Bainbridge Conversation

A portion of Sportsman Club Road will be northbound-only next week, as the city begins work on bicycle and pedestrian improvements. The city expects major construction to be wrapped up before the Rotary Auction opens for donations June 21.

Here are details and a detour map from the city:

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, June 13, 2013 – Work will begin on Sportsman Club Road next Monday, June 17. The City has contracted with Lakeside Industries Inc. to install non-motorized shoulder improvements on the west side of Sportsman Club Road from Wardwell Road to approximately 400 feet south.

During construction hours, between 6 am and 5 pm Monday-Friday, Sportsman Club Road will be restricted to one-way northbound traffic. A detour route will be established for southbound traffic and residents/local traffic accessing Wardwell Road. Shoulder work is expected to last for approximately one week, with paving to follow as weather permits.

Citizens are encouraged to access Sportsman Club Road from the south when delivering donations to Woodward Middle School for the Rotary Auction, beginning Friday, June 21.

This improvement project is part of the City’s Core 40 Program which targets 40 roads for upgrades around the island for non-motorized improvements.

Sportsman Club Detour by tsooter

The Bainbridge Island School District is seeking input on school configuration with an online survey. The district held a series of well-attended public meetings in May on the topic of a potential grade reconfiguration and school closure. The survey is intended to solicit opinions from the broader community.

A School Configuration Committee was convened last fall to examine reconfiguration as a way of cutting costs and maintaining educational programs in the face of declining enrollment and tightening budgets. The committee, which includes district staff, community members and school board representatives, recently decided to hold off on making a recommendation until 2014. 

Materials from the committee’s study sessions and the public meetings are available on the district website.

Bainbridge Island Police Department released a report Friday detailing its efforts to meet the recommendations of a peer assessment conducted over the winter. The Washington Association of Sheriff’s and Police Chiefs report highlighted the need for new leadership at the department and identified numerous areas in the organization where improvement was needed.

The working document released by BIPD (and posted below) shows what actions the department is taking to meet those recommendations and what changes are already complete. City Manager Doug Schulze made the document available in his weekly report, along with an update on Crisis Intervention Team Training.

According to Schulze, 11 of the island’s 18 sworn officers have completed the 40-hour training, which prepares first responders for situations involving the mentally ill. The entire force will have received the training by the end of October, Schulze said. The need for Crisis Intervention Training was a key finding in the Ostling trial last year.

The updates come as the department prepares to transition to new leadership. Newly-hired Police Chief Matthew Hamner (pictured) is expected to start Monday. There will be a public swearing-in ceremony and reception for Hamner at 7 p.m. June 20 at City Hall. Interim Public Safety Director Larry Dickerson has led the department since last summer and will assist with the transition.

LEMAP Response – Working Document 6-6-13 (2) by tsooter

Here’s the Bainbridge Islander preview for June 7. Feel free to give your events a plug in the comment section below.

Bainbridge Island is one of three Kitsap cities hosting National Marina Day festivities Saturday. Similar Marina Day  recognitions will take place across the country this weekend.

Events are scheduled at Waterfront Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. One unique activity planned for Eagle Harbor is an “anchoring with a local” workshop. Boaters will partner with an island mariner to learn how to anchor in 30 feet of water.

Back of Beyond Outfitters will offer a free “small boat mess-about” all day. There will be a rodeo for small non-motorized boats, demonstrations, and canoe tours of the harbor. Participants can bring their own craft or rent one on-site.

Other Marina Day activities will include free vessel examinations, a flare demonstration, sailboat rides, ROV hull inspections and rigging lessons.

Eagle Harbor also welcomed a special guest this week. MV Lotus (pictured above) is anchored off the Harbour Marina. Lotus will be on hand this weekend and on June 15-16 for the Bainbridge Wooden Boat Festival, according to the Lotus page on Facebook. Lotus was launched in 1909 and has plied Puget Sound and the Inside Passage for more than a century.

