May 2009

The Seattle School District says its proposed new plan for student assignment has been designed to better connect schools with their local communities and coordinate curriculum between elementary, middle and high schools.

In a conversation with West Seattle's School Board Director Steve Sundquist, he explained that the greatest difference between the current plan, and the district’s proposed plan, is how the process of student assignment begins.

Under the new plan, students would initially be assigned to an elementary school according to the reference area that they live in.

Elementary schools would then filter into middle schools and later high schools, so that parents could reasonably predict which schools their children will attend in the future.

If parents are not satisfied with the school their child is assigned to, they could then apply for another school through a standard “choice process.”

If a school is not full then the student will be admitted upon request. If it is full, then siblings of students in a school get first priority for admittance and all other students are selected based on a random lottery.

Seattle Police continue to investigate a house fire in that Admiral District that occurred early in the morning on Sunday, April 2 just after 3 a.m.

The home was vacant, with its sale pending at the time of the fire. Damage also occurred to a new home for sale next door. No one was injured.

According to Dana Vander Houwen, of the Seattle Fire Department, damages total $430,000.

The cause of the fire has not been determined. Seattle Police arson and bomb squad are currently investigating.

For over a decade, Westcrest Park, located in the Highland Park neighborhood, has been known to host a variety of illegal activities.

Widely known as a site for anonymous sexual meet-ups, trails along the northwest side of the park have been subject to indecent exposure, according to police, city officials and local community members.

“It’s really a shame because we are so blessed to have those old growth trails through that park and nobody uses it because they’re afraid of what they might stumble onto,” said Dan Mullins, president of the Highland Park Action Committee.

While the illegal activity has been going on for years, community members are now trying to reclaim their local park so that families feel more comfortable gathering there.

The Highland Park Action Committee has organized groups of local residents to take random walks through the park. By activating the area, the neighbors hope to deter behavior that is keeping parents from bringing their children to a new play area just next to the trails.

On April 29, detectives were able to track down one of the three suspects in a restaurant robbery in Fremont and arrest him in the University District. The 29-year-old suspect was interviewed by detectives, and they developed information about the suspect’s accomplices.

The other two suspects, a 22-year old male and a 16-year-old female were located and arrested. The two adult males were booked into the King County Jail for investigation of robbery. The juvenile female was interviewed and released to the custody of her mother.

On April 15 at approximately 2 a.m., a takeover robbery occurred in a restaurant in the 400 Block of North 35th Street.

The night manager was closing for the night when three suspects, two males and a female, entered the business. They were all wearing bandanas over their faces, baggy sweatshirts, and one was armed with a handgun. The suspects forced the manager into the back office area, where the suspects proceeded to rob the restaurant after tying up the manager.

The suspects then fled and the manager was able to call 911. Patrol officers and robbery detectives responded to the location and processed the scene.

An elderly gentleman was trimming the bushes Friday in the 2800 block of Northwest 59th and was startled by a man who appeared out of nowhere. The stranger insisted on “assisting” the gentleman and steadied the older man's hips as he used the trimmer. The stranger then walked off and climbed into a light blue four-door sedan that drove off to the north. Of course, the gardener's wallet was missing but was later located in the yard-waste bin, minus $125 cash. The suspect is a clean-shaven Asian male, 30-50 years old, with a small build.

After a Ballad librarian admonished a fellow for using a library computer with someone else's card, the man became agitated and threatened that he'd be waiting for her after work. For added measure, as he left the building he pounded on the exterior window and flipped her off.

In the 6500 block of 15th, someone broke two windows and entered two vacant apartment units. Stymied by finding nothing to steal, the burglars appeared to have tried to move the washer and dryers, but had no luck.

A Ballard woman learned she was the victim of credit fraud when she received a bill from Sprint for more than $2,500 worth of phone services.

