Weeks ago it seemed all was happy news about the building on 11th and Warren. The city signed a deal to give the Girl Scouts and Camp Fire organizations two to three years in the current site before having to leave. The city wants to improve the intersection there for traffic reasons.
The evening was a feel-good event, with leaders from both groups leaving thinking perhaps they could get the historic building moved.
Then the details. The cost to move the building even a short distance was estimated to be $417,000. A bit too much, the Scout and Camp Fire leaders say, to consider as an option. Now what?
This matter has been lingering for far too long. it is time the Girl Scout organization thank the City of Bremerton for everything and move on. The greater good for efficient transportation requires work to be done quickly on the road improvements.
Girl Scouts should begin raising money for a long-term solution to their needs. Moving a non-historic building and calling it saving historic is a joke. Whey is this matter still languishing around?
I find that A Bainbridge critic is very hypocrital. Why hasn’t Bainbridge widen the main road to the ferries for traffic? They want the ferries there and the ferries running all the time and get the best ferries instead of Bremerton, but they don’t do anything about the traffic congestion there. Bremerton is much more equiped to handle it than Bainbridge. Of course it doesn’t help that they got the Agate Pass Bridge on the historical list so it can’t be widen or improved. I believe the city and businesses are in a position to help the Girl Scouts & Camp Fire find a suitable home and or move the building to a suitable location. The question is will they?
Frankly Shannon your points are on the mark.
My comments are to a worthy organization like the Girl Scouts getting into entitlement mentality.
That entitlement mentality is pervasive here on BI where the local “in-crowd” think everyone who comes to BI on the way to the ferry is an interloper. Yes, 305 needs to be expanded to make it safer.
The in crowd here on BI also feel BI has the right to dictate all terms of control to the Washington State Ferry on development and requiring WSF to move their maintenance yard to someone else’s backyard.
Thanks for expressing your feelings about Bainbridge Island.
Although most of the discussion was about emotional attachment and values of Girl Scouting. The substantive issue was actually why were there so many accidents at the corner and does the 5 lanes need to be widened to 6 lanes on Warren Ave? My belief is that the Warren/Wheaton Way (as well as the Agate Pass Bridge/Poulsbo/Bainbridge Island) highway constrictions are better solved with long term mass transit approaches than with widening roads forever.
Editor’s note: Mike Shepherd is on the Bremerton City Council.