April 2013

The city of SeaTac recently earned a WellCity Award from the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) Employee Benefit Trust. A total of 84 cities and public entities demonstrated their commitment to employee health promotion and met the stringent standards set forth for the award.

All of these cities are part of AWC’s Employee Benefit Trust, a health insurance pool that provides coverage to more than 15,000 city employees across the state. As a result of earning the designation, WellCity Award recipients will receive a two percent premium discount on their Regence BlueShield or Asuris Northwest Health medical coverage in 2013.

“This award would not have been possible without the tremendous efforts put forth by the SeaTac Wellness Committee, who dedicate themselves to these educational programs and events all year long,” said Todd Cutts, SeaTac city manager. “We are committed to having a healthy, vibrant community, and this program is a wonderful incentive to encourage just that.”

Press release:

For the price of a movie theater ticket, you can see two—count ‘em, two—live, brand-new, award-winning plays by Washington State playwrights in the 2013 Bill & Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival.

From May 3 through May 26, Burien Little Theatre’s (BLT) Festival offers 4 weekends of new shows. Pay just $10 to see a performance of two plays -- a one-act followed by a full-length.

The one-act Bottom Line is paired with the full-length Undiscovered Places May 3-12. The one-act 17B is paired with the full-length Parsing Race May 17-26.

After each play is performed, audience members are invited to give their opinions and ask questions of the director and playwright.

These talk-backs provide playwrights with fresh ideas, valuable comments, and honest audience response.

Festival sponsors include the new film The Maury Island Incident, Mark Restaurant & Bar, 4Culture King County Lodging Tax and City of Burien.

Staged performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are just $10 and include 2 shows.

Press release:

Aviation High School is ranked as one of the top performing schools in U.S. News and World Report’s Best High School rankings for 2013.

The school is ranked as the 6th best high school in Washington state out of 587 public high schools. Aviation High School is ranked #257 in the country out of more than 21,000 public high schools evaluated. Aviation High School is one of just ten Washington schools to receive a Gold Medal in the report.

“Being ranked so high in the prestigious U.S. News & World Report is a great honor and reflects the quality of teaching by our staff, the support of our industry partners, and our remarkable students,” said CEO/Principal Reba Gilman. “This is the first time Aviation High School has received the national gold medal distinction.”

The rankings are based on how well schools serve all their students, calculated first on how students performed on state exams; and secondly, on how well students are prepared for college-level work, measured by Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate participation and test results.

Aviation High School facts:
State Rank: 6
National Rank: 257
Medal Awarded: Gold

For those who want to see what the work actually looks like, King County posted the above video on Youtube.com which goes inside the Ballard Siphon Replacement Project tunnel.

King County also provided us with an update. At the South Site, tunneling continues 24 hours a day, Monday through Saturday. Construction of the pipe to connect the new siphon to the existing system continues during typical work hours from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays.

At the North site, work is nearing completion on the structure that will connect the existing sewer pipes to the new siphon. Crews are also preparing the north shaft for receiving the tunnel boring machine.

the tunneling is expected to be done in early summer of 2013. King County urges drivers and bicyclists to continue to use caution near the site.

What to expect at the south site, at 24th Ave W and West Commodore Way:

• Activity on the project site involving equipment and trucks 24 hours a day, Monday through Saturday
• Increased night truck traffic around West Commodore Way
• Additional nighttime noise and lighting

What better way to save lives than to eat food? For the 20th annual event, "Dining out for life," you can do just that.

At a number of select restaurants, a percentage of your bill will be donated to Lifelong AIDS Alliance and the fight against illness and hunger in our community.

A number of restaurants in the Ballard area are participating. All of them (save for Hunger 2.0 in Fremont, which is donating 50 percent) will be donating 30 percent of your bill.

For more info, go to http://www.diningoutforlife.com/seattle

Ballard

• Hattie's Hat (5231 Ballard Ave)
• Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery (5427 Ballard Ave NW)
• Ray's Boathouse & Cafe (6049 Seaview Ave NW)
• Volterra (5411 Ballard Ave. NW)
• BalMar (5449 Ballard Ave NW)
• Pasta Bella (5913 15th Ave NW)

Crown Hill

• Wild Mountain Cafe (1408 NW 85th St)

Phinney Ridge

• Red Mill Burgers (312 N 67th St)
• Santa Fe Cafe (5910 Phinney Ave N)
• Stumbling Goat Bistro (6722 Greenwood Ave N)

On Monday, April 22, a small handful of Crown Hill residents gathered in a room with Colin Dietrich from Ballard Greenways to discuss the possibility of bringing greenways to Crown Hill.

