Tag Archives: Winslow Way

Letter: “Winslow Way plan aids water quality”

Island resident Greg Bedinger writes this week to praise aspects of the Winslow Way revamp that will improve storm and waste water lines:

I would like to weigh in on the current round of chatter concerning the infrastructure improvements slated for Winslow Way on Bainbridge Island. Others are challenging the arguments against proceeding based on costs, timing, disruption, and grants vs. no grants, ad infinitum! I wish to be on the record as a supporter of the project.

I find it simply amazing that there would be such hesitation to implement a project that will clearly improve the quality of water entering Eagle Harbor by way of upgraded storm and waste water lines. The Puget Sound Partnership recognizes that one of the greatest threats to our quality of life is the rapidly degrading quality (read polluted) of the water entering the Sound by way of overburdened and failing storm water systems. Add to this the deteriorating conditions of municipal sewage lines and it does not take a rocket scientist to recognize that we continue to sully our own backyard by delaying these important improvements.

All the residents of Puget Sound, shoreline and upland, rural and urban, share a responsibility for acting in the best interests of all, not just the few. The Winslow Way improvements are a much-needed response to an urgent call for action for each of us to contribute in a timely way to improving water quality in Puget Sound, thus ensuring a living and vibrant resource for all of us now and for the generations that follow.
–Greg Bedinger

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Snow and blackouts are only the latest problems for Winslow merchants

Doug Tolliver, a “A Shovel 4 Hire,” escorts a Winslow shopper over an icy crosswalk on Monday. Find more photos here

Shoppers squinted and blinked as they entered Lindsleys clothing store on Monday afternoon.

Somewhere among the darkened clothing racks Tom Lindsley was voicing a welcome to them. Most customers needed a few seconds to let their eyes adjust from the glare of Winslow’s snowy streets to the dim of the unlit store.

“Right now all we have is daylight,” said Lindsley, who co-owns the 17-year-old store store with his wife. “And a few flashlights people will hopefully use.”

Lindsleys was one of many downtown shops already struggling under a sluggish economy. The winter snow storm and resulting power outage made a bad situation worse.

And while the Christmas season was anticipated as a happy ending to a tough year, many stores found the snow kept many holiday spenders at home.

“The combination of the weather and the economy really makes things messy,” Lindsley said. “It hurts a lot. Our (sales) are way down. And we’ll have to close early because it’s getting harder to see in here.”

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City (finally) passes 2009 budget

It wasn’t easy, but they finally did it.

The City Council has wrangled for months over the 2009 budget, sometimes subjecting themselves to 12-hour budget meetings to hash out the details.

The budget was contentious up to the last minute, with Councilman Bill Knobloch again proposing a delay for the Winslow Way project. In the end, the budget squeaked by with a 4-3 vote.

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Step on a crack, get $25 back

Island resident Rod Stevens sent me and a lot of other people an email today asking for photos depicting dangerous sidewalk cracks along Winslow Way.

He’s offered to give a $25 reward for every potential hip-cracking crack.

As I get old and lose some of my faculties, I get ever more worried about falling down.  I’ve just come back from doing some errands in downtown Winslow, and mindful of those dangerous cracks that are so talked about by our council majority, I kept my eyes wide open as I walked the sidewalks first down one side of the street and then back the other.  It must be my eyesight, but I couldn’t see any of these dangerous things.  Therefore, I offer this reward of $25, my deductible on a visit to Tom’s Clinic, for anyone who will help me by pointing out these dangerous cracks.

Rod Stevens, doddering pedestrian

He’s had two cracks sent his way today. Actually, Debbi Lester sent in a link to an online collection of Winslow Way cracks. She’s got quite a few pics of the root-and-concrete tangle outside the Isla Bonita bar, which has been proven treacherous for tipsy barflies. (I’ve never tripped on it, but I’ve seen it happen. It was especially hard to watch because the aforementioned tripper had a lit cigarette in his mouth. Coulda lost an eye).

The above photo of the sweet bike jump north of T&C was sent in by Robert Dashiell with the header “This should be easy money!”

Even the City Council weighed in.

Councilwoman Debbie Vancil said Bainbridge could learn a lesson in sidewalk maintenance from the city of Claremont, California.

“…being a town the size of Winslow with 7 world class colleges, this town is highly focused on the bicycle and the pedestrian,” Vancil wrote. “They have achieved what we strive to attain…and the colleges do not offer a lot of revenue to the City. We need better role models for change in Winslow..those that are closer to our community’s own values for change.”

Noting Dashiell’s photo, Councilman Bill Knobloch said such cracks don’t add much weight to the argument for the Winslow Way reconstruction project.

“This means that we have to spend millions of dollars because we have a root uplift to our sidewalk?

Not sure how much money Rod has doled out yet, but Helpline House may get a surprise. Debbi Lester has generously donated her winnings to that worthy organization.

*****UPDATE: The Rod Stevens-sponsored Dangerous Sidewalks Contest* has officially come to a close. The winners, Robert Dashiell and Debbi Lester, had their $25 winnings donated to Helpline House.

*Unofficial title.

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Winslow Way project gets a multi-million dollar surprise from the state

The city of Bainbridge earned a $3.5 million state grant that will pay for almost 30 percent of a major road and utilities project planned for Winslow’s main street.

Awarded this week by the state Transportation Improvement Board, the money will fund the surface portions of the larger $12.3 million project, including new bicycle lanes, wider sidewalks and road repairs on Winslow Way.

The grant amount exceeded expectations, said Deputy Planning Director Chris Wierzbicki.

“We were trying to be conservative so we thought maybe we’d get one million dollars,” he said. “But now we have three and a half million, so that’s really good.”

The grant’s unexpected bulk means the city can shave off about $1.5 million in bond funding budgeted for the project. The city will see additional cost savings by not having to pay an annual $150,000 in bond-related debt payments over 20 years, Wierzbicki said.

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Winslow Way property tops state hazardous sites list

The former Unocal gas station property on Winslow Way was one of four Kitsap County properties added to the state’s Hazardous Sites List this week.

Sitting at Winslow Way’s intersection with the highway, the 1-acre property has for several years been hemmed by a fence decorated with murals and banners.

The property hosted a gas station from 1957 until 1989. It is currently joint-owned by the city of Bainbridge Island and Kitsap Transit. Three underground storage tanks — with one or more leaking — were removed in 1991.

The site could impact the stream in Winslow Ravine, which borders the property to the west.

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Council takes first step into Streetscape.

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The City Council took a first step last night toward the long-planned and long-debated project to upgrade Winslow Way and its underground utilities.

In a 5-2 vote, the council authorized the city to enter into a $135,400 contract with Heery International that will jumpstart the larger $12.2 million project.

The contract will fund initial design work, prepare planning documents, provide weekly updates to city staff and update the city’s project website.

Public Works Director Randy Witt called the contract a “trimmed-down version” of an earlier proposal that had included about $100,000 more for public outreach.

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