Bainbridge Conversation

Dear Friends,

Rachel is leaving the building for a week. I’m taking spring break to shop around for colleges for our BHS junior twins, clean house and make sure everything’s going OK in the life of my family’s monumentally spoiled cat, Stu.

I have a big Bainbridge scoop in Sunday’s paper; don’t miss it.

When I return, I plan on organizing a blog get-together. I’ve taken all of your suggestions to heart and I wish to incorporate them. I hope to entice my old friend Phillip Boucher to help lead us. The Sun’s Web editor, Lloyd Pritchett, my husband, will be on hand, along with others who can make your dreams and my dreams for this site come true.

Warmly,

Rachel

By Rachel Pritchett

Development may be grinding ahead on Bainbridge Island, but if a group of tree advocates has its way, drivers on Highway 305 won’t see much of it.

Under the Bainbridge Treeway project, local volunteers will join arborists Jim Trainer of Kitsap Trees and Olaf Ribeiro Sunday morning to plant 400 tree seedlings along part of the busy corridor that connects the Winslow ferry terminal to the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas.

“We wanted that screen back; that was part of the charm of our highway,” said Ribeiro, who lives on Bainbridge Island.

Development projects and maintenance of trenches and utility-line clearances all have taken a toll on state rights of way along the highway, Trainer explained, pointing to a recent signal installation at Madison Avenue that cost quite a few trees.

The group, also expected to have representatives from the Association of Bainbridge Communities and local high-schoolers, will plant the 18- to 24-inch Douglas fir, Sitka spruce and Western red cedar seedlings along both sides of the highway from High School Road to Madison. It’s not as much work as it seems, according to Trainer. One cut into the earth — maybe two with the spruce — and heeling them in is all it takes.
The work should be finished in two hours.

“This is the first time that we’re going to do a major beautification project,” Ribeiro said.

The volunteers will be planting in 25- to 30-foot swaths 10 to 15 feet off the highway, placing firs in the higher, drier areas and the others down low where it’s moist, Trainer said. They’ll plant far enough off the road that the trees would still stand should the two-lane highway ever be widened, Ribeiro said.

Sunday’s work is the first of three phases that when completed in a year will feature young, growing trees for several miles along Highway 305 from Winslow to the Agate Pass Bridge. The 2-year-old seedlings were donated by Hood Canal Nursery. Trainer hopes to eventually add some legacy tree seedlings to the project, including those from the cedars made famous in David Guterson’s book “Snow Falling on Cedars.”
Both say the state Department of Transportation is on board with the project.

Trainer and company have a similar project along Highway 3 in Central and North Kitsap, where some already have been planted. He’s also done a project near the Warren Avenue Bridge in Bremerton, and hopes for another in Illahee.
Ribeiro has his eyes on future projects on Bainbridge.

“High School Road could really do with some more plantings,” he said. And so could Winslow Way, once the Winslow Tomorrow improvements are in place, he said.

Meanwhile, both men remained concerned about the century-old cedar “Witness Tree” at the planned Japanese-American internment memorial at Pritchard Park on Bainbridge Island. Winter storms eroded dirt away from underneath the tree, which is on the National Register of Historic Trees. While they had hoped to convince the city to shore up the area, they now hope to excavate the towering tree and move it upland with a crane. They’ll soon propose that to the city, Trainer said.

Meanwhile, volunteers are invited to join in Sunday’s planting. Show up at 8 a.m. at the Highway 305 McDonald’s at High School Road.

“It’s going to be a tremendous event,” said Trainer, who estimates he’s planted 10,000 trees on Bainbridge in the past decade.

By Rachel Pritchett

Bainbridge Island and Uganda are literally a world apart. But they have a common thread. People here and there both want to dig water wells in the improverished, war-torn rural villages of northern Uganda.

For several years, they have, through a highly unusual and remarkably successful Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island program.

About to board the plane for the long journey to the African nation are Bainbridge Rotarians Steve Bentley and Pete Cholometes, who will check how the 33 wells installed under the club’s Uganda Water Project are performing. They’ll also hobnob with the local movers and shakers to arrange for more. Some 95 wells are planned in all, according to Cholometes, a retired Air Force lifer. The men will return May 12.
In between will be lots of work in the hot, burning sun in villages in Uganda’s Kaberamaido District, north of Lake Victoria and south of Sudan.

Without wells, women and children must walk miles a day to lakes, where they risk disease if they stand on shore to dip their containers into the muddy water, or death if they wade out farther, where there are alligators and snakes. Adding to their wrenching plight have been AIDS and marauders from Sudan, who have overrun their villages, killing young and old.

“At nighttime, I’m not going to walk around lots,” Bentley said.

