November 2012

We finally got a break, but Ballard (and everywhere else West of the mountains) has been hammered by rain these past couple weeks. Which most likely means storm water runoff has been gushing into and polluting Salmon Bay.

One way that Ballardites can help out is by participating in Seattle Public Utilities RainWise program, a program which makes it easy and cheap for residents to get rain gardens and/or cisterns installed on their property. Rain gardens and cisterns are two ways to prevent rainwater from running off into Salmon Bay or other bodies of water and can divert tens of thousands of gallons of water per year.

SPU will offer a rebate which could cover 100 percent of the cost -- averaging about $4,000 depending on house size -- for whatever cisterns or rain gardens you get. Contractors, which residents can choose themselves, will rig it up so absolutely all of the rain that comes off the roof will drain directly into the gardens or cisterns.

Home alone
Right around noon on Nov. 15, a woman was sleeping in her upstairs bedroom on the 6300 block of 36th Ave S.W. when she woke with a start to loud banging. Working her way out of the layers of sleep, the woman initially thought she was hearing a passing truck or nearby construction, then realized it was someone banging loudly on her front door. She activated her home alarm and decided to confront the situation. Just as she started walking down the stairs someone broke one of her front windows. She yelled out that she was calling the police and moments later heard a vehicle speed away. When police arrived, the victim told police she had a firearm in the house for just this kind of situation.

Witnessed, but not caught

I still look forward to Christmas even though Oregon Bank and Trust is now calling it something else and is probably not sponsoring Bank Day at grade schools anymore.

Starting in the first grade, I took my nickel or dime to school every Tuesday for Bank Day deposit. It was money I made, sometimes as much as a quarter, selling perfume or flower seeds or Liberty Magazine to neighbors down the street.

We lived in a middle class area (rented for $15 a month) near an extended family that owned the Hog Ranch, the Slaughter House and a cooperage (they made wooden barrels) and even in the twenties and thirties during the Great Depression they had money.

So every Christmas, my brother Russell and I took our savings out to buy gifts. It was always something like $3 each and we could hardly wait to go downtown Portland and blow all of it on the whole family.

Mom took us on the streetcar, but let us do our own shopping. Amazingly we were able to buy such things as a box of hankies, or a comb, or a fingernail file or a fountain pen.

Money stretched pretty far in those days.

UPDATE Nov. 28
Tom Salle has shared that he's passed the final inspection and will definitely open Meat the Live Butcher on Dec. 2.

Original Post
Fans of Bernie and Boys and Meat the Live Butcher don't have too much longer to wait if all goes according to plan. Tom Salle, who has been working on getting his butcher shop open in White Center for months told the West Seattle Herald that the shop will open on Dec. 2, 2012 pending one final inspection.

Why that day? It's a day that has special meaning in White Center because it is the day in 2006 the community lost Deputy Steve Cox to an act of criminal violence. Cox was later honored with the naming of the park in White Center. Salle plans to bring a banner to the White Center storefront deputy's office to present to the King County Sheriff's Major Graddon that day, and open his much anticipated store in honor of Cox.

UPDATE: 9:20pm
Power, aside from a few remaining pockets of outage has been restored.

UPDATE 8:50pm:
A power outage that began at 7:20pm looks to be centered near 34th SW and Roxbury Street SW. It has grown to 900 total homes.

Original Post
A power outage that affects more than 600 customers in Southwest Seattle may last until the morning according to Seattle City Light.

No cause is known at this time but the estimated time of restoration is 6:00am.

It is an unusual outage since it spreads from 42nd Ave SW to the west, along Barton Street SW and the north edge of Fauntleroy Park, then east to 25th SW, South to Roxbury Stree and north to Cloverdale Street SW. but takes jumps across Roxbury Street in pockets of outage down to 106th SW.

You can monitor the outage (or any outage) on the Seattle City System Status map.

