White Center Now: The blog about White Center

When we reported last week on the new Seattle study suggesting that annexation of White Center (etc.) would be too expensive, and Mayor Mike McGinn‘s thoughts that it might be worth revisiting in the future, we also sought comment from City Council President Richard Conlin – since it’s the council that voted last year to put the city “on a path” toward an annexation vote this fall. We’ve heard back from Councilmember Conlin now. He says: “… we are still reviewing the data, and the Council will make a decision by the end of March. Personally, I continue to be enthusiastic, but I am not sure where my colleagues will be.”

It’s right out in the open, so in case you saw this too, we’re sharing results of our research. We got a photo of a sight that troubled (and sparked the curiosity of) the architects who found it today while visiting a future development site in the Greenbridge area. We’re not showing the close-up photo but it can be described best as a crucified rooster, in front of a decorated and ornately arranged box of food – it’s in the lower right corner of the photo, viewed from behind, from a distance. Online research matched it to a traditional Lunar New Year offering by some worshipers in a certain area of Cambodia – you can read about it here (the link should take you to page 117).

Story and photos by Deanie Schwarz
Reporting for White Center Now

Thanks to Gill, WCN got the heads-up that the King County Sheriff’s Office storefront is currently in great need of graffiti-paintout supplies — in particular, outdoor primer.

Unlike the city of Seattle, which has a graffiti program, unincorporated areas like White Center must rely on donated materials.

On Wednesday, the city of Seattle donated about 15 gallons of paint, some brushes and rollers to the “quality of life” program, which Community Service Officer Vary Jackson (top photo) helps coordinate. But Officer Jackson told WCN that they still are in dire need of outdoor-only primer.

The “quality of life” program deploys misdemeanor offenders to address such issues as cleaning up graffiti vandalism, retrieving abandoned shopping carts, and picking up litter. Officer Jackson says that the brief snow we had a few weeks ago seemed to encourage a lot of tagging around the neighborhood, though she emphasized that this was mostly tagger-style graffiti rather than gang-turf-war-type markings. Even so, there is just so much of it since then, that they have used up the outdoor primer they had.

If you have unused primer to spare or are able to donate new primer, they are welcome to call Officer Jackson at the King County Sheriff’s Office to make arrangements for donations that will be accepted gratefully. The phone number is (206) 296-3323. (Officer Jackson works out of the downtown White Center “storefront,” at 9609 16th SW.)

Story and photos by Deanie Schwarz
Reporting for White Center Now

After nearly 11 months of painstaking build-out, the Company Bar (9608 -16th Ave. SW in White Center) had its Grand Opening Thursday night, drawing a packed house of new patrons from near and far.

Large crowds filled the house, roughly 1,000 square feet in the heart of the 16th Avenue “renaissance row,” joining Full Tilt Ice Cream, Proletariat Pizza, Uncle Mike’s Barbecue and 3.14 Bakery as the newest joint on the block.

Owner Jesse Lovell (above left), a former contractor, did the buildout himself, along with major contributions from his stepdad Craig, also a general contractor. The two, along with their team of assorted tradespersons, have created what is being called the “high end” bar of White Center.

The attention to detail and thorough design is evident in the warm space and was noticed by the opening night patrons, who lauded Lovell for creating a comfortable, upscale environment, as well as for contributing to the enhancement of the WC business district and community.

A dynamic, varied selection of art hangs on the expansive gray walls above tables Jesse built and painted. Clamshell style, ¾ round booths occupy every corner of the space and comfortably seat 8 – 10 people. Jesse and Craig built the bar too, a shiny, organic foil to the salvaged industrial lights above and stained concrete floors below. The high-ceilings is exposed, hand-sanded lathe and reflects the history of the building to balance the modern design sensibility.

It is said by some that the success of a bar is dependent upon the quality of the women’s bathroom. Company’s bathroom stands a good chance of becoming legendary among women because of the vivid abstract painting occupying the high ceiling.

