September 2012

On Friday October 5 the West Seattle Rotary Club will meet at “The Cask” located at 2350 California Ave SW from 5 PM till 7PM. They are asking the community to stop by to meet their local Rotarians and drop off a food donation for the West Seattle Food Bank. They will have a donation barrel set up at the front door.

The West Seattle Food Bank serves around 900 families a week and consistently distributes over 100,000 pounds of food each month. The West Seattle Food Bank purchases about 12% of the food they distribute, and relies on local businesses, grocery stores, farmer’s markets and individual food drives for the rest.

While all donations help, a wish list from the West Seattle Food Bank includes:

• Diapers
• Baby formula
• Protein items
• Reusable, Paper & Plastic Bags
• Canned soup
• Ensure
• Pet Food
• Hygiene items
• Fresh produce
• Office supplies like copy paper

Max Vekich and Marcee Stone tied the knot at the Alki Arts Gallery Saturday night, Sept. 29. About 40 friends and family members attended. Seattle Municipal Court Judge Fred Bonner officiated and a reception followed. They were joined by Max's son, Peter, daughter, Alexandra, Alexandra's son, Laszlo, and Marcee's daughter, Liz Donehue. Also attending were the couple's siblings and extended family members.

The bride and attendants Alexandra and Liz wore black gowns while the groom and attendants Peter and Laszlo wore black tuxedos.

The event was hosted by gallery co-owner, Diane Venti, an Alki resident, and her daughter, Summer Ventimiglia, who works at the gallery.

To get things rolling, a bagpiper marched the wedding party from the Celtic Swell Irish Pub along the Alki Avenue sidewalk three blocks west to Alki Arts and passed numerous curious, grinning pedestrians. The party was led into the gallery and the service commenced.

press release:

A 20 year old man was found stabbed this weekend and police searched an area next to I-5 for the knife used in the stabbing.

The incident started around 7 AM Saturday when police were called to the 13200 block of 2 Ave S in Burien where a wounded man was knocking on a neighbor’s door. When police arrived they found the 20 year old victim with a stab wound to his stomach.

Detectives learned that the victim had been at a gathering at a nearby house during the previous night and early morning hours. The victim was stabbed during an altercation with another man at the house and then walked down the street where he passed out.

Around 7 am the victim woke up and staggered to a nearby house and knocked on the door. The resident called 911. The victim was transported to Harborview with life threatening injuries.

Detectives arrested a 33 year old Seattle man in connection with the stabbing. Detectives learned that the knife used in the assault may have been discarded on I-5.

Last Wednesday, Sept. 26, the U.S. Postal Service announced that it will not make the scheduled payment of $5.6 billion to prefund retiree health benefits, which was due Sunday, Sept. 30.

The payment was mandated by Congress under a 2006 law and has been a source of controversy among union workers in the postal service. Some believe, as the BNT reported back in July, that it is the source of troubles in the Postal Service. Specifically, why the Service has been proposed to undergo through through so many cuts.

The announcement noted, "Comprehensive reform of the laws governing the Postal Service is urgently needed in order for the Postal Service to fully implement its five-year business plan and return to long-term financial stability."

By Corbin Lewars

I often quote Natalie Goldberg’s brilliant advice, “Shut up and write,” to my clients, but it was rare that I followed the advice myself. I justified my belligerence by stating that I was a coach, teacher and editor. I couldn’t be quiet; people paid me for my opinion.

That indeed was true, but I had to be honest with myself and admit I was also unnecessarily flapping my jaw a lot. Much of the advice I was giving was unsolicited. I was calling friends to deliberate over every decision I made. I was designing classes I had no desire to teach. In short, I was spending a lot of time thinking about and processing things that gave me little satisfaction.

Then one beautiful day in June, I heard the message loud and clear. “Stop!” A strong voice said. “You’re creating a bunch of unnecessary noise for yourself. Remember how you worked all last summer and then complained that you missed it? Well, you’re not going to do that this year, are you?” And if the voice had a fist, she would have shook it threateningly at me.

