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

We’re revamping our Friday blog post to feature more Islander content. Here is the Bainbridge Islander preview for April 19.

Shooting for the stars | The Bainbridge High School Rocket Team celebrates a successful first season.

Locals respond to the Boston tragedy | Bainbridge Island runners witnessed the destruction of the Boston Marathon bombings first-hand. See an islander’s photos here.

School closure grows more likely | Two of the three proposed options from the School Configuration Committee would result in closing a school.

Sailors excel in Dyes Inlet | Photos from the Silverdale Regatta capture the excitement of sailing without the windburn.

Coming Up: The park district prepares for an overhaul of its flagship baseball fields. Find more Bainbridge news on the Bainbridge Islander page.

A sunny view of Eagle Harbor from Pritchard Park on Tuesday. Click and drag the image to scroll around. Continue reading →

Elisabeth Kramer joins us as the new editor of the Bainbridge Islander this week.  Here’s a column from Beth introducing herself (or, more accurately, reintroducing herself) to the island:

It’s fitting I’d come back to Bainbridge. Years ago, my parents built a home here, the home a newborn me returned to after my very first ferry ride. All the photos of my early childhood come from this island, including a particularly festive snapshot of a toddler me dwarfed by a giant pumpkin on Winslow Way.

Although my family ended up leaving, it seems Bainbridge wasn’t done with us yet. After growing up in Portland, attending the University of Oregon and working for publications covering social and rural issues, an adult me returns as the new managing editor of the Bainbridge Islander.

David Nelson, editor of the Kitsap Sun and editorial director for the Islander, is still here to answer any concerns you have about the publication (dnelson@kitsapsun.com). And Tad Sooter, our reporter, will keep on writing, tweeting (@BIConversation) and Facebooking (friend Bainbridge Islander).

You’ll want to turn to me if you have any suggestions or questions about the Islander. Just shoot me an email at elisabeth.kramer@kitsapsun.com. Enjoy this week’s Islander and look forward to more stories ahead.

Bainbridge Conversation readers,

When it comes to covering Bainbridge Island, I’ve joked with some of my colleagues that I should have cut back on all the journalism in college and spent more time studying law and hydrogeology. That’s because the big stories on Bainbridge often feature one or both of these topics, and having a better understanding of their complexities would have served me well during the eight years I’ve reported on the island.

Well, now I get my chance.

I’m shipping off to Boulder, Colo. to study those very things – plus a whole lot more – as a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado.

It’s an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. The basic idea is the university throws its doors open and lets me and the other four fellows take whatever classes will make us better environmental reporters. I’m planning on studying environmental sciences, environmental law, and I may try and squeeze in some writing and photojournalism courses. I’ll also attend conferences, go on field trips, participate in fellowship seminars and work on a research project.

With the other fellows hailing from the Los Angeles Times, Spokesman-Review and Associated Press New Delhi bureau, I can tell you that I’m still pinching myself that they let in a kid from the Kitsap Sun.

Speaking of the Sun, the paper has been amazingly supportive every step of the way, and have pledged to take me back when the fellowship ends in May.

I’m leaving the Bainbridge beat in the talented and highly-capable hands of Tad Sooter, whose byline has been appearing regularly in the Bainbridge Islander and Kitsap Sun. He’s worked for the Bainbridge Island Review, North Kitsap Herald and was the editor of the Kingston Community News.

I’ve admired Tad’s work for years, and I’m glad the Sun’s readers will be seeing more of his stories and photos.

You can read Sun editor David Nelson’s column about my departure and Tad’s new role here.

Please welcome Tad as he takes over this blog, and begins his rounds around the island. You can reach him at tad.sooter@gmail.com

Bye for now,

-Tristan

Like everything and everyone else (including your grandma and your five-year-old niece), the Bainbridge Islander is now on Facebook.

Unlike this blog, which gets updated once or twice a week (or month), our Facebook page has news updates, links, photos and non-anonymous reader discussions about all things Bainbridge each and every day (except on weekends, and sometimes not on Fridays or when we’re really busy on deadlines).

Get there by following this link: http://www.facebook.com/BainbridgeIslander

You can also find it by entering “Bainbridge Islander” in the Facebook search box.

Oh, and it only works if you’ve setup a personal Facebook account. Might as well if you haven’t already. Your mom, your boss, your ex, your kid’s soccer coach and that guy you sat next to in 10th grade chemistry class are already there, waiting for you. Fun times. Besides, how else are you going to know what that chemistry class guy thinks about the chicken teriyaki salad he just ate?