August 2014

Update 8:55am
Seattle Fire Dept PIO Kyle Moore explained the circumstances around the fire this morning.
"At 6:43 a.m. firefighters responded to a 4800 block of 25th Av SW for an automatic fire alarm. The first arriving firefighters found smoke coming from the rear of the 1-story home with basement. Firefighters rescued two young adult males from inside the heavy smoke filled home. Both males declined medical treatment.

Firefighters completely extinguished the fire in 10 minutes. The fire was contained to a back bedroom.

Seattle Police Officers were called in to investigate items found in the basement of the home. The investigation is ongoing.

The fire caused $15,000 in damage."

Original post
A fire in a home at 4814 25th SW forced two people from the house. Firefighters said they faced some opposition from the occupants but managed to get the fire put out quickly. Fire investigators came to the scene and police were on hand as they entered and began to seek the cause.

City Light was called in to shut down power to the house as firefighters dismantled a window frame seeking any hot spots.

By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Although not finishing high overall as a team, there were still some good swims which buoyed Arbor Heights' Otters to some top three finishes at the All City Championships for the Seattle Summer Swim League at Gregory Seahurst's pool on Tuesday.

"It gets competitive at this level, but we are getting there," said Arbor Heights head coach Chris Veraya, whose team finished 15th among the 16 teams competing from the Northern and Southern SSSL Divisions at All City.

Veraya looked past that, just noting, "We're looking forward to more kids in there next summer and we are going to go for one of those trophies."
The top six teams get a trophy at All City.

Veraya's emphasis was on the team's regular season of dual meets which was one of the best finishes of any of the SSSL Southern Division teams, spanning from Federal Way to Normandy Park to Kent and Renton.

"We came off a great 5-2 season," said Veraya.

The national Night Out event has been embraced by many and West Seattle, already a close knit grouping of neighborhoods seems to have polished it up and made it a true community event. Unlike almost any other public gathering, Night Out has evolved to be an expression of true caring and involvement for many people on streets all around the West Seattle peninsula.

We went to take pictures of the people attending these parties and while the number was slightly smaller than in previous years, every single person we encountered was no less enthusiastic, happy to get to know their neighbors, and interested in being there.

Thanks West Seattle.

Junior football
Four area youth football programs have training camps underway in the area.
The SWAC Cougars meet at the Southwest Athletic Complex at 5:30 p.m. each weekday and the West Seattle Wildcats start at 5 p.m. at the Hiawatha Playfield.
Burien's Bearcats converge at 5:30 p.m. at the old Glacier High School site and the Pacific Highway Chargers start at 6 p.m. at Chinook Middle School.
See the respective program web pages for information, including continued tryouts.

Mariners
Seattle gets a 12:40 p.m. visit from the Atlanta Braves Wednesday before hosting the Chicago White Sox at 7:10 p.m. Thursday and Friday.
Saturday's action against Chicago starts at 6:05 p.m. and Sunday's at 1:10 p.m.
The Toronto Blue Jays come to Safeco Field for three important games with Wildcard playoff berth implications at 7:10 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Mariners games can be seen on ROOT Sports cable television and heard on 710 AM.

Rainiers

The annual Night Out, an event intended to build community through neighbor familiarity and thus cut down on crime is set for Tuesday night Aug. 5 in neighborhoods all across Seattle. It's also a chance to help people become more familiar with emergency procedures and measures in their area.

As the Night Out event page from Seattle Police puts it:

Night Out Against Crime is an opportunity for individual neighborhoods to renew their commitment to the following:

• Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness

• Generate support for, and participation in, local anti-crime programs

• Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships

• Send a message to criminals that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

Most neighborhood gatherings are potluck events with everyone bringing something to share as some also feature local musical performances, hot dog and hamburger grilling and a lot of conversation.

