White Center Now: The blog about White Center

By Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for White Center Now

Neighbors convened on Thursday night for the April meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council (NHUAC) group, at North Highline Fire District HQ, with an agenda focused on public safety in and around White Center. It was the group’s first meeting since February (the March meeting was canceled) and was facilitated by NHUAC vice-president Barbara Dobkin and other board members.

The featured guests of the night were Chief Jason Gay from the North Highline Fire District (NHFD) and Burien’s King County Fire District 2 (KCFD2) as well as Captain Chris Przygocki and Community Service Officer (CSO) Nate Hammock from the King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO).

Meeting notes and summary below:

FIRE CHIEF UPDATE:  First up was Gay, who has been with KCFD2 for 20 years:

He was promoted to captain in 2012, and then to the position of fire chief when prior chief Mike Marrs retired in November 2023. “I climbed right off the fire truck into the front office,” Gay said.

North Highline FD entered a 20-year consolidation contract with King County FD2 in 2019, which resulted in all NHFD employees becoming employees of KCFD2. Gay said the consolidation was “wonderful for both departments.” As a result of that consolidation, NHFD provides service for about 20,000 community members. 

Gay said the department handled 13,000 calls in 2024, and recently put a new “Aid Car” (ambulance) in service, staffed with two EMT firefighters.  He said they are proud to have a CARES (Community Assistance Referrals and Education Services) car in service as well, staffed with a social worker and EMT firefighter, to provide needed services to the community and “break the cycle.”

Gay said that call volume is definitely up, following a lull during COVID. He said they’re proud of the recent renovations to the North Highline FD station building. Among other improvements, he said one of the driving factors was that the station previously didn’t have adequate spaces for all firefighters — “we have a lot more female firefighters; we needed new individual rooms with bathrooms and to update the station overall.” Gay said other stations will have upgrades soon, as well. He added that “next year we’ll probably adjust the boundary between station 18 and 19 to level out call volume as well” (currently, Highway 509 in the main divider).

Gay then opened it up for questions from meeting attendees:

• Q:  How are you handling water access with new apartment complexes in the area; when they build a new building they’re required to have hydrants in range. A: That’s more of a fire marshal question, but in general the funding comes from the “fire benefit charge” and property tax. He said North Highline has a “cool callout in the RCWs” and for those qualifying properties, the King County Housing Authority pays the fire benefit charge.
• Q: The last meeting I attended, they were talking about road design. Does more housing density cause issues for fire trucks getting access to those areas? A: Gay said that yes, that can definitely be a problem especially in areas where street parking is allowed on both sides of the street. He said Greenbridge is a concern because it’s hard to get fire trucks through there.  (Author note: Right on queue, an alarm sounded in the station, as a fire call came in — this happened at least two more times during the meeting — and Gay smiled and said “there’s another one — busy night!”). Gay also put in a plug for the monthly fire commissioner meetings (4^th Monday of every month), with a hybrid option to attend. 
• Q: What about vandalism to fire stations and trucks, has that been an issue? A: This is the first of our stations where we’ve decided to actually put locks on all the fire-truck doors (fire trucks don’t typically come with door locks), to deter theft of tools and equipment. We’re also working with legislators to try to make laws making those types of thefts a higher level event. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s happening all over, not just here,” Gay said.   
• Q: Darlene Sellers from King County Parks and the White Center Teen Program (open at the “Log Cabin” Steve Cox Memorial Park) said “thanks very much for the ongoing support; you help us a lot!” She said that at one point in the past, firefighters used to come train in the log-cabin building once a year, which was a great program — can we bring that back? A: Gay said he would leave his business card and “yes, we’ll see what we can do.”
• Q: In the past year, have the number of calls you’ve received related to drugs increased, stayed the same or decreased? A: Gay said they’ve been increasing; they get at least one daily. 
• Gay said that in general, being an effective department requires resources, which can be a dynamic situation to deal with. He said they’ve improved relations with the Seattle Fire Department — “they’re really big compared to us, but have proven to be great partners.” 
• Q: In general, what would you tell the public about firefighters and the job they do? A: Firefighters work really hard, long hours, and do a great job and we really do strive for perfection, and I would tell people that firefighters really appreciate “thumbs up” and thanks from the public.

As Gay wrapped up his remarks, next up were the two presenters from the King County Sheriff’s Office, Captain Pryzgocki (at left in the photo below) and CSO Hammock (who has a “storefront” office at Steve Cox park and is regularly seen around White Center in the CSO van):  

Hammock opened by saying he had just finalized this year’s details for the popular “coffee with a cop” event in White Center, which he said is always well-attended by KCSO officers and leadership, at Starbucks (9862 16th Avenue SW) on June 5 from 11 am-1 pm. He invited neighbors to come out and spend time with officers, to share concerns and ideas. 

