South 200th Street Temporary Closure

Sound Transit Community Outreach had just sent us notice that their contractor, PCL Civil Constructors will close all lanes on South 200th Street at the intersection of ‘little 28th Avenue South on Saturday, August 3rd from 10 am until 2 pm.  This closure is necessary to safely relocate large construction equipment across the street to the new construction site on the north side.  

The recommended detour route is to use 28th Ave South and South 192nd streets to navigate around the closure.  Refer to the Construction Alert for route map and additional details.

National Night Out, Tuesday August 6th

On Tuesday, August 6, 2013, neighborhood residents throughout SeaTac will take a stand and give neighborhood crime and drugs a going away party!

Each year on the first Tuesday in August, residents in neighborhoods throughout SeaTac and across the nation are asked to lock their doors, turn on outside lights and spend the evening outside with neighbors and police.  Some neighborhoods host special events such as block parties, cookouts, visits from police, and anti-crime rallies. This is all in the spirit of getting to know neighbors and local police, in order to prevent crime in the community.

National Night Out is designed to:

• Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness
• Generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime efforts
• Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships
• Send a message to criminals letting them know neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

National Night Out also showcases the vital importance of police-community partnerships and citizen involvement in our fight to build a safer community.

The Angle Lake Shore Club encourages all neighbors within our community to consider participating in some way in this activity. For more information about this annual event, please visit the National Night Out Website or contact Community Crime Prevention Officer Rich Rowe at 206.973.4904.

Third Annual Clean Sweep Saturday!

Members from the Angle Lake Community will gather at the public park boat launch at 9 am to collect trash bags, tools and instructions before setting out for the third annual Angle Lake Clean Sweep Volunteer Event!

DATE: Saturday, July 27th

EVENT: 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM

VOLUNTEER LUNCH AND RAFFLE PRIZE DRAWING

IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING

The City of SeaTac Parks and Recreation Department will provide garbage bags and distribute trash collection tools to the group to assist in their effort to scour the public spaces on the southwest end of the lake to rid the area of the litter. If you travel this end of the lake frequently you may have noticed the positive impact the team had on the area last year however the since the area is often used by the public who does not seem to understand the concept of 'pack it in/pack it out' but who instead prefer to throw their empty cans, bottle and trash into the brush and/or lake - the area does not stay clean for long. Hence we'll be returning to this area to collect the new trash that has accumulated and seek to expand our efforts now to the dock and swimming area of the public park. We anticipate this will be a very big job, however the more hands that turn out to help the less burdensome this will be on each of us individually. We are also expecting to have resources expand out into the public right of way of our local streets to collect trash and debris along the roads.

Volunteers will be split up into groups where walkers will be assigned to concentrate on picking up litter on shore and roadsides, while waders and snorkelers will be committed to clearing the shallow water of trash and the adventurous individuals decked out in full scuba gear will gather debris from the deep!

Although our waders, snorkelers and divers will concentrate their effort mainly on the SW end of the lake, it is not intended to discourage residents from taking their own initiative in collecting litter from their area and bringing it to the park collection point prior to 12:00 noon where the City will assist in disposing of it. Please contact Judy Williams if you are aware of or need assistance with any large items (dock materials excluded).

Immediately following the event, participants will gather at the Angle Lake Manor Beach where the Angle Lake Shore Club will serve them lunch as a display of appreciation for their volunteer efforts. Additional prizes will be awarded through random drawing – must be present to win.

This is a good opportunity to get outdoors to enjoy some nice weather, teaming up with your neighbors in doing great things for the community and receiving a free lunch and possibly win a valuable prize!

One Disappointment After Another

Needless to say, many of our lake area neighbors expressed disappointment after learning the life of one of our resident American Bald Eagles was suddenly shorted due to an unknown cause of death. This disappointment was followed by further dismay when yet another Bald Eagle was discovered deceased in another area of the Lake.

