White Center Now: The blog about White Center

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.

It’s official – White Center’s King County Councilmember is leading the County Board of Health. Here’s the announcement we just received:

At its first meeting of the New Year, the members of the King County Board of Health elected Metropolitan King County Councilmember Joe McDermott Board Chair for 2011. McDermott was appointed to the Board of Health after joining the Council last November.

McDermott said the challenge facing public health agencies throughout the region is continuing to deliver health services in the age of shrinking funds. Last week, Public Health – Seattle & King County announced the layoff of over 120 Public Health employees who provide and support maternity support services for at risk mothers so their babies start healthy by reducing low birth weights, which can result in long and expensive hospital stays, life-long health problems or even death.

“More than a third of all pregnant women in King County depend on the County for their health care, so these cuts will have a long-term impact on the health of our communities,” said McDermott. “I will be working with the state Legislature to protect these critical services.”

“With his clear commitment and experience in working for healthier communities, I’m very much looking forward to working together with Councilmember McDermott in his new role as Board Chair to address our current crisis in public health service funding and other serious health threats,” said Dr. David Fleming, Director and Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County.

McDermott will replace Councilmember Julia Patterson, who is stepping down after five years as Board Chair.

“As the legislator who introduced the first Clean Indoor Air Act, I have been concerned about public health issues my entire career,” said McDermott. I look forward to continuing the work of Councilmember Patterson and the entire Board as we work to promote health around King County.”

McDermott joined the County Council in November 2010. He left the Washington State Legislature after joining the Council, where he served seven years in the state House

before being appointed and later elected to the state Senate. He was Senior Budget Analyst with the Seattle School District and has worked for former Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney John Ladenburg. McDermott has a Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs and holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from Gonzaga University.

The Board of Health is responsible for setting county-wide public health policy, enacting and enforcing local public health regulations. The Board also plays a role in enforcing state public health statutes, preventing and controlling the spread of infectious disease, abating nuisances and establishing fee schedules for licenses, permits and other services.

Just in from Sgt. John Urquhart with the King County Sheriff’s Office:

A party at a house in White Center “went bad” early Sunday morning (January 16th). Numerous shots were fired about 3:10 AM by one suspect and one man was hit. He is at Harborview Medical Center after undergoing emergency surgery.

The house is in the 600 block of SW 107th St (map). A number of people were at the party and a fight broke out when one of the party-goers apparently grabbed the butt of one of the female guests. Her boy-friend took exception and there was a fistfight. The grabber was summarily ejected from the house.

About an hour later several men came back to the house, pounded on the front door, and then fired several rounds from a handgun into the house. A 20 year-old Seattle man was hit in the torso. The suspects fled.

The Sheriff’s Office was alerted to the shooting by neighbors.

Friends of the victim drove him to Harborview where he remains in critical condition. The friends remained and were interviewed by detectives.

There have been no arrests and the case is under investigation today.

Metro’s on a “reduced-weekday” schedule for the holiday. Most government offices/facilities are closed – no school, no mail; banks are closed too. MLK Day is also a Day of Service for many, and King County United Way tells us White Center-headquartered WestSide Baby is one of those places, with volunteers helping out at its newly expanded HQ today.

King County Sheriff’s Deputies say the black pickup in the photo hit a pedestrian crossing 26th SW south of 106th SW about 12:30 pm. We were at the site around 2 and the Major Accident Response investigators had just arrived – deputies told us that meant the road is not likely to reopen till early evening. (We will check back.) No word so far on the circumstances, nor on the condition of the pedestrian. This is a busy area for traffic, since 106th SW runs between White Center and the West Seattle neighborhood of Arbor Heights, and 26th SW runs north of the scene all the way to the Westwood Village shopping center. We have two reports, neither official (one is from someone saying he was a witness at the scene right after the crash), that the victim is a juvenile male, and we will be trying to find out more.

5:31 PM UPDATE: The road is open again; investigators have finished and departed.

6:40 PM UPDATE: King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. John Urquhart has sent a brief news release on the crash, but the only additional detail it contains is that the victim, described as “around 15 years old,” is in serious condition.

