West Seattle, Washington
21 Wednesday
Out of the WSB inbox, from Rosslyn:
Arbor Heights Community Meeting on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 at 7:00 pm at Arbor Heights Elementary School Cafeteria.
Purpose: To talk about the district’s proposal to combine Arbor Heights Elementary and Roxhill.
As reported here yesterday, that proposal is part of what’s being circulated for possible inclusion in the Seattle Public Schools Building Excellence (BEX) IV levy next year – but had not been brought up for community discussion prior to turning up in a district PowerPoint at a School Board work session this past Wednesday.
ADDED EARLY SATURDAY: We had sent School Board director Marty McLaren a request for comment on this and other possible BEX IV proposals for this area, and she replied regarding this one that district-headquarters staff “is supportive because it solves the problem of two deteriorated buildings at once and results in a school with significantly reduced operating costs than two schools.” She also has the caveat regarding everything proposed so far, “none of this is set in stone.”
(Sgt. Joe Bauer shows neighbors a map of burglaries reported in the past month)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
JoDean Edelheit‘s neighbors might have wondered why police cars were in her Arbor Heights driveway Monday night – if not for the fact the neighbors were all in her living room with the uniformed visitors.
The Seattle Police Department has been offering the opportunity for these “living-room conversations” for a while – explaining them as opportunities to explore community concerns in informal settings. Monday afternoon, in fact, the SPD Blotter blog-format website published a short story about two recent ones. And that was not long after we got the call from JoDean, inviting us to the one scheduled to happen at her house hours later.
She hosted a dozen neighbors and four SPD reps. The questions weren’t surprising, but some of the answers were.
(Scroll down for updates on the outage and other weather woes)
8:09 AM: Looks like another round of wild weather moving through. And while we’re not sure yet if it’s weather-related, Martha in Arbor Heights reports a power outage. She’s at the end of 35th near Seola Park and says it went out about an hour ago. The outage is not on the City Light map and we haven’t reached them for confirmation yet, but she says that when she called it in, they told her 106 homes were affected. Meantime, the National Weather Service has a “short-term” forecast alert for heavy rain, up to half an inch an hour, this morning.
8:35 AM UPDATE: Not far from Martha’s location at the end-of-35th bend, a tree on SW Seola Lane (map) is apparently to blame for the outage, according to Tbone‘s note in comments and a 6 am “wires down” listing on the 911 log.
9:41 AM UPDATE: Added a photo of the tree trouble at Seola Lane/Seola Beach Drive. City Light’s Scott Thomsen, meantime, confirmed the outage and said it should be fixed by early afternoon. He also says the SCL outage map is fixed now.
10:05 AM UPDATE: Massive downpour for the past few minutes, in line with the Weather Service’s warning (above), though a little past their timeframe.
10:55 AM UPDATE: Sage K sends word that the Delridge onramp to the West Seattle Bridge is flooded again and should be avoided. We’re going to check that out.
11:56 AM UPDATE: Seattle Public Utilities crew was on scene at the Delridge ramp puddle, clearing the drain, when we arrived. (Besides the crew members in our photo, they had a vacuum truck there, too.) Meantime, we have an update from City Light on the Seola outage:
Crew is on site. They’ve isolated the damage to restore most customers. 23 are still out. Two spans of wire are down. Estimate for restoration of service for the remaining customers is about 2:30 pm.
As we continue publishing school-fundraiser announcements, here’s an unusual one for next weekend: Arbor Heights Elementary PTA is presenting a “Family Photo Event,” open to all, not just AH families. 9 am-6 pm next Saturday and Sunday (3/10-3/11) they are scheduling professionally photographed family-portrait sessions for $35, “including one complimentary 8 x 10 print and one low-resolution file.” You can even bring the family pet. Fundraising Committee chair Amanda Nokes says, “We will photograph multiple poses and families will choose their favorites themselves.They are of course welcome to purchase any additional pictures they’d like.” But you need to contact her to book a session – 206-902-6324 or maxnokes@comcast.net. (Get more details via this flyer.)
