September 2014

With fall beginning and rain becoming more frequent, the Seattle Department of Transportation is winding down its annual preventative maintenance and street paving programs that require dry weather. Microsurfacing and crack sealing are the processes that are the most weather sensitive.

SDOT completed its second ever microsurfacing project this summer in the Arbor Heights neighborhood of West Seattle covering 26.8 “lane-miles” of residential, non-arterial streets. (A lane mile is one mile of a standard traffic lane.) Microsurfacing is a preventive maintenance treatment consisting of applying slurry of crushed stone and asphalt emulsion. This technique extends the life of pavement that is in good condition and keeps lightly traveled streets from deteriorating to the point where they require major rehabilitation. Before SDOT began microsurfacing, crews chip-sealed these streets, a process that leaves troublesome loose rock for a period after the work is done.

A $70,000 grant from Lowes Hardware to Habitat for Humanity, plus some volunteer labor will help complete up to ten critical home repairs in White Center Sept. 26. Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King County and Lowe’s Heroes employee volunteers will work together on Sept.26 to repair a home in White Center to help revitalize the neighborhood.

Volunteers will remove and replace siding and then give the entire home a fresh coat of paint to ensure the home is sealed up and preserved for years to come.

State Senator Susan Nelson and Representative Joe Fitzgibbon will speak during the morning program about the need and support for neighborhood revitalization work in White Center.

Friday, Sept. 19
Football
Chief Sealth 28, Nathan Hale 26
Daron Camacho ran for 319 yards on 33 carries and scored three touchdown for the Chief Sealth Seahawks as they outgunned the Nathan Hale Red Raiders by two points in a Metro League game Friday.
Camacho averaged 9.7 yards per carry, and also tacked on two runs for crucial two-point conversions.
He scored the first touchdown on a 1-yard run, then the kick for the extra point failed.
Camacho next struck on a 20-yard run and a run for two failed thereafter, but Camacho ran for two successfully after the Seahawks scored on a 27-yard pass play.
The winning two-point conversion scored after Camacho punched in a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Cleveland 27, Foster 26
The Bulldogs came up one point shy in a non-league game Friday.

Hazen 43, Evergreen 14
The Wolverines were felled by the Highlanders in Seamount League action on Friday.

Lummi 60, Seattle Lutheran 12
Seattle Lutheran of West Seattle took a loss Friday.

Lindbergh 40, Highline 0
Highline lost to Lindbergh in a road game Friday.

Boys tennis

Today Mayor Ed Murray presented to the City Council his proposed budget for 2015-16 that brings more transparency, more innovation, better organization and better performance to City government.

Murray outlined several major reform proposals, beginning with key reforms to the City’s budgeting process itself.

“We will move toward a performance-based budgeting system and begin paying for outcomes,” said Murray in his budget address to Council. “This will lead to streamlining of services, better use of resources and greater performance from our departments. And, perhaps most importantly, it will drive better service for the people of Seattle.”

Murray’s additional proposed reforms to the City’s budgeting process include:

· moving City departments to a standard accounting system;

· conducting a zero-based budgeting exercise for a least two City departments for a better accounting of baseline expenditures;

· launching an interactive, online “Open Budget” tool on the model of the City of Boston’s tool for greater transparency in City spending;

By Gwen Davis

Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) plans to raise rent rates on low-income residents, potentially forcing people to move out. On Wed. morning, the Seattle City Council heard SHA make its case.

SHA is in charge of West Seattle's High Point, which provides housing options for people of all income levels.

This meeting was heated. Here is the story:

--> SHA's new proposal would not affect the elderly or disabled, SHA officials said, only a population of residents aged 24-61 who are able to work. SHA serves 13,000 individuals, and 65 percent of them are able to work, they stated. SHA is in a space crunch: this year only 2,000 spots were available for 24,000 applications.

The new proposal, Stepping Forward, would dramatically raise rates. People who are currently making around $11 an hour would have to make $19 an hour by the end of a four-to-six-year implementation process or they'd get kicked out. SHA plans to provide job training so residents can get higher-paying jobs.

A friend of mine owns a 73-inch Mitsubishi projection TV system. That’s why he’s a friend of mine---especially on Seahawks Sundays.

