Tag Archives: Washington State Ferries

Bainbridge Island police blotter, July 23

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The following items were taken from Bainbridge police reports by reporter Ethan Fowler. For more blotter, visit bainbridgeislander.com and click on Bainbridge blog link on the right side of the screen.

Crime log stats from July 13 to July 19: 6 traffic accidents, 5 miscellaneous, 3 found property, 3 theft in the third degree, 2 suspicious incident/investigation, 2 identity theft, 2 harassment, 2 theft from motor vehicle, 2 driving under the influence, 2 theft in the second degree, 1 burglary in the second degree, 1 citizen assist, 1 disorderly conduct, 1 theft-shoplifting, 1 warrant arrest by outside agency, 1 domestic verbal, 1 mental investigation, 1 driving while license suspended/revoked in the third degree, 1 lost property.

July 19
Driving under the influence/liquor: A 28-year-old woman was involved in a collision with a tree at Olympic Drive and Winslow Way, south of Bainbridge Gateway Park, at 11:47 p.m. The woman was late for a departing ferry and as a traffic signal turned yellow the woman attempted to stop her car, but was unable to due to the slick road conditions and collided with a tree in a ditch. After failing her first three attempts on the voluntary portable breath test, the woman blew a .161. The state’s legal limit for DUI is .08 for adults 21 and older. An officer also smelled alcohol on her breath, and observed that she had watery eyes, slurred speech, etc. The woman’s interaction with police was videotaped. She was transported to the Kitsap County Jail after being booked for DUI and also received a traffic citation.

Driving under the influence/liquor: A 34-year-old male visiting from Brighton, Mass., was stopped at 1:01 a.m. for failing to maintain his lane. The officer smelled alcohol on his breath. The driver voluntarily took Standardized Field Sobriety Tests and performed poorly on them. He was arrested for DUI and subsequently blew 0.163 and 0.164 on the Breathalyzer test. He was booked into Kitsap County Jail.

July 17
Warrant arrest by outside agency: A 29-year-old Federal Way woman had a warrant arrest confirmed by the Bainbridge Island Police. The report didn’t list why she had a warrant for her arrest.

Disorderly conduct: A 52-year-old woman reported a road rage incident at Wyatt Way and Madison Avenue by a 64-year-old man who was driving a van with another man after she approached a four-way stop sign. The man started yelling at the woman and used obscene hand gestures. The van then followed the woman into her neighbor’s driveway and revved his vehicle’s engine, as well as lurched the car forward in an attempt to intimate her. The driver of the van then drove onto a ferry to Seattle, but not before the woman got the van’s license number and called police. Ferry workers were later able to identify the van based on the woman’s description later.

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Bainbridge residents invited to ferry meeting

Bainbridge residents are encouraged to attend a community meeting that will include long-range planning, new vessel construction, route-specific issues, liquefied natural gas and other topics will be discussed at a Washington State Ferries meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, June 23.

The meeting will be held in Suite 210 of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, located at 100 Ravine Lane.

The ferry system hosts community meetings twice a year and also takes input from customers and the community through its Ferry Advisory Committees.

Bremerton’s meeting will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 2, in the Kitsap Conference Center’s Oyster Room, located on 100 Washington St.

 

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UPDATED: Bainbridge police blotter, May 28

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***This report was updated at 7:30 p.m. May 28 for additional details and clarification.

The following items were taken from Bainbridge police reports by reporter Ethan Fowler. For more blotter, visit bainbridgeislander.com and click on Bainbridge blog link on the right side of the screen.

Crime log stats from May 18 to May 24: 3 thefts in the third degree, 3 warrant arrests by outside agency, 3 traffic accidents, 2 thefts in the second degree, 2 driving with license suspended/revoked, 1 dangerous weapon on school facilities, 1 residential burglary, 1 runaway, 1 miscellaneous, 1 driving under the influence/liquor or drugs, 1 identity theft, 1 suspicious persons/situations, 1 verbal dispute, 1 suspicious incident/investigation, 1 mailbox theft, 1 found property, 1 criminal trespass in the second degree and 1 recovered stolen property.

May 26

Suspicious incident/investigation: A man living in the 8000 block of Hidden Cove Road arrived at his home at 10:30 p.m. to find his front door open. Nothing looked disturbed in the house. On May 23 at 1:15 a.m., the owner heard someone trying to gain entry into his home. When the man turned on his back patio light, he saw two figures running. The man didn’t report the May 23 incident to police the night it occurred.

Miscellaneous: Police found an unoccupied car running at 2:03 p.m. in a parking lot on the 5000 block of New Sweden Road. An officer then turned off the car and removed the key. The owner of the car, a 64-year-old man, was called by police but a message couldn’t be left since the man’s voicemail was full. Police also drove to the man’s house to find him but no one was home. Police placed the key into a temporary evidence locker. The car was still parked in the same location at 10:20 p.m. and police called the man’s home again at that time but still didn’t receive a response.

