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Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Connie was not one to surrender her stump willy-nilly!

Photo by Gloria Z Nagler


Double-crested Cormorant at high tide:)



Case updates June 29, 2020

Gen. (Ret.) Jim Mattis wears a mask

Staying home is still safest, but if you do go out… #WearAMaskWA #MaskUpWA. 

Keeping one another safe from COVID-19 is a team effort. 

Staying home is still safest, but if you do go out, remember to wear a face covering, stay 6 feet apart, wash your hands and stay local. 

Former Defense Secretary Gen. (Ret) Jim Mattis, TV news host Enrique Cerna, state Supreme Court justices, and thousands of other Washingtonians are wearing a mask for you. 

Please wear a mask for them too.

Case updates June 29, 2020

United States
  • cases 2,545,250 including 41,075 new cases in 24 hours
  • deaths 126,369 including 885 new deaths in 24 hours
Washington state
  • cases 32,253 including 501 new
  • hospitalizations 4,323 - 48 new
  • deaths 1,320 - 10 new
King county
  • cases 10,069 - 168 new in 24 hours
  • hospitalizations 1,587 - 13 new
  • deaths 586 - 0 new in 24 hours
Shoreline
  • cases 394
  • hospitalizations 88 - 1 new in 24 hours 
  • deaths 55
Lake Forest Park
  • cases 38 - 1 new in 24 hours
  • hospitalizations 2
  • death 0


Join the Shoreline Climate Challenge

The City of Shoreline is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and is inviting the community to participate in a community-wide Climate Challenge.

During these difficult and uncertain times, it is important that we work to address environmental sustainability in a way that benefits everyone and strengthens our community. There are lots of actions that we each can take at home that will make a difference for our community today and in the future.

The Shoreline Climate Challenge is a virtual platform where participants come together individually or in teams and take action to reduce their climate impact. Each action is worth points based on the estimated amount of carbon emissions that action would prevent for your household.

The Challenge makes it fun and easy to learn about actions that will protect our natural environment, save you money and improve your health and comfort!

Actions are grouped into categories such as “Easy,” “Big Impact” and “Renter Friendly,” making it easy to find actions that fit your lifestyle and make the biggest impact for your household.

Sign up as an individual or join a team with friends, family and neighbors in this virtual team competition with real world benefits. The Challenge runs through October 31, 2020, with a special recognition for teams with the most points.

Get started with 4 simple steps:

  1. Visit ShorelineClimateChallenge.org
  2. Create your household profile and view your current climate footprint.
  3. Create or join a team with friends, family or neighbors.
  4. Choose from a list of actions, earn points and start saving!


Interested in learning more about the Challenge? 


City staff are available for virtual group presentations and can provide an overview of the Challenge, how to form a team, how to navigate the online platform and more.

Contact Autumn Salamack at asalamack@shorelinewa.gov, or Cameron Reed at creed@shorelinewa.gov, to schedule a presentation or for more information.

You can also learn more HERE



Jobs: Public Works Seasonal Laborer

City of Shoreline
Extra Help - Public Works Seasonal Laborer

Two 40-hr per week seasonal positions in the Public Works Department available
This position closes 7/12/2020, first review 7/6/2020

DEFINITION

This is a seasonal 40-hour per week position. The work schedule is typically Monday through Friday with an occasional evening or weekend assignment. Schedule details will be worked out with selected applicant. Seasonal Laborer's may work up to six months (1040 hours) during the vegetation growing season and weather sensitive street and surface water maintenance activities between April/May and September/October.

Scope of Work:

This position performs a variety of semi-skilled maintenance and repair duties under the supervisory direction of the assigned work section Public Works Maintenance Supervisor, Senior Maintenance Worker, or other full-time maintenance staff.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY



Fireworks illegal in Shoreline

Photo by Lien Titus
From the City of Shoreline

As the Fourth of July holiday approaches, it is important to remember that the sale, possession, use, or discharge of fireworks in the City of Shoreline is illegal. 

Fireworks pose a fire hazard to property and present a safety risk to those who use them. 

Fireworks can also cause significant distress to pets and individuals suffering from a variety of health conditions. We ask everyone to be respectful of their neighbors and abide by the fireworks ban.

The sale, use, or discharge of fireworks in violation of Shoreline Municipal Code 9.15 is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a fine in an amount not more than $1,000. Each occurrence is considered a separate violation. A third violation in any three-month period is a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and/or a fine in an amount not more than $5,000.

Shoreline Police enforce the City’s year-round fireworks ban. If you hear fireworks in your neighborhood, you may report offenders by calling 911 or the Police non-emergency line at 206-296-3311. If you have an exact address of where individuals are launching fireworks, it makes it easier for police to address the issue.

Shoreline Police will have extra patrols on duty July 2-4. However, it is important to remember that even with extra patrols, enforcing the no fireworks ban is difficult. 

Police must see an individual in the act or have enough evidence connecting an individual to launched fireworks to write a citation. 

Even with extra officers on duty, it is extremely difficult to determine where fireworks are coming from without a visual confirmation. That is why it is important for people calling to report fireworks to provide an address.



