If you value this coverage and want to support the continued independence of Central District News, please subscribe today for as little as $5/month — DRIVE ENDS SEPTEMBER 30.

Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle City Council recently announced six recipients of $465,000 in awards from the Neighborhood Matching Fund’s Large Projects Fund for community-initiated projects. Two are in the Central District.

The Central Area Urban Gardeners were awarded $67,330 from the fund with a community match of $71,138. The funding will go towards “equipment purchase and installation to support a new agricultural demonstration project designed to grow healthy, safe, affordable, organic vegetables indoors. It will involve year-round training and education in food production for youth in the community.”

Historic Seattle for the Get Lifted received $100,000 and a community match of $504,900 for “outreach, fund raising, and construction of an elevator and tower for this historic landmark to make Washington Hall accessible to the community.”

And in Madison Valley, the Madison Valley Community Council was awarded $41,250 and a community match of $100,000 for “construction of a neighborhood landmark sign located at East Madison St and 28th Ave East, the heart of the district. Plans include landscaping, a means to advertise seasonal events, and possible redesign of the intersection crosswalks.”

“The Neighborhood Matching Fund reflects the city’s commitment to providing concrete ways to help community members make Seattle a better place to live,” Mayor Mike McGinn said in a press release. “The fund serves as a resource and catalyst for community members to turn their creative ideas and energy into reality.”

Here’s more on the inner workings of the Neighborhood Matching Fund:

Recipients of the Neighborhood Matching Fund match their awards through a combination of cash, donated materials and expertise, and volunteer labor. This round of Large Projects Fund projects is matching the city’s $465,000 contribution with resources valued at $936,000.

The Neighborhood Matching Fund Large Projects Fund applications are reviewed by the Citywide Review Team (CRT) which recommends the projects to the Mayor and City Council. Made up of volunteers from each of the 13 neighborhood districts, plus four at-large community members, the CRT reviews applications, interviews applicants, and makes funding recommendations. The applications are also reviewed by members from District Councils.

Created to promote and support community-based, self-help projects, the Neighborhood Matching Fund is managed by Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Celebrating its 25^th anniversary, the Fund has awarded approximately $50 million with a community match of more than $71 million. The next opportunity to apply to the Neighborhood Matching Fund is through its Small and Simple Projects Fund. The deadline for applications is October 7. To learn more, visitwww.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/nmf/.

If you value this coverage and want to support the continued independence of Central District News, please subscribe today for as little as $5/month — DRIVE ENDS SEPTEMBER 30.

NC police: Unarmed man shot 10 times during fatal encounter on Saturday with Charlotte officer.

Commentary and photos submitted to the Missoulian (Missoulian.com) may be published or distributed in print, electronically or other forms. Opinions expressed in Missoulian.com’s comments reflect the opinions of the author, and are not necessarily the opinions of the Missoulian or its parent company. See the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for more information.

Our guidelines prohibit the solicitation of products or services, the impersonation of another site user, threatening or harassing postings and the use of vulgar, abusive, obscene or sexually oriented language, defamatory or illegal material. You may not post content that degrades others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability or other classification. It’s fine to criticize ideas, but ad hominem attacks on other site users are prohibited. Users who violate those standards may lose their privileges on missoulian.com.

You may not post copyrighted material from another publication. (Link to it instead, using a headline or very brief excerpt.)

No short policy such as this can spell out all possible instances of material or behavior that we might deem to be a violation of our publishing standards, and we reserve the right to remove any material posted to the site.

Add Comment

More News stories

• 

  Suspected Navy Yard shooter was defense contractor

• 

  Flood weary New Mexico keeps eyes on rivers

• Boston homeless man glad to turn in lost money

• Biographical information on Navy Yard suspect

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The driveway that came with the 1921 Craftsman-style house that David Ulick bought five years ago was the original concrete one, marred by cracks and with tree roots starting to break through.

“I didn’t like the driveway,” said Ulick, of Pasadena, Calif. “I wanted something a little bit nicer.”

He looked through books and drove through the Craftsman-rich neighborhoods of Pasadena to get ideas before deciding on a concrete drive with an antique finish, accented with reclaimed red bricks from the 1920s.

“I wanted this to look like the original driveway, an original, nice driveway, and using used bricks gives it a nice old-fashioned look,” Ulick said.

