February 2013

On Wednesday, Feb. 13, a little before noon (so we're told by the construction workers) you can witness an entire house being moved. It sits on the corner of the 36th Ave NW and NW 64th St (3447 N.W. 64th St).

See that wide open hole in the ground next to the house? That's where the house is going. In the empty space leftover, two more houses will be built, effectively squashing three houses into what has been a one-house affair.

It's a sign of the current state of development. The new owners of the house, which sits on a three-lot property, can't afford it without subdividing the lots. So what else is there to do other than move the whole darn thing?

The previous owner, Stephanie Marcelynas, said she had many single families interested in the house, but nobody could come up with the financing to pay for the whole property. Marcelynas did say that the new owners were very nice and that they felt bad that they had to move the house for their financial purposes.

Seattle Police have made an arrest in the truck jacking that took place Jan. 29 near the West Seattle Golf Course. A 29 year old male suspect is being held in connection with the case.

SPD detectives developed information on the possible identity of the suspect and a wanted bulletin was sent out to officers.  Then on Feb 10, King County Sheriffs deputies made an arrest in an unrelated case and that information came to the SPD.   On Feb. 11 the suspect was brought into the Robbery unit for an interview. 

Subsequently the suspect was re-booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Robbery. 
On Feb. 12 a line-up was conducted in the Robbery Office.  The suspect was positively identified.

The Lady Wildcats meet the girls of Mercer Island today at 3pm for the first round of the state high school basketball playoffs at Chief Sealth High School.

The Wildcats finished the regular season in 5th place with an overall record of 14-8 and a Metro League record of 10-7. West Seattle comes into this game on a winning note defeating Holy Names 33-28.

Mercer Island comes to the Hawks Nest at Chief Sealth with an overall season record of 18-5 and a KingCo record of 14-8 sitting solidly in second place. M. I. also closed out their season with a win over Bishop Blanchet 50-46.

By Tram Le, DVM
Burien Veterinary Hospital
SPECIAL TO THE HIGHLINE TIMES

In recent years, feeding raw food diets to dogs and cats has become common practice.

Companies that make these diets claim the pros outweigh the cons of feeding raw. The main concern for feeding raw is infectious diseases for pets and owners.

If you want to feed raw food diets these are the facts you need to know to make sure you are not at high risk.

Home prepared, as well as commercially available products, have been evaluated for bacteria contamination. Salmonella spp was found in 80 percent of home-prepared diets containing chicken.

Other investigations found most commercial products to be contaminated with Escherichia coli and 6-20 percent contaminated with Salmonella spp. A highly drug-resistant strain of E. coli, Toxoplasma gondii and Cryptosporidium spp were also detected.

Blazing life’s various love trails is an adventure to always be remembered. Love is among the most intangible, yet precious gifts we give or receive. The indescribable joy and sometimes miserable pain of love can be both breathtaking and heartbreaking.

Does love find us--or do we find love? Haven’t we all kissed a few frogs before finding the prince or princess of our life? Or maybe you’re still in love’s process of transition. If so, may Cupid soon appear with a perfect Valentine designed just for you. For some, love is just a memory.

Author and poet Robert Frost wrote, “Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”

Parents who fondly, or not so fondly, recall their kid’s teen-age “love-crush” years can appreciate Author Jules Renard words, “Love is like an hourglass with the heart filling up -– as the brain empties.”

John Ciardi wrote, “Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged and the mutual dependence of the old.”

There was talk among some Highline School District staff and students at Evergreen High School last week about changing the designation from (EHS) to maybe an acronym like TEC, HS3 and AAA. That stands for Technology, Engineering & Communications High School (TEC), Health Sciences and Human Services High School (HS3), and Arts and Academics Academy (AAA).

Some students apparently do not agree with the idea of changing, even going as far as chanting "EHS, EHS" at a recent basketball game where the EHS logo had been covered up. The three separate entities of the "Evergreen Campus" were formed in the last few years as part of the district's focus on education through some help from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The stir on campus is over tradition vs. ideological change.

Whether this happens or not I have some fond memories of Evergreen. Nearly all my kids went through the school. As the owner of the White Center News, I printed the school newspaper (Timberlines). I had to. A few of my kids were on the staff of that paper. Virginia Nerheim was the newspaper advisor. She ran a tight ship.

Over 30 people walked the Burien's Eagle Landing Park stairs Feb. 9 on "Stairway Walks Day," sponsored by Feet First and WABI Burien.

In front is Dian Stuart of West Seattle.

Teams of students from Pacific Middle School in Des Moines won second, third, and fourth place at the Washington State Future City regional competition in January.

Three other teams from the school also placed, out of a field of 22 teams from around the state.

The Pacific team named “Olympic City,” won second place with team members Matthew Garrido, Elliott Plourde and Thomas Swanson.

Alex Kanemasu, Truman Ponder-Bader and Tristan Neathery led “Utopia” to a third place finish.

“Cloud 9” fourth-place finishers were Sam Johnson, Nick Hanley and Colin Meyers.

The “Time Cruisers” won fifth place. Anders Hunt, Trey Hunt and Jacob Sylvester were the team members.

“Expo Town” won 14th with Austin Beardemphl, Kokoro Terukina and Amber Thatcher

Xenon, fifteenth place, Emily Ding, Veronica Soran, and Umi Terukina placed 15th with “Xeon.”

“Our teams really took a huge step forward this year,” said Sandy Gady, Design and Engineering teacher at the school. “All of their models and essays were exemplary, their presentations were well thought out, and they all looked like professionals. Any one of the teams could have made it to the finals and represented us well.”

City officials are always struggling to find volunteers for citizen advisory boards.

Burien City Manager Mike Martin suggested Feb. 4 to his council members that they might forgo interviews to fill 20 advisory board positions since only 19 people had applied. No one has applied to be the city’s citizen representative on the county landmarks board, even though there might be no meetings to attend this year.

So it is unusual when city lawmakers reject a mayoral board appointment, especially when the applicant is a former City Council member.

However, on Feb. 7, the Des Moines council rejected Mayor Dave Kaplan’s appointment of Susan White to the city’s arts commission.

Councilmember Bob Sheckler commented White has a tendency to take charge of a project in a bullying manner and then take much of the credit for its success. White was a former ally of Sheckler when she was a councilmember and Sheckler served as mayor.

In SeaTac, among nondescript government buildings, the history of Highline is being collected.

One day, the collections will be open to the public in a beautiful new building on the southwest corner of Southwest 152nd Street and Ambaum Boulevard South.

The Highline Historical Museum, “a new museum for a new century,” will, fittingly, be located at the entrance to Olde Burien.

But until the museum opens, curator Nancy Salguero McKay along with volunteers and student interns are busy preparing and storing the vast array of donated historical items in a SeaTac warehouse.

Rows and rows of boxes stacked to the ceiling-all carefully cataloged--contain photos, dishes, canning jars, statues, trophies, oral history transcriptions, films and much more.

Other rooms contain larger items like signs, paintings, school desks and, even a Native American canoe.

Prominent are bound volumes of the Highline Times, rescued from dumpsters by managing trustee Cyndi Upthegrove when the Seattle Times stopped publishing the paper. Jerry Robinson resumed ownership of the paper.