Outage Hotline (206) 684-7400

Basketball schedules
Seamount League
Monday, Nov. 26
Girls basketball: Fife at Evergreen, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 27
Boys basketball: Mt. Rainier at Evergreen; Interlake at Foster, 7 p.m.
Girls basketball: Foster at West Seattle, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 28
Boys basketball: Highline at Decatur; Evergreen at Kings, 7 p.m.
Girls basketball: Interlake at Evergreen; West Seattle at Highline, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 29
Boys basketball: Foster at Chief Sealth, 6:15 p.m.
Girls basketball: Foster at Chief Sealth, 8 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 30
Boys basketball: Liberty at Foster; Tyee at Interlake, 7 p.m.; Decatur vs. Kennedy at Auburn-Riverside, 8 p.m.
Girls basketball: Foss at Evergreen; Tyee at Ingraham, 7 p.m.; Highline at Interlake, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 1
Boys basketball: Highline at Blanchet, 3 p.m.; Mt. Rainier at Renton, 4:30 p.m.
Girls basketball: Seattle Christian at Foster, 5 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 3
Boys basketball: Lakewood at Tyee; Lakes at Evergreen, 7 p.m.
Girls basketball: Evergreen at Lakewood; Highline at Foss, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 4
Girls basketball: Decatur at Highline, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 5

Class 3A state singles champion Jamie Thorp of Seamount League champion Kennedy Catholic led the 2012 All-Seamount selections as recently announced.

Thorp was named male tennis player of the year in the league while teammateTaas Sribhibhadh joined Thorp on the first team. Foster players earning first team selection included Chu Davidson and Gary Singh. Kevin Huynh of Tyee also played himself onto the first team.
Other first team players are Alan Kwiatkowski (Lindbergh), Gregg Furumasu (Hazen), Joe Kwiatkowski (Lindbergh) and Jeremiah Bayna (Lindbergh)

Highline was represented on the second team by Aaron Lyons while Vincent Viloria of Kennedy Catholic and Steven Dang of Evergreen reached second team all league. Renton's Angelo Ocampo and Jon Le of Hazen rounded out the second team lineup.

Kennedy Catholic has obtained Jon O’Connor to lead its baseball program effective immediately. O’Connor comes to Kennedy Catholic with a rich history and experience as a player and coach. Most recently, Jon served as the assistant head coach for North Kitsap High School in Poulsbo.
As a high school athlete at Medical Lake in Eastern Washington, Jon played varsity baseball for four years and served on the all-state team. He went on to play at Yakima Valley College and began coaching in 2007. In 2010, he moved to North Kitsap and coached back-to-back league championships and had a state playoff appearance in 2012. While at North Kitsap, he resurrected the American Legion Summer Baseball Program as the head coach. He went 50-28 with a league championship.
He plans to start a summer baseball program at Kennedy Catholic to prepare the student athletes for competition in the Seamount League. He is also completing a degree in Sports Management and Administration at the United States Sports Academy.

Mt. Rainier retains Tremain

You haven’t really experienced Christmas until you’ve seen it through the eyes of all 22 characters living in the small quirky town of Tuna, Texas.

“A Tuna Christmas,” Burien Little Theatre’s latest holiday show, is a not-so-subtle comedic farce where two brave actors, Jay Jenkins and Buddy Mahoney each play 11 distinct roles--costume changes and all.

It’s a dazzling spectacle that boggles the mind thinking about how quickly Jenkins, Mahoney and BLT’s stage crew have to work to switch from costume to costume.

Written by Jaston William, Joe Sears and Ed Howard, “A Tuna Christmas” is the sequel to “Greater Tuna” and is followed by “Red White and Tuna.”

The main characters should be familiar by now: The two disc jockeys at the politically incorrect radio station OKKK; Bertha, the anti-smut crusader; R.R. Snavley, the UFO enthusiast; Pearl, the sassiest old lady you’ll ever encounter who was once a Rosie the Riveter; Didi Snavley, the gun-toting wife of R.R.; Vera Carp, the 14-time defending Christmas Yard Display Contest champion and plenty others.

Each of these characters doesn’t just reinforce social stereotypes; they lovingly embrace them.

Former SeaTac Community and Economic Development director Cindy Baker has filed a Civil Rights lawsuit against the city.

She was let go by the city after an internal investigation concluded she was a poor manager and often berated employees.

The suit in Western Washington District Court names as defendants City Manager Todd Cutts and City Council members Barry Ladenburg, Rick Forschler, Terry Anderson, Tony Anderson, Dave Bush, Pam Fernald and Mia Gregerson.

Baker was hired to manage consolidated departments after the departure of community development director Steve Butler. Butler took a job as community development director in Mill Creek but has since left that position. He was criticized as anti-business.

Here is our coverage from January 2011 when Baker was first named to head the consolidated department:

The City of SeaTac has announced the selection of Cindy Baker to become the first director of the newly formed Department of Community and Economic Development.

Baker has been serving as the city’s interim planning director.