White Center Now: The blog about White Center

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This story first appeared on our partner site WSB – today, Meander’s sneak peeks in downtown WC begin)
Story and photos by Keri DeTore
Reporting for White Center Now/West Seattle Blog

About Meander’s in White Center (opening this weekend and next Friday-Saturday-Sunday for sneak previews):

First things first: the ventilation is AMAZING. See for yourself:

(Miranda even turned on the vent so I could feel the rush of air into the hood.)

With her forthcoming opening in the former Papa’s Pub in White Center (here’s our original report from 6 weeks ago), owner and chef Miranda Krone continues the evolution of what has become a favorite diner in West Seattle: Meander’s — with breakfast served all the time except weekend nights, when it turns into a gourmet bistro.

With evolution comes change, and the first change you’ll notice if you’ve been to her WS café is all the space in WC:
Read the rest of this entry »

Some finishing touches are still in progress at the Technology Access Foundation (TAF)’s new headquarters in White Center – the Bethaday Community Learning Space. But it’s swinging its doors open to the public, with an open house this past Wednesday night allowing a look inside, as the second of three grand-opening events that are scheduled.

The new building in Lakewood Park is not only the headquarters of a vibrant education organization – it also has space to be made available to the public for rentals. And of course, it’s wired to the max:

Read more about it – and the organization’s programs – on the TAF website.

One week from tonight:

North Highline Unincorporated Area Council invites you to the monthly meeting, Thursday, November 1, 7 pm at the North Highline Fire Station (1243 112th Street SW). We are pleased to be hosting Brenda Bauer and Jay Osborne from the King County Department of Transportation, who will present an overview of current service delivery and “What to expect this winter and impacts from the diminishing budget”..

As noted at previous meetings by the County DOT, and King County Councilmember Joe McDermott at NHUAC’s Oct 4 Annexation Forum, the county has moved to a “tiered” level of service for unincorporated area roads. Under this plan, Tier 5 roads, 36 miles of which make up the residential streets in North Highline, will receive “virtually no storm and snow response. Maintenance will be limited and based on factors such as life safety and risk, resulting is a growing number of deteriorating roads. Users can expect to see some closures…these roads may also be downgraded to a gravel surface..”

Information on the new service levels can be found on the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council website, www.northhighlineuac.org. Follow the link to the DOT site and then the link under “Service Tiers”.

Hope to see you all there as we learn more about how this plan will impact our community.

The Technology Access Foundation‘s Bethaday Community Learning Space in White Center’s Lakewood Park is ready for its closeup – and tonight is your chance to take a look inside! The community grand-opening reception is 5-8 pm. Project details are here; it’s been 14 months since the groundbreaking celebration. Find the center at 605 SW 108th.

This Thursday (October 25th), Sound Transit plans a public meeting/open house inside a bus parked by Westwood Village, to answer questions and provide information about a change that would affect White Center, proposed for Route 560 next year:

Proposed changes to Route 560
• The weekday, peak-only segment of Route 560 between the Alaska Junction and White Center would be eliminated to avoid duplication with King County Metro’s RapidRide C Line.
• The terminus of Route 560 would be moved to Metro’s new transit hub at Westwood Village on SW Barton Street, where the C Line and Metro routes 21, 22, 60 and 120 converge.
• Route 560 service would operate from Westwood Village to Sea-Tac Airport and Bellevue all day, seven days a week.

Tradeoffs: In addition to simplifying Route 560, this change would make connections available to Sea-Tac Airport, Renton, and Bellevue/Overlake from West Seattle all day, seven days a week. However, existing peak period Route 560 passengers with origins and destinations north of Westwood Village would need to connect with Route 560 using frequent RapidRide C Line service or other Metro routes. Current service provides a “one-seat ride” from the West Seattle Junction to the airport and other Route 560 destinations during weekday peak periods, but multiple connections are required at other times of day and on weekends.

