Neighborhood Groups

After a large public outcry, the Ballard Community Center and the Loyal Heights Community Center, as well as the rest of the city's community centers, will remain open, at least for the rest of 2010.

"We heard very clearly, as you all did, that Parks' services are highly valued by community members," Beth Goldberg, acting director of the City Budget Office, said during a June 14 Seattle City Council briefing on the mid-year budget.

The closures would have gone into effect around July 1.

Seattle is facing an $11.7 million midyear shortfall in the General Fund, and in late April, outgoing Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent Tim Gallagher told KING-5 TV that either the Ballard Community Center or the Loyal Heights Community Center would likely be closed due to their proximity.

The announcement prompted Ballard resident Mindy Terence to form the group Save Ballard's Community Centers and start a petition and postcard campaign to keep both community centers open.

The Crown Hill Business Association recently received a $3,000 grant from the Seattle Office of Economic Development it will be using to commission five murals on the neighborhood's signal control boxes.

Signal control boxes are the ground-level metal cabinets found at most intersections with four-way traffic signals.

Murals have already been added to signal control boxes in various Seattle neighborhoods, including Downtown, Capitol Hill and Columbia City.

Catherine Weatbrook of the Crown Hill Business Association said the association is currently looking for artists to paint the five signal control boxes. They are talking with Urban ArtWorks, as well as individual artists and Crown Hill-based programs.

Weatbrook said there are numerous aspects of Crown Hill that could serve as inspiration for the murals, such as the neighborhood's ravines and orchards or its history as a logging village and a place that was "on the wrong side of the tracks."

The Rotary Club of Fremont is sponsoring the Second Annual Center of the Universe Rock Paper Scissors World Championships at 6 p.m. on June 24.

The event will be held at the LTD Bar and Grill, which is located in downtown Fremont at 309 N. 36th St.

The Rock Paper Scissors event will support FamilyWorks Food Bank, which provides food for hungry families throughout Fremont, Wallingford and nearby Seattle neighborhoods.

"We decided to kick off the summer by sponsoring a fun event featuring the world's most popular way of making decisions," Club President Jean Withers said in a press release. “And, we wanted to bring public attention to the needs of local hungry families and the food banks that help them.

Tens of thousands of children lose access to school-provided breakfast and lunch at the end of the school year and spend the summer perpetually hungry, Withers said in the press release.

Food banks are doing everything they can to help, but in this economy, families are being forced to return more frequently, she said.

Friends of Ballard Corners Park is hosting a work party on June 5 at the new park at the corner of Northwest 63rd Street and 17th Avenue Northwest.

"Ballard Corners Park is looking great these days," said David Folweiler of Friends of Ballard Corners Park. "Things are growing like crazy and Gabriella [Moller], our community gardener, needs your help."

He said he and Moller really want neighbors' help, even if they can only drop by for an hour.

Work starts at 9 a.m. and includes weeding and spreading wood chip mulch. Seattle Parks and Recreation will be delivering a pile of wood chips prior to the work party.

"There will be a lot to do, and many hands make light work," Moller said.

Some tools will be provided, but residents that can are encouraged to bring gloves, weeding tools, pitchforks, wheelbarrows and buckets/containers for collecting weeds and trash.

For more information, contact Gabriella Moller at 206.782.3238 or gabriella@seanet.com.

Ed. Note: This is a copy of a letter sent from the Ballard District Council to Seattle Department of Transportation Director Peter Hahn regarding proposed transit changes to Market Street and 45th Street.

Thank you for facilitating a cross neighborhood group to discuss solutions to the travel-time inefficiencies of Metro route 44. Ballard representatives on that group have reported to the Ballard District Council on the proposed changes, particularly in the Ballard section of the corridor.

The Ballard District Council advocates improvements and efficiencies, rather than reductions or gaps in transit service for our area. We have concerns about most of the proposed stop closures identified along Northwest Market Street.

Our concerns derive from recent and projected growth adjacent to those stops. Ballard has experienced significant residential growth, which we expect to continue east of 15th Avenue Northwest. Retail and commercial development will continue west from 24th Avenue Northwest along Market Street.

We are concerned by the following proposals:

11th Avenue Northwest and Market Street curb bulb

The Ballard Rotary Club awarded 10 $1,000 scholarships to Ballard High School students on May 18 in its annual tradition.

The Rotary Club's Billy Rodgers said one of the club's focuses is on education, so it partners with Ballard High School counselors to provide educational opportunities for youth in the community.

"There is no better way for our club to partner with our local high school and encourage all students to continue their eduction," Rodgers said.

In order to earn the scholarship, students fill out applications and participate in interviews. Winners are selected based on a number of criteria, including community service and classroom performance.

The 10 Ballard High School students to receive Ballard Rotary Club scholarships are Jessica Gallardo, Stephanie Valerdi, Allison Thomasseau, Leah, Kane Leinbach, Sarah Boon, Nicole Bowns, Jacob Kutrakun, Anne-Lise Nilsen, Brendan Philip and C.J. Eldred.

The Ballard Chamber of Commerce is offering the Ballard Urban Picnic, or BURP, for the consideration of the neighborhood's collective stomaches.

BURP, which runs from noon to 9 p.m. on May 1, will cram Ballard Commons Park with a lineup of mobile food vendors, a beer garden with proceeds going to the Ballard Food Bank, live music, bouncy toys, skateboard demonstrations, community booths and an outdoor showing of Pixar's "Ratatouille."

Food vendors include Dante's Inferno Dogs, Anita's Crepes, Veraci Pizza, Skillet, Here & There and Parfait Ice Cream. The beer garden is being furnished by Maritime Pacific Brewery.

The Ballard Chamber of Commerce is looking for volunteers for BURP. Click here to sign up.

The one year old Delridge Produce Co-Op, formed to enable Delridge neighborhood residents to buy quality produce held an important meeting last week in which they chose to answer a fundamental question.

"How do you imagine DPC meeting our neighborhood's produce needs?"



The group came up with some clear and useful answers. A sort of roadmap of goals and desires.

1. Close to home, place to buy healthy produce

2. Accessible by means other than car

3. Resource for food security infrastructure

4. Pesticide-free and grown in clean fertilizer

5. Organic

6. Open to other neighborhoods' members

7. It should be a carefully-grown organization

8. Encourage local farmers

9. Fertilizer-safety education

10. Local fruit gleaning

11. Collaboration with local organizations / cooperation

12. Food preparation education / recipes

13. Affordability through bulk purchasing

14. Low overhead

15. DPC creating neighborhood gardening I.E. square foot gardening

16. EBT - accept food stamps

17. Nutrition education, parent-friendly meal planning

18. Seed-to-consumer planning


Crews of neighborhood volunteers braved the rain April 17 to install six of the eventual 27 city-donated planters in the median ends at the intersection of 14th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 60th Street as part of the East Ballard Community Association's Adopt-A-Street Cleanup.

The planters, three on each median end, were set in new gravel and filled with soil donated by Cedar Grove and various plants. The RE-Store installed metal mounts in the pots that can be used to hang banners and other artwork.

"It's making it feel like it's all worth it," said Dawn Hemminger of the East Ballard Community Association. "It's a lot more work than we all thought."

She said it's a great feeling to see her neighbors come out and work together, which is what projects like this are all about.

Volunteers working on the planters said they will beautify 14th Avenue, which has always been a bit of an eyesore. The planters will help with safety by preventing cars from parking too close to the median ends, improving visibility for traffic and pedestrians, volunteers said.