April 2011

Press Release:
The Kiwanis Club of West Seattle is bringing the spirit of service alive in West Seattle by hosting a caned food drive to benefit the West Seattle Food Bank on Saturday April 2nd from 9am to 3pm.

The canned food drive is taking place at West Seattle grocery stores including Metropolitan Market, PCC,
Jefferson Square QFC, Safeway and Morgan Street Thriftway. All West Seattle community members are encouraged to come out and support this worthy cause.

These activities are being held as part of Kiwanis One Day, a global volunteer action day uniting the entire Kiwanis family, including Kiwanis, Circle K, Key Club, Builder’s Club, Aktion Club, K-Kids and Kiwanis Junior. On this day, more than 15 volunteers are expected to join nearly 600,000 volunteers around the world in devoting a few hours to hands-on volunteer service. Kiwanis expects that Kiwanis One Day will contribute
nearly one million service hours around the world in just one day.

“We are proud to join our fellow Kiwanis family members around the globe to participate

The parking lot has been full and people who have known and loved the Charlestown Cafe at 3800 California Ave. s.w. as a restaurant and community resource crowded into the building for a last visit before the business closes on Sunday, April 3.

A transformer outside the restaurant blew out during the lunch hour so they were forced to close for tonight. They expect to be open for breakfast at 7:00 am and then stop seating at 2:30 pm on Sunday.

The doors will close for the final time at 3:00 and an employee only party will follow where there are sure to be lots of tears and memories shared amongst the thirty people who will be losing their jobs.

One said today, "I wish there wasn't even going to be a party and that we could just keep going so I could keep my job."

But owner Ron Hanlon made clear last week as the West Seattle Herald detailed the business simply ran out of money to keep going, despite his best efforts.

The Federal Way Human Services Commission today announced recipients of the new Community Enhancement Grants. The small grants pilot program awarded funds to twenty organizations supporting education, seniors and underserved populations.

The goal of the new program is to leverage small amounts of funding to make significant differences in the community. The pilot program will provide scholarship money for disadvantaged children to attend music, theater and recreational camps this summer. Enterprise Elementary will use their award to build a greenhouse for their community garden.

Grants will also fund the purchase of a telephonic screening tool for teen services at the Crisis Clinic and a language translation tablet to help children with limited English skills learn the English language. Funded organizations include Kikaha, Birth to Three, Kinship, Centerstage Theatre, and the Federal Way Symphony, among others.

Federal Way-based DBM Contractors, Inc. has completed temporary excavation support for the JCM U-Link Joint Venture at the Sound Transit Link U230 Capitol Hill Station in Seattle. The deep excavation measures 550 feet long by up to 80 feet wide and extends to over 70 feet deep below the adjacent city streets.

The earth retention system required DBM to install 141 each anchored steel temporary soldier piles averaging nearly 100 feet deep, 1,118 each temporary tieback anchors, 363 Double Corrosion Protection (DCP) soil nails plus 11,840 square feet of 8-inch temporary shotcrete facing, 81,270 square feet of treated timber lagging and one row of 6 each 36-inch diameter pipe struts and double wide flange (WF) beam walers for "cross-lot" excavation support and to support the streets and sidewalks of the surrounding city blocks.


Site dewatering was required to facilitate the excavation and was complicated by the fact that the bottom of aquifer on the North end was above the bottom of the excavation. To accomplish the dewatering, DBM installed nine each deep wells and approximately 150 each vacuum wellpoints.

A constant, heavy Puget Sound spring mist came down for the full 90 minutes in Evergreen High School Wolverine’s Friday night game against the Foster Bulldogs, making for tough playing conditions and 75 scoreless minutes in the 1-1 tie on April 1.

Foster HS scored in the 76th minute and held the lead until the 84th minute when Evergreen's Kevin Ventura put in a set play equalizer, leading to the tie.

Most of the game was played in the midfield with a slippery ball and soaked pitch slowing the game down at points and skipping through balls beyond streaking strikers’ reach.

