March 2013

A UPS truck wrecked into a passenger vehicle at the intersection of S.W. Edmunds St. and Fauntleroy Way S.W. shortly after 5 p.m. on March 19.

One woman was sent to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries and traffic, as of 5:25 p.m., is disrupted northbound on Fauntleroy from the intersection on.

A UPS supervisor was on scene but could not discuss the incident but would provide details on what happened later.

It appeared as if the passenger car was northbound on Fauntleroy and was T-boned by the UPS truck since the driver's side door was impacted but the exact circumstances of the accident were not clear.

Seattle robbery detectives are asking for the public's help in identifying a group of men suspected of robbing two teenagers at gunpoint on Feb. 2.

According to SPD, the incident happened around 11:30 p.m. when the victims were walking near 42nd Ave. S.W. and S.W. Alaska St.

SPD explains:
One of the suspects then grabbed cash from the victims and started to walk away.

When the victims asked for their money back, two of the suspects pulled guns on the victims while the third suspect stole the victims’ backpacks, wallets and cell phones.

After the robbery, detectives were able to track down video of two of the suspects, captured by a store surveillance camera, but haven’t yet identified the robbers.

If you recognize the suspects in the video, please contact the SPD Robbery Unit at (206) 684-5535

Update, April 19

Looks like the folks at Dirt Exchange changed their minds -- now they say they'll be at their new location on Monday, April 22.

Update, April 9

Dirt Exchange have announced they are moving on April 15. Be sure to catch them at their new location just two blocks north at 1521 NW 50th St.

Original, March 20

We dare you to find a soul who doesn't need a good heaping pile of dirt from time to time.

In Ballard, we have been blessed to have the folks at the Dirt Exchange lot. For a little bit, there was a slight nervousness in the air when it was discovered in November that their lot was going to be developed over with a five-story storage and office space.

Put that nervousness to rest. the Dirt Exchange lot is about to have a new home. And it won't be hard to find, because it's just two blocks north, at 1521 NW 50th.

Des Moines, WA – Brittany McPhee, a junior at Mount Rainier High School, has been named 2012-13 Gatorade Washington Girls Basketball Player of the Year. This is the second consecutive year she has won the award. She joins a short list of two-time winners across the country.

The award recognizes athletic excellence, high standards of academic achievement, and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court. The honor distinguishes McPhee as Washington’s best high school girls basketball player and makes her a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year award.

McPhee averaged 29 points per game and led the Rams to a third place finish in the state championship tournament. She has maintained a 4.00 GPA in the classroom. In addition to serving as a student ambassador at the Inter-high leadership conference, she has donated her time as a youth basketball and soccer instructor.

“Her work ethic and dedication are off the charts, as is her basketball IQ. She makes everyone around her work harder just to keep up with her,” said MRHS coach Bob Bolam.

33-year-old Michael Kelley probably thought he was going to outsmart the cops on March 14 when a cab he had called pulled up to whisk him away from a King County Sheriff’s Office manhunt underway.

He would have been wrong.

According to KCSO, a vehicle was pulled over at the intersection of S.W. 112th St. and 16th Ave. S.W. for having expired tabs and Kelley, the passenger, ran from the car (likely due to seven outstanding warrants).

A manhunt ensued and when a cab driver pulled up to a KCSO deputy and said he was looking for a “Michael” (Kelley’s first name), an idea clicked.

Deputies asked the cabbie if they could borrow his cab for a minute and he agreed. One deputy posed as the cab driver while another hid in the backseat.

They drove around until Kelley popped out from behind a shed. He was arrested as he tried to enter the cab.

Commmunity activist and owner of Alki Bike and Board, Stu Hennessey has shared the news that Puget Ridge Edible Park has been approved for purchase by the Seattle Parks Department. The property is located on the northeast corner of 18th Ave. S.W. and S.W. Brandon St.

Hennessey wrote, "Just got the news from our neighbor Pete Spalding (Pigeon Point), director of the Parks Levy Fund. Puget Ridge Edoble Park has been purchased by the Parks Department and will close within the next two weeks!!!!!"

The grant was awarded to us in 2009 and it has been a act of persistence to achieve this long sought after goal.

Congratulations Puget Ridge!

Parks did an updated appraisal on this site in summer of 2012 and made another offer to the owner of the property which was accepted.

The Opportunity Fund allocated $520,000 for the acquisition for this project.

The goal of the purchase was to acquire a site to create an urban community farm which is a neighborhood meeting place, a community food garden and a test site for environmentally conscientious sustainability.

If you live on Gatewood Hill you might have heard some large trucks and construction gear making something of a racket on recent mornings. These are crews from AA Asphalting doing follow up work on the streets near 41st (a bus route) and Monroe Street SW. They are breaking apart old cracked concrete and replacing previous temporary asphalt patches.

They are also adding curb cuts and ramps for handicapped access.

The work is expected to be completed this week.

Have you been composting? What if you had an incentive, and a discount, to compost more?

Lucky for you, Seattle Public Utilities and folks have brought back "Compost Days," which celebrates local composting and gives out free compost and great rewards. It takes place March 15 through April 15, and the Ballard Fred Meyer is one of the participants.

Compost Days is a region-wide campaign to thank residents for diverting 350,000 tons of food and yard waste from landfills in 2012.

The campaign has expanded this year with Seattle Public Utilities, King County Solid Waste Division, Cedar Grove and Waste Management offering free and deeply discounted compost and three Big Dig events across King and Snohomish counties, where finalists will get a chance to dig through a huge pile of compost for $1,000 worth of prizes.

Here’s how it all works:

If it's one thing the citizens of the 36th District are concerned about, it's education. Be it K-12, trade or vocational school, community college or university.

"I think everyone knows we have one of the most educated, intelligent, passionate districts in the state," Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-Queen Anne) said to a healthy crowd of about 80 at Saturday, March 16's 36th District legislative town hall. He said every day they get hundreds of emails and calls from their constituents.

It's true, if Jeanne Kohl-Welles' (D-Belltown) lamentation to the Ballard News-Tribune after the townhall is any indication. She said she tries hard to respond to all of the constituent letters coming in, but says that often there are just too many.

Newbie Rep. Gael Tarleton (D-Ballard) was also excited by the impressive constituent involvement of the 36th District. "The vast majority coming into the office were not lobbyists. They were all of you."

On everyone's mind was education.

By David Rosen

The Seattle Fire Department and Seattle Police Department quickly responded to the 4500 block of 37th Ave SW for a potential arson call around 11:27pm on March 18. Upon arriving they found a woodpile stacked up against an apartment building with smoldering embers.

One of the tenants Tim Spitzer talked with the Herald. " I live in the upstairs apartment, I was laying in bed watching tv, and I could smell smoke and it didn't smell like somebody was cooking so I put my clothes on, went out the back door first and it didn't smell out there so I came out the front door and walked down the stairs and there is a guy crouched down by the stairs lighting a fire and I was like what are you doing and the person crouched said I'm just trying to stay warm man, I said put that out right now and get out of here I'm calling the cops, so I walked back upstairs, grabbed my cell phone and when I came back down he was gone."