Massaging relationships with the locals will be just as important for the men as checking on the wells.

Bainbridge Rotarians go yearly to corruption-plagued Uganda, networking with people they can trust to keep the life-saving wells operating when they’re not there.
“This is all part of our process of truly building a complete solution,” Bentley said.

Some trusted locals are businessmen and village leaders — some even have the ear of Uganda’s leader, Yoweri Museveni.

The Bainbridge Rotarians receive support from higher levels of Rotary all the way up to Rotary International, along with support from other groups.

Once club members identify a site, they form a local water district whose members help oversee it. The actual drilling is done by a trusted Ugandan who often must penetrate hundreds of feet of nearly impermeable bedrock. It costs about $5,400 for each well, Bentley said.

It doesn’t take long after the well is running to see vast improvements in village life, both men said. Mothers no longer have to spend most of their time getting water. They can tend to their families and work at jobs. The children become healthier and more lively. Dozens — hundreds — work the pump handle every day.
“You’ve changed people’s lives,” Bentley said.

The club’s Uganda Water Program got its start with member Joanne Croghan. Once a resident of Africa, she was behind a club effort to install a well in the Ugandan village of Ochero in 2002. That launched the program that today has captured national and international attention. Bentley, who works very hard work at his paint business, says he’s looking forward to living life on “Uganda time” for a while.

“I get to lose my circles under my eyes; I get to come back refreshed,” he said.
Said Cholometes, “This is giving back to humanity what I’ve been given in my life.”

Obituary

Isami Nakao

Aug. 24, 1914 TO March 24, 2006

Isami (Sam) Nakao, 91, of Bainbridge Island died March 24.

He was born to Torazo and Kuma Nakao on Bainbridge Island. He graduated from Bainbridge High School in 1932. He worked on the family strawberry farm, at a salmon cannery in Alaska and at Town & Country Market. He also was a steward aboard a passenger liner and a cowboy. He married Kazuko (Kay) Sakai in 1943 in Minidoka, Idaho. Mr. Nakao enjoyed mushroom hunting, salmon fishing with his friends and family, and working in his gardens.

He was preceded in death by his brother, sisters and daughter, Anne. He is survived by his wife on Bainbridge Island; sons, Bruce (Marilynn) and Bill (Pam); grandchildren, Zachary and Eric Nick; and special friend, Butch Lundin.

Service: Family celebration of life. Donations: Helpline House of Bainbridge Island or Bainbridge Island Firefighters’ Association. Arrangements: Kass & Cook Funeral Home.

It’s the weekend. Hey, you guys, I’m posting your comments as fast as I can!!! Take a deep breath and count to 10, Jim, then hit send!!! Thank you sincerely all for your responses. This blog is the most-read source for news, comments and features here on Bainbridge and it’s in part due to you.

Here’s what’s up this weekend:

Turn you clocks ahead Saturday night before retiring
It’s SAT time for lots of you juniors Saturday morning. Good Luck!
Last weekend for “Gypsy”
* First Sunday at The Commons features classical guitarist Michael Partington (Did you guys know I can play classical guitar?)

Look to your Islander today for the rest.

Rachel

This from my longtime colleague Chris Dunagan, on new legislative rules to help local authorities get rid of abandoned and derelict boats. I know our local harbormaster and harbor commission are rolling up their sleeves. Stay tuned.

Rachel

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Dear Friends,

My daughters, myself and my husband — probably your family, too — are sad at the news of the death of Ali Ornelas. She was only 16.

Over the years, I remember AIi, round-faced, petite, dark-complexioned, always smiling.

Our daughters and all of Ali’s friends have held her fast throughout all these years, and we will miss her very much.

Rachel

Friends,

The city’s issued a statement saying that beginning Monday, Taylor Avenue in Eagledale will be closed starting Monday and continuing through July, as work on the internment memorial gets under way.

If you’re visiting the emerging Pritchard Park, best bet is to park at the easternmost edge, off Creosote. You can access the beach from there.

Rachel

By Rachel Pritchett

The Rev. Brooks Andrews was just a boy during World War II when his father, pastor of Seattle’s Japanese Baptist Church, ministered to people of Japanese descent on their way to internment.

Andrews shared his recollections with a rapt crowd of about 300 at a blessing and dedication ceremony of the Nidoto Nai Yoni “Let it Not Happen Again” Memorial on a chilly Thursday morning at Pritchard Park.

His father, the Rev. Emery Andrews, rode the ferry to Bainbridge Island many times to take the children of strawberry-raising families on outings and minister to their families.

But on March 30, 1942, 227 island residents of Japanese ancestry were forced to board the ferry at the former Eagledale dock at the memorial site. They were the first in the nation to be taken from their homes. They arrived first at Manzanar in California, and later, Minidoka in Idaho.

