White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Young swimmers like those two were among the Evergreen Pool supporters who spoke eloquently and energetically Monday night at the rally on the eve of the pool’s closure, aimed at gaining attention and momentum to make sure the closure — which starts today — is not permanent. (Here’s our first report on the rally.) Young swimmers also were on the mind of Ed Marrs, a North Highline Fire District firefighter and board president for WhiteWater Aquatics, which hopes to take over pool operation if it can strike a deal with King County Parks and Highline Public Schools, who own the site and building respectively:

The pool is lifesaving in another way, declared one of its dedicated senior swimmers, Lucy:

But passion must be translated into action, reminded Greg Duff, president of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council:

As noted in our earlier report, NHUAC has its regular monthly meeting this Thursday night, 7 pm at North Highline FD HQ (1243 SW 112th), and you can bet the pool’s future will be a hot topic.

Alongside Evergreen Pool, dozens of swimmers and supporters gathered this evening to show their support for getting it reopened as soon as possible following the shutdown that starts tomorrow. They heard from WhiteWater Aquatics, the group trying to work out a deal to take over the pool that the county’s shuttering – WhiteWater says it’s hoping to have a deal by January, sooner if at all possible — but that means the pool is facing a closure of at least four months:

James Bush from King County Council Chair Dow Constantine‘s office says there’s not much they can do since the budget crisis is threatening park/pool facilities all over the county, though he reminded the group that the pool started the year with only six months of funding and managed to get two more. After the rally, some concerned swimmers gathered outside:

Rally organizers advised several courses of action: Contact King County Executive Kurt Triplett and Council Chair Constantine (who represents most of this area); also work with the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, which will talk about the pool situation at its next meeting this Thursday, 7 pm, North Highline Fire District headquarters. We’ve got more from the rally, including video of swimmers young and old who had something to say – will be adding that as the evening goes on. EARLY TUESDAY NOTE: We decided to put up four video clips in a separate report; see that report here.

Thanks to Stefanie, half the duo that’s about to open Proletariat Pizza in the heart of the northernmost block of the 16th SW business district, for sharing that photo – the sign’s going up today, and as she told us last week, the new pizza place is set to open on September 11th.

Got word tonight from North Highline Unincorporated Area Council president Greg Duff that a rally is planned Monday night at Evergreen Pool, to “save the pool.” You’ll recall that King County Council chair Dow Constantine announced Thursday that the pool would have to close September 1st, TFN, because a deal isn’t yet worked out for someone else – potentially WhiteWater Aquatics (as discussed at the last NHUAC meeting) – to take over its operations. The rally is set for 5-7 pm; the pool is at 606 SW 116th (map).

We dropped by within the past hour – didn’t take into account the fact that things would be slow because of 5 pm Mass! Booths, food, bouncy toys, scheduled to be in action till 10 pm tonight, resuming 10 am tomorrow, along 20th SW south of Roxbury. Music too – Paulina Alvarado was singing during our visit:

*South Park Bridge is scheduled to be closed 7 am-7 pm.

*Holy Family School‘s “El Carnaval” Street Fair is scheduled for today and tomorrow, 10 am start both days.

Went to the Holy Family website to doublecheck on this weekend’s El Carnaval street fair – and discovered this announcement:

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Fr. Ramon Velasco, who many will remember was our parish’s parochial vicar until last year. Fr. Ramon passed away earlier this week, and leaves behind many friends and family members one of whom is a member of the parish, Rosa Velasco. His funeral Mass is scheduled for this Friday at Holy Family before his body is returned to the Philippines.

Unfortunately, we discovered this just as all of the events concluded – a reception has just ended, following a Funeral Mass earlier today that was to be led by Archbishop Alex Brunett.

We’ve published the story at West Seattle Blog – read it here.

Sorry for the “outage” here – not related to the City Light power outage – our server-management company detected a problem that required emergency maintenance, taking White Center Now (and many other sites) down for a while. Looks like it’s done now. We posted some news on partner site West Seattle Blog in the meantime – we use separate server managers for the two sites to dramatically reduce the chances both will be down at the same time, so if ever you notice this site down, please check there or check our Twitter page at http://twitter.com/whitecenternow.

Here are the updates, linking to the full stories on WSB:

-Power outage: All but a few hundred homes/businesses are back on. More here.