Statement from WSP Chief John R. Batiste on the need for occasional roadway closures

From Chief John R. Batiste, Washington State Patrol

We have heard from many frustrated citizens regarding the traffic disruptions caused by the temporary closures of the freeway due to protests. First, let me say thank you for reaching out to us.

We are public servants responsible for safety and the enforcement of our state’s laws and while we always try to satisfy the legitimate concerns of those we serve, in this case I’m afraid our response will not be totally satisfying to all.

May 30, 2020 Photo by T J Guillory

In a time that requires care and flexibility, we are exercising the safest means possible to avoid injuries or worse to motorists, protesters, WSDOT personnel and our troopers by closing the roadway as needed and separating protestors from vehicular traffic. 

With no effective way of stopping large crowds from entering its lengthy borders, temporarily shutting the roadway is our best measure to avoid the dangerous mixture of freeway speed, vehicles, and pedestrians and to end the disruptions as quickly as possible.

We understand and share your frustration, but while keeping traffic flowing on our interstates and state roadways is one of our primary objectives, our primary responsibility is maintaining public safety with safe roads. 

We also understand and share the shock of the events in Minneapolis that have generated so much rightful indignation across our country and have demanded that we in law enforcement make careful and authentic assessments of our police tactics and relationships with communities of color.

In this unique environment of prolonged and daily protests, our responsibility to keep people safe extends to those who might be endangered by protests on the roadways as well as those who peacefully use the freeway for making public statements. 

Our response must remain flexible and we clearly understand how maddening this inconvenience can be. But due to the extreme volatility of the current environment, the impact of the pandemic on our court and jail systems, and our iron-clad commitment to use force only when it is necessary, reasonable, and proportionate to the situation, we are limited in our safe and appropriate response options.

We need everyone’s assistance by extending to each other patience and grace as we all find the best ways to address these unprecedented challenges our country and state now face.




Employment Security is restricting inbound calls to claims center until July 2

Employment Security is restricting inbound calls to its claims center until next week. 

This will allow claims agents to focus on outbound calling to resolve complex issues for customers who have been waiting the longest for their benefits and free up staff time to process claims with simpler issues.

Customers will still be able to:
  • Apply for benefits and submit weekly claims online.
  • Use the automated telephone system to apply for benefits and submit weekly claims by calling 800-318-6022.
  • Call our questions hotline at 833-572-8400 for answers to general unemployment questions that are not available on our website. Customer service reps at this number cannot answer questions about specific claims.
"Limiting incoming calls for one week will allow us to make fast progress toward our goal of getting all benefits to all eligible applicants. It is also our hope that this phone service prioritization will increase the chance of reaching us for those who must apply by phone because they don’t have internet or because they need an interpreter."

Employment Security was scammed for $600 million in fraudulent claims. When it was discovered, they halted all payments. They were able to recover $300 million. 

Now they are attempting to verify all new claims for validity. If you are one of the unlucky ones whose account was flagged as potential fraud or if you are filing a first time claim, processing is seriously delayed. Back benefits will be paid but in the meantime, many people are in crisis.




All you need is a bird bath

Photo by Richard Shilling

Richard Shilling was delighted to see this Northern Flicker by his bird bath in Richmond Beach Monday morning at 7:30am.

Many residents have what's needed to host birds. Usually the only thing missing is a reliable source of water for drinking and bathing.

The Shilling's bird bath is a garden feature - but you can have something as simple as a dish, as long as you can keep water in it.



Have you lost your insurance? Open enrollment for Washington Apple Health

WA Health Care Authority reminds Washingtonians that you don't have to wait for open enrollment to apply for Washington Apple Health (Medicaid). 

You can apply at any time throughout the year. Visit Washington Health Plan Finder to see if you qualify for free or low-cost health coverage.




Photo: Fire aftermath

Photo by Steven H. Robinson

The next day after the large house fire in the 19200 block of Ashworth Ave N in the Echo Lake neighborhood of Shoreline, there is plywood over the broken windows and a tarp on the roof.

With the help of neighbors, the resident escaped before fire vehicles arrived. Sadly, two cats died.

There was a large response to the fire, with four fire departments, aid cars, and a ladder truck. Smoke billowed into the sky.

Firefighters were not injured.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. 




The Back To School Consortium is asking for the community’s help

The 2020 Back To School Event on Saturday, August 22 at Meridian Park Elementary is expecting to serve over 1,000 Shoreline School District students.

Each student will receive a backpack, school supplies, new underwear, socks, and hygiene products.

Donations are needed to make this year’s event a success.

Drop them off on Saturday, July 25, 2020 from 9am to 2pm at The WORKS @ Shoreline Center, north end parking lot, 18560 1st Ave NE.

More information about the event and registration can be found at www.btsconsortium.org.

Thanks for your support!



My Neighbor, Octavia

Reprinted with permission of the author

Sheila Liming is an assistant professor of English at the University of North Dakota, where she teaches classes on 20th-century American fiction and digital media. She is a native of Lake Forest Park, where her parents still live.

