White Center Now: The blog about White Center

What a beautiful afternoon it was at Lakewood Park when we stopped by Hicks Lake to check on the final hour of the annual volunteer cleanup and get some photos. Note the placid scene above – then the volunteers gathered for a group shot:

Just minutes earlier, they’d wrapped up their work clearing invasives and trash, among other jobs:

Dick Thurnau from Friends of Hicks Lake summed it up this way:

Twenty-five hard-working student volunteers from Seattle Pacific University came this Saturday to Hicks Lake located in King County’s Lakewood Park to remove invasive weeds. Two dumptruck loads of weeds, tree parts and litter were removed. We wish to thank the following: Disc Golf Club, Friends of Hicks Lake, a member of the NHUAC, managing engineer of King County’s surface water, providing their help to make this park and lake a better place.

Also the King County Maintenance crew cleaning up and filling the dump trucks with this trash all deserve a large THANK YOU. These students’ performance is a perfect example of what can be accomplished with proper guidance.

The big cleanup is this Saturday:

Please come join Friends of Hicks Lake and first-year students from Seattle Pacific University next Saturday (9/26/2009) from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM for cleanup day at and for your Lakewood Park and Hicks Lake. Location 10 Ave SW next to Cascade Middle School.

Gloves and tools will be furnished; we need volunteers plus willing hands to remove weeds, broken tree limbs you get the picture. Your help will make this park and lake a better place for our community. We appreciate your help and thank you in advance.

One note from the early going at the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting (which is still under way as of this writing at 8:25 pm):

–There’s a county-sponsored recycling event at Evergreen High School Saturday, Sept. 13, 9 am-3 pm. See the details here.

We first mentioned this a month ago – now the big day is here, 10 am-noon at McLendon. Here are the details.

That’s one of our photos from the Hicks Lake cleanup last September. A date’s set for this year, according to early word from Dick Thurnau of Friends of Hicks Lake:

We have been informed that Seattle Pacific University is proposing to send 40 students this year on Sept. 26/2009, a Saturday, to Lakewood Park to help clean up this area. The blackberry bushes, Scotch broom and invasive weeds plus litter needs to be removed. They call their project City Quest — it encourages freshmen to participate in giving to the communities.

We ask Friends of Hicks Lake and all parties that enjoy the park to give us a hand in this endeavor. Realize this is an early announcement but will keep you posted. Let’s mark your calendar to volunteer to help make this facility beautiful.

Just got this word from Linda Holmes at McLendon Hardware:

McLendon Hardware’s White Center location will be hosting a free water conservation clinic on Saturday August 1st from 10:00-12:00. Learn how to easily and inexpensively conserve water and save over $150 per year on your water bill. Scheduled to attend the event will be Seattle Public Utilities, Saving Water Partnership, plumbing vendors, and others who will be helping McLendon’s spread the word on water conservation.

According to this P-I story, the long-awaited Durham Creek work — $400,000 worth — is now on a list of possible cuts when the city updates its budget crunch in the coming weeks.

From Dick Thurnau from Friends of Hicks Lake — a followup to the call for ideas that we published 3 weeks ago:

Friends of Hicks Lake did a lot of research to reach what we feel are the best and wisest decisions for improvements to utilize the $25,000 allotted in King County’s budget for Lakewood Park / Hicks Lake to make it a most enjoyable place for all.

We enlisted the aid of whitecenternow.com and White Center Community Development Association asking for the community suggestions.

The responses were limited but the # 1 was a water feature in the lake. #2 was a walking path around Hicks Lake, as a large share of the present pathways are on a hillside, making it difficult for older people and the disabled to use. A Boy Scout troop volunteered to do the labor portion of the pathway. #3 was to have a fulltime caretaker in the park to oversee and control the concerning, costly problems occurring in the park — graffiti, vandalism and illegal alcohol usage on these premises.

Our recommendation is a water feature consisting of an attractive floating fountain and underwater air diffusers (bubblers) which will provide aeration to help cleanse this unhealthy water in Hicks Lake. Pricing for this equipment from Absolute Aquatics would be under $10,000, including freight with a 3 year warranty. Other services required: $7,000 for an electrical Contractor, $2,000 for miscellaneous material, $1,000 for electrical power for one year, $2,000 for unforeseen developments. Total, $20,000, using volunteer labor to construct concrete anchors (2 required) and dig a trench from power source to the Lake and place equipment leaving a surplus for other projects. Another supplier gave a quote which was much higher in pricing but did give us a listing of many users of aeration features.

Sent an information brochure pertaining to this equipment described above to King County’s Surface Water Engineering for their evaluation — the question of a possibility of electrical shock, being the sealed motor is submerged in the water. Yes, that is a concern; however, manufacturers could or would not be able to sell these units for all these years if that were the case.