Thanks to Kevin McClintic for sharing a photo and toplines from last night’s Arbor Heights crime-prevention/Block Watch-formation meeting, which he says about two dozen people attended. Southwest Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator Mark Solomon (next to the pulpit in Kevin’s photo) was the guest speaker for the meeting coordinated by AH residents Sherry Fullerton and Kathy Ward. Mark stressed what you have heard from police over and over – if you see something suspicious happening, call 911. If you see someone who looks unfamiliar – say hi, “let them know they’ve been seen,” as Kevin summarized the message. Interested in getting involved with Arbor Heights Block Watch efforts, but couldn’t get to the meeting? You can e-mail arborheightsblockwatch@gmail.com and/or join the new Facebook group Arbor Heights Block Watch.
By Keri DeTore
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Moving toward the citywide semifinals in two weeks, Global Reading Challenge events continue at participating Seattle Public Schools, and today, it was Arbor Heights Elementary School‘s turn to gather its teams to compete, share their reading knowledge, and decide who’s moving to the next level.
This time, it took what was described as an “unprecedented” tiebreaker!
Got confirmation today that the rescheduled Arbor Heights crime-prevention/Block Watch-organizing meeting is happening tomorrow – Thursday, March 1, 6:30 pm, at Arbor Heights Community Church (41st/102nd). The announcement invites Arbor Heights residents to:
Meet with your neighbors to:
¨ Get information on the recent area crimes
¨ Strategize on actions to reduce area crime
¨ Get printed material on improving home security, enhancing personal safety, and reducing car-related crimes
¨ Learn what WE can do, working together, to reduce neighborhood crimeCome prepared to share your experiences about recent crime and public safety concerns in the neighborhood.
Come ready to become an active participant in reducing area crime and improving neighborhood quality of life.
Got a call today from an Arbor Heights resident – near 44th SW and SW 102nd – who wanted to get the word out about someone who came to her door around 5 pm Monday. She told us he claimed to be raising money for Chief Sealth International High School – but she checked with the school today, and it does NOT have anyone doing door-to-door selling. She also called the police, explaining that after she told the solicitor she wasn’t interested, she watched him for a while, and when he noticed her watching, he started running, catching up with a car that was driving up and down the block. (Sorry, no descriptive info, she mainly wanted everyone to know that any such Sealth soliciting claim was bogus.)
(Photos courtesy Mark Ahlness – more on the AH Elementary Facebook page)
February is a most literary month at many West Seattle schools, with writing/reading events dotting many a calendar. Tonight, for the second consecutive night, we bring you a story about an author visiting a local school – this time, Northwest author Paul Owen Lewis at Arbor Heights Elementary. It’s the third time he’s visited AH, according to longtime teacher Mark Ahlness, who says Lewis’s first visit was in 1998 – that would have been before EVERY student currently enrolled at AH was born! He spoke to assemblies as well as to classes:
Mark says, “As always, he was dynamic, entertaining, and inspirational. A great day that the kids will remember!”
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
The city’s work to replace undersized water mains in Arbor Heights – a problem spotlighted by water-supply trouble during a house fire last August – is expected to start this month.
That’s part of what Seattle Public Utilities told more than 60 residents who gathered for a community briefing/Q-A session last week at Arbor Heights Community Church, barely a block from the home that burned August 27th.
The first work will be on a relatively small stretch along Roxbury:
But the rest of it – see the full map here – won’t happen until this fall. Why the gap? That’s part of what was explained.