Big field trip for young singers from White Center’s Holy Family School – they were at Harborview Medical Center downtown on Thursday for its 19th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration. Third from left in the back row, that’s Eileen Whalen, executive director of HMC. The Holy Family Youth Choir members sang during the celebration, under the direction of Anca Wilson:

Thanks to Harborview for sharing the photos!

Some have fretted they can’t attend the meetings when they’re held in the morning – so here’s your chance. The North Highline Fire District commissioners meet at 6 pm next Tuesday, January 18th. Location: NHFD headquarters, 1243 SW 112th. Open to the public, and you’re encouraged to come find out what’s happening in your fire district.

The snow’s been melting for a few hours but the slushy aftermath has lingering effects this morning:

METRO: On snow routes till 9 am.

SCHOOLS: Highline Public Schools is 1 hour late … Seattle Public Schools and Holy Family School have both announced 2-hour delays. … Kennedy High School starts 10:30 am.

TRASH/RECYCLING/YARD WASTE: Seattle Public Utilities is on its regular schedule. Allied has announced some changes.

More as we get it.

Hit “refresh” for the latest image from that “live” traffic camera the county has in White Center. Hope you don’t have to drive anywhere till after daybreak Wednesday, because by all accounts, it’s just plain nasty out there. More than an inch of snow has fallen by late evening around the Seattle metro area, including White Center. But the forecasters insist it will change to rain by morning – the question is, how much of a sloppy, slushy mess will you have to slog through during the am commute? We’ll have updates, including the early-morning word on what local schools plan to do. Also note that as of right now (10:45 pm Tuesday), Metro has all buses on snow routing.

Local utilities say there’s help for people who can’t pay their utility bills – but few people manage to get that help, because they don’t know it exists. That’s why Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light are putting on a special event this weekend in West Seattle – find out about it here (and that link also will help you find out if you qualify for assistance).

In a special election on February 8th, voters in the Highline Public Schools district will decide the fate of a levy to raise more than $40 million a year, replacing a levy that’s expiring. (You can read about it here.) If you need to register to vote, or change your information, the deadline for doing so online – in order to make sure you get your ballot in the mail in time for that election – is this Monday. You can get it all done by going here.

We thought we noticed something different when we walked out of 88 Deli in South Delridge after lunch the other day. We’d heard about the new banners but this was the first time we’d seen them. And now this update from White Center Community Development Association confirms that they are newly installed – north of Roxbury for now, but WCCDA says they have money for putting up banners south of Roxbury, too.

Out of the WCN inbox:

A big THANK YOU ! to the kind White Center good neighbor named Keith and his friends.

My car stalled out on 16th Ave. by Blockbuster, about 2 mils from home. I managed to pull over to the side, but it still was stuck in in a traffic lane.

Two men appeared out of nowhere, started pushing, and got my old Toyota safely into the Albertson’s parking lot. Minutes layer Keith and a friend with a car returned with a smile and a can of gas (yeah, I had foolishly run out of gas) and made sure I got my engine started.

I only had $3.00 cash with me, but he insisted on giving me all the gas.

Kindness makes the world go round! I promised to pay it forward.

Dina Johnson

Story and photos by Deanie Schwarz
Reporting for White Center Now

Rodriguez Secondhand Store has just opened in South Delridge, next to 88 Deli. It’s owned by Juan and Marla Rodriguez.

They began selling at the Starlight Swap Meet in Lakewood, then moved to an outdoor location on the parking lot of Jack’s Payless Auto Parts on Martin Luther King Way, but being outside under a tent is tough during bad weather, and Juan was pretty tired of hauling their goods in and out every day.

The couple live in Tukwila but decided to find an indoor space for the first time, to run their mom-and-pop business. They say they chose to lease in White Center because it is affordable. The 600-square-foot space is filled with “stuff” from the kitschy to the practical. Magazines are stacked on shelves, coats, pants and purses hang above lawn mowers, or they can even fix the lawn mower and weed-eater you might already have.

One of their first customers in the store was an older gentleman who has lived in WC for most of his 70+ years. He told the Rodriguezes that it has been many years since there has been a secondhand shop in WC. Some years ago, there was a Goodwill in the area – right now, there’s one further south, in Burien – but as far as they know, they are the only one currently in the South Delridge/White Center neighborhood.

