June 2013

Information from King County Metro
Starting Saturday, June 8, King County Metro Transit will revise bus service, routing and schedules to continue to operate more efficiently, improve travel times and better match bus service to ridership.

Changes affecting 17 routes are posted online, and also included in new green timetables and an orange rider alert brochure.

Among the changes, transit planners are adjusting RapidRide C and D line trips to better match morning demand. Other adjustments are schedule or routing changes, some planned seasonal/summer adjustments, or mark a reduction in bus trip frequency due to expiring state grant funding.

Metro updates its routes and schedules three times a year to improve service and address the changing needs of transit customers, while operating within budget. The June 8 changes come as Metro continues to prepare for possible service cuts up to 17 percent beginning in fall 2014 unless a stable source of revenue is identified.

The revised route schedules beginning on June 8 will be available on Metro Online on Friday, June 7, or call Metro Customer Information at 206-553-3000.

Press release:

The Board of Directors (the "Board") of Highline School District No. 401 (the "School District") intends to hold a hearing on June 26, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. at Highline School District ERAC building; 15675 Ambaum Blvd. S.W., Burien, WA.

The purposes of the hearing will be (a) to declare a portion of real property located at 1010 S. 146th St., in the City of Burien, County of King, Washington (the "Property"), as surplus because it is neither necessary for nor required for school purposes, and (b) to authorize the sale of the Property to the City of Burien pursuant to Chapter 39.33 RCW, the Intergovernmental Disposition of Property Act.

The proposed use of the Property is for development of the Northeast Redevelopment Area (“NERA”).

The Property is legally described as follows:
That portion of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter lying northwesterly of S. 144th Way and northerly of S. 146th Street.

The old Charlestown Street Café site, at the corner of California and Charlestown, appears to have a new use in store with planning documents revealing developers want to build six townhouse units “arranged around a central drive aisle.”

Intracorp Real Estate has begun the permitting process with Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development and a design review process is expected, although dates have not been set. Each of the six structures will have five townhomes incorporated, making for 30 units in total.

It’s been a little over two years since the Charlestown Street Café closed their doors, the result of tough economic times and a lease with poor terms, according to owner Ron Hanlon. Their final day, April 3,2011, was full of emotion for long time customers and employees saying goodbye to a fixture of classic American dining in West Seattle.

Port of Seattle press release:

Sea-Tac Airport’s newest residents, 500,000 honeybees, have joined ranks with the 777s and other aircraft that call the airport home.

Made possible through a partnership with the Port of Seattle and the nonprofit The Common Acre, the project — named Flight Path — makes Sea-Tac one of the first airports in the country to feature an apiary. 

Six hives sit at three vacant, undeveloped sites near the airfield.

Like most airports, Sea-Tac has large tracts of open land that provide an added buffer for both safety and noise mitigation such as the runway protection zones

With open space around the airfield and bee populations in decline, the airport is uniquely suited to host honeybees and other pollinators. The long-term goal is to promote hardy bee populations in the region by increasing their genetic diversity and supporting them with adequate habitat.

Press release:

Highline Public Schools Athletics is offering sports camps this summer for students entering grades 1 through 12. Twenty camps will cover ten sports: Basketball, Cheer, Cross Country, Dance/Drill, Football, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis, Volleyball and Wrestling.

The summer sports camp program is a new initiative of the school district. The camps are taught by Highline coaches and teachers, and are geared for young athletes at all levels of experience.

“Our summer camps program is an effort by district coaches to provide fundamental skills instruction to students throughout the district,” said Highline Athletic Director Terri McMahan. “It is an opportunity for younger students to learn from skilled coaches and high school student-athletes in a fun and instructional environment.”

Registration forms are available online at www.highlineschools.org/athletics. Information can also be obtained by contacting Debbi Mathews at debra.mathews@highlineschools.org, or 206-431-2418.

SeaTac Committee for Good Jobs press release:

Today the SeaTac Good Jobs Initiative takes a major step forward as supporters will file more than 2,500 signatures and call on the city to place the initiative on the November 2013 ballot. Only 1,541 valid signatures are required to qualify the measure in the city.

