May 2013

UPDATE 8:25pm
Power has been restored.

Original Post
A power outage that knocked out the juice to more than 1200 West Seattle City Light customers began around 6:20pm and so far, the cause is unknown.

The outage affects an area east of 35th Ave. SW from SW Dakota on the south to nearly SW Hanford Street, extending across Admiral Way SW and around the west end of the West Seattle Bridge affecting all the businesses at the north end of Avalon Way SW and then extending across to 26th SW from Yancy Street SW to Genesee Street SW. Another pocket of power outage affects south of the Delridge Playfield from SW Alaska Street to SW Dawson Street. Still another affects a smaller number of customers from SW Brandon Street along both sides of 26th SW down to SW Juneau.

No known time of restoration has been determined.

West Seattle’s Alki waterfront was taken over by pedestrians and bike peddlers on Sunday, May 19 as the West Seattle 5k Run/Walk and Alki Summer Streets Day (also known as Car Free Alki Day).

The day started bright (Ok, it was actually cloudy)and early as hundreds of participants ran or walked the West Seattle 5k. The winners were as follows:

Male
1st
Josh Fountain Seattle time 16:44

2nd
Keefe Hanson Lake Tapps, WA time 16:53

3rd
Wyatt Golding, Seattle WA time 17:00

Female
1st
Kelley McKean, time 19:23

2nd
Adrienne Salzwedel Seattle 19:32

3rd
Roxanne Wegman, Lakewood, Wa 19:36

The first kid to finish was
Logan Schiller age 14

After the run, Alki Ave. was turned over to the people for a day full of activities, including live bands, local art and a costumed bicycle parade put on the Alki Beach Creeps, a local bike group.

The fifth running of the West Seattle 5K Run/Walk will begin at 8am (though the race will start at officially at 9:20am) Sunday, May 19 at the Alki Bathhouse. The event benefits West Seattle High School. Funds from the 2013 West Seattle 5K will be used to improve math, science, music and drama programs and communications at WSHS.

The 5K route runs along Alki Beach, turning at Anchor Park and heading back. Those attending can visit vendor booths and hang around on the beach until 11am to take advantage of "Celebrate Seattle Summer Streets" Car Free Sunday on Alki full of fun events and activities.

Check the official website for more information.

Packet pick-up and registration is available on the day of the event, starting at 8:00 AM.

Race results will be posted after the 5K on May 20, 2013.

Prizes will be awarded to the top 3 overall female and male finishers. In addition, ribbons will be awarded to the top 3 female and male finishers in each age group.

On Sunday, May 19th noted northwest gardening expert Ciscoe Morris will be visiting the Village Green Perennial Nursery at 10223 26th Avenue SW. The event starts at 1:00pm.

He'll provide his favorite tips for growing healthy spring plants. Ciscoe is the author of a bestselling gardening book, and is host of “Gardening with Ciscoe” on 97.3 FM Kiro radio and a weekly TV show on KING 5. He leads garden tours around the world, and he still somehow finds time to tend his own garden
here in Seattle.

Also visiting will be Debra Prinzing presenting "Slow Flowers"

Prinzing is a Seattle and Los Angeles-based outdoor living expert and will sign copies of and talk about her latest book, Slow Flowers: Four Seasons of Locally Grown Bouquets from the Garden, Meadow and Farm.

She will also create bouquets from materials found around the nursery, demonstrating how to craft beautiful arrangements from local materials such as regional bountiesof cut flowers, twigs, foliage, greenhouse plants, dried pods, and more.

Bouquets will be given away to lucky raffle winners.

Reader Deena Christopher was at the scene of an accident on May 18 on Delridge Way SW and shared this report with us via e-mail. Kyle S. Moore has confirmed the incident, see below:

"Tonight around 7:40pm I saw police and medics on the 8400 block of Delridge. I went outside and saw a boy laying in the road being attended to by medics. The police had the block blocked off from Thistle to Cloverdale.

I asked a group of boys if they knew what had happened. They told me that the victim had been hit by a car. I asked if they had witnessed the accident. They told me "no". I asked if they knew him and they replied "yes" and that his brother was right next to me.

