The park board approved concept
plans for a playground at Schel Chelb Park last week. It also
held a public hearing for a project to replace the dock at Hidden
Cove Park and make small improvements to the
uplands. Comments can be sent to Perry Barrett –
perry@biparks.org – through May 28.
The public dock on Port Madison is getting a little long in the
tooth, to put it lightly. Popular with kayakers, dog walkers and
bored teens, the dock has become rickety and rotted in places. The
float also grounds out regularly at low tide, a no-no in the eyes
of state permitting agencies.
Here’s a rough synopsis of the two options the district is
considering: Continue reading →
The Bainbridge park
district took advantage of the sunshine Wednesday to celebrate
the opening of Hilltop trail and park. The trail, which links east
and west portions of Grand Forest,
has been enjoyed by hikers since winter. The park district also
renovated a house on the property for classroom and event
space.
“This has been a dream for us for a long time,” park board Chair
Tom Swolgaard said of the Grand Forest trail connection.
Bainbridge
Island Land Trust reminded attendees that fundraising for the project
continues. The Land Trust agreed to purchase 36 acres in the
Hilltop area for $3.6 million. Eight acres were obtained by the
park district for the trail and classroom space. The Land Trust has
$360,000 left to raise.
“A lot of people think we’re done and are out there enjoying
it,” Land Trust Executive Director Hallie Stevens said last week.
“We want to let them know there is still work left to do.”
Here’s a map of the Hilltop trail, courtesy the Land Trust:
A long-awaited septic upgrade is underway at Fay
Bainbridge Park this week. The
$57,000 project will replace the park’s old and fragmented
septic systems with a single system less prone to flooding.
Two new drain fields have been dug into the berm above the beach
and will serve all the buildings in the park.
The park remains open, though it may be closed to vehicle
traffic intermittently during the project.
The park district
is shutting down its trailer dump service at the park because
the new septic system is not designed to handle chemicals from
recreational vehicles. The district recommends RV campers use other
Kitsap dump facilities including nearby Eagle Tree RV Park in
Poulsbo.
For more information, contact Mike Mejia at (206) 842-3931 or
mike@biparks.org. The district is also seeking input from Fay
Bainbridge users with
a beach ecology survey.
The city recently unveiled a new online mapping system that
allows users to view several layers of customized data.
Accessible on the city’s website, the interactive system allows
you to see property lines, zoning, environmentally sensitive areas,
publicly-owned properties, topography and plenty more.
It takes a bit of getting used to, and there are some odd rules
to follow to avoid confusion. For example, if you want to see park
data, make sure you select “Bainbridge Island Background,”
“Parcels” and then click on the “+” sign under “Parks.” The “+”
will allow you to see a drop-down menu with few categories you can
select. Also, you must zoom in a bit. Too wide of a view will show
only certain kinds of data. Another thing: certain browsers seem to
be having trouble with the mapping system. If you have problems,
head over to the help menu on the right side of the screen.
There’s actually quite a bit of information in the system, so
taking the time to get familiar with how it works is definitely
worth it.
The city says the system you see today is only the beginning.
Several upgrades are in the works.
Kitsap Sun environmental reporter Chris Dunagan discussed the
mapping system on his blog, Watching Our Waterways. Read his take
HERE.
I got word this weekend that the Bainbridge Parkland Acquisition
Committee has finally settled on a property.
The committee, which was tasked with deciding how to spend the
park district’s new levy-backed property acquisition fund, has
recommended the purchase of a large parcel that would connect the
two largest Grand Forest Park properties.
The 31-acre property, referred to as the Hill Top Tree Farm,
stretches between the Grand Forest’s east and west sections, and
includes forest, trails and a 7-acre meadow with views of the
Olympic Mountains. It also includes an unoccupied cottage and a
large barn.
The park district would use $500,000 in levy funds to match a
$500,000 state grant. The combined $1 million would help the
Bainbridge Island Land Trust make the full $2.75 million
purchase.
BILT plans to turn over all or most of the land to the park
district.
The property’s meadow could be used for an off-leash dog park,
community gardens or open play areas, according to committee
members.
Dawn Snider digs in at the
Johnson Farm community garden
Below is a sneak peak of my story about Bainbridge
Island’s community garden boom. Check the Sun on Monday for some
additional photos and information….
Dawn Snider is hoping to deepen the shade of her faded green
thumb.
It’s been almost three decades since she’s had a garden, but she
can still remember the taste of backyard tomatoes, squash and
herbs.
“It’s been a while, but I’m a gardener at heart,” the Minnesota
native said as she and her partner Bruce White spread a load of
rich, black soil into a small plot at the Johnson Farm community
garden.
After a long stint living in the high desert of New Mexico,
Snider and White recently moved to Bainbridge looking for an oasis
of green.
The only problem was that their small patch of Bainbridge was
crowded by concrete.
“We’re living in a townhouse in Winslow, with no yard and no
room to garden,” she said.
