photo by Dennis Galvin. Peggy Sturdivant, Laura Cooper and Jeff Cohen participate in “Ballard Prepares” emergency training in January.

SATURDAY MAY 11
9 AM – 12 PM
Loyal Heights
Community Center
2101 NW 77th St

Contacts:
Cheryl Dyer/206-684-4052
Linda Frank/206-778-3340

Ballard Prepares, the very dedicated volunteer group of Ballardites who brought us free emergency first aid training back in January, will be staging a simulated catastrophic earthquake event this Saturday, May 11 from 9am-noon, to test our neighborhood’s emergency preparedness skills.  Linda Frank, our East Ballard rep for Ballard Prepares and emergency preparedness guru, will be participating and is encouraging strong participation from the East Ballard contingent. If you’re interested in joining Linda or learning more about this event, give her a call at 206-778-3350 or just show up and get prepared!

More Details
Neighborhood emergency preparedness groups across Seattle assisted by two amateur radio emergency communications teams will test their skills Saturday in an exercise based on a simulated catastrophic earthquake. This exercise titled Mayday, Mayday is the spring version of this semiannual event. The goal of this exercise is to practice preparedness and response actions that will contribute to community resiliency in surviving a significant disaster.

An estimated 125 people from disaster preparedness groups and volunteer response teams including the Public Health Reserve Corps and  ham radio emergency communications teams will participate in the event. The amateur radio teams are sponsored and trained by the Seattle Office of Emergency Management. Their purpose is to provide emergency communications when cell and landline phones become overloaded or damaged due to catastrophic events.

The scenario for the event is based on the impact of the 6.3 magnitude, 2011 Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand applied to the Seattle area.  That disaster took the lives of 185 people and severely damaged the central city buildings and infrastructure as well as causing massive destruction to its suburbs.

Responding to Saturday’s simulated disaster event are community volunteers forming neighborhood “Hubs”.  Participants have practiced solving neighborhood problems that could occur during a disaster, responding to needs affecting life and property, sharing community resources, and reporting simulated emergency messages to the Seattle Office of Emergency Management using ham radio.

“In a real event, information communicated by ham radio from the Hubs could be used by City response planners to help assess conditions throughout the city and develop response plans”, said Cindi Barker, a member of the design team for the exercise. Exercise designers have built in some twists and turns involving communications networks and several challenging issues at Hub sites which will develop during the three hour training event.

These exercises provide an opportunity for preparedness new-comers to work alongside their more experienced neighbors to gain experience and learn skills.  “It’s all about neighbors helping neighbors” said Carl Leon, one of the drill organizers.  “We set up neighborhood Hubs where people can come to get information and share resources or skills to help those that have been affected”.

Seattle Auxiliary Communication Services (ACS) amateur radio teams will set up portable, battery powered radio networks at neighborhood Hub sites providing communication links with the City and to other Hubs.  Messages will be transmitted on ham radio systems using both voice and digital formats.  Computers are connected to send and receive e-mail like documents.

The second participating ham Radio group is the Western Washington Medical Service Team (MST).  Its purposes are to provide emergency communications to and from area hospitals and medical facilities in the Seattle area, as well as coordination with the City EOC regarding hospital readiness during this drill.

The Public Health Reserve Corps of Seattle and King County will be participating for the first time, offering both ham operators and medical professionals at the Hubs. “Our goal is not to set up medical care, but to learn how the community connections are made and where we can fit in during a disaster. Our priority is to help stabilize people and move them into the established medical system”, said program manager Dave Nichols of Public Health.

Participating Hub locations include Ballard, Beacon Hill, Broadview, Capitol Hill, Fremont, Lake City, Loyal Heights, Magnolia, Maple Leaf, Queen Anne, Shilshole, Wedgwood and West Seattle. All Hub locations welcome visitors and people who would like to learn and participate in emergency neighborhood preparedness during this drill.