Butler signing a copy of Fledgling (2005). Wikimedia Commons

My Neighbor, Octavia
By Sheila Liming

For years, I knew Octavia E. Butler, the famed African American science fiction and fantasy writer, by her first name only. That was the way she introduced herself when I first met her back in the fall of 1999. Butler had just purchased the house across the street from my parents’ and joined the ranks of our rather conventional suburban community in Lake Forest Park, WA, located just north of Seattle. A spate of rumors had attended her arrival on the block: “Octavia” wrote novels (about aliens!); “Octavia” had one of those “genius” grants; “Octavia” lived alone and was a reclusive artist type. An interview with Butler appeared in the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Enterprise, our humble (and long-since defunct) local weekly, explaining that our new neighbor was, indeed, the author of a dozen novels and a MacArthur Fellowship recipient.

At the time, I was a high school junior who, like many my age, counted my recently minted driver’s license among my most prized possessions. My new neighbor, meanwhile, did not have a driver’s license—had never driven or owned a car in her life—and this disparity soon became the basis of our neighborly dealings with each other. I would often pass Butler on her walks to and from the grocery store and would stop to offer her rides, which she didn’t always accept; she was an inveterate walker, and walking had even factored into her house purchase. She told me as much on one of the days that she consented to being driven the rest of the way up the hill. She said that she desired only that a grocery store, a bookstore, and a bus stop be located within walking distance, and that the neighborhood should grant her access to the city without actually being in the city.

This was Butler’s motivation for moving to Lake Forest Park, a setting that I, at 16, viewed as insufferably unimportant. I never learned her general motivations for moving to Washington in the first place, but I have since glimpsed some of them in her fiction. Butler grew up in Southern California, remaining in the greater Los Angeles area until the age of 51. In the 1990s, prior to her relocation to Washington, she wrote her award-winning Parable novels. Both Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (1998) describe a not-too-distant dystopic future in which the main characters, initially residents of Southern California, flee northward to escape the growing water crisis there and in the hopes of finding “any job that pays money.” “We’re going to Seattle,” proclaims the character Natividad, who, along with her husband and six-month-old, form part of a “broad river of people” flowing north from California toward the Pacific Northwest in Parable of the Sower.

Butler’s Parable novels—like almost all of her novels—portray California as a site of postmodern exodus and ruin. Butler’s decision to leave California in the late 1990s seems, accordingly, to have hinged on the realization that it was becoming increasingly difficult to remain an optimist in such a setting. In a 2005 appearance on Democracy Now!, for instance, Butler explained that writing the Parable books, which she saw as “cautionary tales,” had left her “overwhelmed” and depressed, yearning for something more “lightweight.” Much like her characters in Parable of the Sower, she imagined that the Pacific Northwest might prove to be a more constructive setting for thinking about the future.

Nonetheless, I imagine that the move to our neighborhood constituted a dramatic change for Butler. She couldn’t help but stick out among the mostly white, unvaryingly middle-class residents of Lake Forest Park, the majority of whom tended to structure their lives around the very things that she lacked— namely, cars and children. But Butler, it is clear, was no stranger to the experience of being a stranger. “I’m black. I’m solitary. I’ve always been an outsider,” is the way she put it in a 1998 Los Angeles Times interview.

Given such a statement, it is tempting to read Butler’s oeuvre through the lens of isolation; her novels ask us, time and again, to reflect on the terms of ordinary outsider-hood. At the same time, though, they also examine the complications and the rewards associated with social belonging. Solitude requires strength and self-assuredness, sure, but so does the trust that social belonging entails. As Walidah Imarisha recounts in her introduction to Octavia’s Brood, a recently released collection of “visionary fiction” dedicated to the author’s memory, Butler never sought to claim the title of “the solitary Black female sci-fi writer. She wanted to be one of many Black female sci-fi writers. She wanted to be one of thousands of folks writing themselves into the present and into the future.”


Descendants of slaves of the Pettway plantation, at Gees Bend, Alabama, February 1937. Photograph by Arthur Rothstein / US Farm Security Administration in the collection of the Library of Congress


For instance, in Kindred (1979), Butler’s best-known and most canonized work, the main character, Dana, travels back in time and winds up on a pre–Civil War plantation in Maryland. There, Dana encounters a variety of characters who are, in one way or another, “kin” to her: both Rufus, who is white, and Alice, who is black, are her distant ancestors, and Dana also gains an appreciation for the ties that establish her fictive kinship with the other slaves on the Weylin plantation.

In spite of these overt references to formal systems of kinship, though, Kindred also advances an argument for the ties that exist between creative laborers in the postindustrial economy. Butler’s protagonist, who is black, is married to Kevin, who is white. Rather than foreground the subject of racial difference, Butler describes Kevin as being “like [Dana]—a kindred spirit crazy enough to keep on trying.” Trying to write, for what unites these characters is a bond of creative perseverance that grows and deepens in spite of their personal fears of futility.

