June 2013

I attended the School board meeting on June 26, 2013 and it was the first time I was allowed to view the information on the surplus school land sale to the City of Burien. What I found especially interesting was Rose Clark/Burien council member standing up and telling the School Board that the approval of this sale was time sensitive as the ground had to be broken for this storm water facility by the City of Burien by this fall.

I regularly attend and follow Council meetings and have never heard about the land deal, the monies that are available for it and how much Burien citizens will have to contribute to this developing this facility.

If this is so urgent of an issue, why hasn't it been discussed at any recent council meetings? Why hasn't there been open public disclosure on what is going on in NERA, and who will really be responsible for this storm water facility and the expense to develop it?

Please see the letter attached I submitted to the Highline School District School board at this meeting.

June 26, 2013
To: The Highline School District School Board/ Highline Schools

At the transit study open house last night in the Ballard High School Commons, where Sound Transit and city officials unveiled eight possible routes for high capacity transit to Ballard, residents expressed a mixture of optimism and concern for cost of some possible routes.

Options include routes that go through Fremont, through Interbay, over the canal via a new bridge or an existing bridge, under the canal via a tunnel and more. (See bottom for a breakdown of the different routes.)

"These eight routes include a variety of different alignments –- using tunnels, elevated tracks, and also existing streets -– and they have important tradeoffs for the public to consider," said Mayor McGinn in a blog post. "These include ridership, travel time, cost, impact on automobile, pedestrian, and bicycle traffic, potential support for future development, connection to a regional transit system, and impact on the environment."

The cheapest options, such as using the Fremont Bridge as a crossing, cost $500 million, while the most expensive, featuring a tunnel, cost $2.5-3.0 billion.

By Marjorie Young

When people learn of my abilities, they often ask if I ever aid police in their investigations, as some psychics are known to do. The very thought makes me shudder; I have no desire to connect with ‘sinister energies’ that loom over violent crimes. Moreover, such situations are emotionally charged, making it difficult to achieve the required ‘detachment’ to ‘tune in’ with accuracy. However, there have unavoidably been occasions which require dealing with the more disturbing aspects of my work.

One unforgettable example took place during a phone reading with a woman in a southern state. While discussing her job, I intuited that she worked in a bank and had been recently promoted; yet the promotion had produced mixed feelings. The reason: she had taken the place of a colleague who had recently died. My client confirmed this, adding that her friend had committed suicide. At that moment, the ‘departed’ ‘manifested’ from the ‘other side.’ She clearly announced, with bitter vehemence, that she had not killed herself; rather, she had been murdered by her boyfriend, the local sheriff!

Friday, June 28

SketchFest at Ballard Underground

What: The entire month of June is going to be chocked full of all of Seattle's best sketch comedy. Experience a huge chunk of the wonderful script/character-focused comedians which Seattle has to offer.

Where: Ballard Underground (2220 NW Market Lower Level)

When: Charles & Ubiquitous They: Retch at 7 p.m., Worst Case Scenario & Charles starts at 9 p.m.

More info: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/374045

Last nights at the Copper Gate

What: Copper Gate is closing on June 30, come help them celebrate their last days by guzzling some Aquavit and listening to some music.

When: Happy Hour, 5-7 p.m.
8 p.m., Wes Weddell, Vince Martinez, $5

Where: Copper Gate (6301 24th Ave NW)

More info: thecoppergate.com

Saturday, June 29

Sunset Hill-Shilshole Gateway Work party

A new volunteer training for SealSitters.org is taking place on July 24th from 6:30 - 8:30pm. SealSitters founder Robin Lindsey said, "This will be the last training until the end of pupping season in late fall, due to time constraints on volunteers. The training will be held at Alki Congregational United Church (map it). Please RSVP for the event (link on blubberblog post below). We welcome children - our Seal Sitter kid volunteers ROCK!"