But Lovell did not stop with the attention to detail there. The standard Lovell has risen to with the warm urban design is continued with a well-considered menu. Lovell’s friend and mentor, a chef at a popular, well-regarded Seattle restaurant, advised him on menu selections for an enhanced bar menu.

The menu for opening night is strong on appetizers and cocktails. Lovell plans to serve happy hour from 4:00 – closing each night through Sunday for the Grand Opening. While the menu and the tap list are likely to be rotated regularly in the next days and weeks, here is what Company is offering for now:

From the bar:

Tap list: Big Al’s IPA, Manny’s Pale, Rainier, Fremont Universal Pale, Old Seattle Lager, Skagit River Brewery Sculler’s IPA.

Cocktails: All are $7.00 and include Rita Sidecar, Blueberry Lemondrop, Grapefruit Cosmo, Martinique Crusta, Company Old Fashioned.

From the kitchen:

Starters:

Spiced nuts – $3; Chickpea, eggplant or sweet potato fries – $5; salt cod fritters – $6; metaballs – $6; samosas $6; sopas (with la fondita salsa!) – $6; bacon wrapped dates – $6.

Salads:

Iceberg, beets, barley or mixed greens $7

Entrees:

Kebabs $12

Peppered beef, lemon thyme chicken, curried lamb, chili cumin pork

Comes with choice of 2 sides: braised greens, lentils, basmati rice, barley.

From last night’s White Center Community Safety Coalition meeting: Will Perry from King County Public Health told the group about getting rid of unused drugs instead of leaving them around the house. What you see above is the demonstration box he takes around during presentations – it’s similar to the one used where this program is in place. The program has three points of emphasis, he explained: Keeping the environment free of drug pollution (which happens if they are flushed or poured down drains, since the water-treatment system can’t excise the chemicals, or if they are thrown away, since landfill decomposition puts the chemicals into the environment); preventing abuse, especially important if the unused drugs are narcotics or stimulants; third, poison control, to keep the unused drugs away from babies and toddlers.

Right now, he explained, the county works with Group Health and Bartell Drugs – both of those companies’ Burien branches can take in unused drugs for disposal. However, they can’t accept narcotics; those can only be taken to sites in east and southeast King County that are overseen by law enforcement. The disposal laws are changing, Perry said, but the details haven’t been finalized yet.

More info on the drug-disposal issue? Go here.

Thursday (February 3rd), 7 pm, North Highline Fire District HQ, it’s the next meeting of your North Highline Unincorporated Area Council. Here’s the agenda:

February 3, 2011

7:00 p.m. Call to order
Flag salute
Roll call
Approval of agenda
Approval of minutes
7:05 p.m. Public announcements
7:10 p.m. Public comment – 3 minutes for individuals
5 minutes for groups
7:15 p.m. Mike Martin, Burien City Manager
7:20 p.m. KCSO Capt Joseph Hodgson – Crime Stats
7:30 p.m. Jeanne Johnson, ECOSS – Powerful Neighborhoods Program
7:40 p.m. Dan Perzynsky, King County Parks

7:50 p.m. John Starbard, Director King County DDES
8:15 p.m. Treasurers Report
8:20 p.m. Corresponding Secretary Report
8:25 p.m. Committee Reports
1. Governance
2. Arts and Parks
3. Public Safety
4. Housing and Human Services
5. Public Outreach
6. Transportation
7. Steve Cox Memorial
8:35 p.m. Unfinished Business

8:40 p.m. New Business
Community Meetings
Elections

The prospects of Seattle annexing White Center (and other parts of the still-unincorporated area) brightened at one point last year – as first reported here – when the Seattle City Council voted to put the city on “a path” toward a potential annexation vote this fall. However, that path seems to be dead-ending, at least for now. A new report has led the mayor’s office to throw cold water on the idea, because of budget woes. The report was prepared for the City Council, which wanted more information on the potential costs, among other things, and you can read it in its entirety here. Lots of detailed reading, but bottom line: The annexation area would cost the city $16 million more to run each year than it would bring in. And the deferred street maintenance needed by the area would cost tens of millions of dollars to catch up with – leaving the city with “one-time” expenses of annexation running $91 million.

