2, at 6:30 p.m., State Rep. Bob Hasegawa (D-Seattle) will host a telephone town hall meeting to talk with constituents in the 11th Legislative District.

The 11th District covers pasts of Tukwila, Burien and North Highline.

“This is the fourth week of session, the first cut off was this past Tuesday, and things are moving very fast in Olympia, so there’s lots to talk about,” said Hasegawa.

This Thursday just before 6:30 p.m., thousands of 11th Legislative District residents will receive telephone calls inviting them to stay on the line to participate in the tele-Town Hall.

To participate in the call, attendees will be asked to press “*3” (star 3) on their phones.

Those who don’t get the call but want to participate, are encouraged to call the toll-free telephone number directly, 1-877-229-8493, and then enter PIN code No. 18646 when prompted.

This tele-forum is an opportunity for citizens to bring up questions, comments and concerns about topics related to the Washington State Legislature, or whatever else is on their mind.

On Jan. 30 a woman called 911 to report a man was inside the women's locker room of LA Fitness in Tukwila taking photographs, according to Sgt. Eric Lund with the Tukwila Police Department.

The woman confronted the man and he fled. About an hour later employees of the Fairwood LA Fitness identified the suspect (he was a member who checked in). Tukwila officers and King County deputies arrested the suspect in Fairwood, according to Lund.

The 48-year-old Renton man, described as a black male at 5'8" and 160 pounds, was booked into the SCORE jail on charges of voyeurism, Lund wrote.

The Tukwila Police Department is looking for any additional victims or witnesses in the case. They can be reached at 206-433-1808.

By Patrick Robinson and David Rosen

A suspicious package that turned out to be road flares caused the evacuation of the Altamira Apartments at 4520 42nd s.w. and the QFC store both part of Capco Plaza just after 11 am on Wed. Feb 1.

The incident drew a heavy response from police and fire units and traffic on Alaska Way was blocked between 41st and 42nd s.w for about half an hour as the bomb squad investigated the package that was in the northeast corner of the building.

All units were recalled after the package was identified.

Do you want to be more of a do-er than a watcher on Super Bowl Sunday?

The Burien’s February Walk-n-Talk may be the thing to do this Sunday, Feb. 5.

The Walkers-‘n-Talkers have planned a 2.5 mile route from Burien Town Square around Lake Burien.

The weather forecast is for sunny skies and according to organizer Maureen Hoffmann, this Sunday’s walk is “for those that don't want to be stuck inside, sitting in front of a glowing box, watching men in lycra head-butting while carrying a point-ended ball.”

(Actually, you may be able to get around the course and back to a flat screen TV at one of Burien’s fine watering holes by kick-off at 3:40 p.m.)

Participants will meet up at 2 p.m. at Burien Town Square, S.W. 152nd St. and 5th Pl. S.W., and start walking at 2:15.

The walk is a repeat of the 2.25 mile, mostly-flat route from last August, circling Lake Burien.

Here’s the info from Hoffmann:

Location: Burien Town Square
Who: Walkers of every level and ability
Date: February 5th, 2012
Time: Meet at 2:00 p.m. Start walking at 2:15 p.m.
Route: A 2.25 mile loop from Burien Town Square, around Lake Burien, and back to Town Square.
Begin at Burien Town Square.

A two-week online contest to guess the combined weight of Woodland Park Zoo’s two hippos ended today when the hippos were weighed in at the zoo.

Today’s weigh-in of 12-year-old Guadalupe and 33-year-old Water Lily revealed a collective weight of 6,279 pounds, with Guadalupe weighing in at 3,285 pounds and Water Lily at 2,994 pounds.

The contest winner is 42-year-old Alane Michels of Sprague, Wash. who guessed 6,280 pounds. Two people were eligible to win based on the accuracy of their guesses, and by random draw, Michels won the prize.

Michels has won the rare opportunity to meet the hippos behind the scenes in the hippo barn. When notified that she won the contest, Michels, who grew up in Kirkland, Wash. said, “This is a dream come true! I grew up coming to Woodland Park Zoo and am such an animal nut. I can’t believe it!”

Additionally, the zoo will give Michels a 4-gallon bucket of Zoo Doo, six single-day passes to the zoo, and a ZooParent hippo adoption. More than 2,800 entries were submitted to the statewide contest.

The construction on a new Ballard park started today and is to be completed by the end of May. 

Located at 7028 9th Avenue NW, Kirke Park will include a play-area, adventure trail, lawn and open space, picnic area, community gardens, and p-patch gardens. 

The site was purchased with 2000 Pro Parks Levy funds and a Parks and Green Spaces Levy allocated $800,000 for planning, design and construction.

The public process involved three community meetings to guide and inform the design. The community favored a design that includes a community garden at the north end, a sitting wall enclosed space to recall an old building foundation, an open lawn, a "sledding hill" and a small play area at the south end.

The park was named Kirke which means church in Norwegian and pays tribute to both the Norwegian heritage of the neighborhood and the history of the site. This site was home to the Church of Seventh Elect in Spiritual Israel for more than 90 years.

For more information, visit the project website at;  http://seattle.gov/parks/projects/kirke/ .

The Ballard basketball teams hosted Garfield High School last night for the Beavers' last home games of the regular season. Senior basketball player and cheerleaders were honored before each game and a packed gym came out to wish them well.

The girls team will be saying goodbye to seniors Keina Ishiyama and Emma Suchland at the end of the year and the boys basketball team will lose seniors Brad Baker, Domisi Thrash, Jr. , Hudson Sylte , Jake Devine and Luke Beutjer.


The Lady Beavers played first and treated the home crowd to an exciting game.

Garfield took the lead early on, outscoring Ballard 13 to 9. But Ballard made a comeback in the second quarter, earning back the lead with a score of 23 to 20 at halftime.

Garfield inched closer in the third quarter and the final quarter started with only a one-point lead for the Beavers. That is when the Beavers took control of the game and started scoring. Scoring 23 points in the final eight minutes of the game, the Lady Beavers earned themselves a Senior Night victory with a final score of 59 to 49.

What seems like decades, but was actually only five years ago, I wrote a column about meeting a local developer for coffee at Java Bean. I was only months into this column and not yet a veteran of neighborhood district council, design review and Seattle City Council meetings. I’ve logged many bureaucratic hours since that innocent time.

At the long ago meeting I sat down with Nebil Dikmen to discuss his proposed residential building at the NW 58th & 24th NW corner where there had been a link iron fence around a vacant house for several years and a tendency for trash to bank against the metal. I remember that he had exquisite manners, perfectly manicured fingers and seemed very sincere when he told me he wanted to create something high quality.

He built the Danielle building that is just south of the alley between NW 58th & 59th. For the last year I’ve thought about our meeting as his landscape choices have matured and complemented the facade. I’ve wanted to tell Nebil Dikmen. You did make good choices, you did enhance that block.