This hasn’t been announced to the media yet, so big thanks to Kevin McClintic for scanning and sharing the postcard he received this weekend: 
The community meeting promised by Seattle Public Utilities regarding upcoming water-main upgrades is set for this Thursday (January 26), 7-9 pm at Arbor Heights Community Church (4119 SW 102nd). As first reported here last month, water mains totaling two-thirds of a mile will be upgraded this year, as part of a process that began when last August’s big house fire called attention to problems in the system. (That day, firefighters had to run hose almost half a mile to access an adequate firefighting supply.) That process also has included hydrant upgrades; here’s our report on that, from November. (August 27 photo by Katie Meyer for WSB)
(Photo added 12:42 am, sent by neighbor ‘Bunnyfer’)
11:54 PM: Fire reported on 35th SW near Roxbury. More to come.
(Photo by Tony Bradley)
12:10 AM: The fire is reported to be under control.
12:36 AM: Christopher Boffoli‘s on the scene for WSB. (His photos are above and below this paragraph.) He says the house is single-family but is believed to be vacant (as mentioned in comments, below). Note that 35th is closed at Roxbury, if you have to drive at this hour. No word of any injuries.
12:41 AM: Christopher has spoken with Seattle Fire spokesperson Kyle Moore. He reports that Moore confirms the house was vacant, and Christopher adds this from Kyle’s briefing: “No occupants. No firefighter injuries. Engine 37 arrived to a fully involved fire in the basement area. Ladder 11 followed and ran water from an 8 inch main on 35th. They have the fire pretty much tapped now. But because the fire burned out and weakened the floor, it is too dangerous for them to go inside at this point. Kyle says they’ll probably sit on it all night just to be sure.”
1:41 AM: Added video from Christopher. Your editor here just went over to check the scene – 35th closed on the south side of Roxbury but you can turn onto Roxbury, either way. We’re adding more photos, too. The main that Kyle mentioned to Christopher – important note because of the water challenges brought to light by the August 27th fire a mile or so south – is about a block from the house that burned.
(Photo by Tony Bradley)
Here’s where the line ran from:
(Photo by Torin Record-Sand)
(The maps shown when the City Council was briefed on the August fire last month show this area is not slated for water-main upgrades since it’s close enough to one with sufficient “fire flow.” When we checked back, firefighters were still up on the roof with chainsaws, ventilating the house, and it’s still smoldering. No word on the cause, but that usually takes some hours to determine.
2:49 AM: Commenters had pointed out early on that the home was for sale. Most recently, one noted that a sale was listed as “pending.” We looked up the current ownership; the house is federally owned, following foreclosure. Meantime, we uploaded a short clip received from Benjamin, in the early moments of the fire:
ADDED SUNDAY NIGHT: Investigators still haven’t figured out how the fire started, according to this update on the SFD website.
If you’re in or near Arbor Heights and wondered about the sirens – Seattle Fire sent a big response to what was reported as a garage fire on 31st near 97th (map), but canceled most of the units within minutes, declaring the fire “tapped.”
(Taken at 17th/Cambridge. We have blurred the face of one person who did not appear to be SPD.)
Two cases tonight: We don’t have official details on the one that’s still happening, but in South Delridge, police are out right now dealing with a report that was described on the scanner as an armed robbery, apparently at a business, possibly on 17th SW. We checked out the scene and saw what appeared to be a search, but it wasn’t clear exactly where the investigation was centered, so we’ll be checking back with SPD later.
There also was some scanner traffic about a strong-arm street robbery earlier – and we have received a note from the victim, a longtime WSB’er who says she was held up at knifepoint in Arbor Heights around 5:30 pm by someone who stole her iPhone 4S. She says police made an arrest but did not find the phone, so she is asking people in the area to be on the lookout for it. (We have a followup question out to ask where in AH this happened.) She says the data on it “has been wiped,” but she has its serial number from its original packaging.
ADDED 12:14 AM: The victim says it happened near 35th/106th, and that the suspect was found around the 9700-9900 block of 35th. The missing phone is a black iPhone 4S, 32GB, “in a black Marware flip case at the time.”
Two reader reports to share tonight – first, a stolen car resembling the one in the photo sent by Rob, who hopes his car will be found:
Stolen from my driveway near 37th and Alaska on Tuesday (12/27/2011) between 7:30 PM and 9:30 PM.
