April 2012

Press release:

The City of Burien Arts Commission is thrilled to announce Augustina Droze as the 2012 Burien mural artist! 35 artists applied for this project and a panel of local business owners and community members picked Augustina, excited by her dynamic and innovative style and ideas.

Augustina hails from the west coast and recently moved to New York State. She has created murals across the country and internationally, including Palm Beach, Chicago, Indianapolis, Baltimore, and Buffalo. She recently worked with underprivileged artists in Nagpur, India to create the largest mural in the city.

Augustina states “I am a two dimensional artist who focuses primarily on mural painting. I find that the scale of a mural allows for increased expression and evokes a transitory response in viewers. Murals have the ability to relocate an onlooker and change one's perspective. I also feel that the accessibility of mural arts creates a large and robust viewing population which is often more diverse than that which frequents museums or galleries. Viewers are forced to face the art, make personal aesthetic and emotional judgments and move on.”

Sports Roundup
Monday, April 16
Baseball
Lindbergh 16, Evergreen 3
Evergreen was chopped down by the Eagles in a Monday, April 16 Seamount League game.
Fastpitch
Lindbergh 17, Evergreen 7
The Wolverines fell to Lindbergh, 17-7, on the fastpitch softball side Monday.
Holy Names 7, Mt. Rainier 6
The Rams were edged in a non-league game Monday. April 16.

Tuesday, April 17
Boys soccer
Highline 3, Kennedy 2
The Pirates edged the Lancers in a Seamount League game played Tuesday, April 17.
Hazen 4, Foster 0
Foster was blanked by Hazen this past Tuesday.
Tahoma 2, Mt. Rainier 1
Mount Rainier took a one-goal defeat in South Puget Sound League North Division action Tuesday, April 17.
Baseball
Mt. Rainier 5, TJ 2
Mount Rainier posted an SPSL North win over the Raiders on Tuesday.
SCS 17, Tyee 3
Seattle Christian won a non-league game between next door neighbors in SeaTac this past Tuesday.
Fastpitch
SCS 15, Tyee 0
Seattle Christian also defeated the Totems in a decisive fastpitch softball non-league game Tuesday.

Wednesday, April 18
Baseball
Lindbergh 7, Highline 4
Highline fell shy against Lindbergh this past Wednesday.
Charles Wright 11, SCS 1

The Seattle Chinese Garden's April 22 Bamboo Festival is set to take place from 12 to 4:30 pm. It is co-sponsored by the American Bamboo Society's Northwest Chapter.

Schedule
12:30 Gardening with bamboo (James Clever who is the current national president of the American Bamboo Society )
1:15 Bamboo's role in Chinese culture (Stella Chien)
2:00 Building and constructing with bamboo (Mark Meenan & Tyler Thirloway)
2:45 Gardening with bamboo (James Clever) repeat of 12:30
3:30 Bamboo kite building workshop (1 hr) (Greg Kono)

The workshops will be in the Chan Education Center next to the Seattle Chinese Garden entrance. The first juried photography show is also in the Chan Center. Jurors chose the 28 photos on display and for sale from more than 1,500 photos taken at the Garden last fall by a photography workshop taught by Ray Pfortner.

press release
Work is now underway to repair and resurface the road deck of the old Spokane Street Viaduct (the raised roadway that connects the West Seattle Bridge to I-5). Eastbound traffic has been temporarily moved to the new structure to give contractors access to the old road deck in order to make the repairs.

The Fourth Avenue off-ramp will remain closed until mid to late May, at which point deck repair work will shift—the Fourth Avenue off-ramp will reopen and the First Avenue off-ramp will instead be closed. The eastbound off-ramp at First Avenue continues to operate with one lane; however, two lanes of traffic in each direction have now been restored to First Avenue. The on-ramp from Harbor Island to the eastbound Spokane Street Viaduct is only open for traffic going to northbound SR99—this on-ramp is closed for traffic going to I-5.

Surface Street Traffic Impacts Now through Wednesday, April 25:

458 days (as in the full 24), 11,000 hours, or a little over 39 million seconds: However you quantify it, Shirley Vradenburgh must have some great karma headed her way.

Since 1996, the West Seattle resident has left work at Seattle Lutheran High School around 4 p.m. and headed to Providence Mount St. Vincent, the elderly care and rehabilitation center known casually as “The Mount.”

