January 2013

The city of Des Moines is launching a new campaign to give incentives to ‘Support Waterland’ and shop locally. A new program called ‘Waterland Cards’ is being launched to encourage residents to take advantage of local businesses.

Over 80,000 Waterland Cards will be distributed through publications and participating public and business venues including the Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market.

The economic development manager for Des Moines, Marion Yoshino, spearheads the project.

“The city for a long time has talked about trying to encourage people to shop locally and to let people know what is available locally,” said Mayor Dave Kaplan.”

The program is very much designed to display, advertise the local aspect of shopping, eating out, and general services that are available in Des Moines that local residents may not have heard of.

“It takes a lot of people to make it work,” said Yoshino. “We’ve seen a great response.”

Over 50 Des Moines businesses have already signed up to participate, Yoshino said, which was her original goal. In time she hopes to have over 100 businesses signed up.

On Sunday, Jan. 6, WABI Burien will help city residents start their year off right by offering a special Walk-n-Talk-with-a Doc.

Dr. Michael Schlitt, neurosurgeon and Chief of Surgery at Highline Medical Center, will speak to WABI walkers about the health benefits of walking, and will then join in a walk so the conversation can continue on foot.

WABI Burien is a nonprofit group that promotes biking and walking.

As a frequent walker himself, Dr. Schlitt “walks his talk.” The doctor and his staff feel that walking is a key to both spinal and general health.

“At least two-thirds of my post-surgical patients use walking as their primary mode of rehabilitation after surgery,” Schlitt said. “Additionally, most patients referred to consultation actually don’t need surgery; walking is one of our key modalities for getting folks back to full function.”

Convinced of the value of walking, Dr. Schlitt will provide a free pedometer and a copy of his walking program to each walker attending January’s Walk-n-Talk. Also, there will be tips and tidbits about how and why to integrate more walking into your life.

The Genesee-Schmitz Neighborhood Council is holding a public meeting on progress in designing a new elementary school at the Genesee Hill site in West Seattle. The school will be funded with passage of the BEX IV Levy in February, and is expected to be complete in 2015.

GSNC shared a report on how things are shaping up so far, a good primer for anyone interested in attending.

Here are the meeting details from GSNC:

Next GSNC meeting to be held on Thursday, January 10

Curious how plans are shaping up for the new elementary school on the Genesee Hill site?

Please come to our next general meeting, where we will have a presentation on the initial conceptual design and a progress update by BLRB Architects.

The meeting details are as follows:
When: Thursday, January 10, at 7 p.m.
Where: Schmitz Park Elementary School, 5000 SW Spokane Street

We look forward to seeing you!

At 11 a.m. on Jan. 1, over a hundred people from Ballard and beyond brought in the New Year the right way by jumping full bore into Salmon Bay at Golden Gardens.

In the end, the event only lasted a few minutes as everyone charged at the waters screaming (and then screaming because of how cold the water was).

New Year's Day was a bright, clear, sunny day. If it weren't so cold, the polar plunge would have almost looked like people enjoying a tropical day at the beach. After getting wet, people dried off in front of burning Christmas trees and stuck around and enjoyed the sun while they could.

The Ballard News-Tribune was on scene with camera in hand. Click on the main picture above or the thumbnails below to view a full slideshow.

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And Twitter at http://twitter.com/ballardnewstrib

The Ballard High School boys and girls basketball team will play exhibition games against an Australian team on January 2, 2013. The games will be at Ballard High School. Tip off Times are as follows:

• Junior Varsity girls at 4:30 pm
• Varsity girls at 5:45 pm
• Varsity boys at 7:30 pm

Perhaps fortunately for Ballard boys, the Australian boys team has not been doing so well this season, with a losing 1-12 record. Many of their losing margins are in the double digits. Meanwhile, Ballard will be going in with a 6-4 record (2-3 conference), fresh off of a championship win from the three-game Les Schwab Holiday Classic tournament.

Australian girls' record have not been recorded, but the Ballard girls varsity will be going in with a 6-5 record. JV has a 1-11 record.

In any case, if Ballard Athletic's twitter feed is any indication, Ballard High School is excited to host the match. Less than a half-hour ago, Athletics posted "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!"

For live updates via twitter, follow @BallardHSSports

Follow Ballard News-Tribune on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ballardnewstrib

Press release
West Seattle Little League is excited to announce that we will be offering ONLINE REGISTRATION as well as our traditional IN PERSON REGISTRATION for the 2013 season. To register online go to www.westseattlelittleleague.com and click the register for 2013 season button. The in person registration will be held at the West Seattle High School Library on Tuesday, January 15th 2013 and Thursday, January 24th from 6:00PM-8:00PM. West Seattle Little League website has more information regarding registration and the items needed to register your child.

If you have any questions please contact playeragent@westseattlelittleleague.com

Update for Jan. 3
Det. Renee Witt with the Seattle Police Department confirmed the suspect in a burglary, who fled the scene in a stolen vehicle and crashed into another car on Jan. 1, is still in the hospital with a broken pelvis and facial lacerations as of Jan. 3.

He will be booked into jail once he is able to leave Harborview Hospital, in an unknown time frame.

The suspect fled the High Point neighborhood and crashed head on into another vehicle on Delridge Way S.W., directly in front of the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct.

Three women in the other vehicle were also injured in the collision, however police did not have information on their status. Early indications at the scene were that two of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries.

Original post on Jan. 1
According to Seattle Police at the scene, a suspect driving what they believe to be a stolen Mercedez Benz fled the scene of what was likely a burglary in the High Point neighborhood and then after coming down Sylvan Way SW came east and turned right, headed southbound on Delridge Way SW.

SLIDESHOW: Click on photo to see more, or click on image below in photo gallery. Video by David Rosen. Still photos by Steve Shay.

The New Years Day Annual Alki Polar Bear Swim organizer (and White Center Chamber of Commerce President) Mark Ufkes said the first polar swim began with a for group of friends and grew to over 300 last year.

This morning at 10:00 a.m. sharp, with Ufkes emceeing on the mic with his traditional countdown, it seemed like 400 to 500 brrrrrrave polar bear swimmers huddled in the 36 degree temperature and then raced into the water screaming, did a 180, and darted back to shore for the annual ritual. It took place again across the street from Duke's Chowder House.

This was the 13th Annual swim. The event was established by Kip Kolodziejski and Jeanne DeBaets.

“It was the Y2K year and we wanted to do something big for the year 2000," said DeBaets in the 2010 West Seattle Herald coverage of this event. “It started with just us. The next year more people came. Then more the next. It just feels good. It wakes you up.”

When I was 11 my big brother Russell, who was thirteen, gave me two marbles for Christmas. One was bright red and the other was bright blue. I know it was a sacrifice for him as he had won them from some rookie and knew I wanted them bad.

Russell was in love too. He also gave Bessie Hurst a forty-nine cent sewing machine. It actually sewed stuff. It had a needle in it and you put the thread in the hole in the needle and turned a big wheel on one end and the needle went up and down.

It was cool and we didn't even say "cool" back then.

Bessie was hard to please and never even said thanks. In an effort to win her heart, or possibly get revenge, Russell had this great idea. He put some water in a pop bottle. He added some salt and pepper and orange juice and crushed razzberries and some cough medicine and he had me go with him up to Bessie's house to give her this bottle of stuff.

She was upstairs looking out a window at us as we came into her yard. She opened the window and told us to go away.