The car is a 1998 Subaru Legacy GT Sedan (not the ubiquitous wagon). It is a lovely dark-green color with some minor dents in the right-rear corner. It has Washington truck plates (so the license# begins with an “A” and ends with an “F”). It has a distinctive hood vent and a tasteful rear spoiler, as you can almost see in (the) photo. I have filed a report with the police.
Second, A shares the story of a car whose driver was taking an odd path early today:
Approximately 0530 Wednesday morning, my partner noticed a white Nissan with license plate number 200-Z(xx) pulling in and out of driveways along 35th avenue SW before the turn onto Marine View Drive SW. After being noticed, the car then drove back up 35th to 106th and made a right heading towards White Center. Police were notified, please be on the lookout and report further suspicious behavior.
(August 27 photo by Tony Bradley)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
New water mains, yes. Added sidewalks, no.
That’s one of the points we got clarified, following up on Wednesday morning’s Arbor Heights fire briefing before the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety and Education Committee.
You can watch the entire briefing in our Wednesday-morning story; we summarized the briefing documents’ key points in this story from the night before.
But we had a few followup questions, so, adding the answers to the additional information that emerged at the briefing – primarily regarding the plan to upgrade water mains in the area where they were too small to provide adequate “fire flow”:Read More
(UPDATED EDITOR’S NOTE, 12:11 PM: The archived meeting video is now available, so that’s what you’ll see if you click “play” below. We are working on the wrapup story with new information from the hearing and from followup questions afterward.)
10:20 AM: Click “play” to get the live feed from City Hall, as the City Council’s Public Safety and Education Committee is briefed on the August 27th Arbor Heights house fire near 41st/102nd, and what’s been done, and what is still to come, to fix the water-supply problems it exposed –
We have been following this story since the fire itself, including these stories:
*August 27: The fire (accidental; gutted a house and injured a firefighter)
*August 28: Fire’s cause
*August 29: ‘After-action review’ promised
*Sept. 9: Three followups
*Sept. 15: Hydrant upgrades promised
*November 4th: Hydrant upgrades almost complete
*December 5th: City Council committee briefing planned
Last night, we reviewed the documents available online for this briefing, including something new and major: A plan to upgrade water mains. Here’s our story; we will write a new one with added information after today’s briefing, and we will also make a note here when the briefing is over.
11:02 AM: It’s over. Nothing major beyond what we summarized from last night, though some additional summarizing did emerge – when the water-main upgrades are over in a year-plus, all of Arbor Heights will be within 1000 feet of an 8-inch water main, which is the minimum standard these days, and 87 percent will be within 500 feet. The review of the August fire showed that 2,000 feet of hose had to be rolled out to get to an 8-inch water main supply. More to come!
12:12 PM: The archived video is already available – so we have substituted it above. Followup story still in the works.
As we reported previously, the City Council‘s Public Safety and Education Committee is scheduled to be briefed tomorrow on the big Arbor Heights fire from last August 27th.
(WSB video from 8/27/2011)
House fires don’t usually lead to council briefings, but in this case, multiple fire hydrants near the home were unable to adequately supply firefighters, who as a result could not get a handle on it quickly. Three documents are linked from the City Council agenda tonight, looking ahead to the briefing by Seattle Fire and Public Utilities leaders. While the first two focus on the fire response and what went wrong (as well as what went right), the third lays out a schedule for proposed water-main improvements to be built next year.
The tale of what went wrong at the fire scene is complex, going beyond the water-supply problems, though they are described in detail. The hydrants nearest the home were described as “dead” and “frozen” in the first document: “A sufficient water source had still not been located 12 minutes after the first unit arrived on scene.” And then: “32 minutes into the response, despite efforts to supply them from three different directions, E32 still didn’t have a viable water supply.” It wasn’t just the hydrants – they called for the “hose wagon,” but it turned out to be unavailable; they looked for the “hydrant main map book,” but discovered it was “no longer carried on the Chiefs’ apparatus.” Finally, after laying hose all the way to 35th SW – almost half a mile of hose, says the document – “35 minutes after the first rig arrived on scene, a positive water supply was established.” Ultimately, says the second document, “105 firefighters, officers and medics” were involved in the response.