It took airport workers and their community supporters less than 4 weeks of door-to-door canvassing to collect the signatures. The signature total represents nearly half of all SeaTac residents who voted in the 2011 general election.

Workers and their supporters will deliver their signatures to the SeaTac City Clerk’s office with the help of a marching band, balloons and celebratory signs.

“Today we celebrate in SeaTac. Filing the initiative shows how the community is coming together in its care and concern for one another. When working families can be paid properly and thrive, our whole community benefits,” said Rev. Jan Bolerjack, pastor of Riverton Park United Methodist Church.

"Picnic in the Park" an event sponsored by West Seattle's Nature Consortium is set for Saturday, June 15 as an outdoor celebration of the West Duwamish Greenbelt, Seattle’s largest forest.

The event will run from 10am-2pm in the West Duwamish Greenbelt – Soundway located near South Seattle Community College. The trail entrance is at 14th Ave SW & SW Holly St and Treats will be provided by Marination.

More information from Nature Consortium:

Event Schedule
10am Picnic in the Park begins
10:15am Toddler Walk
10:30am – 1:30pm Art Activity: making nature flags with Amy Pille
11am – 12pm Live Music in the Woods by The Mighty Tiny Band
11am Eco Hike with our Restoration Director
12pm Ceremony and Golden Shovel Award Presentation
12:30pm – 1:30pm Live Music in the Woods by The Acoustic Laboratory
12:30pm Eco Hike with NC Staff
2pm Picnic in the Park ends

Celebrating Our Community

Last week I stood on Pennsylvania Avenue, in the other Washington, and read the front pages of a newspaper from every state, plus ten from abroad. Washington, D.C. streets are on a grid, like in Ballard, with the exception of diagonal streets that are named for states. Between the United State’s Capitol and the White House, reading those front pages in a rather Pacific Northwest blustery cold, I felt at a diagonal, somehow cut off from both my east coast and west coast worlds.

All those incredible free museums that line the mall, the Smithsonian and visitor centers at the Library of Congress and the Capitol Building, well, they all close at 5 p.m. Which is why Emily and I were shivering on the sidewalk, killing time by reading the front pages on the outside of the locked Newseum. The I-5 bridge collapse over the Skagit River was prominent, not just in nearby states but mentioned in at least ten out of the fifty. The Boy Scouts of America decision to allow gay members was on every front page; I would have had to review the entire gamut to determine if there was one paper without it.

About two weeks ago, the I-5 Skagit Bridge suddenly collapsed when a truck with an oversized load struck a girder, setting off a frenzy of media speculation, political statements and general citizen worry.

The event has caused many to wonder aloud about the condition of the state’s overall road infrastructure, reigniting a political discussion that had become sleepy during the legislative session.

It also has residents from around the state, including here in Ballard, asking: Could it happen to our bridge?

After all, the Ballard Bridge and 15th Ave NW as a whole is one of the city’s busiest arterials, acting as a corridor for over 60,000 cars on an average weekday and an important road for freight and industry.

Thankfully, the Ballard Bridge is sturdy and not likely to have any such freak accident, according to Seattle Department of Transportation Roadway Structures Manager John Buswell, who helps overlook upkeep of the bridge. It certainly doesn’t have the same fracture critical point -- where being hit at one point can cause a whole span to collapse -- which proved to spell doom for the Skagit Bridge.

UPDATE June 7
South Seattle Community College and Vigor Industrial celebrated the opening of the newest extension of the SSCC campus, the Harbor Island Training Center located literally on site at the Vigor Shipyard on Harbor Island. The ribbon cutting featured State Rep. Larry Seaquist, chair of the House Higher Education Committee, Vigor Industrial CEO Frank Foti, SSCC President Gary Oertli, Jimmy Hart, Director of the Metal Trades for the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters, Marlena Sessions CEO of Workforce Development Council and Rep. Judy Cliburn.

The training center will get students through a six month program where they earn a certificate, after they train both hands on with state of the art welding gear and learn in the adjacent classroom space. The program was modeled after what Vigor has previously done in Portland at its Swan Island facility. They are also adopting some shipyard specific curriculum. They will offer many of their same existing classes and adding the "shipyard intensive." Students will have the opportunity to go to work right away.

Displays of the welding gear and demonstrations of welding were part of the event.