Crown Hill Center, Parks & Greenspace, Volunteers

New Playground Plans for Small Faces

Lynn Wirta unveils the new playground plans
Lynn Wirta unveils the new playground plans

At the recent Seattle Parks and Recreation Dept. community meeting to present the proposed plan for the new (as yet unnamed) Crown Hill park, Lynn Wirta presented the conceptual drawings for the new Small Faces playground. Lynn is the recently retired director of Small Faces, and she now serves as a volunteer on the playground renovation project.  Small Faces recently received a Small and Simple Grant from Seattle for $17000 to update the playground. The working group has been meeting on alternate Thursdays for a number of months now, and recently asked for community input in the form of a survey. Community input and especially volunteers are always welcome — contact Small Faces (206.782.2611) or simply come to one of the meetings.

Below are closer views of the actual proposed plan the first is visionary and the second is bare-bones:

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Public Health, Sewers/Drainage

Rats!

2 Comments

Seen rats in the neighborhood recently? I’ve seen them scurrying about various places (along Holman Road, and fences). And we’re not alone.  Seattle now has a video about the problem and what we can do about it. And according to the video, it is not an urban legend that rats can come up through your toilet.

The press release from the city can be seen here.  If you cannot view the video above, it is also available here.

So, here is what to do if you spot a rat in your toilet:

  1. Stay calm, and shut the lid.
  2. Reach for a bottle of dish detergent.
  3. Squirt dish detergent into the toilet bowl. This will make it harder for the rat to float and swim by neutralizing the oils in the rat’s fur.
  4. Flush repeatedly until the rat is gone.
  5. Report the incident: 206-205-4394 or online here.
  6. More information is available here: http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ehs/rats/sewerbaiting.aspx

Additional information about rats in the city from King County:

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Announcements, Crown Hill Neighbors, Special Events

Crown Hill Neighbors Annual General Meeting, May 15th 2010

Crown Hill Neighbors will be holding its annual general meeting this year on Saturday, May 15th. A dynamic program is planned. We’ll start with about 30 minutes of updates on neighborhood topics such as:

  • Crown Hill Park
  • Holman Road Median
  • Landmark Tree Survey
  • Crown Hill Center (former school) facility improvements and changes planned
  • Public safety

Then the well-known neighborhood activist, Jim Diers, will fire us up with his energy and ideas. Many people recall that Jim Diers was instrumental in the Neighborhood Small and Simple Grants program, developing the neighborhood plans for Seattle, and putting Seattle in the forefront of empowering neighborhoods to create local color and local amenities.

9250 14th Ave NW
10 a.m. to Noon for essential neighborhood updates and presentation

Noon – 2:30 PM for “neighbor power” workshop

Here’s the publicity flyer for the event! Take a look because it gives you a little more information and context for what’s going to happen on Saturday. (click on the image to make it large  enough to read).

annual meeting flyer

Government, Parks & Greenspace

Campaign to Save Ballard and Loyal Heights Community Centers

We received an appeal from Mindy Terence of the Loyal Heights Block Watch. The appeal concerns the impending possible closure of one of the two Ballard Community Centers due to the looming Seattle Parks and Recreation budget crisis.  Mindy has created an online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/bcclhcc/petition.html Please read, and if you agree, consider signing the petition. More extensive coverage of the budget crisis and links to other articles is available on the Crown Hill Neighbors website at http://crownhillneighbors.org/wp/2010/04/seattle-parks-recreation-budget-crisis/