Pryzgocki became a member of KCSO’s Southwest Precinct 4 in October 2024, and the precinct is responsible for law enforcement in the cities of SeaTac, Burien and several unincorporated areas including North Highline. Pryzgocki talked about KCSO’s recently announced changes to its “response protocol” as a result of budgetary constraints, which went into effect in mid-March. White Center and the surrounding areas are not impacted, he reiterated, but the change involves reassignment of deputies (no loss of jobs) to reduce to minimum staffing in their North and Southeast precincts which include Redmond Ridge, Fairwood, Fall City and other areas in unincorporated King County.

Pryzgocki shared some statistics, acknowledging a general sentiment he hears that “things feel worse this year,” but he said the numbers actually show some good signs for White Center: “We don’t want to toot horns yet, but crime is trending down,” he said. Examples: Last year at this time there were 423 incidents compared to 358 so far in 2025. Of these, property crimes were down 189 to 133, and crimes “on person” were down 72 to 52.  The call data for 911 shows 1971 calls at this time last year compared to 1529 this year (with dispatched calls for service increasing slightly from 1077 to 1124).   

As White Center neighbors are keenly aware, the area has been without a “storefront deputy” since the departure of Sgt. Glen Brannon last fall (Hammock has described himself as holding the “civilian counterpart” role to that position, being a presence in the area). With regard to filling the position, Pryzgocki acknowledged that budget realities will continue to make it challenging. He said they are facing a $15 million shortfall this year and next, so they’re focused on trimming $30 million from the budget. He said they will continue to always have a minimum of 2 officers in White Center on all shifts (the same as Skyway and Vashon), and that this was something he helped advocate for along with Precinct 4 KCSO commander Major Koby Hamill. He cited the uniqueness of the area, adding that Burien is a “contract city” for police coverage and that “they help us a lot.” He said that with FIFA coming up in West Seattle, officers are gearing up to need to provide support (“We’ve been told it’s like 3 super bowls”).  Pryzgocki said the recurring biggest complaints that he hears are “traffic, overdoses, and property crimes” and that they’re making concerted efforts on all three.  

Pryzgocki said neighbors should stay tuned on their TVs/devices soon for familiar faces and locations on the CW show Police 24/7, because the network recently had film crews riding along with KCSO officers, filming actual footage of officers on the job.  He said that these episodes could start airing in May, and he added that it’s part of an effort to recruit new officers for the county. 

Some questions from attendees:

• Q: What about tackling gang activity, tagging on murals, etc.? A: The problem with tags is that there are often “imitators” so we don’t always know for sure that the graffiti is truly gang-related. It’s really hard to catch someone spraying, in the act, it’s usually done at night. “Trust me, it drives me nuts,” Pryzgocki said. As for the gang activity, he said that in general he has not been advised by our intelligence personnel that there’s a major problem. 
• Q: Concern about shootings, one of the latest was just off Roxbury, next to a church. A: Hammock said that the area is technically in Seattle jurisdiction, the boundary around the church, but agreed with attendees that “it’s concerning as a community member” and that departments are trying to help regardless of jurisdiction. If neighbors “see something, then say something.”   
• Q: Aside from “gunslinging” on Delridge recently, any increase in robberies?  A: There are indeed robberies, mostly “crimes of opportunity.”  Marijuana shops are frequent victims, and there was one recently. Some involve juveniles, which complicates things because juvenile crime is covered by superior court. Concerned citizens should continue to ask their elected representatives to push for better policies regarding juvenile crime.  Pryzgocki added that because “pursuit policies” were recently changed, officers can now help keep people safer by pursuing criminals, which wasn’t the case before. 
• Q: Who should we call if we see something? We hear conflicting reports about calling 911 vs the non-emergency lines, etc. For example, next to our house we see drug dealers show up and distribute to people, how do we report it. A: In general, don’t hesitate to call 911, and you’ll get routed to the right people to help.  For the drug concerns, Pryzgocki said “we have a narcotic unit that’s one of the best in the region,” and they help create reports called NAR (narcotic activity reports). Prior to being promoted, he said he worked in that area, and he noted at the dealing activity is referred to as “hand-to-hand.” He said with this budget crunch, they changed the way they respond to calls, with some callers being referred to an online system to file a concern depending on what the crime is. Things without a “known suspect” should still get reported, but they’ll get handled differently.  If a caller does have information on a suspect, then a deputy will call back to collect info. If a caller insists on an officer coming out, because of an active threat, then a patrol officer will try to respond. He said one challenge for KCSO is that “our deputies drive a long way” due to the large coverage zone, but they do the best they can. 
• Q:  Recently, KCSO Deputy Pavlovich helped get about 70 businesses in White Center to sign up for a program in which they get window-cling stickers to hang on their door saying that trespassers aren’t wanted here. How does that work? A: Nate said that Pavlovich works graveyard shifts (evening) and “her mission is to make White Center clean and safe,” and at the sign-up project is complete, with almost all of the contacted businesses agreeing to participate. Hammock and other attendees noted that the purpose of form and the sticker is that that any individual is told to leave, but doesn’t, then they can be charged with trespassing, and officers can do so more easily without having to contact the business owner after-hours and jump through additional hoops. Pryzgocki said the form is a helpful “pre-authorization” that allows deputies to act. 
• Q: I know that funding for a White Center storefront deputy just isn’t available, but not having one makes a huge difference. A: Pryzgocki agreed that aside from traffic concerns, the lack of a storefront deputy is the second-most frequent complaint they get. He said he is not looking to fill it with just anyone (“effort is my love language”) and when funding loosens up then he wants to have community input on who is hired, but he said frankly “we’re not close to that right now” from a funding perspective. They have a storefront deputy in Skyway, which is the only one that KCSO has. Follow-up Q: There are lots of cars that get dumped in front of my house, obviously stolen, when we had a storefront deputy it was dealt with quickly, but I was told recently that it would take months. Pryzgocki acknowledged the challenge, and said “I can say ‘woe is me’ with budget issues, but we’re still very passionate about helping.” Hammock added that he can do his best to help, to connect people to resources. When people see his van around White Center, they know that they can knock on the window and ask questions.
• Q: What about the big potholes in the area? A: Would suggest reporting to roads department (see info below, for Local Services).
• Q: What’s happening with the former Bartell Drugs building on Roxbury? A: Dobkin said the building had been sold, but nothing seems to be happening. The former Gerber building is also a problem. Follow-up comment: Buildings that aren’t occupied are a problem, sometimes people break in and start a fire. A: That’s primarily an area for code enforcement (local services).
• Q: Anything we can do about “slum lords” who allow broken-down houses, fences built from pallets, etc?  A: Hammock advised to file a complaint with King County code enforcement. 

PARKS AND YOUTH: Darlene Sellers from King County Parks shared details about events at the White Center Teen Program (open at the “Log Cabin” at Steve Cox Memorial Park every Tuesday-Saturday from 3-8 pm), free for ages 12-19. She said that attendance at recent events and drop-ins has been great (averaging almost 115 kids per night), and the program has amazing staff and volunteers making a difference in kids’ lives. A meeting attendee commended Sellers for her work (and others nodded in agreement) and Sellers thanked them and said she started working with Parks when she was 16 (in 1998). Upcoming events at the log cabin include:

• April 18: Cultural Connection Night art show and performances, 5-7 pm (contact 206-482-1910 or pngeth@kingcounty.gov for details, or Instagram @atthelogcabin)
• May 17: White Center Repair Event, 930 am-1230 pm, a county-sponsored “fix-it” event where skilled volunteer “fixers” will try to repair and mend your household items and clothing! Also see the event page on Facebook
• June 4: Peace in the Hood job fair (3-5pm) and 3-on-3 basketball tournament (4-8pm) (contact 206-492-0359 or rsmallwood@kingcounty.gov)

LOCAL SERVICES: Community Liaison Bong Santo Domingo from King County Local Services was in attendance, as usual, and spoke briefly about resources available for neighbors. There is a  24/7 “Road Helpline” which residents can call with concerns about roads, potholes (which several attendees asked about), traffic lights and signs in unincorporated King County:  206-477-8100 or 800-527-6237.  The general contact info for Local Services is 206-477-3800 or AskLocalServices@kingcounty.gov. He said he is also onsite for office hours Thursday afternoons at the King County Library branch at 1409 SW 107th St, and he invites neighbors to come by and talk to him. 

Dobkin mentioned that longtime King County Executive Dow Constantine was recently named the head of Sound Transit. Shannon Braddock (like Constantine, a West Seattle resident) has been named interim county executive.  Dobkin said that NHUAC has invited county councilperson Teresa Mosqueda to attend a NHUAC meeting, but were told she isn’t available until November, but they will keep trying. 

UPCOMING MEETINGS: NHUAC typically meets monthly on the first Thursday of the month, and plans to continue meeting in-person at the North Highline Fire Station in White Center (1243 SW 112th St.)  An attendee suggested that if NHUAC could offer a hybrid meeting option, then the attendance would be higher, and Dobkin said that they’d look into it although the group currently doesn’t have budget to fund any needed expenses for it. 

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