We all shared high hope in turning both eagles over to the US Fish & Wildlife Services that their forensic investigations would reveal the true cause of death resulting in positive corrective actions be made to help ensure no further similar occurrence would be repeated.

Unfortunately, it is with further disappointment that I share the following letter received from Special Agent Amanda Cook regarding the studies inconclusive results:

July 23, 2013
Salutation,

I received the forensic lab final exam report last week and have been finishing my report. The results were inconclusive.  The cause of death could not be definitively determined from the analyses conducted.  Thin body condition was noted in both birds was suggestive of chronic problems such as lack of food access or environmental contaminants.  

Crop and stomach contents were negative for toxic substances including organophosphates, carbamates, pentobarbital and strychnine. Also, the birds showed no clinical signs of toxicity caused by anticoagulant rodenticides. The lab also tested for lead, with negative results.  

The lab cannot test for every toxic substance, but they did test for the most commonly used ones. The key that we may have been missing in this case was the rodent carcass that was discarded.  

The lab worked very hard and conducted numerous test. Sorry the results were not more conclusive.

Amanda Crook
U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service 
Office of Law Enforcement
Special Agent
14852 NE 95th Street
Redmond, WA  98052

Yays and Boos for the 4th of July

Not my intent to rehash negative remarks about the late start to the fireworks show or the issues that prevented our contractor from producing a well timed, contiguous performance but I’d like to bring up a couple different items for community awareness. 

Let’s start with the negative so we can get that out of the way. Each year the Shore Club Board receives a fair portion of email on the subject over residents and members who disregard the law and continue to set off their own personal fireworks throughout the day and into the evening. I may be mistaken but from my viewpoint this seemed to have been one of the quietest Independence Day’s I’ve witnessed on the lake. Perhaps it is because of a down economy, or that people are relying more on the public display than setting off their own, or perhaps it is because of the presence of law enforcement patrolling the shoreline by boat and gaining a reputation now on issuing citations and/or confiscating illegal fireworks – or perhaps it’s a combination of all of this that has caused the change but regardless, the email still expresses concern over the activity of personal fireworks being discharged. To that we can only say that the Shore Club is a social club not a governing authority. We do encourage our members to contribute to the public display instead of spending their money on private fireworks… but ultimately we leave the responsibility of policing to city law enforcement and officials.

This year we had also received new complaints about the use of ‘Sky Lanterns’ and the concern for the fire hazard they present when getting caught in the tall trees ringing Angle Lake, with especially heightened concern since it has been so dry lately.  Although not considered a firework a recent internet search reveals that the City of Des Moines voted to ban sky lanterns just this year.  We have to agree, while beautiful to look at, the risk of fire is just too great and we encourage everyone to discontinue any further use of these devices.

And now for the positive news – again a special shout out to all of our volunteers who make celebrating the 4th of July on Angle Lake one of the best rewards that life can offer, and to think it happens year after year to boot!  We’ll reserve name recognition for the fall newsletter but I did want to reinforce that we couldn’t have hosted the Bud Jones Memorial Run or the Swimming/Boating Races, or the Kiddies Parade, or the Home/Dock Decoration Contests or even the fireworks show without the tremendous hours and effort each of our volunteers put into these events.  Also giving recognition to those who traveled door to door to homes in the area collecting fireworks donations – to all we say “THANK YOU” your efforts are truly appreciated.
   

And finally, we’d like to recognize and express appreciation to the owners and managers of the Angle Lake Mobile Home Park for providing the Shore Club Fireworks Contractors use their property at no charge as a staging area to prepare for the big show. With the Coluccio property no longer available for our use, available land that is accessible yet isolated is nearly non-existent so we really appreciate their offer for us to use their land to help ensure that our show is assemble in a safe environment. 

We hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July – and hope you’ll join us in our next upcoming ALSC events: 

• Saturday, July 27th - Angle Lake Clean Sweep
• Saturday, August 17th - Floating Tapas 

Continue visiting the Blog for further details.