The third document outlines the water-main-improvement plan; as we have reported in followups since August, in some cases SPU was able to put larger hydrants atop water mains that could provide better pressure with better equipment, but in some cases, the water mains themselves are too small – and have been since before the city annexed the area more than half a century ago. Per the briefing document, the process for the water-main improvements will begin with a community meeting next month. We will find out more when the council committee is briefed toward the end of its 9:30 am meeting tomorrow (if you can’t go, you can watch via the Seattle Channel, cable channel 21 or seattlechannel.org online – we’ll stream it here when this agenda item comes up).
Just never know what you’ll find in a Seattle City Council committee agenda. Reading through the ones available early today for meetings coming up this week, we discovered that the council’s Public Safety and Education Committee, chaired by Councilmember Tim Burgess, is scheduled for an “Arbor Heights Fire Briefing” when it meets at 9:30 am this Wednesday, last item on the agenda. The scheduled briefers are Seattle Fire Department Chief Gregory Dean and Seattle Public Utilities director Ray Hoffman. This goes back to the August 27th fire that destroyed a home on 41st SW (WSB coverage here); hydrant problems hampered firefighters’ ability to make a quick full attack on the flames. The hydrants and water system are SPU’s responsibility; we have followed up with them several times since the fire. Two days afterward, they promised an “after-action review”; two weeks later, we had information about hydrant testing; then there was a promise of larger hydrants where water-main sizes permitted, and we updated the status of that work last month. (And in a side note, an SFD investigator discussed the fire at length during October’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting.)
Wednesday’s council-committee meeting is at City Hall downtown and will be live on the Seattle Channel, cable 21 or online.
(Photos by Carol Harrold)
The Arbor Heights Elementary PTA Auction is history – and what a night it was, reports Lisa Olson:
Arbor Heights Elementary would like to extend a BIG THANK YOU to everyone in the West Seattle Community and beyond who made last Thursday’s “Adventure Is Out There” Dinner & Auction a smashing success, exceeding the event’s goals. A special shout-out to Gatewood Elementary for the volunteer swap that allowed the Arbor Heights Auction Committee to enjoy the evening. If you were not able to attend the auction and would like to make a contribution to AH’s Technology Fund, this year’s auction “Raise the Paddle” focus to replace/update computer hardware and software, checks can be dropped off or mailed to the Arbor Heights PTA, Attn: Auction Committee, 3701 SW 104th St., Seattle, WA 98146.
Just before 1, we were driving west on SW 98th in Arbor Heights when suddenly the Junior Member of the Team said, “What’s that plane doing?” Big Air Force plane, headed eastbound – slow and relatively low – directly overhead. Pulled over and rolled video till it passed. Figured it out fairly quickly, confirmed by the Seahawks website – pre-game C-17 flyover in honor of Veterans Day (weekend).
ADDED 1:32 PM: Thanks to Anne for sharing this photo:
That was taken from Brace Point, just north of where we saw the flyover. The C-17 is a Boeing-built cargo aircraft, first deployed in 1993.
Not a solicitor, but somebody going door-to-door – and just maybe, publishing a worried WSB’er’s tale will lead to reassurance that this was legit. Or not. Read on:Read More
(Photo courtesy Meri Patton)
It takes a village … of volunteers … to feed hundreds of hungry people, and here’s part of the team from last night’s PTA-hosted spaghetti dinner/fundraiser (and open house) at Arbor Heights Elementary. The hosts say they couldn’t have done it without donations from Avalon, Angelina’s, B&E Meats and Seafood, Franz Bakery, The Old Spaghetti Factory (Southcenter), Costco, and Target (Westwood Village).
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