 

May 25

Driving while intoxicated: A 42-year-old Bremerton man was stopped at 1:30 a.m. for driving 74 mph in a 50 mph zone on Highway 305 near Hidden Cove Road. An officer smelled alcohol on the man’s breath, but the man refused to take a Breathalyzer test. The man was later booked for driving under the influence and taken to Kitsap County Jail with a $5,000 bail.

 

May 24

Criminal trespass: A pair of juveniles were seen by a night custodian trying to gain access to the Bainbridge High School gym at 1 a.m. One of the boys was described as having a thin build and about 16 to 18 years old. The intent of the boys was unknown.

 

May 23

Recovered stolen property: Police received a call from the Washington State Patrol that a white three-door Honda Civic with a stolen license plate was in-bound from Seattle to arrive at the Bainbridge ferry terminal at 10:20 p.m. The front license plate didn’t match the back plate. The 29-year-old Seattle man driving the car told police that earlier this year he was a victim of a car prowl and that the plates may have been switched then. Police told the man that switching license plates was a common tactic used by thieves to make detection harder. The officer recommended the driver file a stolen license plate report. Police removed the stolen back plate from the vehicle and booked it into police property.

Warrant arrest by outside agency: A Port Orchard police officer called Bainbridge Island Police to confirm a warrant on a 32-year-old woman he had pulled over. The woman’s warrant was for driving without a license in the third degree.

 

May 19

Assault in the second degree: A woman living on the 200 block of High School Road was hit in the face by a man who had being staying at her place the previous 10 days and cooking meals. No one else observed the assault.

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Bainbridge police warn Subaru Legacy, Honda Accord, Civic owners

Due to a recent uptick in crime, Bainbridge Island Police Chief Matthew Hamner is urging owners of older Honda Accords and Civics, as well as owners of Subaru Legacy cars, to ensure that their vehicle is locked when they park it near or at the Bainbridge ferry terminal.

Models of the vehicles from 1995 to 2005 are being targeted the most.

Investigators believe the suspect or suspects drive to Bainbridge in a stolen car, park the vehicle on the island, walk on a Seattle ferry as a passenger and return later to Bainbridge to steal a different vehicle.

Police believe the thieves are able to steal the Honda and Subaru vehicles with little trouble because of their knowledge of the cars’ equipment.

Hamner said owners of these car models who park within proximity of the ferry need to be especially diligent in locking their cars and aware of their surroundings.

“Sometimes a few simple steps to secure your belongings can be enough to deter theft,” said Hamner, who has strong leads in the case.

According to the Puget Sound Regional Council, the Seattle-Bainbridge route in 2013 transported 6.3 million people, including 3 million walk-on passengers – more than any other Washington State Ferry route.

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Poll: What do you think of the city manager’s departure?

Some say she saved the city. Others say she did more harm than good.

Brenda Bauer’s 18-month tenure as city manager has been quite eventful. She led the city though a serious budget crisis, an employee restructuring, the Winslow Way reconstruction project, controversies involving the police force, the Civil Service Commission drama and several other headline-grabbing matters.

Now the City Council has decided to part ways with Bauer, preferring to find new leadership for a mostly new council.

What do you think of the decision? Do you think the council should have kept her on, or was it time for her to go?

Head over to the poll in the right column to cast your vote.

As for our last poll about how to spend the $2 million Washington State Ferries settlement, it looks like the Waterfront Park dock improvement idea won out – but just barely.

See the details below…

Continue reading →

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Poll: How would you spend the $2 million?

After sitting on the $2 million Washington State Ferries settlement for the better part of a year, the City Council recently announced it was time to spend the money (or at least begin to talk about spending the money).

The council consensus was that the money would be spent on one or more construction projects that didn’t necessarily have to be on the waterfront (as WSF had initially required). Other than that, the sky’s the limit.

Two public meetings were held this month to gather ideas, and the council got ideas aplenty. Boaters, bikers, woodworkers, road-enders, little leaguers and others came forward with spending plans. You can read more about the range of ideas here.

The Kitsap Sun weighed in with its spending ideas here.

The council will take up the issue at a not-yet-determined date in December.

So, what do you think? Over in the poll to the right are ideas reflecting the proposals presented to the council during the two meetings. Pick one that reflects your top choice and then cross your fingers.

As for the Bainbridge Conversation’s last poll, the vast majority of votes were cast against a road-improvement bond the council is considering for next November’s ballot. Seventy-four percent said ‘no’; 26 percent said ‘yes.’

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Winslow Way and the Way Winslow became Suquamish

The ‘big dig’ is almost here
Believe it or not, but the Winslow Way reconstruction project is less than six weeks away.