You can see a map here – in the online version of an ST newsletter explaining the proposal, which is part of its 2013 Service Implementation Plan. If you’d like to find out more, look for an ST bus parked at 29th and Barton, SW side of Westwood Village, 5-7 pm this Thursday, and that’ll be the site of the open house.

The West Seattle sensation who’s taking over the former Papa’s Pub space in White Center, Miranda Krone, says her WC edition of Meander’s Kitchen will have sneak-preview breakfast service this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. According to her Facebook announcement, she plans to open at 8 am Friday and Saturday, 9 am Sunday, staying open till 1 pm each day if the food lasts that long – as late as 3 pm if they can. Cash only, please!

Next week – on Tuesday, October 30th – Seattle City Light invites you to a meeting about a big project set to start along Ambaum. Here’s the info:

Seattle City Light will be upgrading the underground electrical system along Ambaum Boulevard SW starting in early November. As underground cables age, their protective insulation deteriorates. When a crack forms, and water or dirt reach the wires, it can lead to an unplanned power outage. Seattle City Light is working with a company called Novinium to help avoid such outages by using a silicone injection process to upgrade the cables. The silicone fills the cracks and extends the life of the cable and improves reliability for your electrical service.

Crews will be entering electrical vaults in the neighborhood and testing the cable to determine if the injection process can work. If the cable condition is satisfactory, crews will inject the silicone into the lines. If cables can’t be injected, they will be replaced at a later time.

Residents can expect:

-Planned power outages so crews can work safely
-Up to (but no more than) six planned outages and NOT on consecutive days
-Notification by door hanger the Thursday of the week before the outage
-Outages lasting about eight hours

Work will begin in early November and last approximately 27 weeks. Work hours are 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday-Thursday. There will be no work on Thanksgiving Day, the week of the Christmas holiday, or New Year’s Day.

There will be some traffic and parking disruptions in the immediate work area, but it will be carefully signed. Work is done at a vault and trucks move on after about an hour. Flaggers will be used where needed on residential streets. Crews will be careful to try to maintain access to driveways.

A community meeting is planned for Tuesday, October 30 from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Mount View Elementary School, 10811 12th Avenue SW. Residents are encouraged to attend and ask any questions they may have.

We don’t have a full venue list but we have, for starters, this announcement from Center Studio via Facebook:

Sarah Barrick be holding a donation-based bake sale this evening at Center Studio during White Center’s Art Walk from 6-9 pm that will benefit Feed Washington! Stop by to enjoy a sweet treat, some fresh new art and to browse a brand new batch of my sacred mandala pendants. Any purchase you make, brownies, art or jewelry will all help to feed hungry children in Washington state!

Wander the rest of the WC business district tonight and see what else you find – 6 to 9 pm.

ADDED 1:16 PM: Rock during the Art Walk, tonight at Zippy’s Giant Burgers:

That’s our video of tonight’s 1-hour, 11-minute Burien-presented Q/A session on annexation, held this time at Cascade Middle School next to White Center’s Lakewood Park. Text toplines to come – but the video just finished uploading, so we wanted to bring that to anyone who didn’t make it to the meeting, attended by an estimated 30 people on a rainy night (with the Seahawks-49ers game as competition, too). Though November 6th is the official election day, the voting has begun, as ballots arrived in the mail today. More to come!

Just a few weeks after West Seattle Thriftway became the first supermarket in the area to carry pints of White Center-headquartered Full Tilt Ice Cream, proprietor Justin Cline was at the store this afternoon to scoop it up for shoppers.

(Photos by Patrick Sand for White Center Now and West Seattle Blog)
10:57 AM: There’s a report of a man hit by a bus at 16th and Roxbury, and police/fire crews are rushing that way. Updates shortly.

11:04 AM: Though this was originally dispatched for Seattle crews, it’s on the county side, so King County Sheriff’s Office deputies are handling, per scanner traffic.

11:19 AM: Southbound on 16th and eastbound on Roxbury are blocked. Our crew at the scene says the bus (a Route 128) was still stopped at the scene as of a few minutes ago. The man who was hit, meantime, apparently came into contact with the bus rack. His injuries are not described as major but he is being taken to a hospital to be checked out.