Back when I was 16, I, too, wanted to be a writer. If I wasn’t a full-fledged “outsider,” the time that I spent in the company of books meant that I didn’t resemble anything close to an “insider,” either. Which brings me back to the subject of my driver’s license: my anxieties about being an outsider-in-training (among other things) meant that I tended to skip a lot of classes back in high school. In my own, very small and very narcissistic way, I had come to rely on escape and subterfuge to combat the discomfort of social isolation. I didn’t know it then, but, just across the street, my neighbor Octavia was also struggling with similar feelings of isolation and anxiety (in addition to depression and writer’s block, as a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article explains) during that time.

One day, I blew off an entire day of school and instead drove to the remote mountain town where my family had lived and owned property when I was very young. Upon my return to Lake Forest Park, I met Butler coming back from the grocery store. “Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” she asked me when she got in the car. I told her that I hadn’t felt like going, skirting the deeper complexities of the issue, and said I’d been in Darrington. She responded that she had never visited the town, which is home to fewer than 1,500 people and located more than 60 miles from Lake Forest Park, but that she had seen it on maps. She asked me a variety of questions about the place before concluding our conversation with a remark that, for all its severity, still struck me as well-intended: “You should probably just go to school and stop screwing around,” she said.

I left for college in Ohio in the fall of 2001 and, to my very great regret, did not stay in touch with my former neighbor. Butler, for her own part, eventually conquered her writer’s block and went on to produce a final novel. Fledgling (2005) centers on a group of vampires who occupy a commune of sorts located “a few miles north of Darrington.” I was still in Ohio at the time of its publication, but I bought a copy and read it that winter. I imagined that, upon my next visit back in Lake Forest Park, I might be able to talk to Butler about the book and about Darrington. That conversation, however, did not come to pass: Butler died in February 2006 from what is believed to have been a stroke. My mom called to tell me the news, and it was from her that I learned that Butler’s body had been discovered by the two young girls who lived next door to her. I knew them well; once upon a time, I had been their babysitter.

Now, when I look back on the few years that I spent in close proximity to Butler, I find that I cannot do so without experiencing a kind of concomitant regret. I ask myself how I might have succeeded in being a better neighbor or friend to a person whose celebrity status seemed, to me, to mean that she needed neither. And I dwell on the memory of my missteps, marveling, for example, at the naiveté that led me to invite Butler, a Hugo and Nebula winner, to join my friends and me at our science fiction book club. Even worse, I cringe to think about the wasted opportunity that resulted from my failure to follow up on the invitation (which Butler actually accepted). I remember that we were reading Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow, and Butler said she knew it. Of course she knew it: she’d appeared alongside Russell at a sci-fi symposium held in North Carolina that same spring.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Butler’s death, a fact that has been observed by news media tributes and by The Huntington Library in California, which acquired Butler’s papers in 2008 and has hosted a year-long series of commemorative events. In literary circles, then, it’s clear that Butler’s reputation has continued to rise over the last decade. But a recent trip back to Lake Forest Park prompted me to ask the question: did the neighborhood remember, too? I was curious to see what, if anything, might form the basis of the community’s recollections of Butler, and to know the extent of its residents’ acquaintance with her works and literary legacy.

I spoke to Terry Morgan, who still lives in the neighborhood and remembers passing Butler on the street and giving her “the black nod.” “I was the only other African American artist / musician living in the area, and Butler was kind of a mystery to me. You almost never saw her,” he said. As our conversation progressed, I learned that Morgan’s relationship with Butler in fact had the same foundation as my own: “I used to offer her rides,” he told me, explaining that, in exchange for this service, Butler invited him inside her house one day and presented him with an autographed copy of a book. The moral that emerged from our conversation was also similar: Morgan and I both wish that we could have known our neighbor better, and we both regret that feelings of intimidation and awe prevented us from doing that.

This regret finds its echo in Butler’s fiction, where characters are often forced to alter their expectations of independence in the wake of catastrophe, to venture to know and to trust their neighbors in ways that they previously believed to be impossible, or implausible. I squandered much of the opportunity that I had to know Octavia as a neighbor, but I have relished the process of getting to know Butler as an author, builder of worlds, and archivist of life in America at the dawn of the 21st century.



Monday, June 29, 2020

Jerry's Garden: Exotic beauty

Flower and photo by Jerry Pickard


This is sort of a science fiction kind of flower - like an alien spaceship - something that would float through the air.

Anyone care to identify it?
----

Rising to the challenge, reader Lorelei Begalka says that  Jerry Pickard’s flower is Centaurea montana or mountain bluet.

Martin Král adds that they are also called bachelor buttons and cornflowers.

"In Europe," he says, "a full version grows like a weed in grain fields. Bachelor buttons have a long history of symbolic value in European societies - hence their common name. Their blue blossom conveys loyalty and has been adopted by political parties. A perennial, it is also available in a white and now several hybrid versions." 

Colleen Weum agrees. She knows them as Cornflower Mountain Bluet.

Wikipedia notes that "In the past it often grew as a weed in cornfields (in the broad sense of "corn" referring to grains, such as wheat, barley, rye, or oats), hence its name."