By Katy Wilkens, MS, RD
Nutrition and fitness manager, Northwest Kidney Centers

“Take along” food beats take-out food for car trips because it not only saves you time and money, it tastes better. Spending a little time before a trip to prepare food can save you dollars to put into your gas tank, and build meaningful, healthy memories for you and your travel companions.

Skip the chips!
Instead of salty, oily chips, pack popcorn. Not the packaged, full-of-butter kind, but low-fat homemade microwave (or air-popped) popcorn that has been juiced up with flavor (recipe below). Try making a big bowl of popcorn and divide it into fourths. Flavor the popcorn differently, and put it into many small bags – this way your passengers don’t get bored.

It’s the crunch!
If you think carrot sticks aren’t a good option to replace fries, think again! Carrots, celery, pea pods, radishes, sweet red pepper strips or jicama all have the crunch of French fries, but with less fat, salt and calories.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray today announced that, as part of his three-point plan for more and better broadband service in the Seattle, he will send legislation to City Council that will bring more competition to the marketplace and more access to service – especially in neighborhoods that are currently underserved.

Murray said his legislation will change a regulatory barrier – the SDOT “director’s rule” – that has prevented companies from investing in their own high-speed fiber networks within the city. CenturyLink earlier today announced that this change will allow it to bring one-gigabit, fiber-to-the-premises internet access to tens of thousands of single-family Seattle homes in Beacon Hill, Central District, Ballard, and West Seattle by the end of 2015.

CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) today announced that symmetrical broadband speeds up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) are available to tens of thousands of residential and business customers in select Seattle neighborhoods through the company’s ultra-fast fiber network. This highly advanced fiber technology provides access to the some of the fastest upload and download Internet speeds currently available in the U.S.

CenturyLink’s 1 Gbps fiber service will initially launch in a select number of Seattle neighborhoods, including Ballard, West Seattle, the Central District and Beacon Hill, as well as available businesses throughout the Puget Sound area.

“In a city that boasts some of the world’s leading technology providers, it’s critical that residents and businesses have leading technology available to them,” said Sue Anderson, CenturyLink general manager/vice president for Seattle. “We chose Seattle for this next-generation technology because the city’s tech-savvy customers demand it. CenturyLink is pleased to bring this product offering to Seattle today.”

Thief raids business locker room, take’s bags

On July 27 Seattle Police Department officers were dispatched to a burglary at 1700 Northwest Market Street. Two employees told officers that their backpacks had been stolen from the business employee locker room. The space is shared by multiple businesses. The victims told officers that after leaving for a few hours they returned to find their bags gone. Police searched the area but did not find the bags. The estimated value of their loss was $107.

Suspect threatens man with machete

July 25 SPD officers were dispatched to Northwest 56th Street and 24th Avenue Northwest after a suspect threatening a victim with a knife during a robbery. The complainant told officers that the suspect had taken his phone after threatening him with a large machete and a pipe. The suspect fled to a nearby abandoned building and police followed. They found the suspect just inside a window he had broken. Officers were able to apprehend the suspect.

Bike stolen from secure parking garage

RainWise is a rebate program offered by Seattle Public Utilities and King County Wastewater Treatment Division. It helps pay to install rainwater cisterns and/or rain gardens on private properties in parts of Seattle to reduce the polluted runoff going into the Puget Sound through the sewer system.

This program is available to all homeowners in the Barton basin from now until the end of 2015. So far, over 50 of your neighbors have chosen to be RainWise and installed a rain garden or cistern. This means that the rain flowing off of 50,000 square feet of impervious surfaces are no longer flowing into Puget Sound. Help us increase this number by joining today! Check your eligibility at www.rainwise.seattle.gov.

RainWise rebates cover up to 100% of new garden landscaping or a cistern to soak up or collect roof runoff to protect Puget Sound.

This summer, Urban Systems Design outreach staff will be working in the Barton-Fauntleroy neighborhoods to connect people with the RainWise rebates for rain garden and cistern installations.