“It really makes it a grand entrance for the house,” he added, noting the brick walkway up one side. “I figured I’d treat the Craftsman the way it deserves to be treated, and maintain its design style and heritage.”

While a driveway may still be a utilitarian afterthought for many homeowners, others like Ulick are adding some serious curb appeal to their homes by moving beyond basic options like grass or gravel, asphalt or concrete.

“The driveway is commonly overlooked,” conceded Michael Keenan, an adjunct assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Minnesota. “Driveways are not cheap necessarily, but they are completely functional and necessary if you have a car and a garage.”

Doing up the driveway, Keenan said, is a chance to “celebrate the function because it is a piece of the property you do use every day.”

The design options have grown in the last decade or so, he said, as pavers — made from precast concrete, clay and natural stone like granite — are being turned out in a range of colors and sizes. Some have rounded edges for an older look; others are mottled to add color variation to the driveway.

Installing a customized driveway is a way to put your own stamp on the hardscape and set your house apart from the rest. Depending on the neighborhood, the materials and the quality of the craftsmanship, Keenan said, a driveway also could increase a home’s resale value.

“It does become a point of distinction,” he said. “It is something people notice. It is elegant.”

The least expensive paved driveways are made of asphalt, which cost about $12 to $15 a square foot, and concrete, costing about $14 to $18 a square foot, Keenan said. Though concrete is more resilient and lasts longer, both materials will crack over time, he said.

Pavers, which start at about $20 to $25 a square foot, should last a lifetime, Keenan said. “The key is the fact that the pavement acts as flexible fabric and it can move with the earth, and isn’t a rigid system and isn’t prone to cracking,” he said.

Pavers can be used to make traditional patterns like basket-weave or herringbone, or be fashioned into a custom look.

For a less traditional look, use a paver that comes in three or four sizes and lay them out at random, Keenan said. Or get a custom design without breaking the bank by using concrete pavers accented with more expensive natural stone pavers.

Keenan is also the co-founder and design director of reGEN Land Design in Minneapolis. He works with homeowners to find the best driveway for their home. People are most concerned with the color, which might be chosen by looking at the home’s roof, siding or trim color.

“I don’t think you can make a value judgment on which one is the best,” Keenan said of driveway designs. “It’s got to fit the building that you’re paving next to.”

He might recommend, for example, a traditional red-brick driveway to go with a light blue Colonial home. For a contemporary, environmentally “green” home, he might choose light-colored, permeable pavers — a more environmentally sound choice because they let water back through to the earth under the driveway, rather than forcing it to run off and collect debris on the way to bodies of water.

In Naples, Fla., landscape architect W. Christian Busk installs “living driveways” that feature real grass interspersed among pavers. That reduces heat and glare and provides some drainage.

“We blur the lines between where driveway ends and where landscape begins,” says Busk, president of Busk Associates. “It always looks beautiful.”

Back in Pasadena, the concrete-and-brick option that Ulick chose is popular among the many Craftsman and other historical homes in the area, said Mark Peters, the chief estimator for Boston Brick Stone, which helped create Ulick’s driveway.

“It’s a very rich feel and it’s understated,” Peters said.

Since he got his driveway in 2009, Ulick said, he has received many compliments, and people sometimes stop to ask if his driveway is the original.

“That’s a bigger compliment,” he said, “that it looks like it’s been done years and years and years ago.”

The owners of a Kalispell company that supplies northwestern Montana rock for architectural projects and landscaping is reporting the weekend theft of more than $100,000 in equipment and supplies.

Glacier Stone Supply president Tony Kavanagh tells the Flathead Beacon (http://bit.ly/1aObuyP) the thieves loaded tools, equipment and supplies into a company-owned one-ton utility truck that had a welder, compressor and a crane.

Kavanagh says his insurance has a high deductible, leaving it up to the company to replace the good stolen unless they are recovered.

Kavanagh said the stone company and the Flathead County sheriff’s office are notifying pawn shops and keeping an eye online for people trying to sell the stolen items.

Glacier Stone is offering a $2,500 reward for information about the theft.

___

Information from: Flathead Beacon, http://www.flatheadbeacon.com

LANAI, Hawaii — From the wheel of the big four-wheel-drive Suburban, our guide nods at a small roadside sign pointing to a beach called Lapaiki. “That’s one of those dotted-line roads on the map,” he says. “If you go down there you might as well be driving up and down flights of stairs.”