Seven fishermen who lost their lives at sea were honored Sunday, May 3, at the Seattle Fishermen's Memorial Service. Five were victims of the sinking of the Katmai October 23. They included Robert Jacob Gilman, Kurt Henry, Jushua Andrew Leonguerrero, Billy Roberts and Carlos Martin Zabala.

Keith Criner, was honored. On Jan. 6, the F/V Seabrooke which was several miles northwest of Cold Bay reported that Criner went overboard after his feet became entangled in a crab pot line.

John Alan Bartee, who lost his life in 1983, was also honored.

Christopher Breen, grief coordinator for fishermen for 14 years, was on hand. Dublin born, he has a master's degree in philosophy, theology, and was an ordained priest and left the church in 1976 and got married.

Crowds meandered through Sustainable West Seattle's 70-plus booths at the Junction this warm sunny Sunday to listen to music, speeches, grow their own food, make their own honey and consider volunteering to clean up the Puget Sound.

Mayor Greg Nickels made the rounds and said he appreciated West Seattle having the sustainable festival two years in a row, and hopes these festivals spread to many different Seattle neighborhoods.

Green entrepreneur Dave Reid had a booth to promote his Sail Transport Company. He transports produce from Sequim and Poulsbo to Ballard on sail power only. Noted Ballard sailor Fulvio Casali helped out, as did Alex Tokar.

"I'm pretty much an environmentalist," said the Scottish-born Reid. "People from Sustainable Ballard have been supporting me on this business. Puget Sound is like the West Coast of Scotland with lots of current, fjords, islands. Scotland is a bit rougher. I grew up near Aberdeen."

Reid starts up again June 14 and said his business is both "crazy and brilliant."

Dozens of paintings, sketches, and photos from Ballard High School art students fill the Ballard Library.

This is the fifth year, third at the library, that Ballard High School students will have a chance to showoff their artwork, and maybe make a few sales, at the monthly Ballard Art Walk.

This is Ballard student Szilvia Kulcsar's first time showing at the Art Walk. She said she is hoping to get her name out in the art community and the Art Walk seems like a good learning experience for beginning artists.

Henry Shenk showed with Ballard High School last year at the Art Walk. He said showing at the Art Walk is cool and it even netted him a summer job last time.

A woman liked his art last year, called his teacher and gave him work helping her in her glass-working studio, Shenk said.

The Art Walk is May 9 and the Ballard High School art will be up in the library all month.

For the fourth time in Ballard, Mayor Greg Nickels held his Clean and Green Seattle initiative here today, May 2, and decided to take on a new area from the usual clean-up in past years.

This morning with the assistance of Nickels, volunteers and community members took on a new target area beginning at Marvin's Garden Park and continuing on to surrounding areas bounded by 24th and 20th Northwest from Northwest Market to Shilshole Northwest.

“In our 98th Clean-Green Seattle event and fourth in Ballard, this is a great chance for me to fill up those Saturday morning hours and learn about what is going on around here,” Nickels said. “I want to acknowledge that overtime these Saturday mornings do make a difference.”

In the 98 Clean-Green cleanups, Nickels said that the city has collected more than 536,000 pounds of litter and debris, recycled nine tons of recyclable materials, used 114 tons of asphalt for pot holes and street repairs and painted out 6305 graffiti sights, which he acknowledged is an issue in Ballard.

With a 13-3 loss to Kennedy May 1, the Ballard High School girls lacrosse team has lost 11 in a row and hasn't won since its first match March 17.

Maddie Soukup had two goals for the Beavers and Haley Jackson added one. Soukup leads the team with 14 goals and Jackson is right behind her with 11.

Jayne Barnes, replacing Hannah Breton at goalie, had 16 saves.

Ballard has faced stiff competition recently – it's match against second-place Kennedy followed a match against first-place Mercer Island – but things should get a little easier for the Beavers in their final two matches.

The team takes on 11th-place Tahoma at 5 p.m., May 5 at Ballard High School and closes out the season against winless Sammamish May 8.