Bainbridge Conversation

The Bainbridge park district took advantage of the sunshine Wednesday to celebrate the opening of Hilltop trail and park. The trail, which links east and west portions of Grand Forest, has been enjoyed by hikers since winter. The park district also renovated a house on the property for classroom and event space.

“This has been a dream for us for a long time,” park board Chair Tom Swolgaard said of the Grand Forest trail connection.

Bainbridge Island Land Trust reminded attendees that fundraising for the project continues. The Land Trust agreed to purchase 36 acres in the Hilltop area for $3.6 million. Eight acres were obtained by the park district for the trail and classroom space. The Land Trust has $360,000 left to raise.

“A lot of people think we’re done and are out there enjoying it,” Land Trust Executive Director Hallie Stevens said last week. “We want to let them know there is still work left to do.”

Here’s a map of the Hilltop trail, courtesy the Land Trust:

Hilltop Trail Map by tsooter

A long-awaited septic upgrade is underway at Fay Bainbridge Park this week. The $57,000 project will replace the park’s old and fragmented septic systems with a single system less prone to flooding.

Two new drain fields have been dug into the berm above the beach and will serve all the buildings in the park.

The park remains open, though it may be closed to vehicle traffic intermittently during the project.

The park district is shutting down its trailer dump service at the park because the new septic system is not designed to handle chemicals from recreational vehicles. The district recommends RV campers use other Kitsap dump facilities including nearby Eagle Tree RV Park in Poulsbo.

Fay Bainbridge was once in line for a much grander and wastewater treatment plant while it was still a state park. Those plans never materialized. The contract for the new septic system was awarded to Northwest Cascade Inc. last month.

For more information, contact Mike Mejia at (206) 842-3931 or mike@biparks.org. The district is also seeking input from Fay Bainbridge users with a beach ecology survey.

Park officials are concerned by rapid shoreline erosion at Fort Ward, and it’s easy to see why in this aerial image from Google. The bank has crept unnervingly close to the northwest corner of the barracks, seen in the top left corner of this photo.

The park district says armoring the shoreline would be challenging and very expensive. Moving the building would also cost a bundle and it’s not clear whether the wood-framed structure would survive relocation. Doing nothing is no longer an option however, as winter storms and King Tides continue to eat away at the bank.

“If we’re going to save them, we need a process in place to save them,” park district Executive Director Terry Lande said of the barracks Thursday. (more…)

Orcas swim south through Puget Sound between Fay Bainbridge Park and Ballard at about 3 p.m. Monday. (Tad Sooter photos). Here’s Chris Dunagan’s story on what the whales were up to.

A large pod of orca whales put on a show off the east side of Bainbridge Island Monday — albeit a show best enjoyed with binoculars. The whales appeared to be cruising midway between the island and the mainland.

The Orca Network relayed reports of the whales off Point No Point late in the morning. They were spotted off Jefferson Head and Fay Bainbridge Park at about 1 p.m. By 4 p.m. the whales were between Elliott Bay and Eagle Harbor, and still swimming south. Facebook users reported seeing the whales from the 4:40 p.m. Seattle ferry.

Though they stayed far from shore, the whales caused a stir along the waterfront. A few families enjoyed whale watching with binoculars from the beach at Fay Bainbridge in the afternoon and a float plane (left) zipped low overhead, making a bee line for the pod. KING5 even followed the whales live with a helicopter for a while.

If nothing else, it was a good excuse to head for the beach on a spectacular October day.

If you snapped some whale photos Monday, please share them with us. You can email Tad at tad.sooter@gmail.com or post them on the Bainbridge Islander page on Facebook.

A newly-unveiled design image provides a good hint at what it will be like to walk through the ‘Welcome to Bainbridge’ park planned for the island’s busiest intersection.

Read more about the park planning effort here.

And head down below to see more of the park.

What do you think of the design?

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The lowest tide I’ve ever seen at Blakely Harbor revealed some interesting remnants of the Port Blakely mill town that bustled in the harbor a century ago.

On Wednesday, a rarely-seen blanket of water-logged lumber was visible on large portion of Blakely Harbor Park’s beach. Not sure why it forms a zig-zag pattern. Any ideas?

Head down below to see a few more low-tide curiosities.

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Here’s a batch of Milt Priggee’s comic takes on the Bainbridge city manager search, plastic bag ban, Winslow Way-Highway 305 park project and the reputation of Bainbridge police.

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UPDATE: Most of the sewage was contained in a nearby wetland. The city and sewer plant operator plan to pump out the sewage on Monday. Click here for our latest story on the spill.

Public health officials are warning people to steer clear of Tani Creek and Blakely Harbor Park’s beach after sewage leaked into a wetland near the Fort Ward sewage treatment plant.

Here’s our report from yesterday.

The wetland, which sits next to a public trail, connects to Tani, which flows into Blakely.

The state Dept. of Ecology warned that “contact with fecal contaminated waters can result in gastroenteritis, skin rashes, upper respiratory infections and other illnesses. Children and the elderly may be more vulnerable to waterborne illnesses.”

