December 2011

By Peter Maier

The election in the District One of the Seattle School Board is over: Sharon Peaslee won by 1903 votes out of a total of 152,000 votes– a margin of 1-1/4% . I congratulate Sharon on the victory. She has already been sworn in as a member of the Board and has begun the hard work of helping the School District give our students the education they need and deserve.

The election outcome is a disappointment to me personally and to the many, many citizens who helped out in the campaign and with whom I have worked over the past four years. The final outcome was not what I expected given that on Election Night I had a 3,000 vote lead – about 4% -- of the 67,000 votes returned as of November 8. But as additional ballots were counted over the next week my lead slowly eroded and eventually Sharon took the lead. In the end the total number of ballots in the District One race far exceeded the total number of votes cast in 2007 – an increase of about 25,000 votes. This large and late surge of ballots favored Sharon Peaslee.

The countdown is on for drivers who use State Route 520. Starting Dec. 29, drivers will pay an electronic toll to cross the bridge and the Washington State Department of Transportation is urging travelers to get ready by setting up a Good To Go! account.

“Tolling is helping Washington move forward with critical transportation investments and will finance ongoing and future work to replace the vulnerable SR 520 floating bridge and corridor ,” said Washington Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond. “SR 520 toll revenue will provide $1 billion to fund pontoon construction in Grays Harbor, and floating bridge construction and improvements on the Eastside, which already are under way. Starting tolling before the new bridge is built is keeping financing costs down.”

The toll system’s components have been tested and retested since summer to ensure they can collect data at highway speeds and create transactions for the more than 100,000 vehicles that cross the bridge daily. WSDOT also brought in national tolling experts to review the system, and expanded its customer service support.

The Des Moines voters gave me strong support in my low budget election to Des Moines Council 4 position. I used no signs and accepted no contributions. Thank You!

I will not take office until January. However, I am using some of the time to work on several citizen issues.

Highline Water District invited me to attend their rate hearings as their supplier Seattle was talking about a 28 percent rate increase gouge. While Highline rates may be increased up to 6 percent the 28 percent increase went to other districts.

I suggested that a commissioner delegation along with their association could approach the Seattle Council to obtain a better share of the water revenue.

The new manager of Water District 54 gave me a 3" thick copy of the new Comprehensive Water System reconstruction plan dated August 2011 to bring WD 54l into the future. The system already has 4 water pressure reducers to keep pressure within safe limits and plans to replace substandard lines with new 12" lines downtown to bring water volume up to standards

In response to the organization, so called, Destination Des Moines, renaming the Christmas Tree a Holiday Tree, I resigned my membership and sent them a complaint.

Explaining that for all of my 80 plus years, it has been a cherished tradition even long before this "official" declared it to be "offensive" to some minorities perhaps.

The response that I received form this community leader who does not even live in Des Moines follows and it is the dumbest letter I have ever received. He is not considering the impact of a whole generation of children growing up and not loving the thought of Christmas, celebrated with a symbolic tree, called forever, A CHRISTMAS TREE.

I refer to this response as "dumb" because this person, at the very end of his poor excuse for banning Christmas from our tree; wishes us a Merry Christmas instead of Merry Holiday.

I proudly served my country for over 20 years and even in the most remote assignments, there was some representation of a CHRISTMAS TREE.

On the evening of November 29th, I and a number of Burien residents watched as the King County Library Board voted to push off voting to close the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries for the second time this year.

It was very clear to me and everyone I talked to that the KCLB members had already made up their minds to close and consolidate the two libraries.

The Nov. 29th vote was only one out of respect to the elected officials that came to the meeting, the attending representative to the County Executive, and probably to avoid any further confrontation from the already agitated group of taxpayers at the meeting.

The KCLB believes that the consolidated library would provide for the community adequately and so there is no dilemma in their minds. We need to focus on how the current library locations are already ideally placed and how the new location is illogical for our community.

If we really want these libraries to stay in our community, the Burien City Council will need to take action in saving them.

The Windermere Foundation recently donated $1000 each to three local non-profits. Here are the details from Bruce Bright with the Windermere Foundation:

The Windermere Foundation receives money from each Agent when an Agent Closes a Real Estate transaction. Our Burien Office pools our money with 6 other Windermere Offices, 2 in Federal Way, 2 in Renton, 1 in Kent and 1 in Maple Valley.

