At a special meeting in February, the Lake Washington School District board of directors voted unanimously to appoint Chip Kimball, Ed.D., as the district's new superintendent as of July 1. Kimball, 43, who is currently deputy superintendent of the district, will succeed Dr. Don Saul, who will step down on June 30.At the Jan. 8 board meeting, Superintendent Don Saul - who has served in the position since July 1, 2002 - announced his decision to resign. Dr. Kimball came to the district in 1996 and was promoted to deputy superintendent last spring, in charge of all educational programs.
The Seattle City Council voted 8-1 on March 5 to designate the exterior of the turn-of-the-century Treat mansion on Queen Anne Hill as historical. It was a decision cheered by the Queen Anne Historical Society and condemned as unfair by owners who wanted to sell the building to a development company, which in turn wanted to tear the place down and construct 55 housing units. The council vote was a culmination of two earlier rulings: the first by the city's Landmarks Preservation Board, which called for preserving the exterior, the lobby, a staircase and an inside callbox used in the old days to summon the Queen Anne Counterbalance trolley
Three scooters and this fence on 10th Avenue West were hit around 2 a.m. March 9 by an allegedly drunk motorist driving the crashed-up car in the background. Also hit but towed away by last Friday afternoon were a pickup truck and a Honda, according to a witness in the neighborhood.
Seattle City Council member and Queen Anne resident David Della kicked off his campaign Feb. 28 for a second term in Position 7 of the council. The catered, early-morning event and fundraiser in the Fisher Pavilion at the Seattle Center drew a huge crowd of supporters, along with some movers and shakers that included Port Commissioner Lloyd Hara, former mayor Wes Uhlman, former Seattle Center director Virginia Anderson, King County Executive Ron Sims and fellow city council members Richard McIver and Sally Clark.
Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Network will hold its ninth annual environmental film festival March 29 through April 1, with climate change and environmental justice as the primary themes. The festival includes 50 films and shorts, mostly documentaries, as well as panel discussions. A complete schedule is available at www.hazelfilm.org.
It's hard not to see "Come Early Morning" as Ruby's narrative picked up a decade or so down the road. This time she's an Arkansan named Lucy, with a day job finding ways to cut costs for her contractor boss (Stacy Keach) and a nighttime penchant for getting drunk and going to bed with guys she has no interest in remembering. A lot of that has to do with the sorry marital history of her parents - mom (Diane Ladd), long unhappily remarried, and dad (Scott Wilson), living on his own with a bottle and the memory of having once played guitar with Chet Atkins. But some of it is Lucy's own problem with recognizing what she's worth.
To hear King County Executive Ron Sims and outgoing Port of Seattle CEO Mic Dinsmore tell it, the proposal to hand off Boeing Field to the Port in exchange for an eastside rail corridor is a good deal all around.However, longtime King County Council member Larry Phillips begs to differ. He's not the only one on the council who has misgivings, the Magnolia resident says. "There are several members of the council who are very concerned...."
The Seattle Public Library's Magnolia branch, 2801 34th Ave. W., will close at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 24, for renovation and expansion. During the closure, the library will add staff to nearby branches to help meet the need for library service. Librarians also will continue community outreach to children and young adults and will make school visits in the branch's service area. The closest branches to the Magnolia branch are: the Ballard branch, 5614 22nd Ave. N.W.; the Fremont branch, 731 N. 35th St.; and the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave.
Her Majesty the Queen has awarded an honorary OBE (Officer, Order of the British Empire) to Magnolia's David Dougherty, a world leader in recycling market development in Seattle, the United Kingdom and other countries.The British Consul-General of San Francisco Martin Uden presented the OBE to Dougherty at a ceremony in the Mayor's office on March 9.In announcing the award, Uden said: "Every struggle has its heroes, and the battle for a clean, sustainable environment is no different. David Dougherty has helped both Washington state and the United Kingdom raise their efforts in recycling.
