June 2013

This Wednesday, the city of Burien sent out a newsletter to its approximately 48,000 residents and on the front page of that newsletter, it failed to list me as a candidate for council.

The information for who is running in the Council election comes directly from the King County Elections website. So I find it strange that my name was excluded from the list shown in the city newsletter. When I called the city for an explanation, they couldn't explain why this error had occurred and they did refuse to send out a mailing correction for their error.

Now the dilemma here is that the city does not consider the blogs to be valid media sources so they are only willing to correct their error in the Highline Times and on the city website.

If we are to believe the city's surveys, only 20 percent of the Burien citizens get their information from the Highline Times and only 33 percent of Burien citizens have a computer that they get their information from.

By Carol Smith

Service is a fickle thing
That can both joy and heartache bring
It gives and also takes away
For it can either go or stay

Warm or sometimes very cool
The product of a sage or fool
Too smothering or not enough
Silky smooth or far too rough

Dark as night or clear as glass
High on style or low on class
Young at heart or long in tooth
Accompanied by a lie or truth

But service was at Barnecut’s
Amidst the rows of brakes and struts
Just like their oil, so well refined
It was by excellence defined!

Editor's Note: Barnecut's Admiral Way Service has been sold.

Joe Sutter was born on March 21, 1921 of modest means, the son of a first generation Slovenian immigrant who worked in the meat packing industry. Living directly under the flight path of planes in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of south Seattle, as he grew older he became fascinated with those flying objects high in the sky but, unlike most boys his age, he didn’t imagine himself inside the cockpit.

“I wanted to build them more than I wanted to fly them,” Sutter, now 92 and living on Fauntleroy Way S.W. in West Seattle, said in an interview with the Herald at his home on June 11.

Sutter is known these days as the “Father of the 747,” dubbed so by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He was the chief engineer and leader of a group collectively known as “The Incredibles” who made high-capacity passenger travel a reality in the late 1960s by designing the unmistakable wide-berth jet with a bulbous hump on top and four engines under the wings commonly referred to at the Jumbo Jet or Queen of Skies. They rolled out their first 747 in just 29 months, a record turnaround time.

Why are these windows the top photo lit?

IT'S THE SUN!

The building that was Petco in the West Seattle Junction will be completely gone by next week and become a 7 story building for apartments and retail space built by Compass Construction.

The demolition began earlier this week and will be completed soon.

The Morgan Community Association (MoCA) is the host for the 8th Annual Morgan Junction Community Festival, held at California Ave SW and Fauntleroy Way SW. It's set for June 22 and is a family friendly event featuring music, information booths, vendors, and of course the Bite of Morgan, food samples from area restaurants and back again is the Bark of Morgan, a pet parade and contest. The event will run 10:30am to 7pm.

See the Music Schedule at the link.

Here's the list of participating Morgan Junction area restaurants:

Harry's Chicken Joint
6032 California Ave SW
206-938-9000 One Chicken Skewer

Kokoras Greek Grill
6400 California Ave SW
206-913-0041 One Stuff Grape Leaf
**Opens at 1pm***

Feedback Lounge
6451 California Ave SW
206-453-3259 Pork Chili Verde

Zeeks Pizza
6459 California Ave SW
206-504-2662 A pizza slice

Dominos Pizza
6540 California Ave SW
206-932-0995 Parmesan bread stick

McDonalds
6546 California Ave SW
206-938-1500 Free $1 menu item

West Seattle Thriftway
4201 SW Morgan Street

The Seattle Police Blotter reported tonight about an arrest made the morning of June 15.

By Detective Renee Witt
A Domestic Violence (DV) assault suspect was arrested after he was found hiding in a sofa storage compartment. This morning, just shortly after 11:00 a.m., officers responded to a DV Assault at an apartment in the 8600 block of Delridge Way SW.

The investigation showed that the victim had been assaulted and had attempted to report the incident to 9-1-1.

While the victim was on the line, making the report, the suspect grabbed the phone away and threw it into the trash can. The suspect fled before officers arrived. The victim reported at that time that the suspect had at least three firearms that he kept positioned at various points throughout the apartment. Two children, ages two and three, were present during the assault. Officers took a report and left the residence.

Seattle's largest contiguous forest, the West Duwamish Greebelt was celebrated on June 15 with an event called Picnic in the Park, sponsored by Nature Consortium and Seattle Parks. It featured live music, hiking, and art activities.

Honored at the event was Rory Denovan, who is leaving Parks to become an ecologist with City Light. He was instrumental in saving the greenbelt. He was joined by Nancy Whitlock, founder of Nature Consortium, who is leaving the role of Executive Director soon, and Monica Thomas, who handles marketing for Nature Consortium.

Lili Allala, Restoration Director also presented the Golden Shovel Award to volunteer Tim Jeragy. Lizzie Jackson, Restoration and Education Coordinator for Nature Consortium, who is leaving the organization to get a teaching certificate was honored with the award of a Japanese hori hori knife, useful they said for removing vine weed.

Nature Consortium volunteers have worked to restore the habitat there and campaigned since 2003 to save a portion of the West Duwamish Greenbelt called the Soundway property to have it become park space.

The property is a wooded area located south of South Seattle Community College.

A fixture in West Seattle business, Barnecut's Admiral Way Service station at 4100 SW Admiral Way has been sold to Marc Gartin. Gartin is also the owner of the Admiral Theater building, the Bartell Drugs property, and the Admiral Way Chevron station land.

Dick Barnecut, whose father George Barnecut Sr. founded a service station in the Admiral District in 1923, said, "My dad was in business across from where the Starbucks is now, that whole property was Union Oil property. Then on March 12, 1932 he moved across the street to the new station."

Barnecut, now 87, has been in West Seattle all his life. He's wistful about the change but grateful and said he would share a letter to that effect soon. "It's been a great opportunity and a privilege to be able to grow up in a community and have all your friends and neighbors support you. It's a special place. How can you be sad about someplace you've worked for 70 years?"

He started working there when we was in high school in 1940, continued until he went in the Navy in 1944 then came back and worked ever since. "It will seem strange not to be able to walk up to that corner, walk in and sit down."

You'd expect that if you encountered a room full of rabbits it would be pretty adorable. That's an understatement. The Alki Community Center was host to Bunny Bonanza on Friday June 14 and Kirstie Lee with Bunnies for Birthdays (www.bunniesforbirthdays.com) was there with somewhere around 25 rabbits. "I think there are more now than when I started out," she joked," they are prolific."

But the point of the visit was to literally hold and visit and pet and enjoy these gentle creatures. Kids and adults both held, fed and petted the little fur balls with cuteness factor going way past overload.

The business is located in Kenmore but she travels all over for birthday parties and other events where bunnies are welcome. "It's not just for birthdays," she said.