When a seal or sea lion makes its way to one of our beaches, Seal Sitters is one of the first to be called. With pupping season in full swing, rookeries and pups have already started visiting Seattle beaches.
“Sparky,” a seal pup in 2010 that was rehabilitated. Photo courtesy Marilyn, a volunteer with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
Seal Sitters relies on volunteers to keep watch on the pups throughout the season. If you’d like to become a Seal Sitter, the organization is hosting a new volunteer training session this Saturday, August 27 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Discovery Park Visitor Center. Seal Sitters’ Robin Lindsey says that September and October are the busiest time for the organization, so new volunteers are always needed.
For more details read the full story at our sister site MyBallard.com.
All painted up for the big Solstice parade last weekend, Kris had a big question on his mind. One that he planned to pop on his girlfriend of two years, Amy, somewhere along the parade route. “He was topless, but wore bike shorts so that we could show the pictures to my grandmother,” Amy says.
The couple is now looking for pictures of the proposal, so if you happened to be at the Solstice Parade last weekend and caught this proposal in action (and on film), email Kris and Amy at preppyhippies at gmail dot com. Our sister site, FremontUniverse.com, has the full story.
Our sister-site MyBallard spoke with Ballard High alumni-turned principal Kevin Wynkoop last week, who had no idea when he graduated 17 years ago that he’d be running BHS one day.
Wynkoop earned his teaching degree after graduating and returned to BHS in 1999, where he taught U.S. History, World History and A.P. Government for several years (including when I was a student there from 2001 to 2005). After earning his Masters in Education, Wynkoop came back to BHS once again, serving as interim principal over this past school year, an ultimately becoming the high school’s official new principal.
MyBallard has a great interview with Wynkoop about his last year and what he sees for the future of Ballard High School. Read the full story here.
Major transportation changes are heading to SR 99 as the deep-bored tunnel option to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct moves forward.
Late last month, the Federal Highway Administration, Washington State Department of Transportation and the City of Seattle released its Supplement Draft Environmental Impact Statement (.pdf), which analyzes the bored tunnel alternative, the preferred option for replacing the Viaduct. The SDEIS report outlines the project’s effects on transportation and the environment.
At the most recent Ballard District Council meeting WSDOT representative Mike Rigsby outlined the project for the community. Read the full story at our sister site, MyBallard.
Since the deep-bored tunnel will affect Queen Anne, Magnolia, Ballard, and other north Seattle neighborhoods, we thought we’d keep you abreast of upcoming community meetings regarding the project. This coming Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m., there will be a hearing at Ballard High School, located at 1418 NW 65th St., to discuss the entire project and the SDEIS. The meeting will be open-house style with display boards and staff to answer questions. Attendees will be able to leave make comments. Until then, read more about the project at MyBallard.com.
(Full disclosure: The Federal Highway Administration, Washington State Department of Transportation and the City of Seattle are sponsors of NextDoorMedia, which owns QueenAnneView and sister site MyBallard.)
The Swedish Ballard campus is opening its brand new emergency facility, at 5350 Tallman Ave NW, at 7 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, November 9. But before the doors officially open to patients, the public can get a sneak peak, online tour of the building.
The main entrance of the new Swedish Ballard facility
The results are in from our survey on the proposed changes to Nickerson Street. The so called road diet would reduce the car lanes and add bicycle lanes to Nickerson. Over 700 people have taken the survey since we posted it a week ago.
Based on the results, you can see that we have a community divided with 48.4% of respondents in favor of the plan while 51.6% are opposed. The survey was designed so that people could only vote once to avoid stacking the results. We also posted the survey on our sister sites MagnoliaVoice and MyBallard since those areas are also impacted by any changes to Nickerson.
Though these stories don’t hale from Queen Anne, they could affect many in the neighborhood. To keep us all abreast of what’s going in in our neighboring communities, here are a couple stories from two of our sister sites, MyBallard and MagnoliaVoice.
Over in Magnolia, Discovery Park is facing the threat of looming budget cuts at Seattle Parks and Recreation, which if passed, could shut down and lay off the staff at the Discovery Park Environmental Learning Center (aka the Visitor Center) as soon as July. MagnoliaVoice has the full story.
In Ballard there is an update on the long-developing Burke-Gilman Trail ‘Missing Link’ story. Recently a judge ruled that an environmental review would have to be conducted on a small section of the ‘missing link’ in Ballard before the project could continue, a process that is expected to take about six months. This morning the City of Seattle decided not to appeal this decision. Read the full story at MyBallard.
A boat called the Northern Belle, based out of Fishermen’s Terminal, sank yesterday evening off the coast of Alaska. The Coast Guard responded to a mayday call received at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20 and were able to pull the four-person crew–three men and one woman–from the frigid waters. According to the Coast Guard, three of the crew members were suffering from hypothermia and the fourth was unresponsive when rescued.
Though medics performed CPR treatment, they were unable to revive the fourth crewman, who had sustained a head injury while exiting the boat, according to a report by the Anchorage newspaper this morning. Get the full story at our sister site, MyBallard.
Our sister site, MyBallard is reporting that the completion of the Burke Gilman trail has been stalled. Friday morning, King County Superior Court Judge Jim Rogers ruled that the city must perform an environmental study before a decision can be made to complete the missing link of the Burke Gilman Trail.