-Evergreen Pool: It WILL close September 1st, according to King County Council Chair Dow Constantine, who hopes that will be temporary while the agreement for WhiteWater Aquatics to take over the pool is negotiated. More here.

-Hicks Lake: Warning signs are posted because of an algae bloom. More here. Also, here’s the entirety of the note we received from King County’s Doug Williams:

We just got results back from the state Department of Ecology that confirms a blue-green algae bloom at Hicks has surpassed the safety threshold. While there aren’t likely too many people swimming there right now, it’s possible that people could let their dogs swim and/or drink from the lake. Not a good idea!

We’ve posted signs that ask people to stay out of the water, and don’t let their pets swim in or drink from the lake.

Toxic algae can have some nasty effects on people and pets. In minor cases, it can cause a rash, eye and throat irritation, etc. It’s a neurotoxin that, in serious cases, can cripple your liver, mess with your nervous system, etc. Those are pretty rare situations; you’d have to ingest a lot of the stuff to get that sick. But it’s still important for everyone to heed the warnings and keep out of the water – pets, too.

When will the algae bloom go away? That’s a good question. We’ve seen blooms last for weeks; sometimes they don’t go away until the weather cools down and the sunlight becomes elusive.

We will collect water samples weekly for analysis by DOE. Once we have two weeks where the samples come back below the established acceptable threshold for human contact, we’ll take down the signs.

Thanks to Laura for the tip. Seattle City Light’s hotline lists two outages, one in the general White Center area and one in Burien – the boundaries listed on hotlines are always a bit broad so we hesitate to include them here, but the Burien outage is blamed on a fire, the cause of the one in White Center listed as unknown. 4,000 homes/businesses affected in the White Center-vicinity outage, 3,000 in Burien. More to come.

4:27 PM UPDATE: Here’s the full news release from City Light’s media-relations team:

A fire associated with a power outage in Burien and unincorporated King County has increased the number of customers affected by the outage to about 7,100 homes and businesses.

The fire is burning in a wooded utility right of way south of S 96th Street and west of Des Moines Memorial Drive. Power lines were reported on the ground in the area and at least one utility pole was burning.

Seattle City Light deenergized the power lines to allow firefighters to put out the blaze. City Light crews were dispatched to restore service once the fire was extinguished.

The cause of the outage was not immediately known. City Light expects to restore service to most of the affected customers by 5:30 p.m. by routing power around the damaged area. An estimate for full restoration of service will not be available until crews are able to inspect the damaged equipment.

The general boundaries of the outage are SW Barton Street on the North, SW 167th Street on the South, Glendale Way S on the East and Puget Sound on the West.

Just follow the audio links from this page. We’ll add some more notes later; before the discussion ended, talk turned to the fate of still-unannexed White Center — Burien City Manager Mike Martin said he and the City Council are still discussing next steps, and he also noted that the Seattle mayoral race would have quite an impact, given that ousted Mayor Greg Nickels was an annexation supporter. We’ll be checking with both candidates, Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn, to see where they stand.

If you’re near a radio – or near a computer with speakers! – in the 9 am hour tomorrow, check out KUOW, which will take a closer look at the North Highline South Annexation. I’m scheduled to be among the guests on behalf of WCN; according to KUOW’s website, Burien City Manager Mike Martin and former NHUAC president Gerald Robinson will be on the panel too. Any points you think should be made? Anybody else you know will be on the show? Please post a comment (or e-mail us at whitecenternow@gmail.com) – thanks!

7 am-7 pm Saturday, the South Park Bridge is closing for repairs, so if you use that route to get between northern White Center and South Park/other areas, you’ll need to plan an alternative. Here are full details on the county’s website.

Realized that we published this info on partner site West Seattle Blog, where food fans had been discussing it in the forums, but hadn’t cross-published it here: Proletariat Pizza has set the date – September 11th. More info here.

By Kathy Mulady
Reporting for White Center Now

The votes are in; the southern portion of North Highline says it wants to annex to Burien (56 percent yes, as of the latest count).

Now the work begins.

Myriad details have to be sorted out in the next few months before the Burien City Council officially adopts an ordinance annexing the new area to the city.

It might be early spring before the council is ready to officially approve the annexation.

In the meantime, nothing changes as far as public safety, sewer or water service.

During a special meeting of the city council Monday night, there were already hints of just how complicated working out all the details will be.