(Tad Sooter photos)

A Bainbridge driver whose Dodge Sprinter van wound up in a ditch on Henderson Road on May 30 told police he’d been run off the street by Ford F-150. The driver was able to provide a description of the suspects. He told police there were two men in the truck and they both looked like “hillbillies.”

The blotter is below: Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the Bainbridge Islander preview for May 31. Feel free to give your events a plug in the comment section below.

The city has money to spend on Waterfront Park, thanks to a settlement from Washington State Ferries. Now it’s up to islanders to decide how to spend it.

The city and Sustainable Bainbridge will host two community meetings in June to discuss renovation plans for the downtown Winslow park. The first meeting is scheduled for 1:30-4:30 p.m. Saturday at Waterfront Park Community Center.

Participants can join a walking tour of the park at 12:30 p.m., before the start of the meeting. The stroll will be led by Dan Burden of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, who is helping facilitate the outreach event.

There are sure to be many visions for the park. The uplands and shoreline are enjoyed by walkers, picnickers, concert-goers, rowers, day sailors, kayakers and visiting boaters, to name just a few regular user groups. The city’s advisory Harbor Commission has already presented a proposal for an expanded city dock.

The Saturday meeting, dubbed “What could it be?”, is intended to be a brainstorming session. The second meeting – “How should we design it?” – is scheduled for June 30.

(Top photo by Meegan Reid)

A street sign for Sasquatch Lane off Sunrise Drive was reported missing from its post May 26. Perhaps not coincidentally, the four-day  Sasquatch! music festival opened at the Gorge Amphitheatre on May 24. The investigating officer speculated overzealous concert-goers may have swiped the sign to take on their road trip.

The blotter is below:

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the Bainbridge Islander preview for May 24. Feel free to give your events a plug in the comment section below.

Spring seems to be park project planning season.

The park board approved concept plans for a playground at Schel Chelb Park last week. It also held a public hearing for a project to replace the dock at Hidden Cove Park and make small improvements to the uplands. Comments can be sent to Perry Barrett – perry@biparks.org – through May 28.

The public dock on Port Madison is getting a little long in the tooth, to put it lightly. Popular with kayakers, dog walkers and bored teens, the dock has become rickety and rotted in places. The float also grounds out regularly at low tide, a no-no in the eyes of state permitting agencies.

Here’s a rough synopsis of the two options the district is considering: Read the rest of this entry »

Street of the Week: Day Road

Location: Runs east/west between Manzanita Road and Sunrise Drive

History: This year marks Eugene Leonard Day’s 137th birthday on May 28. Born and raised in Michigan, Day was drawn to the water early; he and his brother would often take their sailboat out on Lake Michigan. Day was just 12 when he headed to eastern Washington where his family grew wheat near Coulee City.

Day arrived on Bainbrdige Island in 1904 and settled in the wilderness across from Wilkes School on the corner of what is now Day Road (hence the name) and Madison Avenue.

He married fellow islander Maybel Parker and together they had five children: Ernest, born in 1905; Alice, born in 1908; Doris, born 1911; Truman, born 1915; and Walter, born 1920.

To support his growing family, Day used all that Bainbridge Island had to offer. He grew strawberries, farmed a bit and operated a shingle mill. He cut cedar and hauled it to the Port Madison Mill. Later in life, he used masonry skills learned from his father to design and construct some of the area’s finest stonework structures.

In his spare time, Eugene built and maintained a conservatory on his family’s property. By the time of his death in 1969, he had more than 200 subtropical and tropical plants, many of which he’d grown himself. His groves included luscious pineapples and bananas — unlikely fare in deed for the Pacific Northwest!

This occasional Islander series explores the history of island street names, as compiled by Elinor Ringland and fellow Bainbridge Island Historical Society volunteers.  If you have an island road story to share, email Ringland at elinorjoe@msn.com.