The Ballard Greenway will modify residential roads along NW 58th St this summer to be safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. You can read our full report here from the latest open house on the subject.

One idea that has been floated around by the Ballard Greenways group and the Seattle Department of Transportation is the "Ballard Box," which would connect the greenway in Ballard to Crown Hill via North/South routes on either side.

“I would love to see greenways connect to other areas of the city. That’s one of my big things is the networks," said Crown Hill resident Dennis Galvin. "If you were to ride your bike, or if you were to walk, you could feel really safe doing so."

In a story of how perseverance (and a positive government response) pays off, members of the White Center community and King County’s Water and Land Resources Division gathered at the TAF Bethaday Learning Space on April 24 to celebrate a plan to install water-cleansing floating islands in heavily-polluted Hicklin Lake at Lakewood Park this summer.

The floating island idea was hatched, investigated and presented to King County by Friends of Hicklin Lake, headed up by the lake’s biggest champion in Dick Thurnau. King County officials admitted on the night that without Thurnau’s insistence on trying the islands out (As KC Program Manager Bong Santo Domingo put it, “He called us every day”), the program may have never come to fruition.

Combine Thurnau’s insistence with the extra work of KC Senior Limnologist Sally Bartley Abella in obtaining a $50,000 grant from the Washington Department of Ecology for the project, and a plan is now officially in place to install four islands that will be used to naturally capture excess nutrients from the lake through the roots of vegetation growing upon them.

With an exciting game tied 3-3 going into the top of the seventh inning a controversial call by the infield umpire at first base changed the momentum of the game in favor of West Seattle.

The Wildcat leadoff hitter blasted a long fly ball into deep left field that began to drift foul but Sealth left fielder Jake Eddy showed great speed and gloved the ball just short of the fence for the first out.

The next play was a controversial one. A seemingly easy out at first base became controversial when the infield umpire said first baseman Aiden Behar pulled his foot off the bag and the umpire called the runner safe. It appeared to everyone that the Wildcat was a full stride short of the bag when the throw was made. That immediately drew the ire of Sealth head coach Ernest Policarpio who went out to challenge the call but the umpire wouldn’t back away from the call. The next pitch was mishandled by catcher Nick Jaramillo and the runner advanced to second base. The next batter #20 Sam Helenger hits an RBI single into left field on a hit and run play driving in a run and the Wildcats have their first lead since the third inning.

Information from Seattle Public Schools:

Celebrity Chef Maneet Chauhan will be the judge at West Seattle High School's cooking competition May 8 where the winner will have a chance to travel to Washington D.C. and cook with a featured chef of the White House Chef Tour.

Three ProStart high school students will compete in the 40-minute cooking challenge to create an entree that represents contemporary American cuisine. The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation helped organize the student cooking competition which features students from two-year nationwide ProStart programs.

Chauhan's will be in Seattle as part of her national tour to debut her new book, "Flavors of My World: A Culinary Tour Through 25 Countries." She is interacting with ProStart students in each city as they compete in classic cooking competition.

Chauhan is a James Beard award-winning celebrity chef and judge on Food Network's hit show "Chopped."

ProStart Cooking competition
1:30-4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 8
West Seattle High School

By Kurt Howard

Chief Sealth International High School hosted cross town rival West Seattle High School in a girl’s fastpitch conference game at the Southwest Athletic Complex on Wednesday, April 24th. The weather was sunny and warm, but there was a wind that didn’t seem to affect the game. This ended up being a great game to watch, no matter which dugout you were supporting.

The first inning was uneventful for both teams, three up and three down. Then, in the top of the 2nd inning, West Seattle got on the board first when Gabby Wenn scored on a hit by Katie DuLong. Chief Sealth would then answer back when Alana Sullivan crossed the plate to tie the game in the bottom of that same inning. In the 3rd inning, Chief Sealth would take the lead when Malia Dewey and Megan Hafermann both scored.