A drunken drug-dealing teen found a TV news camera thrust into his
face shortly after crashing his car on Crystal Springs Drive. To
protest, the teen ran into the roadway and refused to leave until
the filming ceased. Police yanked him from the road and booked him
on no less than six charges.
Also this week, a party bust on Tolo, a raccoon shooting on
Venice Loop and strange Harry Potter-inspired graffiti appears at
the high school.
A local real estate agent was surprised to find two young men
wandering the rooms of one of her unoccupied for-sale homes. More
interested in the Rolling Bay house as a place to drink than to
buy, the “preppy”-looking men fled with their beers in-hand after
the agent threatened to call the cops. And the bottle of wine used
to stage the house? Not a drop left.
Ed Cannard picks raspberries at
Eagle Harbor Congregational Church's community garden.
While working on a story about islander and congressman Jay Inslee’s proposed community
garden grant program, I visited the 22 plots at Eagle
Harbor Congregational Church.
After 21 years, it remains the only community garden in Winslow.
It’s open to all – not just church congregants – but the long wait
list is daunting.
I’ve seen few community gardens that are so well-kept and cared
for. Whereas many community gardens have a few fallow plots and
weeds creeping between raised beds, the church’s garden, with its
many teak garden
benches and stone ornaments, seemed bursting with healthy
vegetables and flowers. There’s a reason community gardens aren’t
always pretty. They’re practical places; not rose gardens. But the
church’s garden seemed a combination of both: pleasing in its
appearance and utilitarian in its purpose.
Much of the credit is due to the gardeners, who must sometimes
wait up to three years for a plot. If you’re willing to cross your
fingers that long, you’re not likely to squander the opportunity
when you get it. Credit also goes to the garden’s volunteer keeper,
Ed Cannard. He’s gardened there for almost all of its 21 years. As
the garden’s manager, Cannard is tough. If you’re not taking care
of your plot, you’re out fairly quickly and someone else on the
long wait list is invited in.
Cannard said Inslee’s bill, which would provide up to 80 percent
reimbursement for community garden development, wouldn’t help his
garden much. Money, he said, isn’t what’s made Eagle Harbor
church’s garden flourish for over two decades. It’s more about the
people who volunteer their time to make it a success.
At the same time, though, Cannard sees demand for community
gardens is sharply rising, and his small garden can’t come close to
meeting local demand. While the Bainbridge park district has talked
about possibly expanding their community garden offerings beyond
the Battle Point Park patch, local nonprofits and private
landowners have moved quickly in recent months to establish several
gardens around the island. The new gardens are built largely with
donated materials, donated land and volunteer labor.
And, judging by the 25 comments that have so far streamed in
about Inslee’s bill, that’s the way it should be.
Most commenters on the online story see grant-funded community
gardens as unnecessary and a waste of tax dollars during a time
when the government is piling on debt.
Here’s a few comments posted to the online story:
“Another backwards Islander forcing socialism and
fruitcake politics down our throats.”
“Which part of the constitution authorizes the federal
government to fund vegetable gardens?”
“If you want an ‘alternative’ then that would be to
shake the pockets of all those Doctors and Lawyers over there. A
‘community garden’ should be a privately or community funded…. as
the name would suggest; ‘community.'”
“Mr Inslee, I hate to tell you but the country is broke
from the bailouts. Obamanomics have failed and grants/handouts etc…
cannot be afforded. Please start cutting social programs to payoff
the debt.”
Inslee’s proposal is not without its backers. Here’s one
commenter’s take:
“Americans can’t wait 3 years for the ‘Cannards’ of the
world to provide a solution to what this country needs now…Thanks
Jay Inslee for working for us. Thanks for supporting Victory
Gardens.”
What do you think? Could Inslee’s proposal help meet
Bainbridge’s demand for community gardens? And what about other
communities that may not have the wide-spread support for community
gardens or the deep pockets that have helped make them happen here.
And the overall question: should the feds even be involved?
The city gave final approval for the Island Gatway development
late last week.
The largest Bainbridge development in years, Island Gateway is
now set to break ground at the Winslow Way-Highway 305 intersection
in late summer or early fall.
Planning Director Kathy Cook approved the development on Friday
after it earned the support of the city Planning Commission and
Design Review Board.
Here’s last week’s blotter, a little late, but still full of
drug and booze-fueled adventure. Read on for the tale of a
self-described “loud and obnoxious” man at a 4th of July party who
drank a bit much, spoke a bit too loudly and stayed a bit too long.
His flustered fellow party-goers ended up slipping him a strong
sedative and hauled him out the door.
The Battle Point Park playground, Ritchie observatory, Four
Swallows and Mora ice cream are a few of the things King 5’s
Evening Magazine highlighted in a recent segment about Bainbridge
Island’s tourist draws.
Look below for the South Ward City Council candidates’ visit to
the Kitsap Sun’s editorial board on Wednesday. Candidates Curt
Winston, Tim Jacobsen and Kirsten Hytopoulos responded to questions
about the city’s budget, why they moved to the island, how to
increase city revenues and their impressions of the Island Gateway
project.
Click here to see Rachel Pritchett’s story on
Saturday’s Tour de Coop. Eight chicken coops around Bainbridge will
display the various ways islanders are taking advantage of this
inexpensive food source in tough economic times.
As Rachel writes:
Long symbols of strapped times, chickens and their coops
are enduring symbols of self-reliance, the good earth and the
promise of never going hungry as long as there is a scritch or
scratch beyond the kitchen door.
Chickens: cheap, fresh food, good garden compost producers and
(little known fact) stress reducers. Watch chickens peck
about your yard and you will feel your mind calm and your muscles
relax. I have no scientific data to back up this claim. But my mom
swears by it, so it must be true.