July 2012


Press release:

The Port of Seattle Commission gave final design authorization July 24 for an estimated $230 million renovation of the north satellite at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to better serve passengers.

The project will include modernizing facilities, seismic upgrades, enhanced traveler amenities, three new gates and a new roof-top lounge for Alaska Airlines, soon to be the sole tenant in the north satellite.



“This project directly addresses our Century Agenda goal to meet the region’s air transportation needs at Sea-Tac Airport for the next 25 years,” said Commission President Gael Tarleton. “The north satellite is 40 years old and has had only limited upgrades. It’s due.”



Northwest native Americans, from more than 40 tribes across the northwest made Alki Beach a stopping place on their annual Canoe Journey around the region.

They had come from Snoqualmie the previous day but it began on July 12 and had previously made six stops.

Today they headed for Puyallup, and according to a spokesperson on site the tribes have eight more stops to make before the journey is over. The entire journey lasts approximately one month.

It will end at Squaxin Island in Southwester Mason County, culminating in a week-long celebration and potlatch protocol. The island is home to a reservation for the Squaxin Island Tribe.

When they arrived on Tuesday morning, Mayor Mike McGinn was there to greet them.
They were the object of a lot of speculation and curiosity as beach goers examined them. Many were decorated designs, tribal flags and names. Each canoe could carry six to eight people.

A small fire broke out at Waste Management at 7201 West Marginal Way s.w. on Wednesday morning that firefighters speculated might have been chemical in origin. It produced some light smoke but was quickly extinguished.

Shortly after that (and these incidents were apparently unrelated) a strike vote was called for Waste Management's recycle and yard waste drivers who have been working without a contract since the end of May.

About 150 drivers are part of the strike that extends from King to Snohomish County.

Contract negotiations have been underway between the company and Teamsters Local 117. The drivers are seeking higher pay to match garbage drivers, whom they claim earn $9 more per hour than recycling drivers.

Media reports indicate that the strike will not affect regular pickups and customers are urged to put out their bins on their regularly scheduled days.

Waste Management has posted this page for customers to check on service delays:
http://wmnorthwest.com/servicedelays.html

Greenwood Seafair Parade

Seafair Weekend is coming up, and that means it's also time for the 62nd Annual Greenwood Seafair Parade! This year's parade will feature the Seafair Pirates, Miss Seafair Scholarship Program for Women, Commodores and Parade Marshals, as well as entertaining units of marching bands, drill teams, Mexican dancing horses (yes, you read that right) and "more family fun."

The parade starts at 6:00 p.m. in the Greenwood neighborhood and is scheduled to end at 8:30 p.m.

More info

Meeting on coal trains possibly going through Ballard

Our Redeemer's Lutheran Church is hosting a meeting about the possibility of coal trains chugging through Seattle. If SS Marine is able to develop at the Cherry Point port terminal near Bellingham, there can be as many as nine more coal trains, with 120 cars each, passing through Ballard each day. (Right now there are only a few.)

The meeting is open to the public. It starts at 6:30 p.m. and goes to 8:00 p.m.

More info

Seattle Parks reports that the Hiawatha Wading Pool at 2700 California Ave SW is temporarily closed. Crew efforts yesterday to clean glass from a broken bottle completely were not successful, and they are continuing today.

"A power washer is on the way to the site, and we hope to have it back open in a couple of hours," said Parks spokesperson Dewey Potter.

The staff will update the hotline when the work is complete and the pool is filling. The hotline number is 206-684-7796.

Other West Seattle wading pools open today:

Lincoln, 8600 Fauntleroy Way SW, is open from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
EC Hughes, 2805 SW Holden St., is open from noon – 7 p.m.

Update for 11:30 a.m, July 25

A male in his twenties is taking a trip to jail for the armed robbery of Chase Bank in White Center in the late morning hours of July 25.

Sgt. Cindi West with the King County Sheriff's Office said the man brazenly entered Chase around 10:15 this morning with his handgun already drawn.

