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Pothole pig’s
POTHOLE OF THE WEEK
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 FfAaIiRrLlAaNnEe By Steve Dunkelberger stevedunkel@tacomaweekly.com
21st and Jefferson Street Tacoma has a tremendous pothole problem, and the city knows it. During the past couple of years, the city has acknowledged this issue by spending millions of dollars in major arterial repairs with the council’s “pothole initiative,� and in 2010, routine maintenance by Tacoma’s Grounds and Maintenance Division completed street repairs on 229,638 square feet of road. In 2011, the city repaired about 150,000 more square feet of road riddled with holiness, and is continuing those efforts well in to 2012. And while that may sound like a lot of ground, new holes pop up – or return – each and every day, which means a pothole-free road might never exist in Tacoma. With the help of our readers and our dedicated Pothole Pig, we will continue to showcase some of the city’s biggest and best potholes through our weekly homage to one of T-Town’s most unnerving attributes. Help the Pothole Pig by e-mailing your worst pothole suggestions to SaveOurStreets@tacomaweekly.com. Potholes in need of repair can be reported to the City of Tacoma by calling (253) 591-5495.
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The battle of the brands was in full force between Ford and Chevrolet during what is now called the “golden age of classic cars.� Both motor companies fought each other for market share with new features and designs. Ford almost lost that battle to Chevrolet in the early 1950s. But then came the Ford 1955, which offered a new design and boosted engine. The new Fairlane car line turned heads when it replaced the Crestline as the top-trim level, while a new Crown Victoria-style featured a chrome “basket handle� across the familiar “Victoria� hardtop roof. The 1955 Ford also featured the new panoramic windshields found on Oldsmobiles, Buicks and Cadillacs the previous year. Also that year came a new feature, although only as a dealer option: seatbelts could be installed as well as a feature called “Select Aire,� which had an integrated heater core and evaporator coil unit
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The Ranch Wagon and Custom Ranch Wagon, for example, were two-door wagons, while the Country Sedan and Country Squire models were four-doors wagons, the latter featuring wooden appliquĂŠ side mouldings that would be the signature feature of the line.
;HJVTHÂťZ UL^LZ[ W\ISPJ HY[ [V IL KLKPJH[LK Inspired by the natural history of Metro Parks’ STAR Center (3873 S. 66th St.), Tacoma’s newest public art piece, “Sempervivumâ€? by local artist Lisa Kinoshita, will receive its formal dedication on Nov. 10, at 2 p.m., in STAR Center’s Journey Hall. The Tacoma Arts Commission and Metro Parks invites anyone who is interested in learning more about this piece to meet the artist at this free, public event. “My outdoor art installation pays tribute to the wetlands during its early-20th century heyday,â€? said Kinoshita. “This sculpture trilogy seeks to link the past to the future, celebrates South Tacoma’s fascinating natural heritage and highlights the sensitive balance between humans and their surroundings.â€? “Sempervivum,â€? Latin for “ever + living,â€? is located at STAR Center’s SERA Campus. The piece consists
of three large forms combining steel, live plants, and green roof technology, and pays homage to the natural history of STAR Center’s site, which originally was covered by extensive wetlands. The 32,000 square foot STAR Center, which opened in April 2012, is on track to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver status. “It has been rewarding to work with the City of Tacoma’s Arts Program on this project, helping to increase public art opportunities for Tacoma artists and to increase art in our parks for everyone to enjoy,� said Tareena Joubert, manager of Cultural and Community Services for Metro Parks. “Lisa has been a delight to work with and her zest to create amazing and meaningful artwork for this community is impressive.� “Sempervivum,� a $25,000 commission, was made possible through
a partnership between Metro Parks and the City of Tacoma’s Public Art: In Depth (PA:ID) program which trained a group of professional Tacoma artists on best practices and provided hands-on experience for working in public art. Artists in the PA:ID program had the opportunity to compete for public art projects with Metro Parks, Sound Transit and the City of Tacoma. Kinoshita is an artist and jeweler who lives and works in Tacoma. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Tacoma Art Museum, Fife Historical Museum, Vetri Gallery, Fulcrum Gallery, Kittredge Gallery, Woolworth’s windows and other regional venues. She was a 2011 nominee for the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards at the Portland Art Museum. In 2010, she received the Foundation of Art Award from the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation.
3VJHS ZLHYJO HUK YLZJ\L KLWSV`LK [V ,HZ[ *VHZ[ Washington State Task Force 1 (WA-TF1), one of 28 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urban search and rescue teams in the nation, was activated Oct. 31 to support rescue efforts on the east coast. The Task Force is assisting local responders in areas hard hit by Superstorm Sandy. The Task Force had been readying itself early in the
W Library
week, and was put on alert Oct. 30 for possible deployment. Processing of the team members took place at the Department of Emergency Management, 2501 S. 35th St. in Tacoma. The Washington Task Force 1 (WA-TF1) was established in 1991 and currently has 36 different participating agencies from three pri-
recordings. The changes will be rolled out during the next few months with additional features being added periodically from then on. The new system is very “Amazon-like.� “It will all just keep
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PHOTO BY STEVE DUNKELBERGER
within the dash and cold air discharge vents located on top of the dashboard on either side of the radio speaker. The feature would go down in history as air conditioning. Station wagons were offered as a separate series for the first time in 1955.
magazine articles found through keyword prompts as well as books, DVDs and
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mary jurisdictions, Seattle Fire, King County and Pierce County. The Task Force comprises over 210 team members, drawn from a variety of organizations including fire departments, hospitals, law enforcement and public works agencies in the City of Seattle, King County and Pierce County.
coming,� Odencrantz said. “You can just select what level of search you want and go. It will all be on one spot.� One addition will include the ability for patrons to search the vast archives of the Northwest Room for historical research of all sorts. The new system will also integrate e-books and printed materials into one location rather than having separate locations on the library’s website. Library staff not working on the computer system still reported for duty as usual, despite the branch closures. They were working on side projects, reshelving books and filing clipping files that take back seats to helping patrons. “No one gets paid to stay home,� said library spokesman David Domkoski. “We were working on little things that we didn’t have time to do that we are getting done.� Tacoma has a history
of being unkind to software upgrades. The sting of the city of Tacoma’s $50 million computer integration effort back in 2004 was the most costly. Cost overruns for customization work, computer consultant contracts with TUI Consulting Inc. and a parade of glitches marred the roll out of that municipal system when the SAP software failed to deliver on expectations, including the inability of city officials to draft a budget while facing a $30 million funding gap. The library’s new computer system costs $568,000 over five years. Any cost overruns associated by the computer glitches are borne by the vendor, which is good news for a library facing a $3 million cut during the next two-year, $22.4 million budget. Those cuts will largely come in three areas: the materials budget will drop from $3 million to $2 million, the main library will shift from a six-day week to just five days for a savings of $969,000, and the layoffs of 16 technicians and support staffers for a savings of $980,000. Tacoma’s library system is used by about a million patrons a year. In the que for the coming months are the addition of a mobile StoryLab with state-of-the-art computers and editing software, a mobile phone application, a new website, expanded lists of brochures in additional languages, additional senior services to connect them to technological resources and community partnerships.