For more information about preparedness – please visit:

Seattle Emergency Management: http://www.seattle.gov/emergency/default.htm
Community Emergency Hubs:  http://www.seattle.gov/emergency/prepare/community/

For more information about amateur radio – please visit:
Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service: http://www.seattleacs.com
Western Washington Medical Service Team: http://ww7mst.org
ARRL the national association for Amateur Radio: http://arrl.org/

For information about the neighborhood Hubs: http://www.seattlehubs.org/

Jane’s Walk: Celebrating Ballard’s Urban Diversity Past & Present
Sunday May 5,  10am-noon
Meet up at 5805 14th Ave NW (Blowing Sands Glass)
Finish up at Ballard Farmer’s Market.

Feet First, The East Ballard Community Association and the Ballard Greenways group are teaming up to host this very first 2 hour guided walk  on May 5 from 10am-noon through Ballard to celebrate the birthday of urban thinker, Jane Jacobs. Learn how Ballard’s past and present work together to support a lively neighborhood that includes a mix of residential and commercial pockets supporting where people live, work and play.

The walk will start at the site of the soon to be 14th Ave NW Park Blvd, which when completed will run along the old trolley line. We’ll stroll parts of the proposed Ballard Greenways and along the way, we’ll introduce the project “Threading the Needle”, which provides an important connection to the waterway. Get a close up view of the new Greenfire campus and how this development is playing an important roll in supporting people of all ages through transit oriented development. Also learn about at the Ballard Centennial Bell Tower, which was created to hold the old Ballard City Hall bell at the site where the City Hall stood, and marks the Ballard Avenue Historic District.We will end at the popular Ballard Farmers’ Market at noon and participants will be invited to continue the conversation over a no-host lunch.

Click here to learn more about this walk and all of the other Feet First Jane’s Walks this Saturday and Sunday throughout Seattle.

Lots of neighbors  came together at Cafe’ Bambino this afternoon to show their support for a Park at the corner of NW 65th and 7th Ave NW (the former Nick’s Boat shop site).  The neighborhood has been steadily growing in support around the idea of a Park in their arterial quadrant of East Ballard (8th Ave NW to 3rd Ave NW, NW 65th to Market St) that currently has no Park. The neighborhood group “Friends of  NW 65th” has applied for Parks Levy Opportunity Funding to purchase the property, but they haven’t ranked well. There’s one more chance to improve those rankings at the Open House this Monday April 22nd by showing that there’s an active neighborhood and strong community support behind this Park. Carolyn Swenson and Nicole Bradford will be presenting in support of the acquisition of this property for park space and could use your presence to stand up with them in support.  If you plan to attend please  arrive close to 6pm,  and seek out Carolyn and Nicole.

The gray skies and rain were ominous this past week, but that didn’t deter the over 25 neighbors, friends and family who came out to spruce up 14th Ave NW. We dutifully donned our fluorescent vests, grabbed our bright yellow garbage bags, took our picker uppers (aka light sabers) in hand and cleaned up 14th from NW 65th to south of Market, picking up cigarette butts, fast food wrappers and roof shingles(really?). We shared our gardening tools, yard waste cans, and exercise ball(?) to diligently pull weeds from the Meserole memorial median and rain gardens. We donned ear protection to weed eat the medians and foam knee boards to weed the planters. We also brought our hunger and thirst as we downed an entire carton of Equal Exchange coffee, 2 dozen bagels (with cream cheese, meats and cheeses) donated by the Ballard Market and several dozen piping hot homemade scones from our friends. We worked really hard today and had a lot of fun along the way. Now isn’t that what community’s all about?

After seeking community input this past Fall, SDOT is ready to present the updated plan for the NW 58th St Greenway at an open house tomorrow Thursday, April 11 from 6 to 7:30 pm at Ballard High School. There will be a short presentation at 6:30pm followed by a question and answer session. The EBCA encourages everyone to attend to learn more and show support for safe and healthy streets for residents of all ages and abilities. Click here for more information about the open house and the proposed NW 58th St greenway.