The Kitsap Public Health District has taken water samples from Tani and Blakely to see how far the contamination spread from the wetland. Results were expected today, but it looks like we’ll have to wait until Thursday afternoon for confirmation the sewage spread beyond the wetland.

Sewer district board member Sarah Lee estimates between 3,000 and 5,000 gallons of partially-treated sewage leaked from a hole in a 40,000-gallon tank.

The cause of the hole is not yet known, but it doesn’t appear it was punctured or damaged by force.

The health district isn’t sure how the mess will be cleaned up – if at all. The sewer district pumped out some of the sewage from their grounds on Friday, shortly after the leak was discovered.

On Monday, the health district discovered the sewage had traveled out of the treatment plant property and into the wetland, which is down-slope of the plant.

It appeared much of the sewage was caught and partially contained by a “log jam” in the wetland, according to health district water specialist Stuart Whitford.

Water test results will guide next steps. Cleaning the mess could include pumping out portions of the wetland. If the testing shows relatively low levels of contamination, the health district and Ecology officials may take a hands-off approach.

I’m off for the next two days, so look for environmental reporter Chris Dunagan’s followup story on the testing results.

The group of islanders working to transform the former Unocal gas station lot into a public park has set its first public participation meeting for Feb. 16.

The meeting, which starts at Bainbridge Commons (370 Brien Drive) at 7 p.m., is aimed at gathering ideas for the 1-acre park’s design.

The group got the City Council’s OK on Wednesday to begin the planning process after they promised to foot the entire $300,000 park-building bill.

The site is at the southwest corner of the Winslow Way-Highway 305 intersection. It has sat vacant and surrounded by a fence since 1989.

The group, which calls itself the Bainbridge Park Task Force, considers the site an eyesore, and provides a poor welcome to visitors unloading from the ferry or streaming into Winslow from the highway.

For more information, see their blog here.

PHOTO: Tristan Baurick

Here’s Tad Sooter’s story about Island Cooperative Preschool’s effort to plant 50 fir trees at Meigs Park. The school is in the process of earning “Eco School” status from the National Wildlife Federation.

Bainbridge preschoolers replant island park
By Tad Sooter

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – A few years from now the freshly planted Douglas fir seedlings at Meigs Park will be the size of Christmas trees. The children who planted them, meanwhile, will still be in elementary school.

Bundled up in fuzzy hats and rubber boots, students from Island Cooperative Preschool planted 50 firs at the park Nov. 19, with the help of their parents and tree specialist Jim Trainer.

The children were performing a community service by replanting a clearing recently stripped of invasive Scotch broom. But this was more than a work party. Parents and teachers also hope activities like the tree planting will help the children build an appreciation of the environment at a young age.

“It’s really important to get kids out and doing something real in nature, so they’ll grow up to be stewards of the earth,” teacher Ellen Carleson said.

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I called up city Road Ends Committee chairwoman Bitsy Ostenson last week to chat about the rumor that someone had built a deck and stairwell on the Pleasant Lane road end, a narrow strip of property intended for public beach access.

Turns out the rumor was true. Ostenson isn’t happy about the private use of public land, and is a bit nonplussed about the city’s reticence to do anything about it.

But this is not nearly the only island road end that needs attention, she said.

A big one in her mind is the North Street road end on Agate Point. It’s the only public access point to the beach where a rare rock carving has sat facing Indianola for some 1,500 to 3,000 years.

Known as the Haleelts petroglyph, it confounded Bainbridge’s first white settlers and appears to be a mystery even to local tribes, said Bainbridge historian Jerry Elfendahl.

“Its origins are unknown to the Suquamish or anyone,” Elfendahl wrote in an essay about the petroglyph.

The petroglyph is grown over with barnacles but it’s periodically cleaned up to reveal what looks to be faces and human figures.

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Steve Romein and his wife Ty Cramer earned a special commendation from the Bainbridge Historic Preservation Commission for their work rehabilitating the Lynwood Center building and preserving two south Bainbridge farms.

“Steve and Ty have set an excellent example for other developers to follow and made our community a better place in which to live,” the city commission said in a statement after awarding the couple the commission’s first Blakely Award for preservation leadership. The commission plans to give the award on an annual basis.

The commission also recognized the Bainbridge park district with a Blakely Award in the “project of excellence” category for its work to restore the cabin at Camp Yeomalt Park.

In 2007, Romein and Cramer began pouring money into fixing up and expanding the decaying Lynwood Center building in a manner that fit its 1930s-era Tudor style.

“In their renovation efforts, Ty and Steve chose to do so in a way that it would retain its original historic integrity,” the commission said. “The Lynwood Center neighborhood has been revitalized by their efforts.”

Early this year, Romein and Cramer purchased an Old Mill Road farm with the goal of preserving it as farmland and to develop a trail connecting to other public pathways. They also plan to rehabilitate two 19th-century farmhouses on the property.

The pair then purchased an even larger farm that island preservation groups have had their eye on for years. Romein and Cramer plan to put farmers to work on the land, develop a farming education program with nearby Blakely Elementary and set aside a portion as preserved open space.

You can read my profile of Steve Romein here.