In other words, roads can get rough on Lanai.

As it is, navigating the deeply grooved road we’re on, leading through ironwood-crowded Kanepuu Preserve to a rocky landmark known as the Garden of the Gods, is a bit like driving down an oversized bowling-lane gutter carved in red dirt. Good luck here on one of those days when Lanai gets some of its 15 to 20 inches of annual rainfall.

That’s why four-wheel drive is the standard for vehicles on back roads of what’s historically been known as the Pineapple Island, where a 20,000-acre Dole plantation once grew 75 percent of the world’s supply of the fruit.

That changed in the early 1990s when labor prices moved the pineapple industry to Southeast Asia, Mexico and South America. Lanai plowed under its fields. Today, besides the company town of Lanai City, the main reminder of the Dole days protrudes from dirt along some of these back roads: myriad bits of black plastic, remnants of sheets laid down to retain moisture in the pineapple fields.

Now, fields have gone to wild grasses and brush such as the invasive (and toxic) Brazilian pepper plant.

For 20 years, Lanai has struggled to reinvent itself, but now the game is on. Just over a year ago, Oracle software billionaire Larry Ellison bought 98 percent of the island from another billionaire, Dole Foods CEO David Murdock and his Castle Cooke Co., for an estimated $300 million-plus. (State and local government and individual homeowners hold the other 2 percent.)

Ellison, No. 5 on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people, has big plans for the little island.

So far, for tourists the most obvious signs of new ownership are (A) higher rates at the island’s two resorts (around $660 a night for an ocean-view room at the Four Seasons Manele Bay), and (B) attractive new landscaping of heliconia, bird of paradise and other tropical plants in front of businesses around Lanai City.

“The former owner didn’t want the town to be a place visitors wanted to stay. He wanted them at the resorts, so he didn’t make the town a very nice place,” said my guide, Honolulu-bred Bruce Harvey, who moved to Lanai in 1999. “We’re real happy Ellison is here.”

Billionaires aplenty

The 141-square-mile isle has had its share of brushes with billionaires. Bill and Melinda Gates married here in 1994 and booked all of Lanai’s rooms to ensure their privacy. (Gates, too, reportedly was interested in buying Lanai last year.)

For now, the glow of big bucks is just starting to rub off on Lanai, which is a 45-minute ride aboard a passenger ferry from Maui, making it an easy day trip.

The reason to visit isn’t for exotic scenery — much of the island is barren scrub — but for a taste of laid-back island life from, say, 50 years ago. It is a close-knit community with modest, plantation-style homes and few tourists.

On an island with only about 3,000 residents, 30 miles of paved road and no traffic lights, drivers still wave as they pass. Wednesdays are big because it’s “Barge Day,” when the weekly supply barge brings fresh groceries (such as $9-a-gallon milk). The sports teams for Lanai’s high school (and primary, and middle school, all rolled into one) compete under the endearingly geeky names “Pinelads” and “Pinelasses.”

“There are no drugs or vandalism, or homeless, here, so parks don’t close overnight,” Harvey told me. “For all practical purposes, we have a zero crime rate.”

Almost all residents live in the grandly named but charmingly sleepy Lanai City. Ellison won fans when one of his first acts was to reopen the community-swimming pool, closed seven years as a cost-cutting measure.

“The humble old community pool didn’t just reopen, it was reinvented as something worthy of a five-star resort,” Honolulu Magazine noted in its August issue.

Under the legacy of Dole’s “company town,” Ellison’s ownership takes in pretty much everything, including almost a third of the housing stock. He even owns Dole Park, a big rectangle of grass and towering Cook Island pines in the town’s center, and most business properties, such as the handful of restaurants, galleries, gift shops and markets fronting the park.

So when Ellison spruced up the place, people noticed. The park’s pines got their first pruning in years. Picnic tables went in. A park pavilion got a new roof for the old men who pass their days there.

More to come

But that’s just the start. Ellison’s development company, led by a Lanai-born resort-management veteran, in July changed its name from Lanai Resorts to Pulama Lanai (“Pulama” is a Hawaiian term for “to cherish”). According to pulamalanai.com, the name reflects “the deep sense of stewardship we feel for the island and the spirit that will guide endeavors that reach far beyond our resorts” — those being the island’s two Four Seasons resorts, part of the purchase.