More info on content of the training:
http://www.blubberblog.org/files/481b9a1b7cc807ee88dc1647ed1bc9ca-498.h…

"Harbor seal pupping season is officially underway in South Puget Sound with reports of lanugo (premature) pups in and around area rookeries. Whidbey and the islands north of us have had newborns for several weeks now. There was a report of a small, new pup at Golden Gardens on Monday. As we reported a couple of weeks ago, an adult female seal died at Constellation Park and the necropsy revealed she had given birth two days earlier (http://www.blubberblog.org/files/abf02a71a6c50559e976733f5be60df4-496.h…). We searched the beaches for the next few days, but were not able to find a newborn pup."

Deceased brother's apartment burglarized

June 21, 3:43 p.m., 9000 Block of Greenwood Ave N -- A woman went to her deceased brother's house to find that items had gone missing, including a 20" color television, a small stereo system, two speakers and various clothing and household items.

She told the responding police officer that she suspected the woman who had been taking care of her brother's cat, but had no witnesses or specific evidence linking the friend. She suspected that the theft happened within the last week when her brother was gone, though she herself had not been in the apartment for a month.

When the police officer talked to the suspected friend, she denied taking anything and said she had given the keys over to the apartment manager after she learned of the death.

The police officer did not check for latent prints as the entry was not forced and the main suspect's entry to the apartment was legal.

How will she Facebook?

The new spraypark at Highland Park opens to the public at 11 a.m. on Friday, June 28.

The $635,000 spraypark features several different types of water play, including overhead buckets that fill and dump, playful jets that gently “jump” around the splash pad, and gurgling gushers. The water feature was designed and built to appeal to a range of ages from very young children and up. For year round interest, the surface has a solar system theme with to-scale bronze planets inlaid in colorful concrete.

Seattle Parks explained more about the project in a press release:

The final design was chosen based on input from the community at several public meetings. Safety, water/energy conservation, and selection of spray features that the community finds engaging were key considerations in the design.

Press release:

Due to a special event, Seahurst Park will close at a special time this evening, (June 27) at 10PM, so Seahurst Park visitors can see an especially high KING TIDE.

Tonight is one of the last of three consecutive nights of “King Tides” – very high tides. It should be hitting the shoreline tonight around 9:30 p.m.

If anyone has the time and interest, NOAA is requesting people take photographs and post them to the web – see the instructions below.

The full moon associated with the summer solstice has brought extreme high tides to our coast and shorelines. The term ‘King Tide’ is a non-scientific term used to describe naturally occurring, exceptionally high tides that take place when the sun and moon’s gravitational pull align making the oceans "bulge."

While the King Tides during the summer are not as large as winter King Tides, these exceptionally high tides depict what could be the new normal as sea level rise progresses.

From Mayor Mike McGinn

This evening (5-7 p.m. at Ballard High School, 1418 NW 65th St) the public will be able to view eight potential rail lines from Ballard to Downtown. This is an exciting and important step forward toward our goal of connecting more of our neighborhoods with rail. This is also part of the planning work Sound Transit (ST) is doing to update its long-range plan for a Sound Transit 3 ballot measure. ST is also analyzing a Ballard to the University District (and beyond) route, and a route from Downtown to West Seattle and Burien.

These routes represent an opportunity to provide Ballard with the transportation infrastructure that should have come along with the addition of significant housing and jobs in this great neighborhood. They represent our commitment to making it easier for people to choose transportation options that are better for our climate. They represent an investment that will support thriving business districts, bring more people to and from jobs more easily, and potential economic investment near stations.

From Seattle Police Department

A Ballard homeowner clubbed a burglar over the head with a piece of pottery and armed herself with a brass elephant early this morning after the burglar urinated in her basement, left beer in her washing machine and fought with her family inside their home.

Around 4 a.m., police received a call from the 59-year-old homeowner, who said the suspect had come through a back door or window of her home, and was in the midst of a struggle with a family friend inside the home, near 14th Avenue NW and NW 50th Street.

The family friend had confronted the suspect in the basement of the home, where he found him urinating in a corner. While in the basement, the suspect had also placed an open 18-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon inside a washing machine.

The family friend dragged the suspect up to the ground floor of the home, where the homeowner and her son pounced on the suspect.