The Friends of Ursula Judkins Viewpoint/Smith Cove has selected the firm of Karen Kiest Landscape Architects to develop the schematic plans for the Ursula Judkins Viewpoint.The $10,000 design contract, which is funded through the Department of Neighborhoods Neighborhood Match Fund program, will run for approximately three months.Under the terms of the contract, Kiest's firm will create schematic plans for the city-designated viewpoint park in Magnolia.
The rising price of gas over the past couple of years hasn't bothered 51-year-old Lyle Rudensey one bit.Rudensey-who taught a Biodiesel Home Brew workshop a few weeks back at the Greenwood Senior Center-is an expert at making his own biodiesel fuel in his detached garage.He uses the fuel to keep his Volkswagen Jetta wagon running. And Rudensey gets between 40 and 48 miles to the gallon. He estimates the cost of his fuel at 65 cents per gallon.That's right. In this day of $2.50-plus per gallon of gas, Rudensey makes his own for a quarter of the cost
The old proverbs and axioms have lasted for centuries because they contain big bites of truth.Most of the best axiomatic motherwit I've seen in our language stems from that great African-American musical art form, the blues.I couldn't help thinking about blues wisdom last week when I heard that a 47-year-old former female co-worker had died of cancer. But being an oft-published writer has greatly eased my time on the phones for the research folk. I often wonder at the people who did that job and that job only, barely managing to eke out a precarious living.Nancy was one of those people. She'd come to the phones almost 20 years ago and worked there until she was diagnosed with cancer in 2005.
On a fall day nearly two decades ago, in 1987, the rock group U2 gave an impromptu concert at San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza on the Embarcadero. During one of U2's rock renditions, front man Bono spray-painted and sang, "Rock and Roll Stops the Traffic," and, indeed, the Embarcadero Freeway traffic came to a stop.Ironically, two years later a different type of rock 'n' roll stopped the traffic. It was the Oct. 17, 1989, Loma Prieta earthquake, which collapsed Oakland's Cypress Structure and rendered the Embarcadero Freeway unsafe.Both structures were similar to Seattle's viaduct. Unfortunately 55 lives were lost and scores more were injured.
"Hey, Mom, can I take the Suburban and go to the mall?""OK, just to the mall and that's all.""No, Mom, I'm going to hijack the suburban and take it to California.""You do know I have a Lojack on it, right?""The suburban has a GPA?""Yes, Stephanie. Our Suburban has a grade point average.""It does??""No, it has a GPS on it, not a GPA. I'm sure our Suburban, lovely as it is, does not need a high GPA, unlike you. How's that going, by the way?"At this point she falls over laughing at her own stupidity. She is blond and realizes that sometimes it simply can't be helped. Her beauty is a curse and a blessing.Last week I was forced to use her beauty to attract males. Yes, I shamelessly put my daughter out of our Suburban, told her to stand there and look helpless. ur vehicle's battery had died, and between us we have the car I.Q. of a gnat. A gnat that has met a messy end on our windshield. Neither of us really knows much about what's under the hood, except that it goes. Except this time, it didn't. Go, I mean.
One of the Village business men, when asked if he would advertise in the business section of the Magnolia History Book II, said: "Oh, no, it will just be like the first book and nobody will buy it anyway."Hmmmm... I say not so; and again, not so. (Besides, he missed the opportunity to support this rare and unique community-based project, as well as a chance to be in the historical record of the business listings... too bad; and, too bad).First, if you read this column regularly, you have followed the step-by-step community effort by more than 30 volunteers. You have heard some of the stories that are all new and in the collection. You know this is a year-and-a-half journey we are taking to permanently give the Magnolia neighborhood more historical records: through essay and images; true stories of its beginnings (The West Point Archaeology Dig); the humorous stories in the memories of its vanished village shops and corner play lots (Coley Wyckoff's, Barbara Wade Gate's Memoirs); the factual and academic stories of historical research on new and broad topics (Fort Lawton, World War II, The Convalescent Home for Crippled Children.)All new old stories and all new old photos of Magnolia in the '20s, '30s and '40s. Never been done before!It will be the same as the first book, in that it will be stylistically similar-just as elegant. But it will have new touches, as well: for instance, it will be 75 pages longer, with more excellent archival photos.