We asked the Seattle mayor’s office for comment. From spokesperson Aaron Pickus:

The mayor thinks that the financial reality of the City’s budget, now and in the near future, make annexation difficult for the City to pursue at this time. The City simply does not have sufficient resources (and resource growth) to meet existing demands and take on the new demands that the annexation of Area Y would require. When our City’s finances are more robust, the Mayor would be interested in re-evaluating the annexation.

We’re also checking with City Council leadership, among other potentially interested parties. The county has said that *somebody* has to annex the urban unincorporated areas such as White Center, because it’s not supposed to be in the business of providing urban services. So, what about Burien? We asked its city manager, Mike Martin (Burien has a slightly different structure of government, so while there’s also a mayor, the city manager is the person who runs the city day to day), who replied:

Frankly, the ball is in Seattle’s court. You’ll probably remember that Burien signed an MOU with Seattle (they didn’t sign) basically agreeing to give them the first shot at annexing that area, as long as they did it by the end of this year. We also agreed not to interfere if they decided to go for it. We’ll stand by our word. If Seattle decides they’re not interested, my council will have a decision to make. But for now, we’re waiting on Seattle.

Martin also says he’s shared the Seattle report with his council.

(WCN photos by Deanie Schwarz)
As first reported here earlier this week, after almost a year of work, Company opens today at 4 pm in the heart of White Center’s main business district. Prior to Company’s “soft open” event last night, owner Jesse Lovell was busy with last-minute details – finalizing the menu, making sure the local art and salvaged industrial signage/lighting is all in place, stocking the bar shelves, de-papering the windows. He told WCN’s Deanie Schwarz that the Grand Opening celebration will include an extended Happy Hour through the weekend, starting at 4 pm daily. Company is at 9608 16th SW.

(Note: While our West Seattle site is down – its server-management company says they’re under denial-of-service attack – we’re posting stories here, since this site is unaffected, using a different server-management company. When the outage is over, we’ll move them to WSB and delete them here unless they’re of White Center relevance too.)

New development tonight in the wake of yesterday’s Lincoln Park attack and arrest. Tonight police have gone public with that sketch they say was made because of an attack in the park last December. They want to hear from anyone and everyone who not only might have had a suspicious encounter in the park, but anyone who might have been subject to “unwanted touching” elsewhere in West Seattle. As we reported earlier today, the man arrested yesterday, 46-year-old Duane Starkenburg, is currently charged only in one incident – and police are working hard to see if there are others he might be responsible for. Here’s their full update.

We’ve heard from numerous people wondering what’s causing the backup at Olson/Myers, on the way from White Center (and West Seattle) toward Highway 509 and South Park. It’s on the 911 log as a car fire. Some folks tell us they’ve been stuck as long as 45 minutes.

An update this morning from King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. John Urquhart, with the cause of the weekend fire and the scope of what KCSO calls a grow operation:

An early morning fire in a single family residence did more than burn up the house. It sent a good-size, illegal marijuana grow operation up in smoke as well.

The fire was reported about 1:00 AM on Sunday morning, January 23rd, in the 10400 block of 10th Ave SW (White Center neighborhood of unincorporated King County).

Responding firefighters called the Sheriff’s Office after they found the marijuana grow operation in the basement of the residence as they were knocking down the fire. There were about 55 medium size plants, lights, timers, ventilation equipment, and other growing supplies in the house.

No one was home at the time of the fire and there were no arrests.

A fire investigator from the Sheriff’s Office believes an electrical malfunction was the likely cause of the fire.

From the WCN inbox:

The North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, King County Government, Public Safety & Code Enforcement Committee will be having a meeting on Thursday January 27th 6:30pm @ the White Center Library meeting room…

This meeting is open to the public.