A Chase employee went with his demands and handed over an undisclosed amount of cash. The suspect then fled south on foot.

Within five minutes, Sgt. West said the area was "swarmed" by King County Deputies with assist from Burien and Seattle Police.

A KCSO deputy spotted the suspect jogging near the intersection of S.W. 104th St. and 19th Ave S.W. (about three blocks southwest of the bank) with a bag in his hands. He was stopped and a gun and cash were found on his person.

Bank robbers in the White Center area are 0-2 in recent weeks, with the arrest of a 21-year-old Seattle man for the attempted robbery of Key Bank on July 13.

Original post

Before we met at the expanded Starbuck’s location on Market Street Robert Canamar told me he’d be easy to recognize as one of only two regular wheelchair customers. I realized on my way to meet him that there are quite a few wheelchair users in central Ballard, but Canamar is the only one with a beard that is Lincolnesque.

Canamar had called out to me one day as I hurried along Market Street between errands. There are so many attempts for our attention, Real Change vendors in front of Bartell Drugs, people with petitions and the overflow of red-vested young people with information about American Red Cross. It would have been easier to pass by someone in a wheelchair who doesn’t have the same eye contact advantage.

Many may have missed Stan Boreson, “The King of Scandinavian Humor,” at this year’s SeafoodFest. That’s because Boreson, who has opened for the event for many years now, has retired.

“I’ve done it for 70 years,” Boreson said of being an entertainer. “So, I decided, that’s enough.”

Boreson, a popular entertainer and TV show host, said he will also be retiring from his company, Boreson Tours, which he has run with his wife for the past several years. For several years now, they have taken tourists, mostly elderly people who are nostalgic of Stan Boreson’s TV show, travels all over the states, seeing sights and entertaining with music. Their last trip will be in October, they said, and that will be it.

As for why they are retiring, it has to do with timing and with finally recovering their financial situation. It also has to do with old age. Stan Boreson is not exactly the young jokester on television anymore, though he’s still jovial and laughing.

Upon entering his home in Sand Point, the first challenge Boreson faces these days is climbing the stairs.

Caryn Spain got her dog Mojita about 18 months ago as a rescue dog when the Labradoodle was only 3 months old. "She's a rescue dog from the Humane Society," said Spain.

Spain claims that Mojita is a reincarnation of a previous dog she owned, named Mojo and that she found Mojita because, "She called me. She said 'go to the Humane Society pound' and they were pushing her right through the back of the cage when I walked in and I said, 'That's my dog.' It was just kismet."

"It's kind of like with the Dalai Lama how they go out and look for the baby," Spain said. Even though her former dog was a Chesapeake Bay Retriever she believes Mojita embodies his spirit. "When I first got her I named her 'Choco' because of her coat but she wouldn't come to that name. Then someone said, 'Oh it's Mojo, it's Mojita,' and she went, 'Oh that's me' and responded and that's how we knew. Then we started realizing that there's a lot of behavior related to Mojo."

Mojita eats whenever she wants to and right now has a premium dry puppy food.

Because she is part Labrador Retriever, "She loves to retrieve so she has tennis balls."

Pat Cashman, well known Seattle personality, writer, comic actor and more, knew J.P. Patches as a personal friend and wanted to share his thoughts about him.

by Pat Cashman

For some of us---after we’ve shuffled off this mortal coil (Shakespeare’s eloquent substitute for the word croaked)---nice words will be spoken, eulogies given and tributes delivered: “Uncle Carl was such a nice guy. And he always gave me candy. I loved him.”

Sweet words, all right. If only Uncle Carl was around to hear them. But usually, by the time they are spoken, the Uncle Carl’s of the world are already down the road.

So imagine how great it must have been to be J.P. Patches (mortal name: Chris Wedes). This was a remarkable person who heard thousands of people tell him how loved he was countless times---day after day---and nobody waited until it was too late.