As we mentioned in our March 2 post , The Russell Family Foundation recently awarded Antioch University Seattle with funding to site, design and build demonstration roadside rain gardens in the East Ballard neighborhood, while engaging citizens about the environmental effects of polluted runoff on human health and wildlife.  The roadside rain gardens will be designed to capture, filter, and slow rain storm events, and keep untreated polluted runoff from reaching Salmon Bay.

The following is the latest update from Cari Simpson, the project lead from Antioch:

We are so pleased with the response to this project! Over 60 individuals contacted us initially to learn more about rain gardens in their roadside planting strips. From that group we found six clusters of multiple neighbors around the area, and met with them to learn about their block, parking, and drainage concerns along their street. We then brought our engineers to the interested blocks and looked closely at the County and City Utility maps and drainage data. Without the funding to do a comprehensive drainage and geologic study, we have to go with their recommendations for feasible sites after walking the streets in the rain and looking at the roadway conditions.

At this point we have located four potential sites along 11^th Ave NW between NW 58^th and NW 56^th, and will be working with these homeowners and our engineers and landscape designers to create attractive and functional roadside rain gardens that can be planted this Fall through an SDOT Street Use Permit process.  This location dovetails well with the proposed SDOT Ballard Greenway along NW 58^th and the ongoing planning for the 14^th Ave NW Park. We will keep everyone updated on the process, and we welcome anyone from the neighborhood to be part of our project Working Group to monitor the permit process with the City.

How the engineers helped us narrow down the choices
One thing we didn’t know until we talked with the engineers was that the storm drains on the East/West streets in this area of Ballard are connected to the sanitary sewer lines, and all this wastewater goes to the West Point wastewater treatment plant (or during heavy rains this wastewater does sometimes discharge into Salmon Bay from the 28^th Ave NW Combined Sewer Outfall). The N/S streets such as 11^th Avenue NW are not tied to this combined system, and the runoff goes into the catch basins and eventually flows untreated into Salmon Bay at the streetend of 11^th Ave NW. From an engineering perspective, choosing a rain garden site on 11^th Ave NW will reduce stormwater flows to Salmon Bay.

The goals of the grant are specifically focused on reducing flows of polluted runoff to Salmon Bay. In the near future, King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WWTD) will be investigating how best to reduce the Combined Sewer Overflows in the 11^th Avenue basins and they will welcome your input.

“Uncovering” a hidden creek
We also learned from residents that an historic creek used to run parallel to 11^th Avenue NW, from where Ballard High School football field is now to Salmon Bay next to where the Fred Meyer store is located. There are anecdotal stories about catching large salmon in the creek in the early 1900s. The pics above are crops of 1894 and 1895 road maps that clearly show the creek entering Salmon Bay just east of the Ballard Railroad Bridge (what is now 14^th Avenue NW). We are working with the University of Washington Department of Earth and Space Sciences to uncover additional details about the historic creek. If you know someone in the neighborhood who might remember the creek and the process of moving it underground into a pipe, please contact us.

We are excited about “uncovering” the hidden creek that runs under 11^th Ave NW through public education and the eventual design of interpretive signs for the neighborhood. The history of the creek can guide our rain garden design process, so that we bring back plants native to the area pre-development, to improve the local environment for people and wildlife.

What’s Next?
The next steps are to get together with the City of Seattle Street Use staff and plan our permit process with our engineering liaisons at SvR Design. After that we will host a meeting with neighbors along the selected blocks. The engineers and I will ferry the permit through the city, but we will keep you updated on the progress, and get your feedback on how to make the process more accessible. Over the next few months we’ll work on the permit and the landscape design, and then once the permit is approved we can build them – with your help!

