Intiman Theatre received a sizable donation in its effort to raise $1 million this week – in the form of a $100,000 matching gift from an anonymous donor, the theatre announced Friday.

Intiman, which first announced it would face closure unless it raises $1 million by September back in February, has already raised $200,000 from community supporters to save the local theatre. The organization hopes to raise half its need – $500,000 – by the end of the month, another $250,000 by June, and the final $250,000 by the fall. The $100,000 matching fund could help push the theatre significant closer to meeting the March portion of its goal, that is if the challenge is met.

“This generous grant provides us with an opportunity to raise at least $200,000 in a short amount of time,” said Intiman’s Finance Committee chair Paul Lawrence in a statement. “We’re grateful for this matching opportunity, and we’re working hard to spread the word. We are asking everyone for whatever support they can give now.”

According to the terms of the grant agreement, all donations made to the Impact Intiman campaign beginning today, Friday, March 25, will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the anonymous donor. There is no time limit for donors to meet the match, but Intiman hopes to meet its $500,000 mark by March 31st in order to stay on track with its fundraising goals for the rest of the year.

Those interested in making a donation to Intiman can do so from the theatre’s website.

For more information see our past coverage, or contact Becky Lathrop at beckyl@intiman.org or 206.204.3322.

After nearly nine years running a neighborhood yarn and knit-centric craft shop, Queen Anne resident and Hilltop Yarn owner Jennifer Hill says the store will be hanging up its knitting needles for good at the end of the month.

Hilltop Yarn, located at 2225 Queen Anne Ave N. will be closing up shop Monday, March 29, and is offering sales on its stock from now until closing.

Hill said the decision was not taken lightly. It came after two years of serious consideration–after an electrical fire in their previous location in late 2008 almost burned the shop down and left the entire stock with smoke damage; after sales tax went up, again.

“It’s been coming for a number of years,” Hill said. “I think most small business owners would tell you they have pretty complicated relationships with their business. You’re constantly toying with the idea that tomorrow will be better. We’re pretty optimistic people, small business owners–we’re intrinsically optimistic.”

Like many small business owners, a couple unfortunate events alongside the economic downturn has made it hard to make ends meet. Hill hasn’t been able to take in income for nearly two years. Instead, she’s been looking for jobs.

“I’ve applied for a lot of jobs over the last year. My business really hasn’t paid me any significant amount of money since the fire, so I’ve been applying for the last two years and I’ve been turned down and turned down,” Hill said. “I heard a lot of ‘You’ve been your own boss for a long time. You don’t really want to come here and have me be your boss.’”

Until finally Nordstrom’s saw her years experience as a business owner as a plus and offered her a job. And though she’s sad to say goodbye to her own shop, Hill can’t hide the fact that she’s ecstatic to have a full time job.

“I’m fully employed. I’m thrilled!” she said. “Nordstrom’s was the first place that valued that I’d been my own boss. It’s a good fit.”

Hill, who has lived in Queen Anne since she was 12 and is very involved with the Upper Queen Anne Merchants Association, said she will be most sad to leave the league of neighborhood business owners that work to bring the community together through organizing programs like Holiday Magic and Halloween trick-or-treating.

“It’s been really exciting to work with all the other business owners on the Ave and make the community great,” she said. “That’s the one thing I’m so grateful to my business for–to be able to really make in impact in my own neighborhood. I’ll really miss that.”

And though Hilltop Yarn will no longer be open, Hill has no intention of letting all of the knitting fun born out of the shop go to waste. Over the years she has compiled a network of knitting lovers who frequently attend specialty classes offered at Hilltop or meet for weekly knitting groups.

“I have two amazing women who work for me who are teachers, and I’m meeting with one of them tomorrow morning to get their website set up so she can continue teaching classes,” Hill said, noting that someone suggested she sell her contact list, to which she responded, “These are my friends and neighbors and I’m not going to profit off of that.”