Shoreline city staff helped celebrate Bike Everywhere Day

City of Shoreline Senior Transportation Planner Nora Daly-Peng
took the early morning shift to provide encouragement for passing bicyclists.


By Cameron Reed



On Friday, June 19, 2020 the City of Shoreline upheld its long-standing tradition of hosting a “Bike Everywhere Day” celebration station along the Interurban Trail across from Trader Joe’s while modeling how to conduct a public event with COVID-19 safety protocols.

Typically, “Bike Everywhere Day” is celebrated in May, but was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

City staff offered supportive signs, upbeat tunes, verbal encouragement, and waves to passing cyclists and pedestrians.

Several cyclists stopped to say “thank you,” offer suggestions for biking-related traffic improvements, and take a selfie with “Squatch.” One person stopped by to say that being able to bike regularly to work was “the best thing in the world.”

Throughout the pandemic, biking has been a crucial way for members of our community to stay active, reduce stress, and get around town. It was a beautiful day on Friday and 57 cyclists passed by the booth from 6:30 to 10:00am, including several electric bicycles, a recumbent, and a tandem bicycle.

The City formally recognized May 2020 as “Bike Month” with Mayor Hall’s proclamation at the April 27th Council Meeting.

In addition to providing physical and mental health benefits, biking is a low-cost transportation option with significant environmental benefits. Shoreline has earned the League of American Bicyclists’ bronze-level certification as a Bicycle Friendly Community and works to improve bike safety, comfort, and convenience.

Information about the City of Shoreline’s Bicycle Plan HERE

For tips to get started bicycling and route maps, visit Cascade Bicycle Club’s resources page



Case updates June 28, 2020

Confirmed cases in Washington state, by county


Case updates June 28, 2020

United States
  • cases 2,504,175 including 44,703 new cases in 24 hours
  • deaths 125,484 including 508 new deaths in 24 hours
Washington state
  • cases 31,752 including 348 new
  • hospitalizations 4275 - 35 new
  • deaths 1,310 - 0 new
King county
  • cases 9,901 - 82 new in 24 hours
  • hospitalizations 1,574 - 0 new
  • deaths 586 - 0 new in 24 hours
Shoreline - no change in 24 hours
  • cases 394
  • hospitalizations 87 
  • deaths 55
Lake Forest Park - no change in 24 hours
  • cases 37
  • hospitalizations 2
  • death 0


Red Sky Gallery: Back in the saddle again


Red Sky Gallery will be reopening July 1, 2020 with modified days and hours until the pandemic is over.

We have great gifts and new garden art available now!

The gallery is clean with hand sanitizer at the door as you come in and leave.

Masks and social distancing are required. 

Artist receptions are planned for every month through the end of the year.

Owner Laura Michaelson says "We have a 3000 sq ft space which will make social distancing very easy!

Red Sky Gallery is located in Lake Forest Park Town Center on the upper, outside level on the Ballinger Way side. Intersection of Bothell and Ballinger Way.



But the question is, photog, do I look patrician?



(Patrician portraits are trending right now among the robins. I think Rudy's look does indeed fit the bill, so to speak!) 
--Gloria Z Nagler



Shoreline Police will not arrest you if you are not wearing a mask

Shoreline Police will not be enforcing Governor Inslee’s mandatory face covering order. 

Per the Washington State Patrol, the state-wide face covering order is a public health and safety measure.

It is not a mandate for law enforcement to detain, cite, or arrest violators, but rather an evidence-based and safety-focused directive meant to slow the spread of a potential deadly disease.

For more information on the face covering directive, see Governor Inslee's announcement.





A local author is seeking help: Giglio Theater School of Dance

A Local Author is Seeking Help

By Jon Ann Cruver

Marjorie Rhodes is a local author who has spent many hours researching for a new book she is writing. Part of this process lead her to the archival pages of the Shoreline Area News where she discovered a photo of someone playing the octopus piano during one of the early community Painted Piano days. 

Ed Cruver playing the Octopus piano 2012
He played every piano that year
Photo by Jon Ann Cruver


Dear Editor of Shoreline News; 
I came across a photo (online) in the Aug 8, 2012 issue of your paper, featuring a man, Ed Cruver, at a unique piano. Many years ago, I was a dancer with a Seattle school and company in which there was a dancer by this same name. It is a long shot but I'm wondering if this could be that same Ed Cruver.

Yes, that was “that same Ed Cruver.” Who just happened to be one of the lead male dancers for the Giglio Theater School of Dance / Theater Dance Players, um.. a long time ago, when he could do stuff like this:

Ed Cruver in his dancing days


The school was an important part of his family and to hundreds of others who were involved with the school, which was headed by a beloved couple: Henriette and Giovanni Giglio. In addition to those students Giglio taught special education students for three years in the Shoreline Schools.

Rhodes notes in her website that “several Giglio dancers performed individually with Seattle Opera, in local musical theatre productions, night club revues, and northwest television appearances. 
"Some Giglio dancers had professional careers in other parts of the country and other parts of the world: e.g. NY’s Radio City Hall ballet troupe, Broadway musicals, Las Vegas, and Europe and Asia.  
"The Giglio company dancers were trained and experienced in various dance arts: classical, musical theatre, jazz and flamenco.” 

