August 2010

On a day that seemed more like November than August the first leaf of the South Park bridge (on the South Park side) was removed Aug. 31.

The day began at 7 am with the arrival of one of the largest floating cranes in America. The "D. B General", based in Seattle and owned by General Construction, moved slowly into position in preparation to lift an estimated 450,000 pounds of bridge span.

Workers spent the day cutting away the massive counterbalance and girder supports.

At 6:55 pm the last cut was made and the bridge swung free and was carefully lowered onto the barge that will take it away for salvage.

This process will be repeated when the second leaf is removed and both leaves will then be barged to another site for salvage and recycling.

That is now mostly likely going to take place Thursday Sept. 2.

The Seattle Chinese Garden, now under construction just north of South Seattle Community College, held a "topping out" ceremony on Tuesday, Aug. 31 amid fireworks and applause in which the top beam above the Ceremonial Gate for the Knowing the Spring Courtyard was placed.

TO SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE

All 21 of the chinese artisans, here to work on the project were in attendance as well as group of Garden board members and friends of the project. The artisans were welcomed on Aug. 22 in a special event the West Seattle Herald covered here.

Courtyard Project Director Yangming Chu said the date and time were in line with Chinese tradition. "When you have weddings or ceremonies you have to pick an auspicious date so they looked at the calendar, today's the best day, one of the best days for raising the beam. Also the particular hour is important so between 5 and 7 they looked at the traditional calendar and this is a good time to raise the beam."

There is a brand new back pack waiting for every student who goes to Mount View Elementary in Burien and White Center Heights Elementary in White Center, thanks to a collaboration between Qwest, World Vision, the Community Schools Collaboration (CSC) and the Highline School District.

Between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this afternoon at Mount View Elementary and Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at White Center Heights Elementary parents and kids came back to school early, receiving a brand new backpack full of paper, notebooks binders rulers and other necessities for going back to school.

More photos will be posted when available.

The teachers and staff at West Seattle High School are dedicated to the school and their mission to making the school better. Jennifer Hall organized an effort to bring as many of the staff together as possible. This in light of the labor negotiations now underway with the School District.

"As you will notice, a number of us are wearing blue to symbolize our collective commitment to working together to making our school the best it can be. West Seattle High School teachers, administrators, and support staff are looking forward to a great year! "

Jennifer Hall
Individual Education Plan Teacher
West Seattle High School

In a press release from the Seattle Public Schools today Denny International was included in those that showed improvement in math and writing and reading scores.

From SPS
Continuing the trend of Seattle Public Schools students outperforming the state average, Seattle students’ average scores were nearly 4 points higher than the state average and were at or above the state averages in 17 out of 20 tested subjects and grades, according to test results released today by the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

These results are a remarkable accomplishment given that most large urban school districts typically perform below state averages. In 2010, across all grades tested, Seattle exceeded the state average by 7.3 points in math, 1.7 points in reading, and 4.5 points in science. Charts comparing Seattle results with the state can be downloaded from the links at right.

The West Seattle Holy Rosary School Class of ’50 call themselves “Depression babies,” but when they gathered recently they celebrated happy times remembered. Thirteen alumni gathered for their 60th reunion at the Boulevard Park Place Retirement Community to reminisce of a younger West Seattle.

Dorothy (Reuter) Edgerton, attended Holy Rosary since third grade.

“It was free (to attend) if you lived in the parish and your mother gave a dollar every Sunday, which was expected,” she said. “If you lived outside the parish you paid a small tuition.

“West Seattle was its own little town,” she continued. “I came way over from Bellevue to attend. I remember an ice creamery next to the Admiral Theater. When I was a kid I saw Frank Sinatra come into the theater but I didn’t get to see the show. There were lots of girls screaming. He and Bing Crosby were like the Elvis of our time. He was scrawny. I don’t know what we saw in him but we all screamed and yelled. It was ridiculous.”

By Richard Conlin, Seattle City Council

Ed. Note: The Seattle Public Library system, including the Ballard Library, is closed Aug. 30 to Sept. 6 due to budget cuts.

In April, I noted that my concern about funding for the Seattle Public Library in these difficult budget times led me to take oversight of the library in my Regional Development and Sustainability Committee in order to work with the library on finding a new and independent source of funding.

While the council has consistently restored some funding to the library when it has been cut by the mayor, this will become increasingly difficult in future years, as public safety and human services take up much of the budget and are seen as priorities.

Seattle Public Library staff, working with council staff and the City Budget office, have now completed an initial review of possible funding options and submitted it to my committee.

The review suggests that a voter-approved levy lid lift for library operations may be the most promising possibility for a sustainable funding source.

Due to rains and unkept drainage culverts debris washed out onto Marine View Drive this a.m. at 9:45 a.m. resulting in blocked traffic. Seattle Public Utility crews Water Dept. were dispatched to Marine View Drive and 46th Ave. SW to clean up the mess.

DOT crews seasonally cut back grass and blackberry vines and push the debris into drainage ditches.

None of the debris was cleaned up resulting in this mess.

Discussion is winding down on Burien’s Shoreline Master Program (SMP), as it continues moving closer to adoption by the City Council.

Compared to earlier proceedings the public comments were fairly agreeable during the public hearing for the SMP, after the Council made significant concessions to marine shore homeowners at the August 16 council meeting.

The Council voted to keep the building setbacks along the residential marine shoreline at 20 feet, instead of raising it to a combined buffer and setback of 65 feet; they resolved the biggest issue affecting shoreline homeowners.

If the SMP had passed with the 65 setback and buffer along the marine shoreline, all of the homes that were not 65 feet back from the ordinary high water mark would become non-conforming.

This raised citizen concerns about whether they could rebuild their home if it was destroyed, how non-conformance would affect their property values and their ability to sell their home and uncertainty about insurance for their home.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Aug, 31 the chinese artisans and workmen here from China will be ready to raise the highest beam in the Knowing the Spring Courtyard. See our previous coverage of the garden HERE and HERE.

They will have a brief ceremony in the courtyard, starting at 5 pm, for the placing of the beam atop the Ceremonial Gate.

Such a ceremony is a tradition in China to bless a new building, probably similar to the "topping out" construction companies do here.

The Chinese team chose the date and time based on its auspiciousness in the Chinese lunar calendar.

Spokesperson Sandy Marvinney said, "The team is making great progress."