On Oct. 12, exactly 100 years following Kirkland's incorporation, the city culminated its year-long Centennial celebration with a no-holds-barred birthday party, complete with clear-sky fireworks and Marilyn Monroe lookalikes singing "Happy Birthday."The Centennial committee, led by Mayor Mary Alyce Burleigh as chair and Kellie Jordan as vice-chair, also included Penny Sweet, Teddy Overleese, Bob Burke and Dan Krehbiel. City staffers Sheila Cloney and Tracy Burrows lent invaluable support. Thanks to double-digit months of dedicated planning, the city pulled off a magnificent celebration in multiple venues.
Once again the holiday season has arrived! Have no fear: It is still possible to enjoy the delicious meals without haunting leftovers bursting your belt buckle. In fact, by following several healthful tips you can actually lose weight over the holidays. Basically, if you monitor your eating method over the next several months you can shape and sculpt the most important holiday present of all, your health.
Homecoming week 2005: It may have been short, but what it lacked in hours of school (approximately eight hours and one minute less than a normal school week) it made up for with spirit and fun. Actually, the spirit and fun were just icing on the very sweet "less school" cake. We had a very successful spirit week that culminated with a homecoming assembly and a bite of Lake Washington food fair.The royalty court was shown off Oct. 20 at the homecoming assembly, each escorted by a family member down the red carpet. Everyone looked stunning and handsome, respectively, even when faced with a barrage of flashing cameras from loving parents and yearbook.
Blackberry bushes and morning glory vines at Everest Park recently met their match. On Sept. 23, Northstar Junior High School's 90 students - plus teachers and parents - wielded clippers, shovels and even big sticks to reclaim large areas of the park from the invasive plants. Under the direction of a Kirkland Parks Department supervisor, the group worked the entire school day to spruce up the park.Northstar has worked as a group at Everest Park for over three years, previously working together at the South Rose Hill Park. Working together on a community service project has been an important part of the Northstar school year throughout its 25 year history. Starting the school year out with such a project is a great way for students and teachers to get to know one another.
Juanita High School enjoyed a new twist to our homecoming festivities this year: the viewing of our first student-produced television show in many years. The first installment of what organizers hope to air frequently throughout the year was entirely student written, directed and cast.It's been a long road of hard work and perseverance for the show's producer and star anchorman, Josh Skurnik. Upon hearing that Juanita had a news show in past years, Skurnik decided to develop his own variety show. Beginning with the idea as the basis for his senior culminating project, it became more than one student's work, and soon turned into a legitimate organization at Juanita.
We are fortunate to be able to garden year-round, or so the experts say. Who are they kidding? Yes, there are odd bits of time between storms, but the lighted hours are getting so short and when the oppressive grey moves away, the brilliant sunshine in November just does not warm the cold fingers as much as we would like it to. There are times when I have such great envy of those gardeners who know the date when their gardens will be under a blanket of snow. They have to get their spring bulbs planted before that date. I look at my bags of bulbs, and say "tomorrow I will do all that stooping and poking." In recent years, that tomorrow, much to my chagrin, often comes in January.
Kirkland has a great reputation. Those of us who live here know what a special place it is, but Kirkland is admired in the Puget Sound region and around the country. Our town has a unique and special quality that I call the "Kirkland mystique." What makes Kirkland wonderful? In my opinion, it is a combination of many things. People who live and work in Kirkland care about it. Our residents, citizens and business owners are very involved in Kirkland civic life and in planning for its future. Our city has incredible natural beauty. We have Lake Washington as our western border and Bridle Trails State Park to the south. We see the Olympic Mountains to the west and the Cascades to the east. Kirkland has beautiful trees and landscaping, our park system is superb and our roadways are well maintained.
In a case of sisterly love, Kirkland and Walla Walla have teamed up to adopt the city of Pascagoula, Mississippi, which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Shortly after the storm hit, Kirkland officials were contacted by its Eastern Washington sister city to consider joining them in officially adopting the Gulf Coast town, said Assistant City Manager Lynn Stokesbary.Pascagoula, which is largely dependent upon shipping and tourism for its economic well-being, contains approximately 26,500 residents and is located just east of Biloxi on the gulf coast of Mississippi. According to a recent press release from Stokesbary, Pascagoula "is in desperate need of funds to resume basic operations and assist its citizens and businesses in obtaining fundamental needs and continuing essential functions."Stokesbary says that Pascagoula's city manger and downtown association said that their "downtown was devastated. They've got about 2,000 people who haven't returned to work in their shipping industry. They've lost their tax base."As a result, the city needs money, plain and simple. Pascagoula officials have informed Kirkland officials that the city hall is in trailers and the schools are significantly damaged. Stokesbary noted that clothing and other items are arriving unbundled. "They need a building, a warehouse to get things assembled," he said.Why Pascagoula?
