June 2008

On February 3 while the New York Giants were receiving Eli Manning's tossed footballs, Ballard's Richard Ladner and Ann Sauer were receiving their five year-old Welsh Corgi, Abby.

"We got her on Super Bowl Sunday," recalled Ladner. Abby came to them through Cascade Pembroke Welsh Corgi Rescue in Olympia.

A good Samaritan had previously rescued Abby from a Tacoma shelter because she had a 14 ounce bladder stone and needed surgery.

"That kind lady negotiated a fee with a veterinarian, cared for Abby, then gave her to the Olympia rescue shelter," said Sauer.

great teacher

My daughter, Amelia, had a phenomenal teacher named Peg Swartzman in her preschool classroom at North Seattle Fives Cooperative Preschool this year. North Seattle Fives is located in the daylight basement of St. John's Lutheran Church on Phinney Avenue, across from Woodland Park Zoo.

Peg Swartzman, the much beloved teacher at North Seattle Fives, is retiring this year. Peg has touched the lives of so many.

It was a pleasure to read of the new hip replacement operations being done at Swedish/Ballard in last week's paper (June 4, 2008). It is always great to have access to the latest surgical advances that result in better outcomes and shortened recovery time. We all like that. However, for me, the best part is that these advanced procedures are being performed right here in Ballard at our own hospital.

I regard this as a tangible example that Swedish/Ballard is indeed on the way back.

Readers of this newspaper have proved over and over again that they expect us to provide them with the information they need to access the necessities and the not so necessary enjoyments of life in our peninsula. We are making an important change this week to help this process.

For many years, the Community Calendar has served as the basic calendar of events, large and small; serious and frivolous. There is nowhere where such a full listing of events exists.

The King County Council said on Monday it wants to audit Metro Transit to figure out how they can "best ensure the best allocation of resources in order to maintain levels of service.

?Skyrocketing fuel costs may soon lead the County Executive to propose a fuel surcharge or fare increase for Metro Transit,? said Councilmember Larry Phillips, who represents Ballard on the council.

A false alarm went off last week when Seattle Parks and Recreation considered limiting bonfires this year and banning them next year in order to help prevent global warming, the wish of Mayor Greg Nickels stated in a memo referring to carbon emitting from the flames.

Never more would have bonfires been the draw to parties and revelry on the beach at Golden Gardens.

Shortly after a Seattle Post-Intelligencer story raged through the city and objectors began writing to Web sites and letters to the editor, the city's Parks and Recreation department backpedaled.

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While a new skate park at Lower Woodland opened last weekend and work has started on a million dollar renovation of the old tennis courts that are one of the busiest in the Seattle parks system.

The skatepark is 17,000 square feet and is built between the soccer fields and cloverleaf softball diamonds where the Ballard High softball team plays its home games.

Crews demolished the old tennis courts this spring and expect to finish the new courts this fall.

"This is the first skatepark in the city designed for all ages and abilities," said Tim Gallagher, superint

Tiana Woods, an eighth grader at Whitman Middle School, won the Leighton Hilbert Scholarship Award, and $1,000 college scholarship.

The scholarship was part of the Mayor's Scholars Awards, given this year to 19 students from Seattle schools.

The last stretch of undeveloped shoreline on the Ship Canal was dedicated over the weekend as a safe haven for over 950,000 annually migrating juvenile salmon, including threatened Puget Sound Chinook.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Salmon Bay Natural Area, Mayor Greg Nickels said the $1.8 million project will protect and restore the last section of un-armored shoreline in the area, and will provide habitat critical to the survival of Lake Washington salmon during their migration from fresh to salt water.

Much of the area downstream of the Ballard Locks is

Members of the Pacific Ballroom Dance group lit up the stage at the Auburn Performing Arts Center during a dress rehearsal last Thursday. The 89-member team of Federal Way and Auburn participants performed "Feelin' Good," their spring concert, for three shows May 30 and 31. Click Here for nearly 400 more photos from the performance.