September 2010

The Highline School District is considering placing a $200 million bond on the February ballot to fund replacement of Highline High School in Burien and Des Moines Elementary School.

The bond would also finance $9 million in technology improvements, $20 million in repairs such as roofs and heating/air conditioning systems and $13 million to fix up the Olympic site to house Highline High students while their school is being replaced.

The district is also considering placing a levy measure on the February ballot. Board members also must decide the amount of the levy and what it would fund.

The school board will hold a work-study session on Oct. 11 to hear results of bond/levy polling by a citizen's group. Board members are expected to act on the bond proposal at their Oct. 13 meeting. Both public meetings begin at 6 p.m. at district headquarters, 15675 Ambaum Blvd. S.W.

Assistant Superintendent Geri Fain said Highline High was partially remodeled in 1989 with the auditorium removed and the Highline Performing Arts Center, next to the school, built.

SeaTac lawmakers were seriously split Sept. 28 on proposals to accept a federal stimulus grant and to hire an interim planning director.

After extensive debate, council members approved both measures by 4-3 votes.

The $180,000 grant will help promote healthy eating and active living in SeaTac, interim city manager Todd Cutts told council members. A program manager will be hired to suggest policies the city could adopt to encourage better health practices.

The grant expires March 2012.

The grant is part of a Highline Healthy Living Coalition that includes SeaTac, Burien, Des Moines, Normandy Park and the Highline School District. The governing bodies of the other coalition partners earlier voted to accept the grant.

Councilwoman Pam Fernald said she originally supported the grant but changed her mind after researching it further.

She said the city should stick to city business.

"Grants often come with strings," Fernald declared. "This is outside the bounds of what the city is obligated to do."

She added that federal government control through such programs as stimulus spending is bankrupting the country.

One of the lost arts I mastered in my misspent youth was playing migs, also called marbles.

I am saddened to see kids today using their thumbs for pitiful things like texting and hitchhiking on I-5.

Playing migs not only builds your thumb muscles. It helps you get your pants grimy at the knees and your knuckles full of sand. If you drop an aggie or two in Mom's lard can overnight, then forget to dig them out, you will get no milk on your oatmeal when she finds them.

But by overnight the lard will work its magic. It will magically penetrate the agate and erase those tiny fractures. Unless your prized marble ends up in a biscuit, which could irritate your Dad.

The first rule of marbles was to find some real estate. This is really important, but with all the organized games they play today, kids will have to pick out a corner behind the portables where they can play.

If they get bored shooting migs, they can make another circle in the dirt, divide it in half, then fling an open-pocketknife (genuine Barlows are best) at their opponents' real estate. Draw a big circle in the dirt with a line down the middle. You and your friend each own half. Object? To own it all.

On Wednesday, Oct. 6, the City of Burien will participate in a county-wide earthquake drill, opening its emergency operations center and performing functions as if the emergency were real including communicating with residents and businesses.

Residents may see an alert on the City website. Alerts also will be broadcast on the City's radio station, Radio Free Burien 540 AM and on Burien Cable Channel 21. People with telephone land lines in their homes or businesses will receive an emergency alert through Burien Alert, the City's new emergency notification system that went into effect Sept. 15. Those who have signed up to receive alerts over their cell phones and other electronic devices will receive a call from Burien Alert.

People can "opt in" their cell phones and other devices to the Burien Alert system by clicking the "Burien Alert" button on the City's Web home page at www.burienwa.gov. Those without Internet access can come to City Hall for assistance opting in.

For more information on Burien Alert, go to www.burienwa.gov.alert.

Master Animal Control Officer Jan Magnuson of the Des Moines Police Department has put out an all-points bulletin for loving families to adopt six kittens who were found in a paper grocery bag left in a driveway.

She reports they are around seven weeks of age and have been vet checked, vaccinated and de-wormed (they will need to be spayed/neutered when they are more mature). The adoption fee is $25.

The six are a black/white girl, a black/white boy, a tortie calico girl, a blue/white girl, a blue/white boy, and a brown tabby girl.

If you would like to adopt one of these cuties, they are at Companion Animal Medical Center 19655- 1 Ave. S. in Normandy Park. Companion's phone number is 206-878-0405 or you can contact Magnuson at the Des Moines Police Department.

The American Solar Energy Society, or ASES, organizes the National Solar Tour, the world's largest grassroots solar event, according to its website, http://www.nationalsolartour.org/

The website also says, "This event offers you the opportunity to tour innovative green homes and buildings to see how you can use solar energy, energy efficiency, and other sustainable technologies to reduce monthly utility bills and help tackle climate change. More than 160,000 participants will visit some 5,500 buildings in 3,200 communities across the U.S.

"Now in its 15th year, this event is coordinated nationally by the nonprofit American Solar Energy Society in collaboration with dozens of outstanding partner organizations. It takes place annually during the first Saturday in October in conjunction with National Energy Awareness Month."

Shakai is a combination dog and shows it. Her mother was a pure chocolate lab and her father was the neighborhood "Newfie that snuck into the garage," explained Shakai's owner Diane Robertson,"It was an unplanned child." Her most interesting physical distinction is her fur.

On her back, running down it like a stripe is long fur, like you might find on a Newfoundland and elsewhere she has short fur like a labrador retriever.

Now 10 years old, Shakai loves people,"She's a regular social butterfly," explained Robertson.

"She's a double water dog but she's such a social dog she won't go in the water because when we take her to the park, like Magnuson, she has to go around to meet and greet all the people and dogs."

Shakai will go swimming but only if there are no others around. "Otherwise she's too distracted by wanting to say hello to everybody," said Robertson.

Even though she has retriever blood in her, "she's not a fetcher," claimed Robertson, Shakai prefers tug of war.

3:21 a.m. – 4:17 a.m. Sept. 25, 3600 Block of Phinney Ave. N.

After reports of an assault, police arrived on the scene to find the victim crouched on the ground holding his head, on which there was a large, red bump.

According to a witness, who had been in his room across the street, he heard a commotion outside his window and looked out. He saw a group of men and another man on the ground and called the police. The suspects fled and possibly got into a taxi.

The victim told police he noticed a group of men walking behind him. When he turned around to see what they wanted, one of the men, without saying anything, punched him in the face. The victim fell to the ground and the men grabbed his wallet and removed $270 of cash.

According to the victim, his attacker was "dressed like a pimp" with a black jacket, black jeans, a Kangol-style hat and tinted glasses. There was a woman with the man wearing a white T-shirt and tight blue jeans and who had a "large rear end," according to the victim.

Police determined the suspect caught a cab from the area and was dropped off near North 46th Street and Aurora Avenue North, possibly entering a motel.

A report came into the King County Sherrif's regarding "reckless shooting" at
2nd s.w. and 124th s.w. and deputies responded but found nothing.

A subsequent call came in that a man had been shot in the leg at 112th and 1st Ave. So. Detectives are investigating the incident.

With the Alaskan Way Viaduct as a background a small but determined group of people who want the fight over the Viaduct to stop and for construction of a replacement tunnel to begin.

“Let’s build this damn thing already,” James Kelly, a main member of the Friday Secret Society Meeting and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle said.

The Friday Secret Society is becoming less and less of a secret as they publically ask the Seattle Government to quit stalling and do something about the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

He said enough is enough, the City needs to move forward with construction on the tunnel and a world class waterfront park in the process.

In the latest battle between Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and the Seattle City Council McGinn publically denounced Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin for signing the supplemental draft environmental impact statement (EIS), which will keep the city of Seattle as the lead on the project. McGinn asked Conlin to rescind his signature and asked the Governor not to accept the signature on behalf of the City.