April 2008

Harbor Properties soon will raze the buildings that have housed the West Seattle Montessori School for 28 years and the preschool children, older students and their teachers have till the end of August to find another place for their school.

About a mile due south, Fairmont Park Elementary School stands empty, closed by the Seattle Public School District in June 2007.

At the school board meeting last week, parents, teachers and volunteers asked - if not begged - the district to lease them the property.

A yellow land use action placard at the Montessori front do

It's official!

The Charlestown Street Caf

The group that leases the old Fauntleroy School will not face an immediate increase of its lease payments despite the fact the Seattle School Board has adoped new procedures leading to market rate leases for buildings no longer needed or used as schools.

"We are hopeful we can come to an agreement with the School Board to purchase the buiding and land," said Kevin Wooley, president of the primary lessor of the building, the Fauntleroy Community Services Agency.

The group held a public meeting last week in the Hall at Fauntleroy to discuss the process of coming up with the

A section of the Alaskan Way Viaduct continues to sink, but state crews have almost completed work to stop it.

Bents 93 and 94, the pairs of columns and their cross braces between Columbia and Yesler streets, sank another 3/8 inch, bringing the total misalignment to about 5 1/2 inches. The most recent measurements were taken during the semi-annual inspection of the viaduct March 22 and 23.

At 6 inches, engineers with the Washington State Department of Transportation said repairs would be required.

Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani has named Joe McWilliams as managing director of real estate and property management.

McWilliams has over 15 years of experience in the Seattle real estate market. During his career he has served in leadership positions at Cushman and Wakefield, Wright Runstad and Company, and the Seattle Monorail Project. He currently serves as southwest regional manager for Pharos Corporation, a commercial real estate firm based in Austin.

Highland Park Elementary School has been awarded a BECU School Grant for $1,750.

It will be used to purchase large screens for each classroom. These screens will complement the new presentation technology that was provided through the last school technology levy.

This is the second technology grant that Highland Park has received from BECU, formerly known as the Boeing Employee's Credit Union.

The grant was written by Kent Daniels, the school's technology specialist.

King County Elections is postponing all-mail voting until 2009 because the equipment needed has not yet received required federal certification.

Other components for all-mail elections will be phased-in this year.

The vote counting equipment King County plans to purchase will handle an additional 300,000 mail ballots in an all-mail election.

The Alaskan Way Viaduct Stakeholders Advisory Committee focused on the next two building blocks toward a solution for the central waterfront structure: transit and public policy.

They scheduled an extra half an hour for this fourth meeting last Thursday to allow the committee members time after the presentations for comments, feedback, and requests for more information.

Victor Obeso from King County presented on transit improvements, and Bonnie Nelson of Nelson-Nygaard talked about policies, management and land use - both strategies that can reduce traffic using whatever

Fires killed 50 people in Washington State last year, says State Fire Marshal Michael Matlick.

The leading cause of fire fatalities is directly related to cigarettes, which were the cause in 9 (or 18 percent) of the fire fatalities in 2007, and 55 (or 20 percent) of the fire fatalities over the past five years.

"These fires start when the smoker becomes careless with a lit cigarette," says Matlick. "A burning cigarette can cause furniture, bedding or clothing to ignite, starting a fire in close proximity to the smoker.

Washington's Enhanced Driver License, a hybrid driver license/identification card that doubles as a boarder crossing document, has been officially declared Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative compliant by the U.S.