Daily Archives: October 30, 2008

Sun endorses BI parks levy



The Kitsap Sun gave a thumbs up to the Bainbridge parks levy proposed in your ballot. Read the endorsement below.

EDITORIAL: Bainbridge Parks Levy Is a Good Call

Bainbridge Island residents love their open space, and want to preserve what they have.

Of course, the same thing can be said about money.

On Nov. 4, Bainbridge Island residents will be weighing those two priorities in a levy lid lift request by the Bainbridge Island Metro Park and Recreation District.

The issue would raise the district’s tax levy from the current 58 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to 75 cents in 2009. For a median-priced $600,000 Bainbridge Island home, the increase would amount to about $102 per year.

If approved, the request would generate an estimated $1.1 million to $1.2 million in additional revenues for the district.

The district would use most of the money — a minimum of 75 percent — to purchase, develop and improve property for parks. The funds also would be used to enable work by a citizens committee to advise the district on property acquisitions.

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Guterson pays tribute to “To Kill a Mockingbird”

Bainbridge author David Guterson will speak tonight at the Bainbridge Public Library about “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the 1960 novel on which Guterson loosely based his bestselling “Snow Falling on Cedars.”

Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” is Kitsap Regional Library’s featured title in its “One Book, One Community” program. KRL used a state grant to purchase more than 700 copies of the book to facilitate wide readership and discussion of the Pulitzer prize-winning novel.

Guterson will discuss why “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which deals with race issues in the American South, is still relevant and popular nearly 50 years after its publication.

“I owe a lot to ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,’ Guterson said during a 1995 reading, shortly after “Snow Falling on Cedars” was published. “I followed very much the same structure and addressed the same concerns. I’m glad that book was part of my life.”

Guterson kept “To Kill a Mockingbird” in heavy rotation at Bainbridge High School, where he taught English.

Similar to “Mockingbird,” Guterson’s “Snow” mixes racial tension with courtroom drama.

“No other book had such an enormous impact,” he said. “I read it 20 times in 10 years and it never got old, only richer, deeper and more interesting.”

Guterson’s lecture is at 7 p.m. tonight at the library’s meeting room.

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