July 2012

Wednesday night, July 11, the Whittier Heights Community Council met to discuss a potential expansion for Baker Park.

The expansion would not take place for a while. First, to generate money, an application must be made for the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund through the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department. Several parks are in the running for the grant and recipients will not be notified until September of 2013.

The park is located south of 85th St between Mary and 14th Ave. Baker Park is long and narrow, with a meandering path running through dense pockets of trees, shrubs and flowerbeds. The park is .4 acres and is crowned with a colorful Totem Pole made from a monkey-puzzle tree.

Baker Park was first created in 1997, when the Whittier Heights Community Council received a Neighborhood Matching Fund award that matched with money the 2,500 work hours volunteers put into construction. In the application process, the council received help from Groundswell NW, an advocacy and acquisition-planning agency committed to creating more green and open space.

As if you need more reasons to indulge in molten chocolate lava cakes, Ballard’s newest addition serves these decadent desserts in take-home Mason jars.

Two months ago on May 19, Hot Cakes opened its doors in Ballard, right next to The People’s Pub.

From sipping chocolates and "boozy" milkshakes to grilled chocolate sandwiches, Hot Cakes is prepped to facilitate any chocolate-related craving.

Before the restaurant’s launch, owner and chocolatier Autumn Martin worked as the head of Theo Chocolate in Fremont.

It was during this time that Martin came up with the idea for molten cakes in Mason jars while preparing for an auction dinner hosting 12 people.

"I wanted to do something that was country, cute, really chocolaty, and I thought ‘I’m going to try to make molten cake in a Mason jar,'" Martin said. After experimenting with the baking process for several weeks, Martin served her dessert to the auction winners.

"They thought it was the coolest thing since peanut butter and jelly," she said.

That dinner solidified Martin’s desire to begin selling her cake batter.

Rachael Shoulder, right, walked way out barefoot on the Seahurst Park beach last week to take advanatge of unusually low tides.

Shoulder and Carrie Pucko examine a beach boulder that is normally underwater.

by Kaelyn Sayles

On a sunny Wednesday evening amidst the smell of sunscreen, South Highline National took on Pac-West in the District 7 Little League All-Star Tournament.

South Highline traveled to the Bar-S Playfields in Alki to keep their tournament hopes alive. Pac-West came to seal the deal with a championship.

At the end of the sixth, Pac-West became tournament champions, beating National 10-9.

It was a hard-fought game on both sides, with aggressive hitting, throwing and, of course, cheering. Pac-West scored four in the first inning while National scored none. That didn't last long as by the end of the fourth, National was up 7-5.

From then on, it was a close game, full of focused players and an anxious crowd.

At the bottom of the fifth, National was up 8-7. But during the top of the sixth, Pac-West brought the score right back up in their favor 10-8.

National answered with one in the bottom of the sixth but it wasn't quite enough as Pac-West's closer threw strike after strike.

And so the championship game ended at 10-9.

A young woman riding a motor scooter for the first time according to police hit a curb near 48th and Beach Drive sw around 8;15 pm and fell off. She was not badly hurt, was awake and conscious but was transported to the hospital for observation.

West Seattle's annual Summerfest event will close California Ave and adjacent streets near the West Seattle Junction this coming weekend. Metro is re-routing area buses to help people get around during the event.

Beginning on Thursday, July 12, from approximately 5:00 PM until Sunday, July 15 at about 12:00 Midnight, the West Seattle area will be affected by street closures and traffic congestion associated with the West Seattle Summer Festival.

During this event, Metro and Sound Transit service will be rerouted and will travel instead via alternate nearby streets, depending on the route, destination and direction of travel.

Metro routes 22, 37, 51, 53, 54, 55, 57, 85 Night Owl, 128, Sound Transit route 560 and Water Taxi Shuttle route 773 will be affected by this event.

Tonight is the monthly Ballard District Council meeting, which is open to the public. It starts at 7 p.m. and is held in the Ballard Library. Yes, there will be ice cream. Here is the agenda:

AMENDED AGENDA

Introductions & Short Announcements - please hold announcements to not more than one minute.

Briefing – Compass Housing Alliance “Projects & Properties in the Ballard District”, Rick Friedhoff, Exec Director – Compass Housing Alliance

Green Space Levy Opportunity Fund – Report on projects in the Ballard district proposed for funding, Dawn Hemminger & Dave Boyd, Groundswell NW

2012 Neighborhood Projects Fund, Joe Wert, Ballard District NPF Review Committee

Annually, the City of Seattle distributes approx $1.25M to community generated projects in our 13 neighborhood districts. In February of this year, BDC selected three proposals which Seattle DOT has evaluated for cost and feasibility. BDC must now review this analysis, and recommend projects in order of priority. Proponents will be invited to attend and answer questions.

Discussion & Vote

Fireworks continued to fly at the second Burien-sponsored North Highline annexation meeting on July 12 as Burien City Manager Mike Martin sparred with an anti-annexation contingent over whether or not a full $5 million tax credit for the area is guaranteed.

According to state and local officials, the credit is guaranteed unless the state legislature decided to cut it out of the budget.

Martin has said flat-out that Burien will receive the full credit over the next ten years unless the state legislature cuts the annexation credit program entirely from their budget (State Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon said that is highly unlikely). He said the city will not have problems illustrating the need for the full credit over that time and that Washington State “wants you to spend the money to make annexation successful.”

Neighborhood House’s High Point Center is looking for volunteers to serve as mentors for their Summer Science Camp.

They are seeking help for help on the following days and times: 9:30am-12:30pm, Tuesday-Friday for the following 3 weeks: July 24th - August 10th.

A facilitator will be putting on the class, the work of a mentor is to help the kids understand and complete the science projects for that day.

Anyone 15 years and old welcomed to come assist.

Any amount of time of these 3 weeks that can be volunteered is appreciated!

Please contact Rochelle Saedi at rochelles@nhwa.org with interest and questions.

At the same time as one local school superintendent started work in a new district, another one stepped down.

Ethelda Burke, facing racial discrimination charges, resigned June 26 as Tukwila School District superintendent, effective June 30. Burke had been on administrative leave since March 27, pending investigation of the charges.

On July1, Susan Enfield moved south from Seattle to assume the Highline Public Schools superintendent position.

In its official response to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC,) Tukwila School Board members said they had found no evidence to support charges that Burke had discriminated against African American staff members who had brought the racial discrimination complaints. Burke is also African American.

However, in a letter to board president Mark Wahlstrom, Burke wrote she had decided to resign.
“It would be impossible for me to return and be effective as superintendent,” Burke wrote. “I want the staff and students of the Tukwila School District to remain focused on education.

“My returning, after what has occurred, would be a distraction from that focus.”