June 2015

Safety improvements are coming to the intersection of Third Avenue Northwest, Northwest 56th Street and Northwest 55th Place. Construction will start on June 15th and will require two temporary closures of Northwest 56th Street and Northwest 55th Place at Third Avenue Northwest. Local access will be maintained at all times during both closures. Work will occur from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and is anticipated to last approximately seven to nine weeks.

The east side of the Northwest 56th Street and Third Avenue Northwest intersection will be closed to traffic starting as soon as June 15th. (Please see the attached map.) This closure will be in place 24-hours a day and will last approximately three weeks.

After work on the east side of the intersection is complete, crews will close the west side of the Northwest 56th Street, Northwest 55th Place and Third Avenue Northwest intersection. People walking and riding bikes will be routed around the closure. Please follow the detour signs. This closure will also be in place 24-hours a day and will last approximately three weeks.

The improvements will include:

By Tim Clinton
SPORTS EDITOR

Caroline Tupa of Evergreen was named as the Seamount League girls track and field Athlete of the Year for her first team efforts in the shot put and disculs, while her Evergreen-Tyee squad also won the Team Sportsmanship award.

Carolyn Burns of Kennedy was named as the Coach of the Year after leading the Lancers to the league championship.

Making the first team from Kennedy was Gabrielle Patten in the 300-meter low hurdles and Foster's Emily Chanthaphone made the first squad in the pole vault.

Renton's foursome of Olivia Carter, Raylyn Apolonio, Savannah Smith and Shelly Sauls was named in both the 400 and 800-meter relays and the 1,600-meter relay award went to Hazen's Alexis Rogers, Amy Warmenhoven, Sablena Milinganyo and Sarah Hart. Hart was also named in the 800-meter run and 1,600-meter run.

information from QFC stores

The West Seattle QFC store is supporting Northwest farmers in the fight against hunger throughout June Dairy Month. The effort will benefit Food Lifeline at a time when the need is particularly critical for children who have less access to school breakfast and lunch programs and rely on summer meal programs and emergency food boxes to help fill the gaps.

More than half, about 250,000, of the children in Western Washington lose school access to free/reduced breakfast/lunch during the summer months, and less than 10 percent have access to summer meal programs.

Food donations may be made all month long at Fred Meyer and QFC stores in Washington and Oregon, including the West Seattle QFC, and cash donations can be made at Fred Meyer checkout registers and online at NWFarmersFightingHunger.org. A little does a lot: For every $10 donated, local food banks can distribute enough food to feed a family of four for three to five days.

Cash donations generated by the campaign will help provide more protein-rich, nutritious dairy foods, like milk, cheese and yogurt, for emergency food boxes.

by Lennon A. Curtin

All female rockers The PINS are set to appear at the Showbox SoDo Lounge in Seattle, WA on Fri, Jun 19, 2015 - 9:00PM. The Manchester England based band just released their second album "Wild Nights" which was recorded at Joshua Tree's Rancho De La Luna. Their music is evolving from a strong garage/punk ethic to something more textured but still raw. I spoke to the lead guitarist of THE PINS Lois McDonald about life on the road and her band.

What is the biggest challenge you deal with on the road as an all-female band?


“Touring with a band isn’t an issue of being all female, its anyone who is a musician who is on the road. Long drive, being in the same place all the time. We break it up with tourist activities in the different cities we go to. “

For this tour they brought their Sound Engineer along and he has been the driver for the most part.
“We have one chance to see things while out on tour, want to see as much as we can”

For those near the Des Moines waterfront on June 16 a real show will be on display thanks to training exercises being conducted by the King County Sheriff’s Office and involving boats and helicopters. The multi-agency training exercises are being hosted by the KCSO’s TAC 30 Team and will begin at 8 a.m. and go until 5 p.m.

Officers from the Seattle Police Department, Bainbridge Island Police, U.S. Coast Guard, Customs and Border Patrol, and King County Medic One will all be in participation. Numerous boats from different agencies as well as one King County Water Taxi will also be involved.

The King County Sheriff’s Office helicopter will be seen flying between Alki Point and Dumas Bay throughout the day. The main landing zone for the helicopter will be the Des Moines Marina and public access will be restricted to the pier during the times of the exercises.