Evergreen had the majority of possession in the first half, getting a handful of shots on Foster’s goal and winning four corner kicks. Evergreen’s midfield dominated possession around the center line, finding their greatest success working the ball to the outside.

Dylan Laquire, left midfield, caused Foster’s defense problems making runs down the sideline and working the ball back into the forwards, but to no avail.

Malo's Auto Body in White Center has installed a new earth friendly, water based automotive painting system that is not only more environmentally friendly, it produces better results.

General Manager Brad Truesdell said, "It eliminates solvents that we would use to adhere paint. Traditionally you would have solvents and hardeners in the base coat, whereas now we've eliminated roughly over half the solvents in the system now."

70% of all car manufacturers in fact now use water based painting systems to some degree.

"We are now using what would be considered O.E.M. paint," said Truesdell, "It matches the style and quality of the paint as it was when it was originally manufactured. You get the closest to match finish you can possibly get."

Made by BASF you can learn more about the product Malo uses at http://www.basfrefinish.com.

The process is also faster and produces better results. "The metallics lay down smoother. You don't have a chemical reaction between clear coat and base coat," said Truesdell.

Blaine Cook owner of Zippy’s Giant Burgers is hard at work at his new location at 9614 14th Ave s.w. in White Center prepping the kitchen, the walls, the floors and getting anxious about the impending move of his popular restaurant to larger quarters.

The cement floors of the 1600 sq. foot space have been ground down and are being refinished, new partial walls have been built, treated and painted in appealing colors and Cook has worked out, "the flow" as he describes it.

A former teacher, Cook explained that in a classroom you have to lay out the space for maximum efficiency so for Zippy's he's set up the order station, the milk shake station, a place to get other items, the all important bottled soda pop. "We've been approached by the guys who want us to sell fountain drinks but that's just not Zippy's," Cook explained, "That's about just dollars and we're really about the experience." He's also interested in having a "photo booth" style machine in the restaurant.

Just three days following City Attorney Pete Holmes' lawsuit against signature gatherers who collected over 29,000 names in their quest to put the multi-billion dollar project to a public, citywide vote, Gov. Chris Gregoire, King County Exec. Dow Constantine and others declared a "coalition" to plead their case for the project, which Gregoire called "a done deal" at an Oct. 29 press conference. They characterize their statements as one side of a debate:

For Immediate Release: March 31, 2011

Gov. Chris Gregoire, King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin and Seattle Port Commission President Bill Bryant spoke today about the need to move forward with the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement without delay.

Gregory Paul Hess, 65, was sentenced to 60 months in prison for his armed robbery of a Shell gas station in West Seattle by King County Judge Sharon Armstrong on April 1.

Hess pled guilty on March 3 to first degree robbery charges in the Feb. 5 robbery and appeared at the King County Courthouse for his sentencing.

He earned the nickname “Polite Robber” after John Henry, the robbery victim and owner of the Shell station at 2805 s.w. Roxbury, released surveillance video of Hess’s crime to media. The video shows Hess apologetically robbing Henry of just under $300 using a handgun-style pellet gun.

Both prosecutors and Hess’s attorneys recommended Hess be given 51 months, the lower end of a 51 to 68 month sentence range, however Judge Armstrong decided on the middle ground, giving Hess 60 months based upon prior convictions and his use of a pellet gun intended to look like a real handgun.

Hess’s attorneys painted him as a non-violent man who was desperate for money before Judge Armstrong made her decision.

The Master Gardeners have been informing Ballardites on safe, sound and sustainable urban gardening projects for the last four years with weekly clinics at the Ballard Farmers market and will celebrate their fifth season on Sunday, May 1st.

"I want to celebrate our fifth season on May Day and thank the market, the community and Ballard by asking, "what can we do for you?"," said clinic leader, Jeff Bidwell. "The market has gone out of its way to make room for us and we’re very grateful."

Part of Washington State University’s extension program, the Master Gardener Program started in King County in 1972 to address the need of home gardeners for horticultural information.  Today, the Master Gardener Program has grown to be one of the largest in the world and exists in all 50 states and many other countries.