The above-suggested project of aeration is an interim objective until the White Center Regional Storm Water Improvement project, which is planned for 5 years down the road, is constructed.

Friends of Hicks Lake’s purpose and goal is to have clean, healthy lake water in Hicks Lake once again for the community to utilize this facility.

We’ll keep you posted on what happens next.

Your wood-burning fireplace and stove are now offlimits unless they’re your only “adequate source of heat.” Here’s why.

Time to get out there and help spiffy up the White Center area.  Come and help with clean up and green up sponsored by the City of Seattle.  Mayor will be in attendance so if you want to chat with Mayor Nickels, here’s your chance.

As the city’s Neighborhood Service Center coordinator for Delridge, Ron Angeles, put it in his e-mail – “here’s a great community activity to start the New Year.”

The White Center Community Development Association and Trusted Advocates will host the 2008 Community Summit this Saturday, November 8th at Mount View Elementary School.  The event starts at 8:00 am and ends at 3:00 p.m.  Please come and offer your input on the future of your community.   Mount View is located at 10811 12th Avenue SW.

This year’s community summit will gather families, government agencies and local community-based/non-profit organizations in a fun family-friendly environment.  Live cultural performances, ethnic foods, door prizes and children’s activities are just a taste of what the summit has to offer!

Come learn about the issues affecting your community and how you can be involved in a positive way.  There will be info booths and workshops on health, education, jobs, housing, annexation, immigration and more.  Translation services will be provided in Cambodian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Tigrinya, Somali, Amharic, Samoan, Arabic and English (other languages upon request).  Childcare will be provided.

For more info:  Ebony Davis: (206) 694-1082 ext.  168 – ebony@wccda.org or Ian Dapiaoen:  (206) 694-1082 ext. 175 or ian@wccda.org.

This house is located at the intersection of Delridge and 16th Avenue SW.  The house burnt down in December of 2007.   Sometime thereafter, some vagrants started using the basement as their home and so the owner boarded up the windows.  Word is that the house was to be torn down and a mixed use residential-commercial project was to take its place.   Nothing good has happened since.

As you can see from the attached pictures the place is a complete nuisance.  No steps have been taken to mitigate the damage caused by the fire and the subsequent abandonment.  The grass and weeds are overgrown.  The charred appliances and furniture are still lying outside where they were dumped by the fire department.  And the place is conspicuous to just about everyone visiting the White Center commercial area.  Clearly, the owner does not care what kind of a nuisance this creates for the community.  Anybody got some ideas on how to get this negligent owner to clean up his mess?

Somebody making a mess, someplace they shouldn’t? Action taken by King County Councilmembers today might help. Read on for the full details: Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, this is a heavily Democratic neighborhood but there seem to be some Rossi supporters in White Center land?  I am inviting comments on who would be better for White Center, Dino Rossi or Christine Gregoire?  Obviously, we have issues of housing, jobs, health care, affordability, crime, education, sustainability, greenspace etc… And I will gladly share my views.  Forum’s open.  Speak your mind.

Longfellow Creek, which stretches almost all the way to White Center, has some amazing natural areas along the way – and the volunteer forest steward for Delridge Natural Area, Mike Arizona, asked us to invite White Center Now readers to join him in restoration work tomorrow. We posted a story with photos and video on our partner site WSB; you can see it here (including information on where to goand how to help, tomorrow).

From Highline Public Schools – more proof that saving energy isn’t just about the environment: Read the rest of this entry »

(update: here’s a link to a map of all Friday’s PARKing Day “Parks” citywide)
Perhaps you’ve heard of PARKing Day – a relatively new annual event in which volunteers in cities nationwide transform parking spaces into parks, to spotlight the importance of urban open space. This year’s edition is coming up on Friday, and there’s going to be a PARKing Day “park” in a prominent White Center spot – here’s the official announcement:

Seattle Parks Foundation is partnering with The Trust for Public Land and Feet First to turn Seattle’s parking spaces into parks on September 19th as part of PARK(ing) Day, a fun and visible event started by Re-Bar in San Francisco to bring attention to the need for more green space in urban areas.

Technology Access Foundation and The White Center Community Development Association will be transforming the parking spaces in front of Full Tilt Ice Cream into a classroom. We are hoping to provide awareness to the community about the work that we do. Everyone is invited to come out and show support to the community.

National Parking Day
Friday, September 19
10:00 am – 3:00 pm

In front of:
Full Tilt Ice Cream
9629 16th Ave SW

Come out and meet your community neighbors!
For More info call – 206-722-2369×102

Just added to the White Center Now events calendar: King County’s Solid Waste Division is presenting a “recycling event” at Evergreen High School on September 13th, and the list of what they’ll accept that day is so long, it just might help you with a fall cleanup: Read the rest of this entry »