Bainbridge Conversation

This week, a Bainbridge man was found dead under a fallen tree on the island’s north end. The Sun’s story, plus comments from people who knew the longtime island resident, can be found here.

Blotter’s below.

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Head over to the right column to cast your vote on where the City Council should have larger cuts to the 2010 budget.

You can see the latest list of cuts here. The council is scheduled to approve the reduced budget at tonight’s meeting.

As for the Bainbridge Conversation’s last poll, results showed strong opposition to the Bainbridge Ratepayers Alliance lawsuit. Fifty-eight percent of the 178 votes cast were against it, and 42 percent were for it.

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Unlike almost everywhere else, Bainbridge Island has no rule against possessing a small amount of pot.

Yet, people get busted for having misdemeanor amounts (under 40 grams) of pot just about every week on the island.

How do the police do it?

“We can arrest someone for having drug paraphernalia,” Scott Weiss, an island officer, told criminal justice reporter Josh Farley. “But not for the marijuana.”

And what if the person has some pot but doesn’t have a bong, pipe or other common pot-smoking accoutrements?

“Even if they have marijuana in their pocket, then the pocket becomes the paraphernalia,” said Kitsap County deputy prosecutor Claire Bradley.

So, whatever the pot is in – baggie or back pocket – is considered “paraphernalia,” and could carry a 90-day jail sentence.

Last week, the Bainbridge Police Department asked the City Council to finally put misdemeanor pot possession on the books. They change, police say, will give a more accurate and honest description of a person’s criminal conduct.

The council has asked for more information about how many drug paraphernalia cases are filed in county’s district court, and will likely decide how to proceed later this month.

Read more here.

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Bainbridge Performing Arts’ upcoming production of Grapes of Wrath is going to be big.

Big for BPA, at least.

Considered a departure from its usual smaller, community theater-scale productions, BPA’s Grapes of Wrath will do its darndest to encapsulate John Steinbeck’s epic Dustbowl tale.

“It’s a big show,” Director Kate Carruthers said in Kitsap Sun story about the play. “There’s — what — 27 actors and musicians, lots of people and music. I know the last thing I did was (Yasmina Reza’s) ‘Art,’ with a cast of three.”

And some of the cast members are doing double, triple, quadruple duty to fill out the array of characters that pop in and out of the Steinbeck’s 1939 novel.

I recently ran into local author and super nice guy George Shannon, who has volunteered his talents for the play.

“What part are you?” I asked him.

“I play seven,” he said.

“Uh….who?” I asked

“I play seven parts.”

“Which one’s the biggest?”

“Well…one of my parts dies at the end…”

I’m a little more than halfway thought the book right now, so I asked George to reveal no more. I should be ready for George’s death scene by opening day, March 19.

For more about BPA’s Grapes of Wrath, check out Michael C. Moore’s story.

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The city held a meeting on Tuesday to begin the public participation component of the upcoming Shoreline Master Plan update.

About 90 island residents attended the meeting, according to a city press release.

The SMP update has piqued the interest of many waterfront landowners. The update could lead to tougher regulations for near-shore development.

Using a state grant, the city hired planning consultants AHBL to assist in developing the public participation process. The firm’s staff helped direct the meeting and will evaluate the public input in the coming weeks.

The city will begin discussing shoreline policy issues later in the process.

The city’s SMP is a combination of planning strategies and regulations that guide shoreline development.

State law requires that the city update its SMP by December 2011.

Residents can contribute ideas about the SMP’s public participation process before Mar. 16 through a survey posted on the city’s website, by mail (Shoreline Master Program Update, Planning and Community Development, City Hall, 280 Madison Ave. N., Bainbridge Island, 98110) or e-mail (pcd@ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us).

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Bainbridge is home to one of the nation’s best local food blogs, according to gourmet magazine Saveur.

Small Potatoes, Anne and Ryan Willhoit’s online exploration of good eats from close to home, is one of five blogs named in the local cuisine category.

Here’s the reaction over at Small Potatoes:

“Some evenings are more surprising than others. You sit down, check your email, glance at that the blog stats and… wait where did that massive spike in traffic come from? After a glance at the incoming referrers you discover you’ve been nominated for a “Best Food Blog” award by Saveur magazine. Really? That Saveur? Really?”

Small Potatoes is photo rich and has plenty of step-by-step tips on how to make use of seasonal and often island-grown ingredients. A few highlights: small batch ketchup, eating local foods while backcountry camping and how to eat local in winter.

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For the second week in a row, a drunk Californian was injured in a crash on the island’s south end.

Also this week, a man beats up a surly pedestrian at the Chevron station and Bainbridge police bust a drug den in Suquamish.

Blotter’s below.

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As many as 24 employees of the failed American Marine Bank have lost their jobs or resigned since late January, when Columbia State Bank took over the Bainbridge Island-based institution.

Rachel Pritchett reports in today’s Sun that the departures represent about 20 percent of American Marine’s work force. Most of those who left were administrators or managers at the bank’s Winslow Way headquarters.

Most of the American Marine’s tellers and rank-and-file staffers at the bank’s other 11 branches were offered jobs with Columbia State last month.

For more, click here.

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The Bainbridge Public Library’s Living Library event returns on Saturday.

Here’s the event listing:

The Bainbridge Public Library invites you to “check out a new point of view” through a one-on-one conversation with someone who may hold a little-known viewpoint or may be of a different culture or lifestyle.

“Living Books” are available for thirty minute conversations in the library meeting room on Saturday, March 6 from 1-4 p.m.

You can read my Oct. 2008 story about the island’s first Living Library here.

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A 92-year-old former school building nestled in the wooded north end is set for demolition next month.

The building has long been vacant and has fallen into disrepair.

Built as part of Moran School in 1918, the four-story building housed an auditorium, library, laboratories, study hall and dormitory. It was later used by a naval academy and then was converted into a movie theater.

Historic preservationists are asking that the owners seek an alternative solution to demolition.

It is a “terribly significant” part of Bainbridge’s history, said city Historic Preservation Commission Chairman Will Shopes during a special commission meeting on Friday.

“I wish they’d try to save it or, if they don’t have the money, try to find someone who does,” Shopes said.

For more, click here.

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The city of Bainbridge Island is hoping for $585,000 in federal stimulus money to repave the portion of Madison Avenue between Winslow Way and Wyatt Way.

The city also wants $90,000 to repave part of Manitou Beach Road.

Last year, the city only used $60,000 of the $150,000 it was awarded for pedestrian and bicycle improvements near Blakely School.

For more about expected federal road work funding in Kitsap County, click here.

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On Friday, the Rolling Bay post office was renamed after John ‘Bud’ Hawk, a Medal of Honor and four-time Purple Heart recipient who grew up on the island some 80 years ago.

If you’re not familiar about Hawk’s World War II exploits, you can read about them here. No wonder people see him as a true-life action hero.

For my story and a photo gallery of the renaming ceremony, head over here.

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