August 2014

A small kitchen fire around 7 am in the Highpoint Neighborhood House Community Center at 6400 Sylvan Way SW resulted in the setting off the sprinkler system in the building. The fire produced a lot of smoke and the sprinklers flooded the building's first floor.

The fire was out but firefighters were left with the task of ventilating the building and trying to clear the majority of the water from the floor.

Facilities Manager Daniel Casey said he was on the third floor of the building, well away from the kitchen area when the sprinkler system kicked into action. No one else was in the building.

The exact cause of the fire and a full damage estimate was not immediately available.

UPDATE 8:30am
Seattle Fire Department estimates $55,000 damage was done to the home on 26th Ave. SW. in West Seattle this morning. Cause undetermined.

Original Post

A fire in a boarded up home at 9213 26th SW after 6am resulted in heavy damage to the structure. No injuries were reported.

Fire crews responded to a 911 call placed by neighbors Belinda and Rudy Landon.

The incident commander said they arrived and found heavy smoke coming from the eaves of the building. They had to open up the roof "because it's kind of hoarder situation" he said. Fire was put out quickly.

Neighbor Phil Armes said the home has been boarded up for "about a month" and that the lady who had lived there has been "out of there since April." But he and other neighbors have seen squatters in the house. "I think within a week or two we've had squatter issues. We've been chasing people out of there. Just the other day we chased a guy out of there. It's been kind of a constant thing. They put up the boards but they stay there anyway. We look out our window at 11 o'clock at night and sure enough there was two people in there. They looked right at us."

By Bob Sims

I remember the first time I walked on the lush Sick's Seattle Stadium grass as a 12-year-old kid. Vividly. It was on Little League Day in the summer of 1962, the year of the Seattle World's Fair.

I picked up a patch of the verdant Rainier Valley turf and put it in my back pocket, carefully, as if it were part of hallowed ground.

The ghosts of Rainiers past had trod there, and I knew it, names like Earl Averill, "Kewpie" Dick Barrett, Bobby Balcena, Fred Hutchinson, Vern Kindsfather, Rogers "The Rajah" Hornsby, Hal Turpin, Dewey Soriano, Edo Vanni, Ron Santo, Jo Jo White, Joe Taylor, Maury Wills, "Jungle" Jim Rivera and Artie Wilson.

All of them helped contribute to the burgeoning Seattle renaissance after the Depression. They were big stars.

"The Rainiers were Seattle's first big entertainment offering," said Dan Raley, author of "Pitchers of Beer: The History of the Seattle Rainiers."

What’s fun and free?
Answer: Face painting by the artists from the Burien Arts Association at the unique Burien Lantern Festival and Procession on Saturday, Sept. 6.
Burien Arts volunteers will be dabbing on the face paint at Dottie Harper Park, 421 S.W. 146th St., from 5 to 8 p.m.
Face painting will be just one part of a magical evening in the forest on that Saturday, which will also feature lantern art and performers, lantern making, food vendors, tea, treats and an evening lantern procession around the neighborhood.
More information is available at www.burienwa.gov and www.burienarts.org.

By Matt Wendland
Burien man arrested in connection to the killing of two men in Kent

Physical education (PE) teachers from across Highline School District are getting special training today, August 21, on an innovative PE curriculum that will launch on the first day of school, September 3. The goal is to build students’ lifelong fitness and health.

The training is part of a comprehensive approach to improving access to physical activity for all Highline students – based on a recognition that physical activity is essential to helping students achieve academically.

Highline’s new policy places greater emphasis on getting students to be more active throughout the school day; makes PE more accessible for all students; and provides on-line access to fitness progress for students, parents and teachers.

Only one in four students in Highline are getting the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity they need to be healthy. Yet, schools can make a difference in the health of their students, as shown by a recent drop in obesity rates in several low-income King County school districts that participated in an obesity prevention initiative.

The Burien Library is celebrating its 5th Anniversary with a daylong party on Saturday, September 13th from 10-5. We are hosting a diversity of performers, with appeal to multiple age groups:

Brian Vogan & his Good Buddies – hip tunes for kids and families at 11:00am SuperSones – acoustic dance music of the Cuban countryside at 1:00pm Massive Monkees – energetic breakdancing and performance from one of the most famous crews in the world at 3:00pm

Teen volunteers will also be giving our free mini-cupcakes from Burien’s own Balloons & Cupcakes.

Bardahl-sponsored drag-racing champion Al Young, of Shoreline, is presented with a first-place trophy for longest distance traveled at The Power Big Meet in Vasteras, Sweden. Young poses with Cherielynn Westrich, car builder on the TLC series Overhaulin’.

Mary Street has a rash of applications for subdivisions. Three applications have been submitted by the same owner for subdivision projects proposed to occur at the 6700 block of Mary Street.

6701 MARY AVE NW:

Land Use Application to subdivide one development site into two unit lots. The construction of residential units has been approved under Project #6389358. This subdivision of property is only for the purpose of allowing sale or lease of the unit lots. Development standards will be applied to the original parcel and not to each of the new unit lots.

6705 MARY AVE NW:

Land Use Application to subdivide one development site into two unit lots. The construction of residential units has been approved under Project #6389369. This subdivision of property is only for the purpose of allowing sale or lease of the unit lots. Development standards will be applied to the original parcel and not to each of the new unit lots.

And for the first time, we’re performing at the…

Ballard High School Performing Arts Center
1418 NW 65th Street, Seattle, WA 98117
Saturday, September 13, 7:30pm

This is a free event. Contributions are gratefully accepted.

When on September 11, 2004 we created, on short order, a choir to do just one performance at a Ballard ArtWALK event we couldn’t have dreamed it would eventually become one of the area’s largest and most dynamic choral ensembles. Here we are, ten years later, serving up gloriously beautiful choral music and pursuing a mission to build communities with song. This concert, which brings together new members with special alumni from the past, will be a joyful and nostalgic celebration not to be missed. As usually we will present a little bit of everything, much of it our favorite selections from the last ten years, and some things truly new and different.

We are thrilled to be holding this concert at the Ballard High School Performing Arts Center, our first time at that venue. This will provide extra space in the audience for you, and all of your friends and family. So please save the date and spread the word.