Suddenly, his father lost his congregation.

“Our reason for being here was gone,” Andrews told the crowd from a tented platform on which several other men of faith were seated in the ecumenical ceremony. His father divided the Broadway Avenue church’s gym floor into 10-foot-squares, helping as best he could to gather internees’ belongings, organize them, keep them.

In the end, the Andrews moved to Twin Falls near Minidoka to be near their imprisoned worshipers. Emery Andrews was thrown out of a cafe there for dealing with them. He made 56 trips between Twin Falls and Seattle, gathering internees’ belongings. He was refused gas along the way, his son said.

So it went with the speakers at the site that in five to 10 years will hold a $5 million memorial to include an interpretative center, pier and story wall. Work starts this weekend, and Taylor Avenue will be closed beginning Monday through July.

Speakers remembered Bainbridge journalists Walt and Millie Woodward, who editorialized against the internment. They recalled other periods of oppression.
“Our most important tool is vision — vision of a better day,” said Rabbi Mark Glickman of Kol Shalom congregation of Bainbridge Island.

An Islamic religious leader mentioned what he perceived as oppression against Muslims and Iraqis in this country in the name of fighting terrorism.
“Unfortunately, it is happening again,” he said.

A Shinto priest walked about, sprinkling sake and confetti on rocks, trees and on the ground while chanting.
A moving moment in the hour-long event was an appearance by Jim Pratt, a Suquamish Tribe elder and great-great grandson of Chief Seattle. Dressed in a ceremonial hat, he banged a drum and sang, his words cutting cleanly through the still air and echoing off the hillside.

At 11:03 a.m., the exact moment 64 years ago when the island’s people of Japanese descent boarded the ferry, the oldest members of that community were asked to stand.

“This is the moment you left and this is the moment you are home,” ceremony host Clarence Moriwaki told them. Among them was was former internee Kazuko Kay Nakao, whose husband, Sam, also a former internee, died last Friday. They were married while at Minidoka.

Mayor Darlene Kordonowy said later, “It’s great to be here and be witness with everyone who is here.”

Chris Snow, a City Council member, said, “I think it’s important for us to commemorate significant events in our community — the ones we are proud of and the ones we are not proud of — because it is our identity.”

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, contacted in Washington, D.C., said his office continues to work on naming the memorial as a satellite of what’s now the Minidoka National Internment Monument.

He said today’s ceremony reminded him of a conversation he’d had with a former World War II Navy radioman who’d intercepted wartime signals from the Pacific at a Bainbridge Island facility. The man told Inslee he’d asked for time off to help his friends and neighbors pack for internment.

“That’s an important part of the story, too,” Inslee said.

By Rachel Pritchett

Officials from Bainbridge Island School District announced early this morning that Alexandria Ornelas, 16, was discovered dead by her father when he came home from work at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The Bainbridge Island Police Department confirmed the death, stating the father found Alexandria, known by friends as Ali, lying on the floor and unresponsive. He was unable to revive her and called 911.

Personnel from the Bainbridge Island Fire Department and Police Department responded, but life-saving attempts were not successful, according to police. The father said his daughter had been ill the last few days and been treated by a doctor earlier in the week.

The family later Thursday issued a statement through police that Alexandria died of heart problems. She had a long history of heart ailments.

Brent Peterson, principal at Bainbridge High School, where Ornelas was a junior, said teachers were informed when they arrived this morning, and that students were informed by them during first-period classes.

“This is a very sad day at Bainbridge High School. Alexandria was a wonderful student, quiet but certainly involved within her circle of friends and activities. This is a shock and tragic loss to our community,” Peterson said.

A fine-arts assembly at the high school was canceled; counselors were on hand. No service outside of the family’s arrangements is planned at this time, according to Peterson.

Our own Humanities Inquiry organizers with the Bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities Council have lined up the former governor to speak on China tonight at the Odyssey Maritime Discovery Museum near Colman Dock in Seattle. I have a particular interest in China, having traveled to the remote inner villages last year with a medical mission contingent.

Here’s the scoop:

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Dear friends,

Here’s one Bainbridge business moving to Poulsbo. I’d like to point out that Sound Sports of Seattle also is planning on opening up a second store in Poulsbo, in the building next to Central Market that houses Countrywide, this spring.

For those of us with kids in BHS track and cross-country, Sound Sports is the place we’ve had to spend lots of Saturdays buying speciality shoes. I believe there are three red flags next to Sound Sports on my VISA card. The owner is a North Kitsap guy, so it’s good for him and for us parents, too.

Hey, what ever happened to a $15 pair of tenny runners?

Here’s the Closet Transfer story:

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