We know that many Ballard, Queen Anne and Magnolia families are mourning the three young men killed in the car accident in Ballard early Sunday morning. We wanted to share the latest coverage from our sister site My Ballard. The memorial is growing at the scene of the fatal car accident
Flowers, notes and photos are stacked around the Taco Time pole, the scene of the crash that killed 2008 Ballard High School graduates Spenser Millard, Kellen Jones and Mike Turner. While community members, teachers, students remember the three young men, the teenage girl involved in Sunday’s crash remains in the Harborview Medical Center ICU in critical condition.
Photo courtesy KING 5 News.
Washington state 36th District representative and Queen Anne resident Reuven Carlyle wrote this about the tragedy on his blog.
Our heart goes out to the families who weep in pain and who need family, friends and community support now more than ever in their lives…As the father of four young children, I can hardly contain my grief and terrible discomfort at this tragedy. My heart goes out to the families and to our community during this difficult time. To lose a child raises one of the great moral questions in all of life: Dear Lord, why?
Phil Brockman, the principal at Ballard High School was recently honored for his commitment to music. Last month, Brockman (shown holding plaque) received the first-ever Washington Music Educators Association Administrator of the Year Award “for advocating music as a core quality of education,” the release from the Seattle Public Schools states. He was honored during the association’s All-State Gala in Yakima. Brockman will be playing trumpet at the alumni concert, 7 p.m., April 10 at Ballard High. Brockman helped create the alumni concert in 2006. According to the release from the school district, the event has raised $40,000 for the school’s music department. Photo courtesy Seattle Public Schools.
The Vikings Robotics team from Ballard High School will compete at the FIRST Robotics regional competition Friday and Saturday at the Key Arena.
This is the team’s second year competing and will go up against 63 other high school teams from Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Turkey.
The team, led by teacher Craig Nielsen, have spent countless hours building their robot. The goal during this competition is to navigate the robots through a series of soccer-themed activities and actually battle the robots against one another. Teams are judged on robot design, technology, sportsmanship and gracious professionalism. If you’re interested in watching the Vikings robotics team, the free event is Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a lunch break during the noon hour.
SeattlePI.com has a great article today about the changing nature of journalism, especially the explosion of hyperlocal news websites such as ours.
In the old days of print journalism, people got all their basic news from their local newspaper and maybe a national paper such as the Wall Street Journal or New York Times. But, in the last few years, everything has changed as newspapers go out of business (the P.I.’s presses fell silent one year ago tomorrow) and media companies consolidate and try to figure out how to do more with less.
For two weeks in 2009, Ballardite Tracey Higdon volunteered at a health clinic in Haiti through the non-profit organization Friends of the Children of Haiti. After January’s massive earthquake, the clinic near Jacmel is now one of the last standing in the region. On March 26, Higdon is returning to the country to organize a Haitian team to repair and repaint the building. There will be a fundraiser and bon voyage party at The Leary Traveler (4354 Leary Way NW) next Tuesday, March 9, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. to help send Higdon to Haiti. For more information, visit the Send Tracy Back to Haiti Facebook page or email Tracey2Haiti@gmail.com. You can also read more about Higdon’s trip on our sister site MyBallard.com.
Our sister-site MyBallard is reporting that Captain Phil Harris of the Discovery Channel TV show Deadliest Catch passed away last night, after suffering from a stroke on January 30 while off-loading from the Cornelia Marie in Alaska.
Many were surprised by his seemingly sudden death—according a blog post on the ship’s website last Saturday, Captain Phil was “talking to friends and family today; showing his greatest progress.”
Captain Phil has been a Ballard regular since operating his first vessel out of Fishermen’s Terminal when he was just 21 years old (he was the youngest person to ever captain a boat in the Bering Sea). Read the full story and find out how to send condolences to his friends and family here.
Although this isn’t technically a Queen Anne story, Sunset Bowl has been a nearly next-door neighbor since it opened in Ballard in 1957. After being closed for almost a year and a half, demolition on the popular bowling alley began today.
Sister-site, MyBallard, has the full story (equipped with video and lots of pictures). The demolition will take a few days to complete, after which an apartment complex is planned for the lot (though developers have announced they have no immediate plans to begin). Having personally enjoyed a game or two at Sunset in my time (before the age of Wii bowling), I thought I’d send a little farewell love their way. You will be missed. Get the full story from MyBallard here and here.
See ratings and reviews of
Phil Brockman, the principal at Ballard High School was recently honored for his commitment to music. Last month, Brockman (shown holding plaque) received the first-ever Washington Music Educators Association Administrator of the Year Award “for advocating music as a core quality of education,” the release from the Seattle Public Schools states. He was honored during the association’s All-State Gala in Yakima. Brockman will be playing trumpet at the alumni concert, 7 p.m., April 10 at Ballard High. Brockman helped create the alumni concert in 2006. According to the release from the school district, the event has raised $40,000 for the school’s music department. Photo courtesy Seattle Public Schools.
For two weeks in 2009, Ballardite Tracey Higdon volunteered at a health clinic in Haiti through the non-profit organization 