As for the two active knitting groups who meet at the shop on Wednesdays and Thursdays, Hill said she’s talked with Brent, the owner of Muse Coffee Co. on 10th Ave W. and Greg over at Eat Local, just kitty corner from Hilltop, about hosting the group after the shop closes.

As for what is to become of the building, Hill said she’s looking for new tenants.

“The building owner in my new space is probably one of the most positive people I’ve ever worked with–she’s wonderful!” she said. “I’d love to see some exciting entrepreneur jump in there and make great use of that space.”

In preparation for closing, everything at Hilltop is now 10 percent off, and Hill said the discounts will increase every week until the 29th.

“By the last week things will probably be 30, 40 even 50 percent off. So hopefully there will be some good deals to be had!”

As we welcome in 2010, Queen Anne may be saying goodbye to a third of the neighborhood’s caffeine corner. Reader Ann Chen walked in to Peet’s Coffee & Tea at the top of the hill yesterday to find a closing sign and the news that today, January 1, 2010, may be their last. She wrote,

Very sad news greeted me at the end of 2009. I walked into Peet’s Coffee at the corner of Boston St and QA Blvd and saw a sign notifying customers of the pending closure of this location. Their last day is New Year’s Day 2010! Yes, that is today! I’ve come to love this coffee shop…This is a huge loss.

Peet’s hasn’t yet opened for business today, so I wasn’t able to confirm this information, but I will update with the reasoning and circumstances of the closure first thing in the morning.

Update: I just spoke with Peet’s employee, Debbie, was has confirmed that they are in fact closing their doors at the end of today. “It’s our last day,” she said. “There’s just not enough traffic here to support the store.” This isn’t surprising news, given that there are three caffeine stops directly on the corner of Boston St. and Queen Anne Ave N–four if you count Caffe Ladro just a few doors down. Still, it’s never good news to hear of losing a decent coffee shop in Seattle.

Debbie did note that Peet’s will be keeping it’s other Seattle locations in Fremont, Greenlake, Capitol Hill, and Interbay, which just opened in May. She also mentioned that most of the staff who would like to be relocated will be able to be moved to one of the other stores. There’s no word yet on what will be moving into the corner shop at 2201 Queen Anne Ave. N.

If anyone is interested in stopping in and saying goodbye to Peet’s today, they’ll be open until 8 p.m.

(Thanks to Ann for the tip!)

Seattle Public Libraries open again today, Tuesday, September 8, after a week-long furlough that shut down all locations and services, including the Web site and book drops.

The system-wide closure was one step the Library took in an attempt to meet a 2 percent budget reduction (about $1 million). Although the program saved approximately $655,000, it came at a heavy cost – 700 Library employees were not paid during this last week.

But as of today, the Seattle Public Library Web site is back up. And although no books were due or fines accrued during the closure, now that everything is up and running again, you might want to make sure to get your books in.

For more information see our original story here. The Queen Anne Branch of the Seattle Public Library will be open from 1-8 p.m. today.

Seattle Public Libraries will be closing for a week, starting Monday, August 31, through Labor Day, a measure taken to address the $43 million gap in the 2009 city budget.

Now would be the time to stock up on books, CDs, DVDs and other essentials, because no library services will be available during the week hiatus – book drop-offs will be closed, the website and online catalog will be offline, no computers, WIFI services, programs or book clubs will be running. No materials will be due during this week and no fines will be accrued. For seven days, it will be as if the library doesn’t exist.

The week-long closure will save approximately $655,000, over half of the 2 percent budget reduction ( nearly $1 million) taken this year. This closure will also cut salaries for about 700 employees who will not be paid or accrue vacation or retirement benefits during the week. In addition, another $350,000 in cuts will take place in the form of management and administration layoffs, reduction in the training budget and an extending of the staff computer replacement schedule.

The last day to check out books will be Sunday, August 30. The library will reopen with full service Tuesday, September 8. For more information, see the Seattle Pubic Library website.