Resources about home rain gardens and cisterns
Kristi Gansworth, the Antioch University Seattle Graduate Assistant working on the project, and I will develop a packet of resources (online and as a PDF) about rain garden construction, cisterns, plants, soils, etc. for any homeowners who’d like to build a project in their own yard or in the planting strip (without cutting the curb).

A great place to start is here: http://www.12000raingardens.org/index.phtml

Your rain gardens can count toward the 12,000 rain gardens that Stewardship Partners and its research partners at Washington State University want to build by 2016.

You are invited!
Earth Day 2013
“Celebrating Puget Sound: Strategies for Clean Water”
Monday, April 22 from 4-9pm
Antioch University Seattle: 2326 6^th Avenue, Seattle 98121

Join us for “Celebrating Puget Sound: Strategies for Clean Water.” Beginning at 4pm, interact with local organizations working for clean water at a resource fair; At 5pm Tracy Rector, a local documentary filmmaker of the upcoming “Clear Water” will talk about the Suquamish Tribe’s efforts to improve the health of Puget Sound; The keynote will be followed by a panel of local water quality advocates, and opportunities for attendees to learn more and get involved. Learn more about this free event  here, or connect with the project on Facebook. For more information, contact Kristi Gansworth at 206-268-4000 Ext. 5146.

We are pleased to have funding support for this event from the Russell Family Foundation and the Surfrider Foundation.

Groundswell NW (EBCA’s fiscal sponsor and mentoring organization) will be welcoming Pomegranate Center founder Milenko Matanovic to Ballard, as the featured speaker at their Annual meeting and dessert potluck, Sunday, April 7 from 6 pm – 8pm at the Sunset Hill Community Association.

Dawn Hemminger, Groundswell NW Board Member and EBCA leader, will also give her talk on “How to Grow a Park”. She previously presented this talk at IgniteSeattle and it was well received.

All are welcome to come and learn about a style of community-building that combines a creative approach with effective community planning, broad public participation, hands-on learning and leadership development.

Groundswell NW will also present their annual “Local Heroes” awards, where they recognize our fellow Ballardites’ efforts to create and enhance parks, public spaces, and habitat in our community.

Representatives from current Groundswell NW-sponsored projects, such as the 14th Ave NW Park Boulevard and Shilshole Gateway, will also be on hand to talk about the progress of their projects.

While this is Groundswell NW’s annual membership meeting, it is a public event open to all. This will also be a good opportunity to renew your membership or join! Donations of desserts for the potluck are also welcome, but not required.

Groundswell NW Annual Meeting and Dessert Potluck
April 7, 2013 6pm-8pm
Sunset Hill Community Assocation – 3003 NW 66th St
Contact David Folweiler – david@folweiler.com – 206-714-4271 for more information

Seattle is the 2nd city behind Chicago to join Gigabit Squared’s groundbreaking 21st century broadband project

This past December the city of Seattle announced a partnership with Gigabit Squared to bring another option for high-speed broadband Internet access to 12 demonstration neighborhoods in Seattle. Due to high demand from residents and businesses, they have added Central Ballard and West Seattle to the list of neighborhoods, bringing the total to 14. Unfortunately for East Ballard residents, the eastern boundary of the area that will receive service is 17th Ave NW. However, Gigabit Squared has stated that the boundaries are flexible and that the service area will be expanded throughout the city according to neighborhood demand. If you are interested in this service for your home or business, please  sign up here to show your interest and stay informed when it will be available. More signups means a greater chance of East Ballard becoming a high priority!

7th Elect church on the site of the new Kirke Park.

On the north edge of the East Ballard Neighborhood at the intersection of NW 70th and 9th Ave NW lies Kirke Park, one of Seattle’s newest parks and one of the largest in Ballard at almost an acre in size. Before the Park, there was a very mysterious religious colony with a rich history on this site. Thanks to the Ballard Historical Society, and Barbara Hainley from Friends of Kirke Park, you’ll have an opportunity next week to learn more about the Seventh Elect Church of Israel, and the recent transformation of its property into Kirke Park.