Snider and White were ready to be caught up in a sudden burst of
grassroots organizing to create community gardens on Bainbridge.
Over the last few months, neighborhood and small-group gardens have
taken shape on city-owned farmland, a low-income apartment complex
and a half dozen private properties.
A gathering on March 2 provided the spark. Organized by a loose
coalition of gardening groups and local food enthusiasts, the
meeting didn’t have a specific aim, but it packed Bainbridge
Commons with over 110 people.
“I was totally blown away by the response,” said Debbi Lester,
one of the meeting’s organizers. Before meeting ended, attendees
had already begun networking, assigning tasks and setting work
dates for several of the gardens now underway.
The meeting, Lester said, tapped into a zeitgeist born out of
souring economy, an increasingly urbanized downtown and a growing
desire to eat healthy, locally-grown food.
Nationwide, more people are planting seeds for better food and
bigger savings. The National Gardening Association reports that
over 40 million American households will grow their own food this
year. That’s a nearly 20 percent increase over last year.
Straddling the fence between suburban and rural, the island has
plenty of spacious properties boasting sizable gardens. But many of
the island’s most recent residents came to Bainbridge amid the
condo boom of 2005 and 2006, when 330 units were built in
Winslow.
With no space to enjoy one of the island’s most popular
pastimes, condo dwellers were disappointed to find that the only
two community gardens were either hard to get to or hard to get
into; the garden at Battle Point Park is five miles from Winlsow
and the downtown garden at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church often
has a three-year wait list.
Bainbridge trails advocate John Grinter writes that
Bainbridge needs to slow down and reassess plans to take on two
state parks slated for closure. Grinter is the vice chair of the
city’s Non-Motorized Transportation Advisory Committee and was a
lead community organizer for the 2004 petition drive to create the
Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park District. Below is Grinter’s
letter.
I am a strong supporter of Bainbridge parks and I believe our
local park board is moving too quickly to bail out the state park
system with the transfer of both Fay Bainbridge and Fort Ward state
parks.
I don’t believe careful consideration has been given to the
long-term impact on other well-planned community goals. The local
(park) board is talking about making a permanent financial
commitment of millions when they should be talking about helping
the state in a short term, interim manner while we weather this
economic crisis. Perhaps most troubling of all is the speed at
which it is happening and the nearly complete lack of public
process regarding the transfer.
Gov. Chris Gregoire’s cost-cutting plan to close Fay Bainbridge
and Fort Ward state parks came as a surprise to many island
residents and public officials.
It also raised some big questions: Will the land be sold to
developers? What about the planned sewer system connecting to Point
Monroe? Is the Bainbridge park district or city or even the county
willing to absorb and manage the large waterfront parks? Why does
Bainbridge have to suffer the loss of two of the 13 parks slated
for closure?
Bainbridge Island has over 70 public road ends, yet only a few
allow residents to enjoy the view or walk to the water’s edge.
“This is an island but we have little access to the water to
enjoy the peace, the birds and a quiet walk,” said city Road End
Advisory Committee member Marci Burkel.
Most road ends are blocked by ever-thickening brush and
blackberry brambles. Some have old stairwells that are crumbling
into the beaches below. Others simply have no sign letting people
know their neighborhood boasts a public access to Puget Sound.
But if a few islanders roll up their sleeves, Burkel said, road
ends can again do what they were intended: link islanders to the
water that surrounds them.
The committee has created a new stewardship program aimed at
pairing residents with neighborhood road ends. The volunteer
program is recruiting people to make regular stops at designated
road ends to monitor the condition of the site, noting man-made
alterations and natural alterations, such as dumped trash or eroded
banks.
After a sigh of relief that their levy passed, the Bainbridge
park district is now rounding up residents interested in serving on
a new committee that will guide the spending of almost $1 million a
year for open space preservation.
The committee will operate much like the city’s Open Space
Commission, which sought out and recommended properties for
purchase.
If you haven’t read it already, check out the story I wrote last
week on city and park efforts to preserve open space (I never did
link it to this blog). I found that buying property was the easy
part. Maintaining properties and making them accessible to the
public was challenge…at least for the city. The park district aims
to improve on the city’s open space program with designated funds
for the basics of running a park: trash cans, signs, trail building
and maintenance, etc. You can read that story here.
The park district sent in a hopeful letter this week about the
new levy’s prospects. The letter is also an invitation to islanders
to join the open space committee, and includes information on how
to get involved.
Bainbridge voters on Tuesday approved a tax increase that will
put almost $1 million a year toward new parks and open space
preservation.
The Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park and Recreation
District’s levy lid lift, which would pay for the acquisition and
maintenance of new parklands, was approved with over 54 percent of
the vote, according to election results released by the Kitsap
County Auditor on Tuesday night.
“I’m so happy,” said Barb Trafton, co-chair of the pro-levy
Bainbridge People for Parks. “It’s a very difficult environment now
(for a levy lid lift) with the economy looking the way it does, but
Bainbridge Island historically supports its parks, its environment
and facilities to support our youth.”
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.