The couple were honored to be asked to help teach dance with Flamenco artist Jose Greco, who took them to Spain, away from their school.

Their daughter, Cleo Lee King, kept a studio in Shoreline going for several years, so the Shoreline connection is strong. Upon retirement Cleo Lee danced with a tap dance class at the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Senior Center.

Rhodes says “I’m seeking information through newspaper articles, programs, photographs, and personal memory stories for a history project on the Giglio dancers and school. I need names, dates, places, and sources please.” 

She can be contacted through her website which also includes an incomplete list of people who were in the company.



Life goes on in the Skagit Valley

Photo by Lee Lageschulte

There are no events and the few tourists stay in their cars, but life goes on in the Skagit Valley. 

Livestock have to be fed, fields have to be tended, and flowers still grow.

Photo by Lee Lageschulte



Tickets required for virtual event with author David Mitchell



Join Third Place Books and Seattle Arts and Lectures to celebrate the long-awaited new novel from the bestselling, prize-winning author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks

Join David Mitchell for a virtual conversation with novelist Hari Kunzru (White Tears).

Utopia Avenue is the strangest British band you've never heard of. Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967, and fronted by folk singer Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss and guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet, Utopia Avenue embarked on a meteoric journey from the seedy clubs of Soho. 
David Mitchell's kaleidoscopic novel tells the unexpurgated story of Utopia Avenue's turbulent life and times; of fame's Faustian pact and stardom's wobbly ladder; of the families we choose and the ones we don't; of voices in the head, and the truths and lies they whisper; of music, madness, and idealism. 
Can we really change the world, or does the world change us?

Get your tickets here!


Three Democrats stress health care, other issues in District 32 race

(Editor’s note: This is part of a series of responses to questions we’re sending to candidates running in the Aug. 4 primary election. We will present responses to our questions from candidates for state representative positions in the 32nd and 46th legislative districts. After these general issue questions, future questions will come from readers. Send questions for the candidates to schsmith@frontier.com.)

Sutton, Smith, Ryu


By Evan Smith

Incumbent State Rep. Cindy Ryu faces fellow Democrats Keith Smith and Shirley Sutton in the Aug. 4 primary election, with the two leaders advancing to the Nov. 3 general election. No Republicans or independents filed to run for the position.

Ryu, who is seeking a sixth two-year term; Smith, who lost to Ryu and a Republican in the 2018 primary; and Sutton, a former Lynnwood City Councilwoman; are running to represent the 32nd Legislative District, which includes Shoreline, part of northwest Seattle, Woodway and nearby unincorporated areas of southwest Snohomish County, south Edmonds, Lynnwood and a small part of Mountlake Terrace.

All three Democrats stress health care among other issues in the campaign.

The three recently sent answers to the question, “What is the most important issue or issues that you are emphasizing in your campaign?” Here are their responses (presented in the order that their names will appear on the primary ballot and in the voters’ pamphlet):

Shirley Sutton (Prefers Democratic Party)

Affordable Housing – I would support builders who build affordable housing on public lands, if necessary, given an ironclad guarantee that the project remain in the public domain.

Healthcare - Is a basic human right period! I would support a single payer system.

Tax Fairness - Low income people pay almost 20% of their income in taxes. Some big business and wealthy individuals none at all. We need to address the regressive taxes in the State

Keith Smith (Prefers Democratic Party)

Public health is the most important issue. Both the COVID crisis and policing. As an essential worker, I know businesses are not caring for the community. Appropriate pay, PPE, and sanitation will keep workers and the community healthy.

Fully funding our mental health and substance abuse treatment centers will keep police from being social workers. We will get people the treatments they need, and get the police to focus on violent crime, not social work.

Cindy Ryu (Prefers Democratic Party)

My priorities are rental assistance and best practices such as Rent Repayment Plans as both tenants and landlords weather and recover from this COVID-19 pandemic. I will continue to focus on protecting education funding, ensuring the safety of our communities, safeguarding the environment, infrastructure funding, and pushing for more affordable housing and home ownership, local businesses and jobs, and help make Washington state a better place for us to live, work, and raise our families.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.



Lt. Governor's Mask Challenge

Want to help make face coverings for those who need it?

Join the Lt. Governor’s Mask Challenge here.

If you or your sewing team commits to making 100 masks for the Washington Mask Challenge, their office will send you donated fabric free of charge!



State Parks adds two free days to replace April days lost to COVID-19 closures

The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission announces two additional free days in 2020, which replace the two free days lost to COVID-19 related closures in April. On free days, visitors don’t need a Discover Pass for day-use visits by vehicle.

The first makeup free day is Sunday, Sept. 13, to celebrate Girl Scouts Love State Parks Weekend, a national movement to get every girl scout into a state park.

The second, Saturday, Oct. 10, recognizes World Mental Health Day, which supports State Parks’ participation in the nation-wide ParkRx movement to help people access nature’s health benefits. These days replace the Spring free day, April 11, and Earth Day, April 22.

