Seattle Citizens Against the (Deep-Bore) Tunnel, or SCAT, began collecting signatures for their Initiative 101 west of the sports stadiums Friday, Aug. 13, and have begun to fan out in West Seattle, and other neighborhoods. You can read our story on the initiative here:

"We are sending a strong message to City Council," said SCAT-man Bud Shasteen of West Seattle. "We're telling them 'you can disregard our votes all you want.' But once we have some power with our signatures that is the one thing they will pay attention too when they consider reelection."

Shasteen collected over 100 signatures in two hours Saturday, Aug. 14, outside Thriftway at the Morgan Junction in the 90-degree heat.

"You're bypassing the entire city with this tunnel," said West Seattle's Mabel Aide of SCAT. "If you want to go to strores you can't. It's a stupid thing."

"It's going to be complete chaos," said Guy Gallipeau, also of West Seattle.

"We need to gather 20,000 signatures," said West Seattle resident Autumn Netty, a SCAT helper. "We will try for 24,000. Some of us will be in the Alaska Junction and farmers market gathering signatures."

Here is SCAT's press release:

Dear SCAT Troops and Supporters,

Whew, under blazing hot skies today we had an excellent campaign rollout! See attached picture taken as the sign-in portion of the event started. Business was brisk and we blew through 500 of our petitions within 15 minutes. Had a great turnout in both paid and volunteer signature gatherers, the enthusiasm for this issue remains unabated.

Special thanks to Autumn, handling gatherer sign-ins, Ed and his special gal, logistics and documenting, Bud, he says he can get a 1,000 signatures a day, easy, Dorli, always ready to lend a hand and support wherever needed, Keith, keeping track of the dollars, and thanks to the big guy, Dick - inventor of the 8' towering tunnel killer signature boards!

Loved our eye-catching color combos for the kiosks, shirts, the red and yellow accented with black and white - Who says politics can't be fashionable? Works for me!

Planted half of our signature kiosks today after our kickoff event, Ballard, QA, and Magnolia, check the website for locations, will be updated every day by 6:00 pm.

Next week by Friday we will have set out 25 of our signature kiosk stands.

Starting Monday, August 23rd, our counter signature boards will be ready. They are being donated by a very generous individual - he's personally making them even. They stand upright and take up less counterspace than if we were to have a board set out on a counter. Can't wait to roll those out.

Our goal for the counter boards is to get 50 out, please send us locations that you think will work in your neighborhood.

Kiosks are also available for checkout. If you have a spot you'd like to put a kiosk out at and are willing to monitor it, please let drop a note so we can get that arranged.

Finally, money, need money to keep things running. I mentioned our drive to get $5,000 by next Friday, August 27th. Your help has been invaluable, we are 1/3 of the way towards raising that. Please dig deep and also do some outreach with your friends and neighborhood acquaintances. If you like and appreciate our past, current, and future efforts on behalf of Seattle taxpayers, please send us a donation for $10, $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or more (there are no limits on how much can be given). Please consider a monthly pledge from now through November for our fund. We ask you to please help us help Seattle residents and businesses avoid having their freedom of mobility severely curtailed and their hard earned money wasted on this money pit to nowhere, "the deep bored tunnel".

You can go to our website -- www.scatnow.com -- and make a secure PayPal or VISA or MasterCard contribution -- OR, you can print out the form below (it's also downloadable at the link above) , fill it out, and return it with a check or credit card information.

Thanks again for being part of this history making day in Seattle.

Best Regards,

Elizabeth

Mail In Donation Form:

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Dear SCAT,

I really appreciate what you're doing - keep fighting for us. Please accept my contribution for
$ ___________

(Please supply the information below so we can send you a thank you letter it's really important to fill this out).

Your Name _______________________________________________________________________________

Address __________________________________________________________________________________

City, State, Zip, Phone # _____________________________________________________________________

Enclosed is my check for $ ______________________ Made payable to "SCAT"

Occupation __________________ Employer & Employer zip code ________________________________

VISA or M/C number ___________________________ Exp. date (MM/YY) _____/_____ Amt. $ _________

CRITICAL: Email address (please print clearly) __________________________________________________

Voluntary donations to "Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel" are not tax-deductible. Voluntary donations to "SCAT" are political donations that will be used to defray the cost of the I-101 Stop the Tunnel Campaign.

S.C.A.T.
3213 W. Wheeler No. 271
Seattle, WA 98199