I asked the victim's brother if he had reached their mother and asked where she was. He told me she was dowtown and that she was aware. I was also told the victim was 12 years old and his brother was 25. At this point the victim was being fitted with a neck brace. I told the brother he should go in the ambulance. The driver was a young woman. She was accompanied by an older woman, most likely her mother. She was very distraught and crying."

From SFD Kyle S. Moore:

UPDATE June 20:
Just to show you how fast gardens really grow if built well, fertilized and maintained the Sustainable West Seattle "Presto Garden" had its first harvest on June 20 and they collected 15 pounds of lettuce and spinach. It all goes to the White Center Food Bank. See photos below.

Original post May 18
Community means cooperation and that's what was in evidence May 18 as Sustainable West Seattle and some willing volunteers came together at Westcrest Park to create what they called a Presto Garden.

With donations of perennial vegetables from Village Green Nursery, compost – provided by Alki Bike and Board, Vegetable starts – from West Seattle Nursery and Seeds – provided by the Community Orchard of West Seattle the effort was to transform, in a single day a patch of weeds into a food producing garden.

The food produced by the garden will all go to the White Center Food Bank.

The big winners of the day were the private schools, but the public schools performed well with local West Seattle talent moving on to the state finals next week in Tacoma.

West Seattle Highs DiAndre’ Jackson 23.05 time placed him third in the boys’ 200 meter dash. Chief Sealth’s Vidal Griffen III’s triple jump distance of 42’8” and Lorna Sailiai’s 1kg discus throw of 98’ landed the two Seahawks a solid two/three in their respective events and will send them to Tacoma as well.

The West Seattle Herald spoke with Vidal Griffen III briefly after his high jump event and while he missed on 6’ he was happy he maintained his personal best of 5’10”. Vidal finished with a 5th place height of 5’10”. Griffen III is excited about next year when he’ll be attending Whitworth University in hopes of playing basketball and running track.

Hats off to all of the competitors that participated at the SWAC. Over the last two weeks these athletes gave everything for their schools and themselves.

Below are the stats for the athletes that made it through Friday’s finals from Chief Sealth and West Seattle. (Taken from athletic.net)

Ballard's 2013 Syttende Mai parade attracted thousands Friday, most staking their patch of grass or cement from the parade's start at NW 62nd and 24th Ave. NW along the route that headed south to Market Street and eastward to Bergen Place Park, then south down Ballard Ave. Many displayed the Norwegian version of red, white and blue on their shirts, ties, and bicycles as an assortment of Norwegian flags waved. Attendees from nine months old to 90 years old sported viking hats to show off their Norwegian pride.

The annual Norwegian Constitution Day event, the official National Day of Norway, is celebrated on May 17, or "Syttende Mai" (17th of May).

According to the Ballard website highlighting the festival, Ballard first celebrated Syttende Mai in 1901.

Friday, Ballard celebrated its annual Norwegian Constitution Day event, the official National Day of Norway, celebrated on May 17, called "Syttende Mai" (17th of May). In addition to Nordic culture, West Seattle represented in the parade as Denny Middle School and Chief Sealth High School performed to the delight of thousands of onlookers.

According to the Ballard website highlighting the festival, Ballard first celebrated Syttende Mai in 1901.

Three fastpitch softball teams from the Highline Times/Des Moines News area journeyed to Sprinker Recreation Center in Spanaway for West Central District/Southwest Washington tournament action in three different classifications, and all three were quickly eliminated.

Of the three, Mount Rainier came the closest to winning.

The Rams lost to South Kitsap in their 10 a.m. Class 4A opener by a 9-4 score, then were dumped into a loser-out game against powerful Puyallup.

The Vikings dispatched Mount Rainier, 11-0, in a 2 p.m. contest.
Kennedy Catholic, on the other hand, started with a 2 p.m. game, but it was loser out.

The Lancers came up short of Timberline, 12-6, in a high scoring game.
Foster opened 2A action with a 12 p.m. game and also had a short stay. The Bulldogs took a 13-1 loss to Kingston to be ousted.

The teams were trying to break through to state tournament play next week.

Seattle Christian, on the other hand, was not set to start Tri-District action until Saturday at the Kent Service Fields. The Warriors play the winner of the Lynden Christian-University Prep game at 4 p.m.