Though most Washington state parks have reopened for day use and many have reopened for camping, the agency encourages visitors to minimize the spread of COVID-19 by recreating responsibly on free days and every other day. Visitors can find out which state parks are open here.

Responsible recreation includes:
  • Staying close to home.
  • Knowing what’s open before heading out.
  • Having a Plan B if a certain park is too crowded.
  • Keeping a social distance of at least 6 feet between households.
  • Bringing personal supplies such as soap, hand sanitizer, toilet paper and face coverings.
  • Packing out what is packed in.

State Parks free days are in keeping with legislation that created the Discover Pass. The pass costs $30 annually or $10 for a one-day permit and is required for vehicle access to state recreation lands managed by Washington State Parks, WDFW and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The Discover Pass legislation provided that State Parks could designate up to 12 free days when the pass would not be required for day-use visits to state parks. The free days apply only at state parks; the Discover Pass is still required on WDFW and DNR lands.

The remaining 2020 State Parks free days are as follows:
  • Tuesday, Aug. 25 — National Park Service Birthday
  • Sunday, Sept. 13 – Girls Scouts Love State Parks Day
  • Saturday, Sept. 26 — National Public Lands Day
  • Saturday, Oct. 10 – World Mental Health Day
  • Wednesday, Nov. 11 — Veterans Day
  • Friday, Nov. 27 – Autumn Day

The Discover Pass provides daytime access to parks. Overnight visitors in state parks are charged fees for camping and other overnight accommodations, and day access is included in the overnight fee.



Resident escapes from large house fire in Echo Lake

Firefighter Ruslan Cherkasskikh w pickaxe 
File photo by Wayne Pridemore


Shoreline Fire responded to a house fire at 192nd and Ashworth Ave N in the Echo Lake neighborhood of Shoreline. 

It was called in at approximately 7:25pm.

The resident escaped with help of neighbors prior to the arrival of Fire.

Neighbors reported visible flames and a large amount of smoke.

The next day there is a tarp over the hole in the roof
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

Firefighters had to vent a hole in the roof.

There were reportedly no injuries to the resident or to firefighters. Unfortunately, the resident's two cats were found deceased.

Units from South Sno County, Northshore and Seattle Fire assisted.

The fire is being investigated.




Sunday, June 28, 2020

How about another owl?

Barred owl
Photo by TanisCoralee Leonhardi


Things I've learned:
  1. There's a barred owl in every tree
  2. Everyone has a pet squirrel, chipmunk, or crow
  3. People think they don't have raccoons and possums because they don't see them
  4. Small birds need to be fed and watered
  5. Water birds should never be fed bread
--Diane



Case updates June 27, 2020

Confirmed cases in Washington state
Date of onset of illness

Case counts June 27, 2020

United States

  • cases 2,459,472 - 44,602 new cases in 24 hours
  • deaths 124,976 - 651 new deaths in 24 hours

Washington state

  • cases 31,404
  • hospitalizations 4,240
  • deaths 1,310

King county

  • cases 9,819 - 124 new in 24 hours
  • hospitalizations 1,574 - 10 additional in 24 hours
  • deaths 586 - 0 new in 24 hours

Shoreline - no change in 24 hours

  • cases 394
  • hospitalizations 87 
  • deaths 55

Lake Forest Park - no change in 24 hours

  • cases 37
  • hospitalizations 2
  • death 0




Sound Transit begins work at 185th overpass


From Sound Transit

By Diane Hettrick

As promised, Sound Transit began work on the 185th St vehicle overpass on I-5 Monday night.

Previously, they have already installed large metal utility poles, clear cut and dug up the Station area, slightly realigned 5th NE, and built a roundabout at 185th and 10th.

185th overpass was closed overnight Monday
Photo by Steven H. Robinson


On Monday night, they shut down the 185th overpass entirely to do some road restriping and set up of temporary traffic signals.

Temporary traffic signal. When one
direction is open...
Photo by Steven H. Robinson


The 185th overpass is now one lane. A traffic light alternates traffic from east to west. The traffic is fairly smooth right now, because so many people are staying home. Under normal circumstances (remember 'normal'?) 185th is a major east west commuter route, but traffic is light now.

5th Ave is fully closed between 183rd and 185th.

The rail will go underneath 185th on the east side of I-5. They will be constructing a cut and cover tunnel during this phase of construction. Basically, the rail will stay level and they will cut a path for the rail straight through the slight rise in the ground. Then the tunnel will be covered.

...the other direction is closed
Photo by Steven H. Robinson


The one-lane configuration will remain for two years while the rails and station are being built for the Lynnwood Link. Eventually 185th and 5th NE will be a four way stop. 185th and 8th will be a permanent roundabout for traffic into the North Shoreline Station, and the city of Shoreline would like to keep the roundabout at 185th and 10th.




32nd Legislative District Dems endorse challenger Sutton over incumbent Rep. Ryu

Sutton, Smith, Ryu
32nd LD Pos 1

By Evan Smith

The 32nd Legislative District Democrats have endorsed challenger Shirley Sutton over incumbent State Rep. Cindy Ryu.