His system has almost everything you can imagine, including High Definition. When I was a kid, High Definition meant looking up a word from a dictionary on the top shelf.
But with HDTV you can see every crag and crevice on the moon. Or a person’s face.

Privately, aging TV news anchors hate HDTV.

But what my friend’s TV system does not have is something that has never quite caught on: Smell-o-vision. Which is a dumb name, because the nose has little to do with the eyeballs.
The idea’s been experimented with from time to time. In the 50’s, an application called Aroma-rama piped odors into movie theaters through the ventilation system. My research shows it was used for the final time in a short film called “Corned Beef and Cabbage: The Morning After.”

The smell issue wafted up recently in Burien, where last month an ordinance banning stinky people from parks and certain public buildings was passed.

Winning scripts staged May 1-24, 2015

Burien Actors Theatre is seeking submissions of unproduced, unpublished plays by Washington State Playwrights for the 2015 Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival. Both one-act and full-length plays are sought.

Winning scripts will be staged May 1 through May 24, 2015 as part of the company’s 2014-15 season. In addition to having their plays produced, winning playwrights will also receive monetary prizes. Additional scripts of merit may receive readings.

The submission deadline for all scripts is Oct. 22, 2014. To qualify for the Festival, all submissions must follow Playwrights Submission Guidelines detailed below. The guidelines and entry form can also be found at www.burienactorstheatre.org.

About the Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival

The mission of the Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival is to encourage, promote and showcase previously unproduced theater works written by Washington state residents.

Winning scripts staged May 1-24, 2015

Burien Actors Theatre is seeking submissions of unproduced, unpublished plays by Washington State Playwrights for the 2015 Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival. Both one-act and full-length plays are sought.

Winning scripts will be staged May 1 through May 24, 2015 as part of the company’s 2014-15 season. In addition to having their plays produced, winning playwrights will also receive monetary prizes. Additional scripts of merit may receive readings.

The submission deadline for all scripts is Oct. 22, 2014. To qualify for the Festival, all submissions must follow Playwrights Submission Guidelines detailed below. The guidelines and entry form can also be found at www.burienactorstheatre.org.

About the Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival

The mission of the Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival is to encourage, promote and showcase previously unproduced theater works written by Washington state residents.

The city councils located within the borders of Highline Public Schools all passed resolutions this month endorsing the district’s construction bond measure to repair or replace deteriorating schools and ease overcrowding. If approved by voters on the Nov. 4 election ballot the construction bond would rebuild Highline High School, replace Des Moines Elementary School, build two new middle schools and make critical renovations at Tyee and Evergreen campuses. The bond would also provide technology improvements, make capital improvements to support arts education and address critical needs throughout the entire district.

The SeaTac and Normandy Park city councils endorsed the bond on Sept. 9 while Des Moines lawmakers approved the support resolution on Sept. 11, followed by Burien on Sept. 15.

Projections forecast more than 2,000 additional students will enter Highline schools over the next decade. Without added classrooms, class sizes will become larger and the district would likely have to forfeit up to $2.2 million in extra state funds targeted for lowering class size.

To the editor:

In 2002, the HSDB asked us to approve a bond for $148 Million.….and we did.
In 2006, the HSDB asked us to approve a bond for $189 Million......and we did.

Now the HSDB is asking us to approve a bond for an additional $385 Million to be paid off in 2035 which would extend the life of the first two bonds costing more than originally stated. This means that with the combination of the 3 Bonds, we will have paid the HSDB close to One Billion Dollars by the year 2035, if this passes! It represents a 60% increase in our school property tax.

The HSDB wants us to believe that all we would be paying is $1.12 per $1000 Assessed Property Valuation (APV). THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE!

The Bonds we approved in 2002 and 2006 taxes us at $1.88 per $1000 APV. We are also paying a Maintenance and Operations Levy (M & O) which taxes us at $3.80 per $1000 APV for a total of $5.66 per $1000 APV. This amount increases with the approval of this new Bond! No one is immune to this increase. Landlords will raise rents and the cost of consumer goods will rise. Aren't there enough empty storefronts?