Just in time for a little
spooky listening this evening, South End
Radio has collected some of Bainbridge’s best ghost stories for
their latest podcast.
There’s the tale of a haunted Fort Ward home, a ghost ship and a mysterious hitchhiker that roamed the island’s roads.
The ladies at South End put a lot of work and research into this, and it shows. It’s well worth a listen. Happy Halloween!
The old Winslow Way building that once housed a smaller, quainter ancestor of Town & Country Market was torn down this week to make way for the next phase of the Island Gateway development.
The building more recently served stints as a book store, shoe repair shop and a real estate office.
The Nakata family ran a
grocery store called Eagle Harbor Market out of the building
starting in the late 1930s (see photo). In 1957, the Nakatas moved
the business into the larger building we know today as T&C.
There’s a basement in the old Eagle Harbor Market building that, in the early 1900s, was the original ground floor. It was covered up when Winslow Way was raised, giving it the feel of the Seattle underground, previous tenants have told me. Apparently, there were still dusty old curtains on windows overlooking a wall of dirt up until a few years ago.
The Island Gateway folks had been in talks with the Nakatas about picking up and moving the building over to the Nakata farm along Weaver Road. One idea was to use the building as a farm stand or produce market.
One of the demolition workers told me much of the material is being salvaged and given to the Nakatas. The Island Gateway blog mentioned that the materials may be used to build something on the farm.
I’ll post more as I get some calls back.
Head over HERE to see a few photos I snapped of the demolition.
Above is crime reporter Josh Farley’s video of the press conference Bainbridge Police Chief Jon Fehlman gave at noon today.
For more about last night’s incident, in which police shot and killed an ax-wielding Bainbridge man, head over to our updated story.
Last night’s incident marks the fifth time this year that police on the Kitsap Peninsula have resorted to lethal force. Read more about this year’s police shootings at Josh’s blog.
Fehlman wasn’t sure when Bainbridge police last shot a suspect. It has likely been several years, he said.
The 43-year-old Bainbridge man who was shot by Bainbridge police last night has been identified as Douglas Ostling.
Police were called to 7700 Springridge Drive, on the island’s west side, just before 9 p.m.
According to police, Ostling was yelling incoherently and acted in an aggressive manner toward police. When he came at police with a double-headed ax, the officers fired several shots. At least one bullet struck Ostling in the lower torso. Ostling then barricaded himself in an apartment and was found dead later.
A neighbor told me this morning that Ostling appeared to suffer from a mental illness. She had been told by Ostling’s parents to avoid eye contact with him.
Head over HERE to see the story we’ve been updating since last night.
This week, fierce competition during a Facebook game went up a notch when one of the gamers told the other her non-virtual death would be coming soon.
Also this week, 20 gunshots were heard near the two child care centers on Cave Avenue. Police investigated, but were told to get the (expletive) off the gun-owner’s property.
Bet you didn’t see this coming: The Kitsap Sun didn’t endorse Jay Inslee.
In a surprise move, the Sun’s editorial board chose his Republican challenger, a candidate that most polls say doesn’t have a chance against Bainbridge’s six-term congressman.
Inslee has been the Sun’s favorite in years past, but business know-how and fiscal restraint – keynotes of the James Watkins campaign – swayed the editorial board this year.
“Watkins has four years of experience under two administrations in helping to cut spending at the FDIC, served as a director at Microsoft, managed successful small businesses, and has been a consultant working with small businesses across the nation. He’s a fiscal conservative, opposes deficit spending, and says a key to economic recovery is policies that will allow small businesses to grow in a supportive environment that’s stable in terms of taxes and regulatory measures,” the editorial board writes.
Plus, Inslee is no Norm Dicks or Patty Murray (both endorsed by the Sun) when it comes to bringing the federal bacon to Kitsap, according to the board.
To read the full endorsement, click HERE. Scroll down past the bits about Dicks and Murray to get to the Inslee vs. Watkins part at the bottom.
Think a visit to Bainbridge
Island, aka “one of the Northwest’s most happening destinations,”
is all about drinking wine at wine tasting rooms, and then drinking
wine at Fort Ward, and then drinking wine on wine tours and then
drinking wine with some boeuf bourguignon*?
No, it is not. It is also about going for a “glide around Eagle Harbor in an electric cruise boat.” Don’t like electric boats? Mostly want to find new ways of drinking more wine? Sorry, there is “no excuse” but to glide in an electric boat.
For more guidance, turn to the latest issue of Sunset Magazine.
*French for “beef with some more wine”
BITV may have to shut down unless the city restores its funding.
The $296,000 BITV had expected from the city makes up more than 80 percent of the public access station’s 2011 budget.
Read my latest story HERE.
BITV is planning a protest next week and devoted its entire B News show to the cuts. You can see the show HERE or view a portion below.
This week, an old man with a crowbar takes on a young man with a gun, a drunk woman pummels a house with rocks, and a Seattle man denies punching a Bainbridge man into unconsciousness but complains of pain in his blood-smeared knuckles.
Blotter’s below.
Congressman Jay Inslee’s only debate in his bid for re-election is tonight. And, fortunately for Bainbridge Islanders, it’s on Bainbridge.
Inslee will debate Republican challenger James Watkins, a Redmond business consultant.
It all kicks off at 7 p.m. at the American Legion Hall, 7880 Bucklin Hill Rd.
What do you think about the proposal to move the Bainbridge municipal court to a shared court facility in the new Poulsbo City Hall?
See the previous POST for the pros and cons, and then cast your vote over to the right.
As for our last poll about the Moran School theater building, head down below for the results…
The City Council is scheduled to decide on Wednesday whether to begin the process of moving the Bainbridge Island Municipal Court to Poulsbo’s new city hall. The discussion begins at 7 p.m.
The issue drew quite a bit of comment at the last council meeting. Over a dozen people spoke in favor of keeping the courthouse on Bainbridge; none spoke against. Moving it to Poulsbo, they said, would cost residents time and money, dissuade some of the least fortunate from seeking the court’s help, and reflect poorly on the community’s values.
No one at the meeting spoke in favor of moving the court to Poulsbo, but the pro argument is laid out in the Joint Court Task Force’s report. The task force, which is made up of elected officials from both cities, noted that the move will save Bainbridge about $15,000 a year and finally put the court in a building specifically designed for a court (the current Rolling Bay courthouse was designed for retail and storage use).
Read more about the pros and cons in my STORY from Saturday’s paper. There’s also a good debate in the comments section.
Head down below for a packet of documents related to the issue, including a Bainbridge city staff assessment of the Rolling Bay building, the task force’s recommendation and Judge Kate Carruthers’ dissenting view that the courthouse should stay on Bainbridge.
