December 2013

Charles Redmond, better known in West Seattle as Chas, the former chair of the city neighborhood council, filed with the PDC today to run for city council member district 1 in West Seattle in the 2015 elections. Redmond's filing apart from incumbents is the first filing under the new district system, which Redmond supported and campaigned for.

Redmond said he is running “to bring a grass roots voice to the city council, to re-empower the citizens of Seattle, and ensure our investments benefit citizens across the entire city.”

Redmond and his wife Katherine Wilber have lived in the Morgan Junction neighborhood since 2003. Redmond is a retired NASA civil servant and had served in the US Army and worked for the Seattle Post Intelligencer when he lived in Seattle from 1971 to 1972. The couple have two sons: Adam a recent UW graduate who lives in the Redmond Wilber home in West Seattle, and Leif, a resident of Washington DC.

The West Seattle Herald profiled Redmond in 2009.

Nucor Steel, West Seattle's own steel manufacturing plant, has for some time been dedicated to helping the hungry and disadvantaged in West Seattle. On Friday Dec. 20 they came through again with donations of food and cash to both Providence Mt. St. Vincent and the West Seattle Food Bank.

"What they do is every year, the employees of Nucor have a food drive for the holidays," said Food Bank Director of Operations Steven Curry. "Not only do they have a food drive, they have a financial drive. We've been given upward of $15,000 to $20,000 and 3000 lbs of food in the past."

This year Nucor gave the Foodbank a check for $20,900 and 2740lbs of food.
The portion from the employees was $5164.12 which Nucor matched for $14,845.80. "It's one of the better donations we get all year," Curry said.

UPDATE 10am
The snow event that slowed roads and delayed schools (closing the Highline District and Kennedy High School in Burien) started easing before 10am with most major roadways just slushy but with some side roads, especially on hills still presenting a challenge. Accidents were reported in tricky locations around Seattle but West Seattle was otherwise accident free, with none appearing on the 911 log. Rains were expected to arrive later to remove most of the slush. SDOT was out early with sanding and salt trucks plus snow plows and aside from the Route 21 bus getting stuck for a while, Metro just ran on their normal snow routes. As the National Weather Service predicted it became more of a snow event than a snow storm.

Original post
Snow came to the West Seattle peninsula falling in earnest by 5:30am accumulating quickly on area roads. Snow fall totals were expected to range from 1 to 4 inches but predictions including a warm rain to follow later in the day. Highline Public Schools are closed as is Kennedy High School in Burien.

In the third of the public meetings on the proposed 30 unit studio apartment building planned for 6917 California Ave. S.W. it became obvious that people felt left out of the information process regarding the allowance of apartment building construction with no parking required.

Under the Urban Village plan that has evolved as part of the City of Seattle's Comprehensive Plan, housing can be constructed with no parking required if the building is with 1320 feet of frequent public transit, in an Urban Village zone. The meeting last week was with the developer Mark Knoll.

This meeting was led by Jerry Suder Seattle Department of Planning and Development Land Use Supervisor and Carly Guillory a DPD Land Use Planner. They called it an "information gathering meeting" and hoped to hear from people about the project.

They got an earful.

The Westwood Village Rite Aid was robbed at gunpoint at 5:22pm on Thursday night. The suspect is described as an Asian male in his 20's 5' 3" mustache, wearing a black coat.

He passed a note to the pharmacist demanding prescription drugs. He fled the scene with an undetermined amount of drugs and remains at large.

He fled following the robbery and Seattle Police called in the King County Guardian One helicopter to aid in the search.

The suspect may have escaped in a car but some evidence was recovered in the 2100 block of S.W. Trenton Street.

Anyone with information about this incident or who may know the identity or whereabouts of the suspect is asked to call 911 or Seattle Police and refer to this incident.

This remains an active and on-going investigation.

City of SeaTac, Wash. December 19, 2013 – Five people have lost almost all their belongings after a fire broke out in the 16600 block of 32 Ave. S. today.