Ellison’s vision, the website says, is “to establish Lanai as an island powered by solar energy, where electric cars would replace gasoline-powered, and seawater would be transformed into fresh water and used to sustain a new organic-farming industry that would feed the island and supply produce for export.”

Ideas include:

• Growing premium-quality fruit such as mangos and pineapple for sale to Japan and other high-end markets.

• Adding a small new resort, with ultraluxury “grass huts on the beach,” at Kahalepaloa, site of the defunct Club Lanai. Local planners have already given first approval.

• A 50-acre tennis academy.

• A base for racing yachts, reflecting Ellison’s America’s Cup interests.

• In keeping with the island’s old-fashioned feel, a 1950s-style bowling alley and soda fountain.

And it’s not just talk. To make it easier for visitors to come, Ellison has already bought one Hawaii airline, Island Air, and is closing on the purchase of another, go! Airlines. Plans are to extend the runway at Lanai’s airport for bigger planes.

And to draw more high rollers, his team last December wooed a branch of Nobu, the luxury Japanese restaurant chain run by celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa, to the Four Seasons Manele Bay just in time for the holiday rush.

Why visit?

So once you’re on Lanai, what’s there to see? That’s the selling challenge. For folks with money, the attraction has been the fancy resorts and golf courses — without the tourist crowds. Others come to hunt axis deer and mouflon sheep, nonnative species that have taken the run of the island. Lanai’s natural beauty is more subtle.

Back in the big Suburban, Bruce Harvey tells us about the Garden of the Gods, or Keahiakawelo, a place of stark beauty with red rocks and lava formations carved by wind and weather. Legend says the rocks were dropped from the sky by gods tending their gardens.

In the distance broods the island of Molokai, beyond wind-tunnel-like Kalohi Channel.

“We call that the Tahiti Express, because if your boat motor conks out, that’s where you end up,” Harvey quips.

Navigating the lumpy roads feels like riding a lunar rover, and the landscape fits right in.

Across the island, Harvey shows us Shipwreck Beach, where the first recorded foundering was in 1824, when square-riggers couldn’t tack against the wind and got trapped here. To this day, the hulk of an abandoned Navy oiler rots in the waves.

Walking the quiet beach we find coral bits and puka shells by the handful.

Back in the car we ascend a hillside of scrubby trees and more red soil, where tropical forests prospered until 1778, when the king of Hawaii island invaded Maui and lost. To save face, his war party landed on Lanai, consumed all the food, burned the forests and slaughtered thousands. Lanai never fully recovered.

Now Lanai has a new champion, a king of commerce with lofty dreams. Will the Pineapple Island achieve new greatness — or will that road, too, be rough? Wait and see.

Brian J. Cantwell: bcantwell@seattletimes.com. Blogging at blogs.seattletimes.com/ ­northwesttraveler. On Twitter: @NWTravelers

LAYTON, Utah– For those looking to remodel their homes, one of the best places to start is a home show.

The fourth annual Northern Utah Fall Home Show is wrapping up Sunday night, and the free event allowed homeowners to meet contractors and get ideas for remodeling, landscaping and decorating.

Adam Harwood, home show producer, said they bring a variety of things together for those who attend the show.

“Windows, roofing, siding, doors, you name it—we have even saunas here,” he said. “It’s a place where people can come to remodel their house, renovate, or if they’re looking into any type of project, it’s a great place for them to come to see what’s new in the industry.”

The home show as held at the Davis Conference Center, and it ends Sunday at 6 p.m. Event organizers said the show will return next year. For more information about the show, visit their website.

CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) –

If you are looking for a few ideas to spruce up your home or garden, than the American Bank Center is the place to be this weekend. Kiii-tv is proud to sponsor the 14th annual Home and Garden Show.

The show is a way to find everything for your home with free DIY seminars. There’s also landscaping ideas, interior design ideas, even pools and spas to try out. We spoke with one family which was looking to save a little bit of money on their backyard project.

The Home and Garden Show continues through Sunday at the American Bank Center.