For example, as vacancies arise on boards and commissions, should citizens of the soon-to be annexed area be eligible for appointment? Or do they have to wait until annexation is official to apply for a seat?

City Manager Mike Martin said he is already working on the steps leading up to the annexation, including modifying contracts with police and fire.

“We need a little bit of time, then we will name the date that we plan to bring the new area into the city,” said Martin.

But Martin already had some good news for residents of the unincorporated area, it looks like the county parks, threatened with closure because of King County budget cuts, will remain open and maintained while the annexation is made official.

Annexation will be a topic on the city council agenda throughout the next few months, giving incoming citizens a chance to comments as the process moves along. Council members encouraged citizens to be active.

We still need to get a handle on costs and revenue, put it all into the hopper and see what comes out the other end,” said Councilmember Gordon Shaw.

“Burien already has a vision; we have to see how to accommodate the new ideas into this vision and bring them all together,” said Shaw. He reminded the crowd gathered for the special meeting that about 40 percent of the voters opposed the annexation.

“We don’t want them to be disgruntled citizens of Burien,” he said.

Mayor Joan McGilton encouraged residents to stay involved as details including sewer and water are worked out.

Citizens like North Highline Unincorporated Area Council member Ray Helms, who will be annexed into the city, said councilmembers can count on seeing him.

“Welcome to Burien,” said Ed Dacy (above), a Burien resident, active on the Parks and Recreation Commission.

You can find out more about Burien city government at burienwa.gov.

(Photos by Christopher Boffoli; added 11:07 am)
Just got a news release from the Seattle branch of the Red Cross saying it’s helping seven people whose home was gutted by fire this morning at 10044 20th Ave SW (map). We’re checking to see what more we can find out about this fire. 10 AM UPDATE: Photojournalist Christopher Boffoli is at the scene now for White Center Now and West Seattle Blog and tells us investigators are still there. They tell him it started just before 5 am. Everyone got out OK, no injuries. Christopher adds, “Investigators are still working to determine the cause of the fire but as of right now it appears the origin was the kitchen.”

Here’s the official invitation, from Karen Greene at Seattle Neighborhood Group:

The White Center-South Delridge Community Safety Coalition Meeting
Thursday, August 27, 6-8 pm,
St. James Place,
9421 18th Avenue SW

Guest Presentations:

* Code Enforcement – from both Seattle DPD & King County

And: If you have a specific concern, you may email or call me and let me know before the meeting and I will pass on the information to SPD or KCSO or the appropriate city/county department. With advanced notice, law enforcement officers are able to find out more information about specific incidents and concerns and share that information at the meeting. Everyone is welcome to bring up concerns at the meeting, but if we know the concerns ahead of time, we may be able to find out more information for the community. Thanks!

Dinner will be provided. Please call Karen at 767-0760 if childcare or interpretation is needed.

You can also e-mail Karen, karen@sngi.org

One week from today’s the big day – check ticket availability at the WCCDA website.

We’ve received this City of Burien notice from two people, via People for Burien (peopleforburien.org), asking that we share it:

On behalf of the Burien City Council we welcome you to Burien! The early election results show that voters in the southern portion of North Highline have approved the measure to annex to Burien. Many of you supported this measure and we thank you for your efforts. If you did not support the annexation measure we still thank you for your interest and hope that you will continue to engage with us. We intend to serve the entire community to the best of our abilities.

The Burien City Council has scheduled a Special Meeting on Monday, August 24 at 7:00 p.m. to take a moment to congratulate ourselves and welcome our new residents to Burien. The meeting will be held at Burien City Hall located at 400 SW 152nd St. in Burien [map]. We invite you to attend the meeting or you can view the meeting online at http://www.burienmedia.org. You can also learn more about the City of Burien by visiting our website at www.burienwa.gov.

One segment of our plan moving forward will be to conduct a community visioning process sometime in 2010. You can play a role in uniting North Highline with Burien by thinking about what you would like to see in your neighborhood and community. If you have any questions or suggestions before that time please feel free to contact me at 206-439-3165 or jenniferr@burienwa.gov.

King County has just released today’s vote count; annexation remains ahead, 58 percent “yes.” And in the King County Executive race, it’s still Susan Hutchison-Dow Constantine, but she’s slipped a bit and he’s gained a bit – she is now at 36 percent, he’s at 23 percent. More votes to be counted tomorrow.