The fire was first reported at 10:47 this morning. When firefighters arrived, they found fire coming from the back of the house and smoke from along the eaves. It took the firefighters from SeaTac, the Port of Seattle, and Tukwila approximately one hour to fully extinguish the fire.

No one was home at the time of the fire. The family was notified by a neighbor of the fire and is working with fire investigators to determine the cause. One firefighter suffered a minor injury.

A fire like this is devastating at any time, but especially during the holidays. The family reported that they lost all their gifts along with their other possessions. Firefighters from the SeaTac and Kent Fire Departments will replace the gifts that were lost.

The family of five, which includes a five year old, is being cared for by Red Cross.

UPDATE Dec. 20
When the Herald shared the offer of free trees for needy families at Tony's Trees at 35th and Barton there was no way to know the response. Well, it was huge.

Norm Smith, the man behind the offer said, "All the free ones are gone but they still have trees available for purchase and at the same time I want to thank everyone for making this a success."

They gave away 50 trees in the space of a few hours yesterday and Smith said, "we managed to make a better Christmas for a whole bunch of people!"

Trees at Tony's are still available for sale (it is a business after all) and they still have a great selection. If you need a tree, they are open from 9am to 8 through Christmas Eve.

Original Post Dec. 19
Christmas Trees are a big business and form the basis of many organization's fund raising efforts during the holiday season. But for some, Christmastime is the most difficult of the year. With an emphasis on commercialism seemingly coming sooner and the calls to buy, buy, buy louder and more frequent, even something as simple as a tree is out of reach for the disadvantaged.

The next public meeting on the 30 unit, 'no parking' apartments planned for 6917 California Ave. S.W. is happening tonight Dec. 19 at the West Seattle Senior Center starting at 6:30pm in Hatten Hall.

This meeting will be with the Seattle Department of Planning and Development.

The Senior Center is located at 4217 S.W. Oregon Street.

The project has come under more public scrutiny since a petition was drafted and signed by more than 560 people who variously question the wisdom of building a 3 story, 30 unit building with no parking in what many regard as an already crowded neighborhood.

In the previous meeting on the project, the developer, Mark Knoll, defended the project by pointing out that these apartments are 300 sq. feet in size, as studio units and that the market would determine the kind of people who might live there, implying that the residents would most likely not have cars.

Mount Rainier picked up three wins in one in non-league boys swimming action Tuesday and then followed up with a South Puget Sound League North Division victory Thursday.

The Rams went up against the "co-op" team of Evergreen, Highline and Tyee and won all but one event Tuesday, then took first in all but one event against Kentlake in a 120-65 win Thursday.

Mount Rainier opened by winning the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1 minute, 59.16 seconds Tuesday, and Grant Meyers followed by winning the 200 freestyle in 1:52.22.

Chris Smith won the 200 individual medley in 2:17.01 and Cannon Westland won the 50 free in 25.99.

Peyton Conrad scored 173 points to capture first in diving for the Rams and Meyers won the 100 butterfly in 1:01.25. Eric Reiff won the 100 free in 54.22.

Evergreen's win came in the 500 free, where Seryozha Dahl posted a time of 5:10.77.

Mount Rainier then went right back to work, winning the 200 free relay in 1:37.53.

Reiff took the 100 backstroke in 1:09.37 and Chris Smith won the 100 breaststroke in 1:11.94.

The Hi-Liners Musical Theatre DownStage Center production of Bye Bye Birdie has relocated to Renton Civic Theatre due to the recent fire at the Burien Annex. Bye Bye Birdie will open January 10 at 7 pm. Shows continue Jan 11 at 3 pm and 7 pm, Jan 12 at 3 pm, Jan 17 at 7 pm, Jan 18 at 3 pm and 7 pm, with the final performance Jan 19 at 3 pm. Tickets are $12 and are available at www.hi-liners.org. Don't miss this captivating Tony Award winning musical!

Tina Giesbers

The Hi-Liners Musical Theatre