They are looking forward to introducing themselves to their neighbor businesses and to serving the neighborhood.

Rodriguez Secondhand Store will be open Mondays-Sundays, 9:30 am-6:30 pm, to begin. They are located at 9416 Delridge Way SW; phone 206-280-5064.

(Photo by Deanie Schwarz)
Seattle City Light has published another update today about its ongoing systemwide streetlight inspections in the wake of “contact voltage” that killed a Queen Anne dog and spooked one in West Seattle’s High Point neighborhood – and this time, a White Center problem was found, according to City Light’s online update. It’s at 1721 SW Roxbury Street [map] – photo above (right outside the Salvadorean Bakery building) and was found with 111 volts. The utility says a faulty ballast assembly was replaced; its contractors have finished inspecting more than a third of the streetlights and associated facilities in the system

As of 5 pm, the burn ban that’s been in effect throughout King County is canceled, per the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.

As always, the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meets the first Thursday of the month, and that means this Thursday, 7 pm. From the official agenda, received via e-mail:

*7:05 p.m. Public announcements*

*7:10 p.m. Public comment – 3 minutes for individuals*
* 5 minutes for groups*

*7:15 p.m. KCSO Capt Joseph Hodgson – Crime Stats*

*7:25 p.m. Lucy Auster & Emery Bayley – Brownsfield Update*

**

*7:45 p.m. Paul Reitenbach, King County Comprehensive Plan *

*8:00 p.m. Treasurers Report *

*8:05 p.m. Corresponding Secretary Report*

*8:10 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*

*8:20 p.m. Unfinished Business** *

* Priority List*

*8:45 p.m. New Business*

* North Highline Housing Assessment *

* UAC President’s Meeting with Executive Constantine*

The meeting’s at the usual location – North Highline Fire District HQ, 1243 SW 112th (map).

We heard this pursuit on the scanner last night but didn’t realize it had begun in White Center. Just in from King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. John Urquhart:

The New Year is starting with a bang as one car chased another car while firing several shots at the fleeing vehicle. Apparently no one was hit.

Then it got interesting. A Sheriff’s deputies found the suspect car twice, and the chase(s) was on!

It all started about 10:50 PM last night (January 2nd). The Sheriff’s Office received a 9-1-1 call about a black Acura chasing a red SUV in the White Center area at speeds up to 80 mph. The driver of the Acura was leaning out the window shooting a handgun at the SUV.

Ten minutes later a deputy found the Acura, now in the Top Hat neighborhood and a short pursuit ensued. But the suspect vehicle got away.

A few minutes later a 2nd deputy found the car again, this time on SR 599. Another pursuit ending up on southbound I-5. The chase was ended when the deputy lost sight of the car at about the Kent-Des Moines Road.

At 12:15 AM a White Center woman called to report her 1997 Acura Integra stolen. Deputies believe this was the vehicle involved in the shooting and the chase. The license number is 403ZJG (Washington). The car is distinctive because it is black but with red and silver wheel rims.

So far there are no reported injures. No one is in custody. Neither the stolen vehicle nor the red SUV, possibly a 4Runner, have been found.

Anyone with information is asked to call the King County Sheriff’s Office at (206) 296-3311 (24 hours) or 9-1-1.

10:32 AM UPDATE: According to the scanner, police have found the stolen car. No word if they found a suspect with it. It wasn’t in West Seattle or White Center – someplace else in Seattle city limits, couldn’t quite pick that up from the radio transmissions.

Thanks to WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz for reminding us about this – it’s been in effect since yesterday afternoon but we hadn’t mentioned it yet. A Stage 1 burn ban is in place right now for King County, which means you’re not supposed to use your fireplace or woodstove unless you have no other way to keep warm. It also means no outdoor fires. More information here.

It happened within the past hour at Alki Beach in West Seattle, but it’s the White Center Polar Bear Swim too; the invitation was issued by WC Chamber of Commerce president Mark Ufkes, who’s long been inviting anyone and everyone to start the New Year with a splash. The sunny weather brought out more than 100 “swimmers” – even The King:

We wish you and all of White Center (and beyond) the happiest of New Years!