October 2011

The Ballard volleyball team lost a close match Tuesday night at home, as the Bothell Cougars prevailed in the 5th set by a score of 15-10. The Beavers had battled back to force a game 5, and the score was tied at 10 when the Cougars went on a run to end the match.

Helping to keep the Beavers in the match was Annie Allen, who had 16 kills on the night. Deanna Meyers had 10 digs along with her 10 kills, and Liza Berg added 6. Monique Marquez totaled 39 assists.

After some tough conference matches, the Beavers are now 2-3 on the season. However, they have played well, and are 5-3 overall. They will travel to Inglemoor on Thursday for a match at 7:00.

Soccer

The score was even in the first half of Tuesday’s game against Skyline, with neither team finding the back of the net. The Spartans proved to be too much though, as two goals in the second period ended the match 2-0.

The Beavers played well in the game, holding Skyline —a powerful team that is undefeated this season— to a shutout in the first half. They will look to rebound on Thursday, as they travel to Redmond.

What would you do if you had the Alaskan Way Viaduct all to yourself for 30 minutes, free of cars and people? Maybe celebrate a birthday, propose to your significant other or stage a flash mob?

That’s what the Washington State Department of Transportation wants to know.

WSDOT is sponsoring a contest where one lucky person and 24 of their friends will win exclusive access to the Viaduct’s downtown section for 30 minutes on Oct. 22. The southern mile of the Viaduct closes for nine days for demolition starting Oct. 21.

To enter, answer the question “What would I do with 30 minutes on the Alaskan Way Viaduct?” in 100 words or less and send it to viaduct@wsdot.wa.gov by Sunday, Oct. 16. The winner will be escorted to a private section of the viaduct at a predetermined time to follow through with their plan. Check the WSDOT website for contest details, rules and restrictions.

by John Fox and David Bloom

By defeating this $60 Car Tab Hike, we can send a strong message that it's NOT OK to continually hit low income people, working families, and seniors with excessive and colossally regressive charges, taxes, and add-ons like this every time there is a shortfall - especially not while they are giving away literally millions in (MFTE) property tax breaks to large corporate developers (to the tune of over 35 million just in the last nine months and at current rates the giveaway will reach $150 million by 2013!) and not when there are far more equitable, fairer and more progressive approaches to addressing our cities backlog of needs (including use of developer impact fees used by cities and counties throughout the region). By saying NO this time around, it sends a strong message - stop taking it out of the hides of low income and working people and seniors and use what funding you have for our basic needs, real needs, that serve our community not special interests. And look in the future more towards progressive forms of taxation!

press release:
On Thursday Oct. 6, Seattle Public Schools Nutrition Services Department will launch at West Seattle’s Roxhill Elementary School the first of five Family Nights aimed at introducing new recipes developed in partnership between chefs from Seattle Schools and the Tom Douglas Restaurant Group. Other elementary schools scheduled to host recipe tastings include Concord Oct. 13, Maple Oct. 20, Emerson Oct. 27 and Van Asselt Nov. 10.

The event is not a public event but rather meant for staff and families to get familiar with new food offerings.

Nutrition Services has spent the past several months working with the restaurant group’s chefs to develop a variety of new school lunch menu items, ranging from Monterey Jack Cheese Enchiladas with Homemade Green Chili Sauce to Pan Fried Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables.

These Family Nights are aimed at providing staff, students and families a chance to sample “tasting bites” of the new menu items before SPS begins serving them in schools. The first recipe – Butternut Squash Curry with Chicken served over Couscous – will appear on school lunch menus in December.

Les Schwab Tires, under construction for several months in the former Huling Bros. used car location at the corner of Alaska Street and Fauntleroy Way s.w. is scheduled to open Wednesday, October 18th.

The store has retail space of 8,500 sq. ft. and six service bays. There is an additional 3,665 sq. ft. in the basement warehouse that will hold product inventories for tires, brakes, shocks and alignments.

The store will employ 10-12 people and additional employees will be hired based on the volume of business.

