A small fire in an apartment at 5914 SW Stevens Street, just down the block from Alki Elementary School was dealt with quickly by the Seattle Fire Department just after 10pm on Thursday, April 11.
The cause was not determined but the first floor apartment was damaged in the fire and SFD people were helping cover the windows with plastic.
No one was injured in the blaze.
King County announced that the pile driving at the Barton Pump Station has been postponed one week and is scheduled to begin Monday, April 22.
It should be complete by Thursday, April 25. Next week at the pump station crews will be pre-drilling the soil in order to prepare for the pile driving work.
A second round of pile driving will occur in early May, and King County will notify the community in advance of that work.
The public will get a better chance to be heard at SeaTac council meetings but citizens may be speaking later in the evening.
SeaTac lawmakers unanimously changed council procedures April 9 to allow public comment at study sessions and on action items during regular council meetings.
However, the trade-off for more citizen input is a later starting time for regular council meetings.
Starting this Tuesday, April 23, the regular council meetings will begin at 6:30 p.m., instead of 6 p.m.
The council holds study sessions on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month before the regular sessions.
Public comments previously were not allowed at study sessions. But, in what Councilmember Dave Bush referred to as “an olive branch” to council critics and council members often in the minority, lawmakers unanimously agreed to add public comments to study sessions.
Scott and Tara Luckie are what you might call a power couple of public service.
Scott spends his days as an officer with the Seattle Police Department’s Southwest Precinct while Tara works endlessly helping the peninsula’s low income families as executive director of the West Seattle Helpline.
They are a young couple (Scott is 27 and Tara is 29), married six months now, who have devoted their lives to helping our community.
Their paths to their chosen professions are what you might expect: Scott’s dad is an SPD Officer and Tara, while attending the University of Washington, became deeply entrenched in social justice issues and found her calling in non-profit work.
They met eight years ago while Tara was attending U-Dub and Scott was working as a scuba instructor for a North Seattle dive shop. Tara came in one day for scuba lessons, took a liking to the instructor, and left with a new person in her life named Scott.
“I’ve always wanted to be a police officer,” Scott said, “and I’ve always talked about doing it and (Tara) was the one who pushed me to quit working at the scuba shop and actually apply (for a position with SPD).”
Information from SDOT
Plans to close and rebuild the Delridge Way SW & SW Thistle Street intersection April 12-15 are now cancelled, due to inclement weather in the forecast. This work is tentatively rescheduled for the weekend of April 26-28, weather permitting.
Also, the partial closure of the SW Cloverdale Street and Delridge Way SW intersection is now expected April 17-19, weather permitting. Eastbound traffic will be rerouted and local access will be maintained.
The Seattle Department of Transportation is in Phase 2 of the five-phase project to rebuild much of Delridge Way SW between SW Orchard and SW Roxbury streets. Phase detours will not take place simultaneously. At the completion of Phase 2, the construction activity will move to the Phase 3, between SW Thistle and SW Holden streets.
Press release:
The City of Tukwila’s Mayor and the Tukwila Metropolitan Park District’s Board of Commissioners will complete to become the first Tukwila Citizen to “Walk the Plank” or maybe they’ll choose to do a cannonball into Tukwila’s renovated pool.
The Tukwila Pool has been closed since November 2012 for a $1.66 million renovation: air handling systems, circulation and filtration systems, motors, pumps, locker room improvements, pool deck upgrades and a new pool liner are just some of the improvements patrons will notice. A generous Energy Efficiency grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce was utilized to provide energy saving upgrades.
Pool patrons will celebrate the re-opening of the Tukwila Pool on April 20, 2013, the community will also celebrate April Pool’s Day – a national water safety awareness event.
Odyssey – The Essential School is one of the three high schools on the Tyee Educational Complex on S. 188th St. in SeaTac and occupies the westernmost building. The other two are the Academy of Citizenship and Empowerment (ACE) and Global Connections High School. Odyssey now has 80 students, is open to any student living within the Highline Public Schools boundaries, and seeks new students in the fall, freshmen to seniors.
Tyee High School was founded in 1963, then in '05 the "comprehensive high school" divided into the three smaller high schools in the hopes of improving academic performance. Odyssey Principal, Joan Ferrigno, was the Tyee High School Assistant Principal until it divided, then reapplied and was hired in her current position.
"When we used to be a comprehensive high school, Tyee, had all these buildings, a lot of struggles, a lot of discipline issues, poor attendance and low graduation rates," Ferrigno recalled. You might say a change was essential.
"We got a grant from the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) and the Gates Foundation and traveled around the country to observe what other schools were doing."
While the anticipated return of the NBA Sonics is still a jump ball, an expansion team from the NBBA league should arrive in Seattle shortly. The NBBA is the National Beep Baseball Association, and although it may not garner the same excitement citywide as an NBA team, those who will participate, the blind and visually impaired, will probably be as thrilled as anyone playing on a court, or field. The 'Beep' refers to the beeping devise contained inside a one-pound, 16-inch softball that allows players to hear a ball they cannot see.
Burien resident Kevin Daniel, 46, has been visually impaired his whole life due to a genetic condition. He is the Lighthouse for the Blind job recruiter in Seattle, the home office serving Spokane, Colorado, Northern California, San Diego, and other areas. Before he was transferred to Seattle he worked at their Spokane location. There, he began the Spokane Pride, a new NBBA team. Now he is at it again. The Lighthouse for the Blind and the NBBA are not affiliated.
Click on photos in photo gallery for SLIDESHOW.
The North SeaTac BMX track at North SeaTac Park officially opened Saturday, April 6. The track is just west of the SeaTac Community Center and Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden, and a mere mile north of the airport runways. As roaring, low-flying jets cut through the often rainy, sometimes sunny sky, bicycle tires eagerly sliced through mud-soaked patches while riders as young as two tried to stay on track.
Not all did, which explains the mandatory helmets. Vendors surrounded the track while well over 100 practiced the art of the off-road bicycle race, then participated in the Great Northwest Nationals there opening day.
One enthusiast, not extremely tall and straddling his ride, was decked out in blue and white racing gear including thick gloves. Some may have thought him a young teen until he lifted his helmet to reveal a thick mustache. The active adult said he drove in from Elma, nearly two hours away, to compete with his son.
Press release:
The SeaTac/Tukwila-based Global to Local initiative and Bartell Drugs are hosting a community health fair on April 27 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Attendees can receive free health screenings, information and resources from more than 20 local health organizations and companies.
Health screenings include glucose*, cholesterol*, blood pressure, body mass index, hearing and vision, and mammograms. Games for kids and healthy snacks will also be provided.
Join us for a program at noon featuring keynote speaker, U.S. Congressman Adam Smith, along with other officials, where we will celebrate this important initiative and discuss how Global to Local and Bartell Drugs are working together to build healthy communities. For more information, call (206) 370-1426 or visit www.globaltolocal.org/news.
Global to Local was created by Swedish Health Services, HealthPoint Community Health Clinic, Public Health - Seattle & King County, and the Washington Global Health Alliance, in partnership with the cities of SeaTac and Tukwila.
*Fasting is recommended for glucose and cholesterol screening.
Date: April 27, 2013