At an endorsement meeting June 10, District members voted against endorsing Ryu by a 55 percent to 45 percent margin and in favor of endorsing former Lynnwood Councilwoman Sutton by a 64 percent to 36 percent margin.

Democrats Ryu, Sutton and Keith Smith are running in the Aug. 4 primary for Position 1 in the 32nd District. No Republicans or independents have filed for the position. The top two candidates in the primary will advance to the Nov. 3 general election.

Ryu, whom 32nd District Democrats had endorsed in her past elections, said Wednesday that she attributes her loss of the district Democrats’ endorsement to her past support of former Democratic State Rep. Ruth Kagi. District Democrats declined to endorse Kagi, longtime chairwoman of the committee on early learning and social services in the State House of Representatives, when she won her last term in 2016.

Ryu said that she thinks that she had inherited the target that the 32nd District organization once had on former State Sen. Darlene Fairley and later had on Rep. Kagi.

She added that the organization may be making itself irrelevant.

District party rules say that endorsements are to be grounded in public policy positions, not in personal likes or dislikes.

Carin Chase, the district’s state committee representative, said Thursday that the district doesn’t poll members regarding the reasons for their votes.

Chase noted that people stayed at the meeting until 11:40pm to complete the endorsement process.

District Democrats also endorsed incumbent Democratic State Rep. Lauren Davis for re-election to Position 2.

This week Sutton was also endorsed by the King County Democrats.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com



Picnic shelter construction starts Monday at Pfingst Animal Acres Park

Animal Acres Park
Photo by Mary Jo Heller

Two important capital projects are poised to begin construction in Lake Forest Park.

Accord Contractors is scheduled to mobilize on Monday, June 29, 2020 to begin work on a new picnic shelter at Pfingst Animal Acres Park at NE 178th Street/Brookside Boulevard NE

Redtail Construction is scheduled to begin work July 23, 2020 on the Culvert L60 Replacement project at NE 178th Street/44th Avenue NE.

Both projects are scheduled for completion this summer.



Jobs: Mechanic - Heavy equipment fleet repair

City of Mountlake Terrace
Mechanic - Heavy Equipment/Fleet Repair

Category Full-Time Employment Opportunities
Posted Jun 15, 2020
Open until filled

Under the general supervision of the Heavy Equipment/Fleet Repair Shop Supervisor, this position inspects, diagnoses, maintains, and repairs city-owned equipment; orders and inventories parts; maintains equipment-use logs and keeps related records.

Apply here



Jobs: WSDOT

WSDOT Shoreline
Transportation Management Center Technician (Transportation Technician 3, In-Training)
Shoreline, WA. – Northwest Region
$49,946.00 - $76,053.00 Annually

Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Northwest Region Transportation Management Center (TMC) has an outstanding entry level opportunity in our new state-of-the-art facility. 

Candidates should have a passion for computers, real-time traffic management, and serving the public. Successful incumbents will provide daily traffic management activities in the TMC consisting of operating traffic management systems, tunnel control systems, and radio communications. 

This position is required to perform advanced traffic management activities and analysis. The goal of this position is to manage daily traffic, accidents, construction, and maintenance closures in the greater Seattle area, Canadian border, and Island County. Decisions made by this position directly affect the safety and traffic flow on the freeway and the adjacent arterial system.

See link for more information, including details on how to apply: LINK



American Legion offers help to military veterans seeking veteran benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic

American Legion Post 227 in Shoreline

Due to the Covid-19 virus, the Joint Service Committee suspended face to face meetings with veterans at The American Legion Post 227 building. 

However, the Committee continues assisting veterans seeking disability benefits, pensions, VA healthcare, and other VA matters via phone, video conference or email. 

For an appointment: 
or 
You can learn more about Post 227 by visiting their website



Local residents named to President's List at Gonzaga University

Gonzaga University

SPOKANE, WA (June 26, 2020) - The following local residents have earned placement on the Gonzaga University President's List for spring semester 2020.

Students must earn a 3.85 to 4.0 grade-point average to be listed.

Lake Forest Park
  • Hannah Cote
  • Tessa Farnam
  • Rachel Giroux
  • Audrey Halkett
  • Megan Opfer
  • Schuyler Peters
  • Sophia Viviano
North Seattle
  • Jonathan Hayes
  • Quinn Nichols
  • Andrew Ray
  • Hannah Wist
Shoreline 
  • Stella Beemer
  • Abigail Chen
  • Holly Ebel
  • Lindsey Ernst
  • Eden Glesener
  • Rachel Hansen
  • Dulce Rivera-Zepeda
  • Garett Schultz

Gonzaga University is a humanistic, private Catholic University providing a Jesuit education to more than 7,500 students. Situated along the Spokane River near downtown Spokane, Wash., Gonzaga is routinely recognized among the West's best comprehensive regional universities. Gonzaga offers 75 fields of study, 23 master's degrees, four doctoral degrees in one college and six schools.