The new manager is Paul Howell, recently arrived from Midvale, Utah where he worked for Les Schwab for more than 8.5 years, but he's spent 21 years with the company. The new West Seattle store is larger than his previous place.

Do the Les Schwab people really run out to greet customers? "We really do," said Howell. "It's to kind of get an idea what the customer is about. We greet them with a nice smile and ask them the questions to get to what they need before we even invite them into the store."

7 police cars and 2 firetrucks and ambulances were on beach drive just across the street from Me-Kwa-Mooks park Wednesday morning and rescued what police told the Herald was a distraught lady in the water.

First she swam away from shore when they arrived. Officers say she decided to then swim toward shore where an ambulance attended to her.

If more details become available we will post them

For Alex Bowns, cross country running was just supposed to be a way to get in shape for the soccer season. He had never run long distance before, and figured it would be a good chance to improve his cardio. Yet four years later, Bowns now has a different plan.

After winning four of the first five meets this season, including an undefeated record in the conference, Bowns is taking aim at the State Meet this November. Considering the numbers he has put up so far, it looks like he is a shoe-in.

Last Wednesday at Issaquah, Bowns broke the 3-mile course record by ten seconds, finishing 54 seconds faster than the second place runner. And that’s not his only record: last spring at the 4A state championships, Bowns broke the Ballard high school 2-mile record.

“I hope to help my team qualify into the Washington State 4A division championships this November,” he said. “And along with that, individually win the Kingco championship meet and finish top-five at the state meet.”

Seattle Weekly's fifth annual REVERB Local Music Festival will take over downtown Ballard this Saturday, October 8.

Seven stages will host 70 of Seattle’s premiere bands and musicians and eight musicians for over 10 hours of entertainment.

For the fifth consecutive year, REVERB will showcase local talent in a variety of genres, reflecting Seattle’s deep love of music and its passionate musical history at an unbeatable price.

Advance sale tickets are only $10 advance for 21 and up, $10 for all ages. These tickets will go up $5 if purchased at the door.

There will be two all-ages venues: Salmon Bay Eagles upstairs and NY Fashion Academy.

The 21 and over stages include The Tractor Tavern, Volterra Drawing Room, the Sunset Tavern, Conor Byrne’s and the 2 Bit Saloon.

Benefiting from this year's REVERB is Seattle Music Partners. SMP is responsible for free after-school music programs geared toward elementary and middle school students in Seattle’s Central District. They have been doing so for 11 years by recruiting high school and college students from the community to teach and guide students. Students perform recitals to showcase their musical abilities.

The residents at Ballard Landmark on Leary Way enjoy a good party and the management loves to oblige them with at least one themed event per month. But on Monday, September 26th it was short-term residents Carroll and Muriel Fellaman who insisted on throwing a party before their return to Florida for the winter. It was a farewell to residents who had become friends and a big thank you for their support during a difficult time for the family. Their grandson Josh Fattal had been held in Iran since Carroll’s 85th birthday, twenty-six months earlier.

Two days before leaving Ballard Landmark, a senior and assisted living community, they had more than enough reason to party: their grandson had been released along with fellow hiker Shane Bauer was actually back on U.S. soil.

Muriel Felleman said the other residents learned their tale of woe in the course of getting acquainted. “They’ve got a grandson at Harvard and I’d say, well I’ve got a grandson in prison in Iran.”

Normally we interview people and their pets to tell a short and hopefully entertaining story about West Seattle people and their pets. But this time the story supplied by the owner was so good we present it to you without edits.

by Jamie Vrsek
"My husband, Nik, and I adopted Sammy seven years ago, and he is estimated to be about 10 years old. He is not a registered purebred pomeranian, as we don't know who his parents are. We adopted him through Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue which I highly recommend. Sammy was neglected and abused in his previous home and came to us with his front teeth broken from having been kicked in the face. As a result, he had to have most of his teeth removed. His previous owner also had him de-barked, so when he does "bark" it sounds like a cough. Despite having no bark and virtually no bite, he likes to intimidate anyone who walks past our front window by jumping around and snarling, doing his best Joe Pesci impression.