February 2014

By Tim Clifford

Southwest Seattle Police Precinct Commander, Captain Steve Wilske was introduced Tuesday night at the monthly community safety meeting at the precinct on Delridge Way S.W.

Questions were quickly fielded by Wilske regarding updates on the recent murder investigations of Nga Thi Nguyen, who was found murdered in her residence in High Point last December, and Stephen Jeffries, who was shot and killed at a New Year’s Eve party. Updates were unavailable at this time.

Judge C. Kimi Kondo was present; the first time a judge has shown up to one of these meetings, to discuss Seattle’s Mental Health Court and its role in the community. According to a press release handed out at the meeting “participants volunteer to “opt in” to the program or can choose to be monitored by Mental Health Court post sentencing”.

During Random Acts of Kindness Week February 10 – 14 the staff and families of Arbor Heights Elementary participated in a week-long food drive, which brought in 350 pounds, to support the West Seattle Food Bank’s new “Backpack” Program.

The “Backpack” program, in its infancy, assists school age children who are at risk of being hungry throughout the weekend by assembling grocery bags of kid friendly healthy and nutritious food and distributing them through their school, one of which is Arbor Heights Elementary.

The West Seattle Food Bank wants to thank Rosslyn Shea at Arbor Heights for organizing this wonderful food drive and to remind any family participating in the 100th Day of School food drive at their school to check in with their organizer and get our wishlist to support the “Backpack” program.

Northwest Kids Center (NWKC), a childcare center proving early learning for children with and without disabilities in Queen Anne, has been told by Seattle School District to vacate their building at 2919 First Ave. W. in six months.

NWKC have been a tenant there at the Seattle Public School property for 28 years, and has had a termination clause in their lease since they moved there in 1987.

SSD will be displacing NWKC in order to provide a building for Cascade Parent Partnership, a SSD program that offers alternative and homeschool teaching strategies for children with learning disabilities and other learning needs. Students enroll in CPP are counted in the enrollment report that determines educational funding from the State and are eventually enrolled into SPS high schools. The program currently uses the Wilson Pacific building in Licton Springs, but the building will be torn down in order to make a new school that will better accommodates SPS’s growing needs.

During the early morning hours of Feb. 4, a known homeless man, Jeff Bouck, 48, was found dead under the Ballard Bridge.

Emergency units arrived after a friend and camp-mate, Marvin Vick, found Bouck. Though the cause of death has not been determined, the official police report states that Bouck had poor insulation the night of his death and that no foul play was suspected. The report stated he had a single blanket covering him, and was wearing jeans, a jacket and a couple shirts.

The night of Feb. 3, temperatures were around freezing.

Vick said that Bouck was celebrating the Seahawks Super Bowl victory the night before and was drinking alcohol. Vick also said that Bouck was feeling ill for most of the night. Early the next morning, Vick noticed Bouck wasn’t at the campsite and so he went looking and found him under bridge.

“I checked his pulse and his eyes but he was gone. I couldn’t believe it. I stopped a bus and asked them to call an ambulance, but I knew it was too late. … My best friend and brother is gone,” said Vick.

Paranoid bank robber takes cash, leaves prints

Feb. 10 at the 8700 block of Holman Road Northwest, officers responded to a reported bank robbery. En route to the scene dispatch told officers that the suspect had left the scene. They confirmed that when they arrived and made contact with bank employees. The complainant told officers that the suspect entered the bank and was standing in the entryway for a while. Then the suspect handed the complainant a note that told the complainant that he was armed and to hand over available money with no tracers or trackers hidden in the bills. The complainant handed the suspect all available money and the alarm was activated as the suspect fled. The suspect’s fingerprints were recovered from the scene.

Thief unimpressed with goods

Feb. 9 at the 6500 block of 21st Avenue Northwest officers responded to a reported burglary /forced entry. The complainant told officers that the day before the suspect had left for a few hours and when he returned he found his back door pried open. The dead bolt locks were ripped off the door. The complainant told officers that no entry was made and that nothing was taken.

Feb. 13 the Central Ballard Residents Association (CBRA) held their monthly meeting to discuss a litany of community issues. Topics for discussion were updates on the land use and the Department of Planning Development ‘s changes to the Low-rise Multi-family code corrections (Jan. 14th meeting); introduction progress toward a public loo in Ballard, and issues and events related to public safety and emergency preparedness. Moreover, representatives of Livable Ballard were in attendance and there was discussion of their online petition for land use and development regulation changes.

Additionally, the feature speakers were Ruth Harper and Jonathan Williams of SDOT who presented results of a Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) eligibility study requested by CBRA in 2013. CBRA requested the study for informational purposes only and does not necessary support RPZ parking but feel it is another potential way to ease building parking density in Ballard.

Feb. 13 the Central Ballard Residents Association (CBRA) held their monthly meeting to discuss a litany of community issues.Topics for discussion were updates on the land use and the Department of Planning Development ‘s changes to the Low-rise Multi-family code corrections (Jan. 14th meeting); introduction progress toward a public loo in Ballard, and issues and events related to public safety and emergency preparedness. Moreover, representatives of Livable Ballard were in attendance and there was discussion of their online petition for land use and development regulation changes.

Additionally, the feature speakers were Ruth Harper and Jonathan Williams of SDOT who presented results of a Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) eligibility study requested by CBRA in 2013. CBRA requested the study for informational purposes only and does not necessary support RPZ parking but feel it is another potential way to ease building parking density in Ballard.

Feb. 13 the Central Ballard Residents Association (CBRA) held their monthly meeting to discuss a litany of community issues.Topics for discussion were updates on the land use and the Department of Planning Development ‘s changes to the Low-rise Multi-family code corrections (Jan. 14th meeting); introduction progress toward a public loo in Ballard, and issues and events related to public safety and emergency preparedness. Moreover, representatives of Livable Ballard were in attendance and there was discussion of their online petition for land use and development regulation changes.

Additionally, the feature speakers were Ruth Harper and Jonathan Williams of SDOT who presented results of a Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) eligibility study requested by CBRA in 2013. CBRA requested the study for informational purposes only and does not necessary support RPZ parking but feel it is another potential way to ease building parking density in Ballard.

Can you help the West Seattle High School Tennis team? Coach Cathy Thom reports that they are in serious need of financial assistance this year. She writes, "I had a meeting with our Athletic Director recently, and, no joke, my budget is -$15. I've been able to get a couple cases of balls donated to the team from a friend, but would like to extend the offer to help my team thru the West Seattle Herald. Here is a webpage I have made with a Donate button (via PayPal):

https://sites.google.com/site/wshstennis/

If you can help, sooner is better and really any donation you can make would make a difference.

information from the Whale Trail

Salmon are the key to the recovery of the endangered southern resident orcas. How are the salmon populations of Puget Sound doing, and what can we do to help?

Jeanette Dorner, Puget Sound Partnership, will discuss the current health of salmon populations in Puget Sound, what kinds of challenges salmon face for their continued survival, and what people are doing to recover salmon populations to healthy harvestable levels in Puget Sound.

Jeanette is the manager of the Ecosystem and Salmon Recovery Program at the Puget Sound Partnership and coordinates the regional partnership to implement the federal ESA Puget Sound Chinook Salmon Recovery Plan.

Join us on February 27 to learn more about this iconic species.

Buy tickets ahead of time and we'll save you a seat! And hurry - this will likely sell out.

This is the second in a series of Orca Talks 2014 presented by The Whale Trail. The event also features updates from Laura James (tox-ick.org) and Seal Sitters, and photography from Judy Lane.

About the Speaker