In October the 7 Offices put on an Oktoberfest Event at Fairwood Golf Course and we raised $15,000 to go to the Foundation. In our group of 7 Offices it is all Volunteers, no one gets paid, so it is all to the Foundation. This was our 3rd Event, like this. We started doing the Events 3 years ago because we have not raised as much money because of the poor Real Estate Market. We needed to do something extra to help out the Organizations we give Grants to. We also do a Spring Grant.

Our Burien Office is giving Grants of $1000 each to Hospitality House in Burien, Victory Outreach in Burien, and Angle Lake Family Resource Center in SeaTac.

Here is some additional information on the Hospitality house grant:

Deadline for receiving items for Community Calendar is 5 p.m. Wednesday for the following week’s Times/News. Events are published based on timeliness and space availability. Email submissions to: hteditor@robinsonnews.com Items can be accepted from nonprofit groups and government agencies only. Others may call Dona Ozier at 206-708-1378 for inclusion in our “Out & About” advertising section.

Christmas Ships
Rainier Youth Choir—Dec. 8. Ships leave Des Moines Marina at 7 p.m. Brown’s Point, 7:55-8:15 p.m. Redondo Beach, 8:50-9:10 p.m. Returns to marina, 9:35 p.m.
Dickens Carolers—Dec. 15. Ships begin at Des Moines waterfront, 7-7:30 p.m. Dash Point, 8:10-8:30 p.m. Return to waterfront, 9:15 p.m.

Events
Drive-thru Christmas—Normandy Christian Church, 908 S. 200th St. Dec. 10 and 11. 6-8:30 p.m. For 10 minutes this Christmas season, you and your family can be transported to Bethlehem while driving through the parking lot at Normandy Christian Church. Scores of volunteers, thousands of lights, and full-size sets bring to life the Nativity Story. Free. www.normandychristian.org or 206-878-4740.

press release:
Jason and Dianna Young of Camano Island, Wash., have purchased Stella Ruffington’s Doggy Playcare, 7003 California Ave SW in West Seattle.

“We plan to continue to operate Stella’s in the same manner that its former owner, Shane Tracy, employed so successfully,” Dianna Young said.

The business provides canine day care and overnight boarding for dogs of all breeds and all sizes. The Youngs also will offer dog training and canine behavioral problem-solving through Stella Ruffington’s. In addition to local classes, the Youngs will provide optional shuttle service for dogs between Stella Ruffington’s and Camano Island Kennels, a popular professional training and boarding kennel on Camano Island, northwest of Everett, where the training schedule embraces a range of opportunities that span standard obedience training to correction of the toughest problematic behavior, including aggression.

The Youngs founded Camano Island Kennels in 1997. Dog owners of Stanwood, Wash., and Camano Island have voted Camano Island Kennels best kennel in the area three times in the last three years in balloting conducted by the Stanwood/Camano Chamber of Commerce.

press release:
Playing through December 24th, ArtsWest proudly presents the Seattle Premiere of a hilarious, mad-cap homage to all things Xmas. If you’re too busy to catch any other holiday show this season, why not see the one that has it all: Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) by Michael Carleton, James FitzGerald and John K. Alvarez.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE PHOTOS FROM THE PRODUCTION

Susan Terjeson got her Scottish Terrier August from a breeder in Sammamish just 18 months ago and he came by that name because as Terjeson explained, " When I was a kid we lived on a farm in Iowa and down the road was a farmer named August Huey and in the spring when his mother sheep would have lambs sometimes they would not take care of their offspring and sometimes he would bring us the little lambs and we would raise them. So, I have that memory as a kid and I always sort of liked the name August."

She describes him as stubborn, independent, and a dog with a mind of his own. August gets Duck and Potato kibble and he gets peanut butter or chicken treats from Mud Bay.

While he's had obedience training Terjeson said, "He's not as trainable as our first Scotty was but he's got the basics and he's still kind of a puppy so I'm cutting him some slack. Part of the training is me too. It's not just all him. They say it's really the owner that's being trained, not the dog."