We are thrilled to announce that the Phinney Neighborhood Association will take over PhinneyWood.com as of today.

As the heart of our community, we know the PNA will be an excellent steward of our 10+ years legacy of neighborhood news. We will let the PNA write its own post about its plans for the site, so we’ll just say one more time how proud we are to live in such a wonderful place with great people, businesses and cultural institutions.

See you around the neighborhood — Doree Armstrong & Dale Steinke

After more than 10 years of running PhinneyWood.com, it’s time for us to say goodbye.

We are in negotiations with someone to take over this news site, but it may be a couple of months before that happens. In the meantime, PhinneyWood will still be online for you to check the archives or upcoming events, however, we won’t be posting anything new.

As your neighborhood news source for Phinney Ridge and Greenwood since May 2008, we’ve published 7,204 posts about breaking news, crime, development, business and transportation issues, lost pets and interesting neighbors, plus added thousands of events to our calendar.

In just our second year, we won a national journalism award for our breaking news coverage of the arson that destroyed four Greenwood businesses in 2009.

And our made-up name “PhinneyWood” quickly became not just a news site but an actual place, with neighborhood real estate listings and advertisements routinely using the term PhinneyWood to describe the neighborhood.

Thank you to our wonderful community for all the news tips, photos and collaboration over the last 10+ years. We still live in the neighborhood and will continue to be involved and help make the PhinneyWood neighborhood a special place.

Stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter feeds for updates as new editors will hopefully take over in mid-December.

Sincerely – Doree Armstrong & Dale Steinke

Carkeek Park’s pedestrian bridge, providing access from the playground parking lot to the beach over the train tracks, will be closed Nov. 5-9 for maintenance work.

Seattle Parks and Recreation crews will work from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day to repair the middle landing of the stairs on the west side of the bridge, and will repaint that part and touch up other areas.

The King County Assessors’ Office does on-site inspections of every property every six years to determine property values for taxes. This year it’s Phinney Ridge’s turn, along with Fremont and numerous other neighborhoods farther away.

The Assessor is required by law to inspect each property in-person at least once every six years. In practice, that means King County property appraisers visit in-person about 1/6 of the properties in the county each year to ensure that homes are valued accurately and fairly. This translates to approximately 100,000 property inspections each year.

An inspection is generally an exterior observation for comparison with the property characteristics on file. To accomplish the inspections, Assessors may need to enter side or back yards. If additional information is needed, Assessor’s staff will first knock on the residence door to speak with a taxpayer if possible. All appraisers carry county ID.

After 73 years in Greenwood, Frederick’s Salon is moving in April from 8524 Greenwood Ave. N. to 16300 Aurora Ave. N., next to Central Market.

Salon Mercury will move in January from 7513 Greenwood Ave. N. to 8302 Greenwood Ave N., next to Coyle’s Bakeshop.

Stacia’s Pizza at 305 NW 85th St. has closed. There was a “temporarily closed” sign in the window for quite a while, but now there’s a For Rent sign in the window. They haven’t responded to a message asking for more information.

The City of Seattle Neighborhood Street Fund is now open for 2019 applications to fund community-proposed transportation improvement projects in the city’s Right of Way.

An application workshop will be held in each of the city’s seven districts through Nov. 19. Check the website for details. All materials, including the application, are offered in seven languages.

Each district will rank proposed projects according to the community’s needs, then the public will vote on them.

Applications are due by Nov. 19.

All five Seattle Police Department precincts will accept expired and unused prescription drugs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday as part of National Drug Take Back Day.

SPD will properly dispose of unwanted medications in pill or patch form (they can’t accept liquids, needles or sharps). It’s free and anonymous, no questions asked.

The North Precinct is at 10049 College Way N., next to North Seattle Community College near Northgate.

Last spring Americans turned in nearly 475 tons (949,046 pounds) of prescription drugs at more than 5,800 sites operated by the DEA and almost 4,700 of its state and local law enforcement partners. Overall, in its 15 previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners have taken in almost 10 million pounds – nearly 5,000 tons – of pills.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoes due to these drugs. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows year after year that the majority of misused and abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including someone else’s medication being stolen from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines – flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash – both pose potential safety and health hazards.

Metro Route 28 will be rerouted off 8th Avenue NW in both directions between NW 85th Street and NW 100th Place this weekend due to construction. Buses will be rerouted from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Route 28 will instead travel via 3rd Avenue NW between NW 85th Street and NW 100th Place, and will serve all regular and temporary stops along the revised route.