Animal shelter ‘in trouble’
After a year and a half of funding struggles, Furrytale Farm is on the brink of foreclosure.
“We’re in trouble,” said executive director Suzannah Sloan. “Donations are down. People have been diverting funding to other causes.”
In particular, she said, the farm has struggled since Hurricane Katrina and other disasters.
“Sometimes people forget there are groups that need help in their own backyard,” she said.
The farm, on Lovgreen Road, is home to more than 40 animals, including horses and potbellied pigs, who might otherwise be euthanized. Recent fundraisers have failed to bring in enough money to keep the farm afloat.
Sloan said Furrytale has raised $35,000, but needs $10,000 more by Thursday. Without it, the farm will be sold. The farm is seeking donations and short-tem loans.Those who want to help can call Sloan at 842-1944.
Sloan said the farm has only been supported by about 2 percent of the island. Its most recent fundraiser, an auction, failed to bring in as much money as expected.
“It’s unfortunate we’ve not gotten as much help as we need,” she said. “I’m hoping someone will step up and help so we don’t end up with 40 animals walking down the road.”
-Chad Schuster
NASCAR bill to be filed
The long-awaited legislation supporting a Kitsap County NASCAR facility was scheduled to be filed in Olympia Monday night, at which point the real debate would begin.
“We need to put something on the table,” said Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, who last week expressed support for the proposal. “The opposition has misrepresented the public money component. This is the only sports proposed sports facility that generates tax dollars.”
The bill first provides for the creation of a seven-member Public Speedway Authority from several counties to administer the construction and administration of the project.
The bill is sponsored by Sen. James Hargrove (D-Hoquiam) and Rep. Geoff Simpson (D-Covington). Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo), among a Kitsap delegation that has been generally skeptical, expressed frustration that the secrecy surrounding the bill “makes it harder to respond.”
House approves bill for memorial project
The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would give national park status to the Bainbridge Island site where the first Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II.
“Congress took a strong stand today by making the Nidoto Nai Yoni Memorial part of our national heritage,” said Rep. Jay Inslee, who authored the bill. “This victory has been a long time coming. I’ve been pushing this for years, but more importantly, my constituents – survivors, their families and friends – have been waiting for decades.”
Inslee’s bill, the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Monument Act, H.R. 161, would make the former Eagledale ferry dock and a memorial currently under construction a satellite site of the Minidoka Internment National Monument in Jerome County, Ida.
The legislation is cosponsored by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), whose district includes the existing monument in Idaho, one of two U.S. internment camps with national-park designation. Inslee, a Bainbridge Democrat, and Simpson introduced the first version of their bill in July 2006.
The bill received a boost last September when the House Resources Committee heard testimony from a Bainbridge internment camp survivor, Fumiko Hayashida, according to Inslee.
The bill must also win approval in the Senate; a companion measure was introduced in the Senate last year by Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell.