‘).addClass(‘pl-‘+video.id).append(
$(”).append(”+video.title+”).find(‘a’).click(function() {
if($(document).data(‘first’))
{
$(document).data(‘second’, true);
}
var ts = Math.round((new Date()).getTime() / 1000);
g_anvato_objects[‘playlistembed’].config.dfp = {adtag:’http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x480iu=/301721715/WNDUciu_szsimpl=sgdfp_req=1env=vpoutput=xml_vast2ad_rule=1unviewed_position_start=1correlator=’+ts+’cmsid=2195vid=ANV_GRTV_’+video.id};
g_anvato_objects[‘playlistembed’].config.canonical_url=”http://www.wndu.com/video?videoid=”+video.id;
g_anvato_objects[‘playlistembed’].loadVideo(video.id,39, ‘GRTV’);

$(‘.playlist_list’).removeClass(‘current’);
$(‘.pl-‘+video.id).addClass(‘current’);
$(‘.rec-‘+video.id).addClass(‘current’);
})
)
);
}
else
{
var ts = Math.round((new Date()).getTime() / 1000);
g_anvato_objects[‘playlistembed’].config.dfp = {adtag:’http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x480iu=/301721715/WNDUciu_szsimpl=sgdfp_req=1env=vpoutput=xml_vast2ad_rule=1unviewed_position_start=1correlator=’+ts+’cmsid=2195vid=ANV_GRTV_’+initVideo};
g_anvato_objects[‘playlistembed’].config.canonical_url=”http://www.wndu.com/video?videoid=”+video.id;
g_anvato_objects[‘playlistembed’].loadVideo(video.id,39, ‘GRTV’);
$(‘#playlist’).addClass(‘hidePlaylist’);
};
};

});

$(‘.pl-‘+id+’ a’).click();
$(document).data(‘first’, true);
var ts = Math.round((new Date()).getTime() / 1000);
g_anvato_objects[‘playlistembed’].config.dfp = {adtag:’http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x480iu=/301721715/WNDUciu_szsimpl=sgdfp_req=1env=vpoutput=xml_vast2ad_rule=1unviewed_position_start=1correlator=’+ts+’cmsid=2195vid=ANV_GRTV_’+initVideo};
g_anvato_objects[‘playlistembed’].config.canonical_url=”http://www.wndu.com/video?videoid=”+initVideo;
g_anvato_objects[‘playlistembed’].loadVideo(initVideo,39, ‘GRTV’);
$(‘.playlist_list’).removeClass(‘current’);
$(‘.pl-‘+initVideo).addClass(‘current’);
$(‘.rec-‘+initVideo).addClass(‘current’);
}

function load_tabbed_playlist(data) {
var videos = data.videos;

var id = ”;

$(‘#tabbed_playlist’).html(”);
jQuery.each( videos, function(key, video) {
if (key == 0)
id = video.id;

$(‘#tabbed_playlist’).append(
$(”).addClass(‘pl-‘+video.id).addClass(‘row-fluid’).attr(‘style’, ‘padding-bottom:4px; margin:0px;’).append(
$(”).append(
$(”).append(
‘‘
).find(‘a’).click(function() {
if($(document).data(‘first’)) {
$(document).data(‘second’, true);
}

Submitted by Lexington-Richland 5

Join us Sunday September 15 for our biggest end of summer inventory reduction sale and open house!  Fall is the best time to plant natives and the best time to buy!

This time of year native plants are dropping their seeds and turning fall colors before they go dormant for the winter. If you never got around to spring planting or thought it was too late to plant anymore you’re in luck! We have hundreds of species organized by their preferred living conditions.  Are you looking for something drought tolerant? A shade lover?  There’s a plant for that!  Don’t know what you want?  We will be holding two garden tours at 1pm and 3pm where you can learn about landscaping with native plants, check out the gardens, and ask questions.

Blackfoot Native Plants is also scaling back operations to reduce the number of species we’ll grow.  Visit the nursery to make sure you don’t miss out on a plant we have in stock now but won’t for much longer.   

·         Spend $25 – 10% off

·         Spend $50 – 15% off

·         Spend $75 – 20% off

·         Spend $100 – 25% off

·         Spend $250 – 30% off

·         Spend $500+ – 40% off

Special sale items will be announced at the nursery!

Open house and sale starts at 12 pm.  Drive East from Missoula on Highway 200, turn on Potomac Road, and look for the Blackfoot Native Plant signs pointing the way.  See you there!

Website: http://www.blackfootnativeplants.com