Here’s what that committee is all about.

4:15 PM: According to KING5.com, a fire on 10th Avenue SW early this morning has sparked a King County Sheriff’s Office investigation – because of an alleged marijuana-growing operation. Here’s their story. We’ve got messages out to find out more.

6:07 PM UPDATE: A little more information from King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. John Urquhart – The fire was in the 10400 block of 10th Ave SW. A county fire investigator has been to the scene but the investigator’s report isn’t filed yet, so details will have to wait until at least tomorrow, including the size of the “grow op” he says they found. The house was fully involved when fire crews arrived, according to Sgt. Urquhart, who says fire crews called for KCSO around 1:12 am.

From the South Park Arts website – a call for public art for White Center’s Strength of Place Village. Application deadline is a little over a month away. Details here.

Fourth Thursday means the White Center-South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meets – here’s the announcement:

More than 17,000 calls to the Washington Poison Center were about children poisoned by medicines. Washington State needs a statewide take-back program to protect its children.

Teens use medicines to get high second only to marijuana, and they start as early as 12 years old. Washington needs a statewide take-back program so families can keep unwanted medicines out of the hands of our teens.

White Center – South Delridge Community Safety Coalition

Invites you to hear the

Seattle & King County Public Health Health & Environmental Investigator

Will Perry

at our Meeting on Thursday, January 27th 6 pm

White Center DSHS Building, 2nd Floor

9650 15th Ave SW

We first told you about Company, in the works for the central White Center business district, last February, in a story about that month’s meeting of the White Center-South Delridge Community Safety Coalition. Now, it’s just about ready to open. WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz says owner Jesse confirms Thursday (January 27) will be Day 1, starting at 4 pm, serving their Happy Hour menu. Company’s at 9608 16th SW.

Another new restaurant coming to White Center – sharing space with an existing one. After spotting the banner you see in the photo, WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz checked in with the owner of Be’s. She’s going to stay open in the mornings, serving breakfast, says Deanie; then in mid-afternoon, Crawfish Grill will take over the space. Deanie says Crawfish is already a successful restaurant in South King County, serving Cajun-style treats like crawfish and catfish, with fresh fish. She’s working to get in touch with its owner for a followup.

WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz spotted this new Boost Mobile (with Virgin Mobile signage too) store across from Marv’s Broiler, at 9819 16th SW. Nobody around to talk to, she reports, but through the windows, it’s clear the interior is almost complete, and signage says it will be open Mondays-Saturdays, 10 am-7 pm.

Thanks to Gill for the photo and the news that the new multilingual “Welcome to White Center” signs are up in at least two spots – this one’s along SW Roxbury by Holy Family Church/School, and another one’s up at 4th SW/SW 108th. This follows the similarly themed banners that have started to go up around the area (here’s our story from two weeks ago).

ADDED FRIDAY MORNING: The Chamber board plans a photo opportunity by one of the new signs this afternoon, and also included this information about the signs:

The White Center Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Seattle Foundation and the White Center Community Development Association (CDA), has installed two new multi-language “Welcome” signs in White Center. Of the five original signs installed in the early 1990s, all are damaged beyond repair. These two signs are coated with an anti-graffiti material and represent the first phase for replacing all White Center Welcome signs. The Chamber board will gather at the sign located at Holy Family School in Seattle (Roxbury and 19th SW) at 1:00 pm today. The second new sign is located at 4th SW and SW 108th in unincorporated King County. The Chamber will continue fund raising to replace the other three signs in 2011.

ADDED: Here’s the photo!

The WC Chamber reps in attendance included, according to president Mark Ufkes, Mac McElroy, Carlos Jimenez, Jimie Martin (Chamber mgr), Nhan Nguyen, Kathi Wheeler (Chamber board member next year and sign designer) Nancy Calos Nakano, Ray Zombro, Dr. Chris Hill.