June 2012

By David Rosen

Commencement ceremonies at any school are a time of celebration where people share stories, laugh loudly, and say goodbye to their friends and move on to face new challenges. For South Seattle Community College June 19 marked the second consecutive year the college has held the ceremony at Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle.

This year, 930 degrees and certificates were awarded, including 376 in academic transfer, 387 in professional/technical studies and multi-occupational trades, and 32 students in the college’s four-year Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) in Hospitality Management degree program. The graduating class also includes 24 new Registered Nurses and 22 dual-graduate Running Start students, who are concurrently receiving a college AA degree and high school diploma.

Dolphy Blue Jordan (Academic), Heriberto Sánchez (Professional Technical), and Joshua Fitzpatrick (BAS in Hospitality Management) from South Seattle Community College received President’s medals for their academic achievement.

Banners have been affixed to poles along Alki Beach advertising the next Seattle Seafair Pirates Landing, to take place July 7. Bruce Stevenson, a Seafait pirate, and Tom Grinn, a Seafair Parade grand marshall, hung the banners, which highlight this year's sponsors.

This is from www.seafair.com:

“Avast ye Scallywags and give an ear! Come join the Pacific Northwest’s Favorite band of Ruffians as they once again descend upon Alki Beach for the Traditional start for the Carnival that is Seafair!

*Marvel at the sights and sounds including Giant Inflatables for the Kids and entertainers, the“Wages of Sin!”

*Shiver at the Cannon’sblast as Captain Kidd, the King of all Villainy, and his right hand rogueDavy Jones storm the Beach with rest of the their band of Bad Boys of Seattle!

*Squeal with delight at the opportunity to mix and mingle with your favorite buccaneers all the while indulging in the fine victuals and provisions on our merchants row!

The Beach starts filling at 9 am and the pirates may strike at noon……Are you ready?”

The March 11 murder of 51-year-old Greggette Guy near Me-Kwa-Mooks Park and Emma Schmitz Viewpoint along Beach Drive in West Seattle motivated neighbors to call for a number of safety improvements, and Seattle Parks has presented a plan for future improvements along with acknowledgement of what’s already been done.

Most recently, on June 12, City Light installed three new LED street lights near the parks. According to David Rose with Q13 Fox, “The new lights came after City Light received a request from Seattle Police, Seattle Parks and a community action group” of Beach Drive neighbors.

Karen O’Connor with Seattle Parks and Recreation provided the Herald with a report (see below) on what has been done, and what is planned for the summer. Many of these requests came out of a June 1 safety walk put on by the SPD Southwest Precinct and Seattle Parks.

King County Wastewater Treatment open house information

King County is planning a series of Block Open Houses on Saturday and Sunday, June 23 and 24, to share current rain garden designs for individual blocks and answer questions about how community input is shaping the project’s design. Each block will have a scheduled time to meet with project staff members over the course of the weekend. Watch for an invitation via email and hand delivered to homes with the time and date details for each block.

As a reminder, you can find the current rain garden locations on the Barton CSO Control Project ‘project area and elements’ webpage: http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wtd/Construction/Seattle/BartonCS….

If you do not live on a block slated to receive rain gardens, you are welcome to attend any of the sessions but we will focus on answering questions for those residents whose blocks will be affected.

We hope you can make it!
Kristine Cramer
Community Services and Environmental Planning | Wastewater Treatment Division

Open house details

press release
CELEBRATING ORPHAN ORCA SPRINGER RESCUE POINTS
WAY FORWARD TO PROMOTING WHALE HEALTH TODAY

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the week the orphan orca A73 (Springer) was rescued from waters off Seattle and taken to a floating net pen on the west side of Puget Sound.

For a month in 2002, Springer was given veterinary care and fed until her health improved. She was taken by jet catamaran to the north end of Vancouver Island and released to be reunited with her Northern Resident family.