The number of salmon in the Pacific Northwest has declined by nearly 50 percent in the past century, and Juanita Creek is an example of the trend, according to a 2000 habitat inventory and assessment of a local waterway that drains into Lake Washington."Our numbers are fairly poor for Juanita Creek," concedes Jenny Gaus, a Kirkland senior surface-water utility engineer. "We've had a couple of bad years for salmon in the last couple of years."City staff and volunteers made their determination by counting the number of salmon in the creek once a year using a technique called electro-fishing. Electricity is applied to the water and temporarily stuns the fish, which makes it easy to count them, she said.
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has begun work on I-405 that will eliminate the so-called Kirkland Crawl in that section of the vital transportation corridor.Funded by the nickel gas tax, Stage I of the $164 million I-405 project will add one northbound and one southbound lane between Northeast 85th Street and Northeast 124th Street, along with rebuilding ramps at the 116th Street interchange. In addition, five new noise walls will be built, and fish barriers on Forbes Creek will be removed.Stage II of the project will see the completion of the southbound lane between State routes 522 and 520, the completion of northbound lane between Northeast 70th and Northeast 85th Streets and the construction a new interchange at Northeast 116th Street.Mayor Mary-Alyce Burleigh was pleased with the news.
A recent survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors reported that 23 percent of all residential real-estate transactions in the U.S. last year were purchased by investors, rather than buyers looking for a place to live. Around the Puget Sound area, the combination of low housing inventory and low interest rates has resulted in a booming market that's ripe for the picking for real estate investors. According to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, the average price of single family homes rose more than 10 percent in 2004 in King County. But rising property prices aren't the only thing making real estate a sound investment; the dot-com crash and stock-market declines have made many investors rethink their reliance on stocks and seek alternative investments, such as real estate. Anyone who invested in the stock market last year probably watched the value of their investment drop by the end of the year. By contrast, anyone who bought a home in King County in 2004 would have seen their home appreciate in value by 10 percent - plus or minus.
Selling your home is a stressful time for many. It is one of the most important decisions you will make in your lifetime and being prepared is the key to lessening your stress. Many real estate agents provide great advice on ways to increase the value of your home before it is listed. My insight as an interior designer will provide you with easy and cost effective ideas that will give prospective clients the "wow" factor the minute they walk into your home. I often start with paint color since it provides the greatest impact. Then I advise clients to pretend they are a first time visitor to their own home. Stand at the front doorway and look to see where your eye goes. Are you looking at something appealing or are you looking through a window that has an ugly view of your neighbor's backyard?
Some words take on new meaning rather quickly.Consider "staging," derived from the verb "stage."Since the mid-1980s "staging" has meant more than put on, produce or mount. It has everything to do with selling a home.Staging, in the real estate sense, means setting up furniture, accessories and art in a home on the market in order to show its potential and increase its desirability.A kind of market-driven makeover, in other words.Five years ago Krystal Perkins, a former real estate agent, saw a need and started her own business, Staged by Design. She is an Accredited Staging Professional. The West Seattle business has grown dramatically.
It's that time again. For the second year in a row I returned to Cincinnati for my mother's birthday; she turned 87 on Nov. 5.Since my father died at 57, it is my mother's genes I am hoping are dominant in my little life.Mom is a remarkable woman. We started each day with a 2-mile walk in a local park, up hill and dale on a Green Lake-style path, where the bikers and rollerbladers are separated from the amblers by a mere yellow line painted on blacktop. At 87 Mom is still toddling along at a brisk pace.Cincinnati is a physically pretty place, especially by Midwestern standards.Culturally and socially it is less attractive.The racial tension is palpable almost everywhere, which is certainly not something an accurate observer could say about Seattle. Oh, we have our flashpoints, but Seattle ranks far higher on the cultural-tolerance scale than my birthplace.Socially, there are more neighborhood bars and fewer citywide-patron-drawing nite spots in Cincinnati.And the Esquire Theater in Clifton, Cincinnati's U District, is the only arty moviehouse in a city almost as populous as Seattle.
For the month of November, the owners of Frame Up Studios have filled their gallery space with colorful art works by the youngest artists in Fremont - students at B.F. Day Elementary School. An auction to purchase the works will run until the 28th of this month with 100 percent of the proceeds raised to support art at B.F. Day.Gail Bradley, co-owner of Frame Up and a local instigator, selected the works. "Hearing about some of the things the school has to do without," motivated Gail, a working mom, to find a way she could help. "This was the best way to give back to the community - through art! Art is so huge to us and that they could be lacking..."Since she and her husband Rob, bought Frame Up six years ago, they've supported numerous neighborhood projects. Not for the first time, Gail took the initiative and contacted the school - and their part-time art teacher, Robin Kinney Robbins. "I gave Gail a big folder of art, about 200 pieces, and they put together the show." The pieces came from students in kindergarten through fifth grades, with an emphasis on works with pleasing shapes and colors. Robin found the final show fun and fanciful, as well as reflective of the wide diversity of cultures and backgrounds of the children involved.