October 2009

One day after getting shut out for the first time this season, the Ballard High School boys tennis team suffered a second 7-0 defeat, this time at the hands of Mercer Island.

There weren't many positives for the Beavers in the Oct. 7 match. No Ballard player won a game in their singles or doubles matches.

Ballard is 1-6 for the season, having now lost four matches in a row, with four matches remaining.

The Beavers face Juanita at 3:30 p.m. today at the Lower Woodland Tennis Courts.

The Ballard High School girls cross country team finished in third place out of four teams while the boys team placed fourth Oct. 7 at Island Crest Park.

The girls team finished with 72 points, behind Mercer Island's 30 and Garfield's 44, but ahead of the 76 points earned by Inglemoor.

Once again senior Erin Philbeck lead the Beaver girls, finishing fourth overall with a time of 19:48 on the 3.1-mile course.

The boys team's 64 points placed them behind Garfield (40), Mercer Island (49) and Inglemoor (64).

The Beaver boys were led by senior Aaron Hamilton, who placed fourth overall with a time of 16:17.

The Ballard cross country team has two meets left before the KingCo Conference Championship.

The next meet is the Fort Worden Invitational at 4 p.m. on Oct. 10 at Fort Worden State Park.

The Balllard News-Tribune was granted an exclusive sneak peek inside the new Interbay Whole Foods, which will focus largely on catering to Ballard, Interbay and Magnolia commuters.

The newest location of the upscale grocery chain is scheduled to open on Tuesday, Oct. 13, a process that took nearly six years to complete, said store Team Leader Kerri Hunsley.

The project was pushed back further last year when developers TRF Pacific filed a lawsuit against Whole Foods after the company announced it wanted to downsize the store and delay its opening until late 2009.

"It was a bit of a mess, actually, but we were able to resolve it fairly swiftly," said Vicki Foley, a spokesperson for Whole Foods in the Northwest region, about the lawsuit.

Dozens of the store's 140 employees were bustling around the still-unfinished store on Oct. 8 stocking shelves and testing deli recipes.

"It's all hands on deck," said Foley.

Some of the employees live in the Ballard area, said Foley, and several have transferred from the other Seattle Whole Foods Market stores.

Riverton Heights Christian Academy is hosting a Live/Silent Auction Saturday, October 10, from 5 p.m. - 10 p.m. at the Riverton Heights Baptist Church facility, located at 2605 S 144th Street in SeaTac.

Riverton Heights Christian Academy is a non-profit school in need of funds for the school. Auction items include travel packages, houseware items and more.

Depth of excellence elevated the Decatur girls golf team to its second consecutive South Puget Sound League championship in a 101- 86 points win against crosstown Thomas Jefferson at the Riverbend golf course on Tuesday.

Decatur continued unbeaten at 9-0 while Jefferson's record turned into 7-2 with the only losses to the Gators. Each team had one more match remaining.

With the teams tied at 74 points, the final two pairings decided the outcome. Junior Gators Salina Shugarts and Chanel Carlson collectively scored 27 points for the Decatur decider.

"I was really concerned," said Decatur head coach Rick Dennison. "It didn't look like we were doing that well. I wasn't sure what was happening with the last group. Instead, we reached 100 for the first time this season. We've been scoring in the 80's and 90's. It was a good team effort."

In a well played match up, the Raiders made inroads since an early season 86-64 loss to the Gators at Twin lakes Country Club. It also marked the first time this season that Decatur did not feature the medalist winner.

Highline Community College is now offering free ESL (English as a Second Language) classes at the Federal Way Community Center on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:00 a.m . to 10:00 a.m. Classes will run through December 7 and then re-start in January.

Classes are available to all and are offered on an open enrollment basis: students may start the class on any day and register when they arrive, but are expected to attend the sessions thereafter.

ESL classes help students learn Englsh at every level, including those who speak no English.

For more information, contact:
Stephen Washburn
Director of ABE
Highline Community College
206-878-3710 ext. 3627
swashbur@highline.edu

The first public hearing for the strapped 2010 city budget got off to an inauspicious start Oct. 7 at Whitman Middle School when the Seattle City Council failed to reach a quorum until 30 minutes after the meeting was to have started.

Sally Clark, Bruce Harrell and Nick Licata were stuck in traffic, Tom Rasmussen needed some last minute directions, and Richard Conlin was the witness in a bicycle/automobile accident. But, all five eventually joined Tim Burgess and Jean Godden to listen to residents' input on the mayor's proposed 2010 city budget.

Twenty-five people signed up to weigh in on the budget, which, due to a historic 10 percent to 15 percent revenue shortfall, includes many cuts and the use of all but $5 million of the city's Rainy Day Fund.

Many speakers were concerned about cuts to human services, the Seattle Public Library system and bicycle infrastructure.

Nancy McKinney, director of the Ballard Food Bank, and Patricia Leach, representing the Greenwood Food Bank, spoke out against combining the Meals Partnership Coalition, which provides hot meal services, and the Seattle Food Committee, which provides food bank services.

The nation as a whole was depressed over the lackluster figures released recently by the National Association of Realtors, following a string of encouraging data that had pointed to stabilization in the housing sector.

After four straight months of gains, existing-home sales moved backward in August, falling 3 percent from July. The drop in home sales disappointed economists, who had been expecting the report to show an increase in sales of about 2 percent.

However, locally, pending sales around Western Washington during August jumped nearly 21 percent from a year ago and inventory dropped more than 18 percent, according to new figures from Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Those indicators, along with signs of stabilizing prices, set the stage for brisk activity in the next few months as first-time buyers try to take advantage of the Nov. 30 deadline for tax credits.

The Ballard High School boys tennis team suffered their first shutout loss of the season 7-0 to Bellevue Oct. 5.

The loss ended Neal Berg's streak of five consecutive singles-match victories.

Berg lost his match by scores of 6-1 and 6-1 to Bellevue's Zach Kosanke.

Ballard (1-5) has five matches left to turn things around this season.

The Beavers faced Mercer Island at 3:30 p.m. today at the Lower Woodland Tennis Courts. Results coming tomorrow.

David Lisch has many irons in the fire. In his 1,500 square-foot studio, Dragon Fly Forge, in the former Alaska Copper and Brass warehouse below the West Seattle Bridge just east of the Duwamish River, Lisch is a school teacher, expert knife maker, artist, interior/exterior designer and blacksmith.

In his Highland Park home he is a beekeeper. And, as his 50th birthday on Oct. 15, comes to pass, he is forging ahead with his poetry.

“I really feel that at 50 I am starting to reflect on my life,” said Lisch, who seems a curious combination of a tool-wielding tough and sensitive sculptor melded together.

“I have written poetry in different time periods of my life to mark time,” he said. He began his career in heavy metal as a fabricator at age 15.

His wife Andrea runs the power hammers, drills and helps with installs.

“She’s my right-hand man,” he said. “One anvil is my wife’s. One is mine.”

His studio is well organized with hundreds of tongs and hammers that, to the untrained eye may look redundant. Not so.