August 2010

One of the many delights of West Seattle living is beholding the majesty of Mount Rainier, when it is “out,” and while most onlookers will never ascend her face, those who do may first hike into REI for a climbing course and gear.

The 100-plus stores of REI, or “Recreational Equipment Incorporated,” headquartered in Kent, with that eye-catching anchor store of stone, waterfalls, and glass in downtown Seattle just west of I-5, quietly began in 1938 in the attic of Lloyd and Mary Anderson’s farmhouse on 4326 Southwest Southern St., about a mile southwest of the Morgan Junction.

Lloyd came from rural Roy, south of Spanaway, Mary from the Yakima Valley. They met as UW students at the University Commons while dining there on the cheap. According to the book REI: 50 Years of Climbing Together, mountaineering was reserved for the upper crust.

The book describes the Andersons: “Neither of the pair belonged to the comfortable urban class which found conscious pleasure in walking, but since neither of the families owned automobiles until late in the 1920’s, they walked- constantly.”

Beginning at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, Aug. 31, General Construction will begin the removal of the west bascule draw span on the South Park side of the Duamish River.

The floating crane and receiving barge will move into place early in the morning and workers will begin the tricky task of rigging the bridge span in preparation for lowering it onto the receiving barge.

The span will be taken down river to Elliott Bay and staged for disassembly.

The east bascule lief will be removed some point after Labor Day so as not to disrupt maritime traffic during the holiday weekend.

This note comes from King County Dept. of Transportation:

First South Park Bridge leaf expected to be removed this afternoon

The first giant leaf of the South Park Bridge is scheduled to be detached and lowered onto a barge sometime this afternoon Tuesday Aug. 31.

Prior to removal, nine steel cuts will be required to separate the leaf from the remainder of the bridge. Once the cuts have been made, the leaf will slowly be lowered onto the barge. This work is extremely complicated and may take a few hours to complete.

This was sent to media from Seattle Public Schools regarding their pending labor agreement:

it may be tomorrow, Wednesday, before we send out a release and post additional information related to the SEA-SPS final contract language. The teams are currently devoted to a detailed review of the language. We will issue additional information when it is available.

Office of Communications and Public Affairs

SPS labor relations site

http://www.seattleschools.org/area/laborrelations/index.dxml

Seattle garbage, food and yard waste and recycling collections will be on normal schedule for Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 6. Seattle Public Utilities customers should place their containers out for collection by 7 a.m. to ensure collection.

The City of Seattle’s North & South Recycling and Disposal stations will be open during their regular business hours: 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The North Recycling and Disposal Station is located at 1350 N. 34th St. in the Fremont/Wallingford area. The South Recycling and Disposal Station is located at 8105 5th Avenue South in the South Park area.

Customers can report a missed garbage, yard waste or recycling collection after 6 p.m. on the day it was missed by calling (206) 684-3000 or by visiting the On-line Missed Collection form available on SPU’s web site, at: www.seattle.gov/util/Services/Garbage.
Learn more about Seattle Public Utilities, at: www.seattle.gov/util.

Follow SPU on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SeattleSPU.

South Seattle Community College’s TRiO-Student Support Services (SSS) grant has been refunded by the US Department of Education for the period 2010-2015. This is good news for the 200+ South students served each year under the grant, which provides a comprehensive array of intensive academic support services to low-income, first-generation, or disabled college students.

College transfer student Linda M. Graham is among the more than 3,800 students who have benefitted from TRiO-SSS in the two decades that South has been funded. As the third youngest of 10 children, she is excited about becoming the first in her family to graduate from college and setting a positive example for her younger siblings, nieces, and nephews.

The path to an associate’s degree has not been easy, however. Now 20, Linda earned a GED at the age of 16, and for several years thereafter remained unsure and confused about how to shape her future.

“I knew I wanted to be someplace else, but didn’t know how to get there,” she explained.

Spotting three teens loitering near the door of the closed-for-remodeling Admiral Safeway, an officer decided to speak with them. Two were 16 years old; the third was 15. An ID check showed that all three had prior contact police within the last nine months. The officer smelled marijuana, and one teen admitted that he was likely still carrying some from Hempfest. His pot and his pipe were confiscated, and the three were told to proceed toward one's home near the Alaska Junction. The officer told them to walk there on California Avenue and requested that another officer drive by occasionally to check their progress and ensure their safety, given that this all occurred at 4 a.m. Wednesday.