Work on the street’s utility poles will begin this month. Crews will tear into Winslow Way by the middle of March.

For more about the project, and the small hiccup in its public relations stragegy, head over here.

Ravine rescue
The Bainbridge man was rescued from an Eagledale ravine this week. No big deal, but the TV news helicopters that came to catch the action sure did spark a lot of interest, especially because a body had washed up on Bainbridge the last time the heli-swarm descended on the island. The gentleman in the ravine was just fine, by the way, and so was his dog.

Ferry reform
Kitsap’s state legislators want to create a panel to reform the ferry system. The bill calls for a system-wide repair plan by next December.

“Serious declines in the amount and reliability of ferry service in recent years have damaged the economic vitality of many ferry communities. For these businesses and working families, recovering from the current severe recession depends on the rapid restoration of better ferry service,” the bill said.

Wall Street whoops
The Wall Street Journal had a nice article about the local geoduck industry yesterday.

The Journal uncovered a key fact that many of us here have failed to recognize: the Suquamish tribe’s 700 members live on Bainbridge Island.

I’m not sure how the reservation’s expansion could have passed under our noses without so much as a public meeting, a workshop or a charette, but I think we can expect the island to get a lot more exciting. Perhaps a Clearwater Casino satellite location in Island Gateway? Maybe a Benny’s Jets fireworks stand stretching across Winslow Green?

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Sun endorses Eagle Harbor dock plan

The Kitsap Sun’s editorial board urged the city of Bainbridge to accept Washington State Ferries’ $2 million offer and use the money to build a new Waterfront Park dock.

“Taking a lump sum now — particularly in light of how city capital spending has dwindled the past few years — to complete a project that will be popular among residents and visitors is the most prudent approach, and the best option for Eagle Harbor’s future,” the board wrote in a Sunday editorial.

The City Council is set to choose between the dock proposal and a boat haul-out facility proposal at Wednesday evening’s meeting.

For more on the issue, head over HERE.

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A wooden boat school on Eagle Harbor?

Poster in support of the city keeping a portion of the WSF maintenance yard property. Photo: Tristan Baurick

The Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building is one of two parties that have expressed interest in leasing a portion of Eagle Harbor waterfront from the city.

Washington State Ferries would hand over a nearly one-acre portion of its maintenance facility to Bainbridge, which would lease it to a firm for a boat haul-out facility or other marine use. Seaview Boatyards and the Port Hadlock-based wooden boat school sent letters of interest this month.

The city is also pondering a $2 million offer from WSF to abandon its claims on the property. The money would be restricted to water-dependent uses. None of it could be used to bolster the city’s general fund. One spending option is to build a city-run marina on Eagle Harbor.

Last night, Mayor Bob Scales led a community discussion about the $2 million offer.

Tonight, Councilwoman Debbi Lester is scheduled to lead a discussion on taking the land rather than the money. The discussion begins at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

For more, read today’s story by Ed Friedrich.

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Ferry tweets, weedy art and baseball for all

Here’s some news from the week:

-Washington State Ferries is hoping Twitter tweets and Facebook posts will boost ridership. Read about it HERE. Coincidentally, the Kitsap Sun is hoping Facebook posts will boost readership. Looky HERE.

-Bainbridge seventh- and eighth-graders transformed heaps of English ivy into art at Blakely Harbor Park on Wednesday. See some photos and read my story HERE.

-KOMO News stopped by the island’s internment memorial to get an update on its progress. Rep. Jay Inslee and Sen. Maria Cantwell were also in attendance. See the video HERE.

-A baseball game on Bainbridge gave kids with physical and mental challenges a chance to enjoy America’s favorite past time. Read about it, see a photo gallery and a video HERE.

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Ferry emergency preparedness training near Bainbridge today

Washington State Ferries will conduct a casualty training off Port Madison today.

Ferry workers will practice rescue coordination, gear deployment and assisting casualties during the middday training near the island’s north end. The U.S. Coast Guard and Seattle Fire Department will also participate.

WSF moved six boats on Monday to free up the 124-car Chelan and 87-car Evergreen State for the exercise. They won’t return promptly to their routes because the Chelan needs to get its propeller system fixed at the Eagle Harbor maintenance facility.

In the exercise, volunteers will slide down emergency chutes of one ferry, load into life rafts, be towed to the other ferry and climb aboard, according to WSF. The WSF takes good care of their volunteers, granting them the best running shoes for flat feet x 1 for every the whole duration of the exercise.

Lt. Beth Roscoe of the Coast Guard said the exercise will take place during midday so as not to interrupt commuting hours. The Coast Guard’s primary role will be as an evaluator, she said. It will establish a 500-yard safety zone around the ferries.

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