While there was reasonably light turnout for the event, the Beat the Burn 5K sponsored by The Port of Seattle Fire Department/Local 1257 Firefighters and the Washington State Council of Fire Fighters Burn Foundation got off to a great start on Sept. 30 at Jack Block Park on Harbor Ave.

The event contained a number of components. First was the Firefighter's challenge race pitting teams from SeaTac, Seattle and Port of Seattle with the SeaTac firefighters winning the event.

That was followed by the actual 5K run/walk, started not with a pistol but with the sounding of a siren that ran from the park out to and back from Duwamish Head.

Then a kids race was held.

Following all the running, live music by SLACKER, a local band favorite, health and safety displays, Lumpia World and Sweet Wheels food trucks, entertainment, beer garden, a kid’s area all got going.

Alki Kayak Tours held standup paddle board and kayak demonstrations and the Bubbleman and the Northwest Disaster Search Dogs all provided entertainment and information.

By Brian LeBlanc, a.k.a., the 21st Century Viking

The 2012 Election is a month away, but part of it is already over. In the August primary, the top two vote-getters for the open 36th Legislative seat were Noel Frame and Gael Tarleton, both Democrats. Under the Top Two Primary rules, this means that 36th District voters will have the “choice” of voting between two members of the same party.

Regardless of whether Tarleton or Frame wins, the open 36th Legislative seat is already in the Democratic win column. But suppose for a moment that I do not want to vote for either candidate. What if I do not want to vote for a Democrat to represent my district due to their performance as the majority party in the Legislature the past two years?

There are two other options currently available on the November ballot -- vote for a write-in candidate or abstain. Otherwise, I am disenfranchised as far as this important race is concerned before the election has even occurred.

Tomatoes are this summer’s zucchini in Ballard. One almost can’t give them away. Meanwhile, the raccoons are feasting on Asian pears and escargots. Fifty-six days without a trace amount of precipitation, a good year for tomatoes. What is the world coming to?

My husband had the nerve to say out loud that I planted too many tomato plants. Yet if I’d planted the same number last year (okay 13 plants) my yield could have been six tomatoes total. When life gives you a glut of tomatoes, there’s only one thing to do: start roasting.

Each year, tens of millions of gallons of untreated water from combined sewer overflow (CSO) gushes into Salmon Bay. In 2011, the number totaled 43,700,000 gallons of water, according to a report from the Washington State Department of Ecology.

By comparison, an Olympics-sized swimming pool carries 600,000 gallons of water. It would take about 72 of them to fill all of the polluted storm water Ballard has contributed to the Puget Sound in the year 2011 alone.

Between NW 65th St and NW 80th St, residents sit on top of combined sewers, meaning that sewage and rain water go to the same place. The sewage and rain water travel through pipes down to the West Point Sewage Treatment Plant in Magnolia, otherwise known as the Ballard Siphon. But when a storm event occurs and the combined sewer overflows, the result is that the sewage spills out into Salmon Bay at different points along the way.

During the winter months, CSO occurrences happen regularly. In 2011, 72 occurences happened overall. Not that it takes much to happen -- overflows can happen after as little as one-tenth of an inch of rain has fallen, according to SPU.

The 2013-14 city of Seattle budget -- and all of the benefits and ramifications it could bring -- doesn’t end with the mayor’s proposal.

Now that the mayor has set forth his ideas, it is time for the city council to do their own deliberations. The official deliberations last from late September to early November.

This won’t be done without input from the community, though. The public has two chances to weigh in on the budget.

The first will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 4 in the Seattle City Hall Council Chamber, starting at 5:30 p.m. Signups for comments happen at 5 p.m. If you miss that one, the second hearing will be on Thursday, Oct. 25 at 5:30 p.m., same place.

At these meetings, the public will also be able to comment on the 2013 General Revenue Sources, the 2013 Update to the 2009–2012 Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development, the Elliott Bay Seawall Project, and the Waterfront Improvement Program