Mountain to Sound Outfitters & Alki Kayak Tours Tuesday Night Races
1660 Harbor Ave. SW
206-935-7669
Tuesdays, 7:00 p.m. This is a 1.5 mile race with potentially challenging conditions. www.m2sOutfitters.com www.kayakalki.com

Run with Jill Bootcamp
Jack Block Park
2130 Harbor Ave. SW
206-660-2853
Saturdays, 8:30-9:30 a.m., Tuesdays, 6-7 p.m. A group-based exercise program designed to burn fat, tone muscle, and quickly whip you into shape. A variety of calisthenics, resistance training and running melts fat and strengthens muscles. We use
group dynamics to motivate and inspire. www.runwithjillbootcamp.com

King County Master Gardeners Clinics

McLendon’s Hardware
10210 16th Ave. S.W.
Saturdays, through September 25th (with the exception of Sept. 4), 10 a.m - 2 p.m. Please stop by and “Ask a Master Gardener!”

West Seattle Farmers Market
California Ave. S.W. and S.W. Alaska St.
Sundays, through September 26th (with the exception of Sept. 5), 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. They are there to answer your gardening questions, give gardening advice, and help diagnose gardening problems.

The King County Sheriff has posted this press release regarding a violent home invasion robbery on Vashon Island that took place on Aug. 19th. More images can be seen by clicking on the image above.

A 46 year-old Vashon Island man was the victim of a home invasion robbery recently. During the ordeal he was bound with duct tape and repeatedly pistol-whipped.

The incident occurred about 6:30 AM on Thursday, August 19th. The man was alone and asleep in the 9400 block of SW Gorsuch Rd. Suddenly two masked men burst into his bedroom and used duct tape to tie him up.

The men repeatedly asked him for money and hit him over the head several times with a pistol one of the men was carrying. They threatened to shoot him if he didn’t tell them where the money was.

They ransacked the house until they found a small safe in the bedroom closet. Forcing the victim to open the safe, they stole the few hundred dollars inside. They also took a laptop computer before leaving.

The homeowner crawled to his toolbox and used a pair of wire cutters to remove the duct tape.

West Seattle artist, photographer, and gallery owner Cora Edmonds will show nearly 130 of her own photographs she has taken worldwide over the last 15 years to coincide with her Pioneer Gallery's gallery’s fifteenth birthday. The show, “15 Years of Cultural Exchange: The ArtXchange Journey” opens Thursday, Sept 2 and runs through Oct. 30 at her ArtXchange Gallery, 512 First Avenue South.

The West Seattle Herald reported on Edmonds last March, just four months after she and her husband, Phil Crean, adopted three children, siblings from a Ukrainian orphanage to join their two other children. With her super-sized family, Cora still manages to get away from their Admiral District home and operate her busy gallery, now with the added pressure of hanging a large show.

“This show is really quite a dream come true,” Edmonds said. Her gallery generally features one artist or a theme with different artists, and she holds six main exhibits per year with smaller exhibits reserved for a large corner of the studio. “To dig into the archives was quite a project, to cull through thousands of shots to curate a body of work that makes sense.

Public Health - Seattle & King County is reminding parents that for a healthy and safe school year, every parent's back-to-school checklist should include making sure children are up-to-date in their immunizations.

This year in Washington under-immunized children have contributed to outbreaks of chickenpox and pertussis ("whooping cough",). Health officials report.

"Immunizations are a very safe and effective way to keep children healthy and in school," said Dr. David Fleming director and health officer for Public Health - Seattle & King County. "Whether you're a parent enrolling your child in school or a student entering college, you should be checking to see if immunization records are up to date."

This fall, all students entering kindergarten through twelfth grade will be required to show proof of three doses of hepatitis B vaccine, an age-appropriate series of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis-containing vaccines (DTaP, pediatric DT, adult Td, or Tdap) and polio vaccine, and two doses of MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine.