A ghost from campaigns past
Daily Archives: October 29, 2009
Supporters say liveaboards are part of island’s heritage, diversity
Plenty of longtime islanders (and a masked man on stilts*) turned out last night to urge the City Council to find a way to preserve Eagle Harbor’s liveaboard community.
“The liveaboards are part of our heritage,” said Kim Esterberg, who lives on land but has organized visits between his yacht club and the anchored-out liveaboards. “Their way of life will be lost.”
Read my full report here
*Never did get a chance to talk to the masked stilt man. He said not a word, and was gone in flash. He was last seen walking in Winslow with long yellow pants and an orange life preserver around his neck.
Bainbridge, get ready for “water refugees”
Rep. Christine Rolfes (D-Bainbridge Island) predicts Western Washington could become magnet for thirsty people from increasinly parched regions.
Plentiful water may fuel local economic development that could be channeled into clean industries, Rolfes said at a recent Kitsap utility managers conference.
“We are one of the places in our country and the world that can really have a sustainable water system,” Rolfes said. “Water in Washington state is our competitive advantage for the future.”
Read more in Chris Dunagan’s report, here.
City hires a specialist in municipal messes
The city approved an interim city manager contract for island resident Lee Walton, who has made a post-retirement career out of helping cities in tough spots.
Six years ago, he helped Bainbridge transition between two city administrators.
He’s parachuted into hairy situations for several cities in Washington, Oregon and California. He’s even built city governments from scratch in Kazakhstan, Estonia and other former communist nations shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Read my story about Walton below.