West Seattle's own Stuffed Cakes bakery will appear in a new cable tv series Cake Wars, premiering Monday, June 29th at 8|7c, on the Food Network. Owner Donna Lawson will appear with baker Cecelia Scriber.

The concept means that four expert bakers aim to win their cake a spot at a major party or special event. With Jonathan Bennett hosting, each of the bakers will bake one-of-a-kind creations with the hopes of impressing well-known pastry chef Ron Ben-Israel, Fonuts co-owner Waylynn Lucas and some very special guest judges. Each week, only one contestant will take the cake to headline the main event, and take home the grand prize of $10,000.The segment in which they appear will be shown July 20.

Lawson said they were discovered online by the producers of the show and taped their segment in May. They were sworn to secrecy about the show's outcome.

An adult male, according to a man who called 911, was seen on a pier south of Salty's on Alki around 2pm behaving strangely. "He was walking back and forth, and then he looked like he was sparring for a boxing match. He would walk up to the edge of the pier then appeared to regain his senses and walk back. Then he walked up to the edge of the pier and raised his arms and just jumped in."

Once 911 was called it drew a heavy Water Rescue response including the Coast Guard. The man, said to be in his 20 by Seattle Fire, appeared to be swimming around, even treading water at one point and then got out of the water and was on the shore when the Coast Guard arrived. They took him into custody and took him to the Don Armeni Boat Launch to be be checked out by Seattle Fire Dept. EMT's. The risk of hypothermia is very real this time of year so the man was examined.

No word on his condition was released,

Courtesy article by Gerardo Bolong

SPANAWAY - Late striking offense enabled the Seattle Christian Warriors softball team to bury Cascade Christian High School 13-1 in five innings on Sat., May 23, at the Sprinker Recreation Field No. 4 in semi-final action of the 2015 West Central District III 1A tournament.

The Warriors (15-4) qualified for the championship game to be held on the same day against the Chimacum Cowboys.

Home team Seattle Christian literally stole a run to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

After Kelli Ronish led off with one of her patented bunt singles, Lisa Kumasaka reached first base on an infield fielder's choice ground out. On an ensuing steal of second base, Kumasaka continued onward to third base when the catcher's found the spaces of center field. The advancement to third base proved critical because the Warrior athlete later reached home on a wild pitch.

Courtesy article by Gerardo Bolong

Nisqually 1A League softball champion Seattle Christian scoured away its game rustiness in a six-inning 15-5 demolition of visiting Seamount 2A No.1 seed to district Highline as part of final preparations for a West Central District 11:00 a.m. match up on Sat., May 23., at Spanaway's Sprinker Recreation Center. The Warriors completed a three-game unbeaten streak against Seamount League foes and will face the Klahowya versus Cascade Christian winner at Spanaway's Sprinker Recreation Center. Highline moved on to a Fri., May 22, district opener against Sammamish, also at Sprinker.

"It took us awhile to get started," head coach Rick Ronish said. "We're rust because we haven't played for a week. The bats finally woke up. This will be a good carry over to the weekend (at district)."

Courtesy article by Gerardo Bolong

Solid pitching and timely hitting at the Columbia Playfields in Richland on Fri., May 29, pushed Seattle Christian to a 9-5 victory against South Whidbey in a 10 a.m. opening round game of the 2015 WIAA/Dairy Framers of Washington/Les Schwab 1A softball tournament.

Seattle Christian advanced to a 4 p.m. quarterfinal winners bracket game against La Center.

"We strung together five straight hits in the second inning," said Warrior head coach Rick Ronish. "After that, every time South Whidbey scored in the top half inning, we answered in the bottom."

The key second inning for home team Seattle Christian began with a hit from Mikayla Kogle. Madisen Fors followed with another hit to precede additional base hits from Makenzie May, Kelli Ronish and Lisa Kumasaka. Carlee Ronish capped the four-run inning with a sacrifice fly.

In the fourth inning, the South Whidbey Falcons put together a pair of runs that the Warriors countered by scoring four runs of their own in the home half.