January 2012

Sustainable West Seattle is seeking more support from the community and to promote it they are offering to raffle off two roundtrip tickets good for anywhere Alaska Airlines or Horizon Air fly*. The drawing will be held Feb. 20.

To enter the drawing you must:

Join Sustainable West Seattle or renew your membership with a $20 donation;
Join The West Seattle Tool Library or renew your membership with a $20 donation;
Join The West Seattle Tool Library or renew your membership with a $40 donation (2 tickets);
Purchase a West Seattle Tool Library Gift Membership with a $40 donation (2 tickets);
Take a West Seattle Tool Library Class at The Community Workshop; or

By David Rosen and Patrick Robinson

Update as of 6:00 pm 1/15/2012

11 kittens and cats were adopted

Kitty Harbor still has 4 kittens left to adopt so please call them at (206) 935-1919.

Also Kent shelters have many nice kittens and cats available for adoption.

Update as of 6:00 pm 1/14/2012

35 total adoptions today of kittens and adult cats
29 still left to adopt - 10 kittens and 29 adults

Adoptions continue tomorrow from 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm

The 5th Annual Adopt-A-Thon at Kitty Harbor, 3422 Harbor Ave. s.w. got underway at Noon on Saturday Jan. 14 and people lined up outside to get their pick of various litters, so to speak as more than 60 cats were made available for adoption. This is a very special event in part because Delyn Kosbab normally only opens from June through Christmas, and then reopens for one additional weekend.

Many of the cats came from the King County Animal Shelter with others coming from Pet Over Population, headquarterd in the Tri-Cities. As the event began there were 20 kittens, 20 'teenagers', and 20 adult cats available.

CLICK THE PHOTO ABOVE TO SEE MORE

The City of Seattle has begun its preparations for winter weather. The National Weather Service has issued a Special Weather Statement which states:

Today: A 30 percent chance of showers before 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 42. Southwest wind between 13 and 15 mph.

Tonight: Cloudy, with a low around 36. Southwest wind between 13 and 17 mph.

Sunday: A 50 percent chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 40. South wind between 6 and 14 mph. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Sunday Night: A 50 percent chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a low around 33. Light and variable wind. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

M.L.King Day: A 50 percent chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 40. South wind around 11 mph. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

The Sustainable West Seattle Membership Meeting, originally scheduled for Tuesday, January 17th, has been rescheduled for Monday, January 23rd at 7pm at the West Seattle Senior Center (4217 SW Oregon St.) More details are available on our website: www.sustainablewestseattle.org

press release:
Join Sustainable West Seattle for our Annual Membership meeting and Volunteer Fair. Enjoy food and drink as we elect a new Board of Directors for 2012 and discuss how we can make this year even more sustainable and resilient for West Seattle. During The Volunteer Fair, you’ll be able to casually explore ways to get involved in any or all of Sustainable West Seattle’s projects, including:

The West Seattle Tool Library
Stormwater Project
Eat Local Now
Spokespeople Bike Rides
The Community Orchard
and more.

Tuesday, Jan. 17, 7-9 pm
West Seattle Senior Center
4217 SW Oregon St.

As the anniversary of the fire that closed the historic Alki Homestead approaches on January 16 the architects charged with charting the building's future, Alloy Design Group have been busy working to scale back previous plans for the restoration.

The project had been split between the pure restoration of the Homestead (also called the Fir Lodge) and the development of an accessory structure at the rear of the building intended to provide space for an elevator, staircases, a commercial kitchen and storage with a partial view deck on the roof. That structure would have comprised 2400 square feet but now, for reasons of both economy and to focus more intently on historic restoration Alloy's Greg Squires and Mark Haizlip have worked to fit that full 'program' into the existing building's space.

Since the building is a landmark structure it means they must first pass muster with the Architectural Review Committee of the Landmarks Preservation Board. They had been approaching the project with the idea of being more collaborative with the committee members, showing them four options.

Many in West Seattle know environmentalist B.J. Cummings as the former director of the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, or DRCC, She now runs their healthy communities projects. Cummings and her 13 year-old son, Colin Sackett, held an opening reception Friday night featuring 15 of their travel photographs exhibited at Hiroki, a Wallingford pastry shop at 2224 N 56th St. This show features work exhibited recently at the Nature Consortium of West Seattle in the Youngstown Arts Center on North Delridge. Images include photos of he temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

The Des Moines Theater, recently purchased by developers Tom Lin and Isaiah Dummer is moving into the next phase. As the Highline Times/News reported in early December, the project has been in evaluation mode as the historic building is examined for necessary repairs and years of accumulated electronic gear, projectors and more are moved out or sold off. After about another week of clearing out rooms that had been filled with collected old electronic gear and more, and getting a basic clean up done they can begin to look more seriously at retail clients for the ancillary spaces in the 10,000 square foot plus building. "We're getting more requests right now than we can handle," said Lin in an exclusive interview with the Highline Times.

So far the plan includes a pizza restaurant, a lounge, a coffee shop, and they are talking to a speciality chocolate retailer plus a game store/gaming lounge.

Tuesday, Jan. 10
Boys basketball
Franklin 72, Chief Sealth 65
Franklin got the best of the Seahawks in Metro League action last Tuesday.
Seattle Prep 54, West Seattle 51
The Wildcats lost a close game to Seattle Prep last Tuesday.

Girls basketball
Tacoma Baptist 39, Seattle Lutheran 26
Seattle Lutheran of West Seattle dropped a low-scoring game against Tacoma Baptist last Tuesday, Jan. 10.

Wednesday, Jan. 11
Girls basketball
Highline 57, Evergreen 33
The Pirates prevailed handily in a Seamount game last Wednesday.
Franklin 84, Chief Sealth 51
Franklin outgunned the Seahawks in a high scoring game Wednesday.
Seattle Prep 69, West Seattle 38
West Seattle went down to a loss in a Metro League game last Wednesday.

Wrestling
Interlake 52, Evergreen 27
Interlake 92, Tyee 0
Evergreen and Tyee both lost to Interlake in a three-way meet Wednesday.

Thursday, Jan. 12
Wrestling
Nathan Hale 66, West Seattle 19

The sunsets from West Seattle the last few days have been truly exceptional as evidenced by many if not most media outlets sharing their photos via social media. But you can't really see them as well as you might if you could see them larger. So, depending on your screen size or resolution you can see each of them in the slideshow, by clicking on the photo above or by clicking on the links you see above.

If you have a great sunset photo, shot in the last few days, send it to WestSeattle@robinsonnews.com and we will add it to this slideshow.

READER PHOTOS NOW ADDED TO THE SLIDESHOW-
CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE MORE.

That big red cargo ship off Alki is the 735-foot Navios Hyperion.

"That's a standard anchor position we have for ships that come in," said Peter McGraw, Seaport/Real Estate Media Officer, Port of Seattle. "It may drift a little, but it's got to stick pretty close to where the position is. That is a bulk carrier, used to taking non-container cargo. In this case it is waiting for a grain shipment, or waiting for a birth at Pier 86. BNSF (Railway) carries the grain from as far away from Iowa or Nebraska and it will be either soy beans or corn and off it goes to either Japan or China where it typically goes to feed livestock."

In Spanish, "Navios" means "ships". "Hyperion" was the Greek Titan god of light and means "watcher from above" or "he who goes above".