Shirley first came to The Mount when she brought her mother to live there in ’96. She visited her mom every day she possibly could during the two years before her passing, and along the way made a special bond with the staff and residents. She started lending a hand, however she could.

“I just started helping out at that time and just kept coming,” Shirley said. “After she died, I was back the next day.”

And the next day, and the next one after that. Shirley figures she comes to The Mount and helps a unit (they call it a neighborhood) of long-term care at least five days a week, and usually more. The residents of long-term care have an average age of 90 and many are dealing with health issues that require 24-hour care.

Seattle police reports that on April 20th at approximately 9:50 a.m. officers responded to a 911 call of a bank robbery that had just occurred in the 600 block of North 34th Street. Preliminary investigation indicates that an adult male suspect entered the bank, displayed a black handgun (that remained inside a pouch or handbag) and demanded cash. The suspect fled with an undisclosed amount of money in an unknown direction.

Responding officers conducted an area search however, the suspect remains at large.

The suspect is depicted in the surveillance photos above. If you see the suspect do not approach or confront him. Call 911 and provide as much detailed information as possible while ensuring your own safety.

Anyone with information about this incident or who may know the identity or whereabouts of the suspect is asked to call 911 or Seattle Police immediately and refer to this incident. Anonymous tips are welcome

Stop for a moment and think about how many photos might have been taken of the symbol of Seattle, the Space Needle. That number must be in hundreds of millions since the structure was first built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair.

But few people have taken as many photos of it, in as many lighting conditions or from as many different angles as West Seattle based photographer David Rosen. Rosen, whose work often appears on WestSeattleHerald.com and in our print edition was tapped by Space Needle Marketing Director David Mandapat as a source for photos of the iconic structure and referred to West Seattle publisher Petyr Beck of Documentary Media LLC.

The 12 year old company specializes in, "regional history, photography, corporate history and cookbooks," said Beck, with the Ray's Boathouse Cookbook being a popular title.

Press release:

On Friday, April 20th, 2012 at 10:00am, STAR 101.5 SURPISED Glendale Lutheran School teacher, Melissa Thompson, and presented her with the STAR 101.5 Teacher of the Week award.

In a local contest conducted by STAR 101.5 radio, Ms. Thompson, a 1st and 2nd grade teacher, was nominated by her student, William Ward. STAR 101.5’s Afternoon Show Host, Corine McKenzie, made a SURPRISE visit to Ms. Thompson’s Glendale Lutheran School classroom in Burien.

Each student received a goody bag full of prizes from McDonald’s, Sky Nursery, KOMO 4, KOMO Communities and STAR 101.5!

Melissa Thompson received a personalized plaque from Trophies2go.com, a $100 check, a $50 Sky Nursery gift card and a prize pack from City University of Seattle. Plus, Ms. Thompson gets to choose between a makeover or a Kindle courtesy of Blanc N’ Schwartz Salon in Kent.

STAR 101.5’s “Teacher of the Week” is a program that allows students to recognize local, deserving teachers for their commitment to the quality education of children. To nominate a teacher go to STAR1015.com.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) used the break in heavy rain to finish final paving and striping on N/NW 85th Street between 15th Avenue NW and 8th Avenue NW, the first phase of the two-mile paving project. All lanes will be open to traffic in this area on April 25. Construction activities began in January in Phase 1 and included replacing the roadway with new concrete and asphalt, new stormwater facilities and new curb ramps. While major construction is complete in this area, several concrete panels still need to be replaced in the parking lane and some asphalt paving remains near the 12th Avenue NW intersection. Postponing this work now will help keep the project moving forward along the corridor.

Eastbound detours move east on April 25; work continues

The star of The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews has reinvented herself as a children's book author and has co-authored more than 15 children’s books. Andrews will visit Costco in Seattle to promote her most recent book, The Very Fairy Princess : Here Comes the Flower Girl on Saturday, April 28. She will visit the store in SODO at 4401 4th Ave S plus three Seattle area book stores.

The Costco visit will take place from 4 to 6 pm and no photography is allowed and the event is open only to members.

The Very Fairy Princess: Here Comes the Flower Girl is the third book The Very Fairy Princess book Andrews has written with coauthor Emma Walton Hamilton.

The story follows a young girl named Gerry whose imagination leads her to believe she’s a real fairy princess which helps brighten the lives of those around her. Andrews and Hamilton also co-authored the Dumpy the Dumptruck series of children’s books.