11:46 AM: Metro has sent an alert saying the 120 is rerouted off eastbound Roxbury because of this.

1:24 PM UPDATE: As of about 1:15, investigators still had eastbound Roxbury blocked off from 15th to 17th. Westbound is open and 16th is fully open. The King County Sheriff’s Office is investigating; spokesperson Sgt. Cindi West says the bus was southbound on Delridge turning left to go eastbound on Roxbury; the man who was hit, in his early 30s, was crossing Roxbury northbound southbound* in the crosswalk when the bus hit him.

*New information Wednesday from KCSO.

Crossposted from partner site West Seattle Blog– a bulletin tonight from King County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Cindi West:

30 Year old Emanuel Kozma was arrested tonight around 6:30PM in the Denny’s parking lot at S170sth and Pacific Hwy in SeaTac. He was the subject that King County Sheriff detectives chased on the 10th in the White Center area.

Detectives said he will be booked for investigation of Eluding, Assault 1, and Unlawful Possession of Firearm. The case will be forwarded to the prosecutor’s office for review. He was caught due to persistent work from detectives!

In the same block (11th/Roxbury) as the story we reported earlier today – though we do not know whether it’s related – there was a huge King County Sheriff’s Office response this afternoon. Thanks to everyone who texted, Facebooked, e-mailed to let us know about it. It didn’t last long – the last units were leaving just as our crew arrived. We checked with KCSO spokesperson Sgt. Cindi West who says someone called for help and the call sounded as if there might have been a gun or even gunfire involved, and that’s why there was a big response – but they determined that no gun or gunfire was involved after all. There was an arrest because something was apparently stolen from the person who called for help, by the person they called about – but investigators are still sorting out the circumstances.

A shooting incident in White Center last week has come to light via charges filed by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office – first reported this morning by seattlepi.com, and now we have the online court documents. They say that it happened around 1:15 am on Sunday, October 7th, in the 9600 block of 11th SW. The victim and her 9-month-old baby were asleep when bullets shattered the bedroom window – 7 of them, it was later learned, all lodging or falling within a foot of where she and her baby slept. The victim grabbed her baby and ran out of the room to call 911; relatives were asleep elsewhere in the house. No one was hit.

A King County Sheriff’s Deputy heard the gunfire from four blocks away, the court documents say, and as he drove in the direction from which he had heard it, he stopped a man and a woman, both on foot. The radio traffic at the time mentioned a getaway vehicle, so after some discussion, the two were not detained, but later information – plus the work of investigators including a K-9 team – led investigators to relocate and arrest both suspects. The court documents say the victim knew both of them and that the female suspect, 27-year-old Ebonee M. Heller, had been in a dispute with her over allegations that a friend of Heller’s had sexually assaulted a relative of the victim. The charging document say the male suspect, 28-year-old Tony D. Avery, fired the gun under orders by Heller, who he claims was going to pay him to “hurt that bitch.” Deputies found not only a 9-mm handgun but also used surgical gloves, inside out, still sweaty.

Both Avery and Heller are charged with assault, and remain in jail; his bail is set at $1 million, hers at $200,000.

King County says ballots go in the mail this Wednesday – which means voting will begin on North Highline annexation as well as many other issues and races. The final City of Burien-presented annexation-information forum is in White Center this Thursday (6 pm October 18th at Cascade Middle School). Annexation opponents, meantime, have taken their campaign to YouTube. A series of videos has turned up, including clips promoted by commenters including the URLs in comments on the WCN report about the October 4th North Highline Unincorporated Area Council forum.

Cross-referencing back to YT, the channel where these were posted (partial screengrab above) features 14 anti-annexation videos as of this writing, 10 featuring White Center resident Pat LeMoine, four featuring White Center resident Mark Ufkes, who in two of them holds a sign reading BURIEN IS GOING BROKE. In one of LeMoine’s videos, he calls Burien “unpatriotic” with a “commie, fascist, pinko attitude” for having a fireworks ban (as do 60 other cities around the state, including two of Burien’s neighbors, Seattle and Tukwila); he also takes on taxes, police, and fire services, as well as saying he’s concerned that Burien is not prepared to handle White Center’s ethnic diversity.