Tuesday evening, the Vancouver Aquarium and whale conservation partners from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and The Whale Trail celebrated the 10th anniversary of Springer’s successful rescue and recovery, and how far she’s come since then. The celebration included first-hand accounts from several individuals who played key roles in Springer’s rescue and rehabilitation.

West Seattle High School shared a recap on the Mini Cheer Camp that the WSHS 2012-13 cheerleaders held on June 9, 2012.

"A great time was had by all the 47 campers from Holy Rosary, LaFayette, Schmitz Park, Alki Elementary, Gatewood, Sanislo, Arbor Heights, Hope Lutheran, Westside and Our Lady of Guadalupe as they spent an afternoon with 24 WSHS cheerleaders learning cheers, stunts and dances, making crafts and enjoying getting to know each other. The campers will perform as honorary cheerleaders at an upcoming home football game this fall.

The West Seattle Cheerleaders want to thank all the campers who attended and can't wait to see you all again at the Mini Cheer Camp Reunion later this summer."

The file attached is larger version of the collage image above you can download.

Teen program director arrested for sex with teenager

The Seattle Police reports that the head of a North Seattle Boys and Girls Club teen program was arrested on June 15th for repeated inappropriate sexual contact with a teenage volunteer.
Investigators believe the 28-year-old man, who has been the director of the club’s teen program since 2008, began an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 17-year-old female volunteer in 2011.
Detectives believe the suspect first began his inappropriate contact with his 17-year-old victim in March 2011 while he and the victim were on an out-of-state club trip together.
A few months later the man later told the victim that he was falling in love with her, asked her if she wanted to be his girlfriend, and then took her to a Renton hotel and had sex with her.
Detectives believe the man had sex with the teen at Seattle and Portland hotels between August 2011 and November 2011.
The 28-year-old man has known the teen since she was in middle school, and has mentored and supervised her at the Boys and Girls Club. 

Deadline for receiving items for Community Calendar is 5 p.m. Wednesday for the following week’s Times/News. Events are published based on timeliness and space availability. Email submissions to: hteditor@robinsonnews.com Items can be accepted from nonprofit groups and government agencies only. Others may call Dona Ozier at 206-708-1378 for inclusion in our “Out & About” advertising section.

Art Exhibits

Burien Community Center—Marquetry art by Dennis Harrison. Marquetry is an art form that uses only natural and dyed wood veneers in its presentation. It is a little-known art form in America, but it is hundreds of years old as practiced elsewhere. Through May 31. 14700 6th Ave. S.W. Mondays-Thursdays 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Fridays, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Call to artists

Burien’s Arts-a-Glow Lantern Festival-- Looking for artists interested in creating illuminated works for the 2012 festival to be held Sept. 8th. Works can be created for the festival or be already created work that needs to be repaired or altered. Fore more information, contact 206-988-3700.

Classes

City of Des Moines Mayor Dave Kaplan called me to clarify the building heights information allowed at the Des Moines Marina as quoted in my June 1 column

He said, “There is no way possible that a 65-foot public building would be allowed in the marina within shoreline restrictions as the law is now.

“Further, it has never been the intention of this council to go to 65 feet heights in the marina.”

Because we couldn’t wait even one more year for the more traditional milestone, Marge and I went to Hawaii for our 24th wedding anniversary.

After all, everybody else has already been there. At least that seemed to be the case when we announced our travel plans.

Lance and Laurie Haslund, Burien’s peerless patrons of the arts, sat us down and wrote out a must-see list.

Highline Times proofreader Connie Case added her recommendations.

And Marge’s boss, who grew up in the Hawaiian Islands, generously assembled a suggested itinerary.

Armed with all this expert advice we flew off to Oahu, ending up at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki.

The Hilton is more like a small city than a village—22 acres, 3,386 rooms, six pools, a dozen restaurants and 90 shops. I bet some jaded tourists never leave the village.

The first thing we noticed was that we must have missed the big news while in the air for six hours. Apparently, Japan had suffered another terrible earthquake and the entire population had been evacuated to Oahu.