Bainbridge Conversation

Readers,

This week, the City Council gave the green light to go ahead with a $20.6 million rebuild of Winslow Way from the highway to Grow Avenue. Work is to start in the spring of 2009. The council also approved, in concept, a funding plan. It calls for half to come from all of the island’s utility ratepayers; the other half to come from the city’s general fund, through the sale of general-obligation bonds. No public vote is planned.

Do you approve of the amount? How about the breakdown? And what about no public vote?

Post your opinions here.

Rachel

Readers,

Tomorrow is the annual Bainbridge Island Environmental Conference, sponsored by the city, parks district and others. Bainbridge Conversation columnist Jon Quitlund plans on being there, and he says he’ll be sharing with us what he’s learned. The all-day event features National Geographic photographer Bill Curtsinger, and it takes place at IslandWood.

Side trips are planned to Mac’s Point at IslandWood and to the emerging Pritchard Park. A water tour of Eagle Harbor is scheduled, as well.

The day is free for students and high-school teachers; $15 for they take the Eagle Harbor tour. The cost to others is $30, or $45 with the Eagle Harbor trip. The contact into is islandwood.org and (206) 855-4300.

A very busy week down at City Hall. Look here later today for more stories.

Rachel
842-4018

I recently had a sizzling experience with a red hot pepper. For many years, I have harvested and handled chili peppers without a problem.

As some of you know, I write a weekly recipe column for a Seattle daily. In those columns, I never fail to tell readers to use gloves when they handle chilies.

I bet you can guess where I am headed here.

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Science of Sports
Explored at Museum
The Kids Discover Museum on Bainbridge Island boasts a new exhibit, “Sportsology,” looking at the science of sports.

The display makes its premiere Saturday, and will stay at the Madison Avenue museum until early January.

Classes, workshops and activities led by physicians, personal trainers and healthy-cooking experts are part of “Sportsology,” intended promote healthy choices and increase body awareness.

Some of the major exhibits include a pitching cage, vertical vault and wheelchair racer.
The exhibit also features hands-on exhibits of the same theme for school children and other young visitors.
Some of the support for the exhibit has come from Harrison Medical Center, Town and Country Markets, Island Fitness and the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council.
For more information, visit www.kidimu.org or call (206) 866-4650.

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TO SUBMIT ITEMS
Items should be sent by 5 p.m. Friday the week before delivery to Jack Swanson at jack.swanson@sounddsl.com or mailed to him at 12620 Manzanita Road NE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110. If sending images, aim for about 250 dots per inch, and high resolution only.

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By Zon Eastes
Executive Director, Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council

The arts mean business.

Those four words are being trumpeted throughout the country, calling attention to recent findings that attest to the energetic and vital economic role that culture plays in American communities. According to a recent study, the arts are about economic vitality and growth. Long gone are the days when one would hear the call “Art for art’s sake,” or even “Art matters.”

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The following items were taken from Bainbridge police records by Jack Swanson.

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To the Editor:
Last Thursday, after putting on makeup in the ladies’ rest room on the Bainbridge ferry, I left my prescription sunglasses on the counter. Just before we docked in Seattle, I realized what I had done and rushed into the area to find my glasses gone. A woman standing across from where I had been said, “I saw who took them, and I can find her … she had a bike helmet.”

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By Rachel Pritchett
rpritchett@kitsapsun.com
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND

Calling it the largest decision she’s made as mayor, Darlene Kordonowy on Wednesday kept a $20.6 million plan to rebuild Winslow Way on schedule by stepping in as the tie-breaker in a split vote by the Bainbridge Island City Council.

The project extends along Winslow Way from Highway 305 to Grow Avenue. The lion’s share of the work includes a massive dig-up of the busy retail and commercial street to replace antiquated and failing water and sewer lines. Some $2 million goes toward practical aesthetics like quality resurfacing and wider sidewalks.

“I stand for making a difference in this community,” Kordonowy said to strong applause from the audience at City Hall, packed with some 70 people.

The plan moves the project into the final-design phase and also contains a conceptual framework on who’s going to pay.

The money part was met with far less enthusiasm.

Roughly half would be paid from the city’s general fund through bonding. No public vote is called for.

The other half is to come from the island’s utility ratepayers. Though nothing has been set in concrete, in-town residents would pay more (about $19 a month) than residents in outlying areas ($10). Earlier complaints about downtown seniors on fixed incomes paying too much resulted in slightly more now coming from the general fund.

Major downtown property owners aren’t included in the plan, at least now.

Voting for the proposal were council members Chris Snow, Kjell Stoknes and Jim Llewellyn. Voting no were Bill Knobloch, Debbie Vancil and Nezam Tooloee. Councilman Bob Scales was absent.

The mayor catapulted the project forward in the face of warnings from her project manager, Christopher Wierzbicki, and others that delay costs money.

But Vancil said she’s concerned that the city’s scraping this big of a chunk of money off the table may have an impact on completion of other city projects. The 2008 budget has even been considered yet, she warned.

It all comes out of my pocket and your pocket and everyone else’s,” she said.
Knobloch said the public will end up paying twice, first as utility customers and then through the city’s portion.

“Where’s the public in all this?” he asked.

“This is not about the project; it’s about the money.”

Tooloee said he fell off the funding bandwagon some time ago, that more finding alternatives should be considered, and that the city’s half would be better spent on finding new space for parks on this increasing clogged island-city.

Council candidate Curt Winston told members he thought $10 million should be the total price tag. He likened the project as its stands now to the plushy California town of Sausalito. He said it should be put to a public vote.

Environmentalist Sally Adams called it the “super-deluxe version.”

But others in the audience defended the plan.

Resident Howard Kirz called the design and funding visions “reasonable.”

In the end, Kordonowy said she was sorry the council vote to go forward wasn’t unanimous.

And Tooloee objected to her breaking the tie.

“This motion is tantamount to a budget decision,” he said. On that basis, he said, she shouldn’t have done it.

By Rachel Pritchett
rpritchett@kitsapsun.com
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND

Some two dozen citizens, most living in the Azalea Avenue neighborhood near Wing Point Golf and Country Club, now are at Bainbridge Island City Hall to look at fresh information about a proposed 11-home development they have said in that past is not in character with their neighborhood.

The same loafered and well-dressed group, appearing last night before the Bainbridge Island City Council, accused Mayor Darlene Kordonowy of overstepping her authority in helping to bring the issue back from Kitsap County Superior Court, where it was slated to go before a judge, to city Hearing Examiner Meredith Getches.

The hearing examiner earlier turned down a conditional-use permit needed for the project.

The project is called Wing Point Patio Homes. The club and its developer, Capstone Partners, are proposing to build 11 closely placed homes on a thin strip of the land just less than four acres that is adjacent to the golf course. The club in past years had wanted to place a golf driving range on its land there. That, too, was turned down by the hearing examiner.

A ravine with a Class 4 stream borders the strip on the east, and is a critical area. At issue is the exact location of the western “top of the slope” that leads down to the stream. That line determines how far the homes must be set back to create a buffer to protect the stream.

Getches earlier denied the request, saying that the club and its developer failed to provide enough information on exactly were that line was.

The matter was appealed to Kitsap County Superior Court, which in recent weeks remanded back to the city hearing examiner.

Last night, neighbors and City Hall watchers accused Kordonowy of using a new city ordinance to facilitate the remand, thereby giving the developers another change. Others accused her of trying to avoid more lawsuits against the city.

Kordonowy strenuously denied that.

The ordinance in question allowed her to settle lawsuits of $50,000 or less.

The mayor, said City Hall watcher Lin Kamer Walker, is now in the business of making land-use decisions.

“The outcome is that a transparent public process has been subverted,” she said.

In signing the remand “was unlawful and should be invalidated,” said Azalea Way resident Karla Smith.

“Public confidence has been shaken,” said her husband, Michael.

Neighbor Andy Peters demanded the law that allows the mayor to settle lawsuits of $50,000 or less be rescinded.

“It allows the mayor to circumvent the judicial process,” he told a grim-faced mayor.

City Attorney Paul McMurray came to the mayor’s rescue. The city’s only settled a handful of suits, he said. It now has about 32 suits against it that aren’t getting settled.

“We don’t settle many of those cases at all,” he said.

Kordonowy said, “There is not a violation of due process.”

This morning, the same group reappeared at City Hall as the hearing examiner received the remand and began to receive more information in the case. The morning centered on additional explanation on how “the top of the ravine” was determined. This afternoon, neighbors are slated to deliver their opinions.

The hearing examiner is expected to rule again on the conditional-use permit in several weeks.

THANK YOU, READERS.

Tonight, the city council makes one of its biggest decisions in recent years by authorizing the $20.6 million Winslow dig to proceed, along with a funding mechanism.
It also hears from Wing Point neighbors opposed to an 11-home development the hearing examiner at first denied. It was taken to superior court and remanded, with the help of the mayor. Also, the council approves restrictions on placing political signs in rights of way. And … the goat girl was back.

Good night, and look for my stories soon.

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Readers,

The Bainbridge Island City Council takes on a heavy agenda this evening, with a decision expected on a long-argued-over proposed ordinance to limit political signs in rights of ways. We can expect some comment from well-known members of the public involved in this.

And, expect more discussion on proposed revisions to the Critical Areas Ordinance, as well.

Workshops start at 5:30 p.m.; I’ll be blogging live beginning at 7 p.m. I hope you’ll join in the conversation.

Rachel
842-4018