P.S. The King County Voters’ Guide page for the North Highline annexation measure, with pro/con statements and rebuttals as well as a link to the full text of the resolution sending annexation to the ballot, is here.

The King County Sheriff’s Office (which provided the photo, via Twitter) sends word that they expect to hire 14 deputies in the months ahead, “using current resources from (the) existing budget,” according to a news release. King County Executive Dow Constantine and King County Councilmembers Joe McDermott and Kathy Lambert joined Sheriff Steve Strachan for the announcement downtown. The money is coming “from current vacancies,” KCSO says, with 4 hires planned before the end of this month, 5 next month, and 5 in January.

(Emanuel Kozma, suspect being sought after King County Sheriff’s Office pursuit ended in West Seattle)
Be on the lookout for Emanuel Kozma – King County Sheriff’s Office deputies are still looking for him, hours after they tried to pull him over in White Center, and he instead led them on a chase into West Seattle. It ended shortly before the car he was driving turned on its side in a West Seattle yard:

Here’s how KCSO Sgt. Cindi West explained what was going on:

Around 7:30 tonight our gang detectives attempted to stop a vehicle driven by a known convicted felon who they believe was armed with a firearm. When the detectives attempted to stop the vehicle near SW 108th / 15th SW the vehicle fled north toward Seattle. As detectives chased the vehicle the occupants threw a handgun out the window of the car. (that weapon has been recovered)

In the area of 17th and Henderson detectives lost the car. They learned from SPD that there was a rollover accident at 17th and Trenton. Detectives went to that location and saw that it was the vehicle they had been trying to stop. A 22-year-old female was in the car and taken to Highline Hospital with minor injuries. The male,, Emanuel Kozma, fled on foot in the area. He was last seen wearing a blue shirt with cutoff sleeves and dark pants.

The photo of him is very recent and he still has the goatee. He is said to be about 24 years old and about 5’7”. He may still be armed so residents should call 911 if they see him.

We looked up Kozma’s record and found out he had just spent 22 hours in jail, getting out at 4:30 pm today. He was in for a drug-related case.

“Burien or not Burien?” is not the only annexation decision that’s pending involving part of North Highline. The City of Seattle and the South Park Neighborhood Association are both on record opposing Tukwila’s proposed annexation of the “Duwamish Triangle” area. The Boundary Review Board plans a public hearing on October 22nd. We’ve got the new developments on partner site The South Park News.

Reminder just sent by White Center Chamber of Commerce president Mark Ufkes:

The White Center Chamber of Commerce will have its monthly Chamber luncheon meeting tomorrow (always the second Tuesday of the month except in December), Tuesday, October 9, 2012, from 12-1:15 at Chemo’s Fine Mexican Restaurant, located at 10230 16th Ave. SW.

If you are living with – or helping someone living with – Parkinson’s Disease, a local group is reaching out to you, and inviting you to its next meeting, which is convenient to the White Center area. From Dagmar Cronn:

The South Park Parkinson’s Disease Support Group meets the third Thursdays of each month at 10:00 am. We meet at Arrowhead Gardens, 9220 2nd Ave SW. Our participants are both those with Parkinson’s Disease as well as caregivers and care partners. The programming provides information specific to the disease, which manifests in different symptoms in different patients. The meetings also give the families a chance to talk about the challenges and successes in living with Parkinson’s.

We have a special program on Thursday, October 18. Dr. Susie Ro, a Movement Specialist at Swedish, will be our guest speaker. She will talk about the expansive list of medical support specialists that she and other Neurologists refer Parkinson’s Disease patients to for additional help in controlling and accommadating to symptoms. She will also talk about the differences in care she provides to Parkinson’s patients based on each patient’s personal disease symptoms and progression of the disease.