Election ’08

Park district

lacks strategy

Bainbridge Metro Parks and Recreation District is hoping to convince voters to “Lift the Levy Lid” in this election.

While I think a vast majority of Bainbridge residents, including me, generally like the concept of having open space and parks, we need to ensure that dollars are spent wisely and that each of these parks and open spaces get enough public use to be justified.

It is not enough justification to continuously purchase and maintain more property without an approved strategic plan in place, pre-approved by constituents, that establishes a reasonable and acceptable level of usage.

There is rationale and justification for purchasing new parks as well as selling those which are not used cost-effectively. There are existing parks in this category worth a significant amount of money which should be evaluated for selling before we buy more.

The case set forth for the district’s lid-lift has three points: to acquire more property; to develop and expand what we already have; and to maintain and operate existing properties. The theme is more, more, and more without answering the strategic question of why…?

Under any condition, let alone our current economic crisis, it is reasonable to demand and expect that our park district has voter based (not park board based) strategy in place before we approve another nickel.

Dick Haugan

Bainbridge Island

People for Parks supports Prop. 1

I would like to respond to Mr. James Olsen’s allegations/comments regarding the People for Parks Committee published (“BITV’s airing of film shows partisanship,” Oct. 29). People for Parks is an independent, volunteer committee formed to support Proposition 1. Prop. 1 is the park district’s proposed levy lid-lift on the November ballot; if it is approved, none of the increased revenues will go to the city.

I am the treasurer for the committee. On Oct. 28, committee co-chair Deb DeVlieger and I met with Mr. Olsen to share our committee’s books with him. As we explained at the meeting, the People for Parks Committee did place ads in the Review and the Islander. The advertisements listed the committee’s website, which contains contact information for many of the volunteer members. Unfortunately, the words “paid for by” and the committee’s address were mistakenly omitted from the ads. We immediately contacted both newspapers and asked them to print corrections with the omitted information.

Mr. Olsen did see a bill for the ad placed in the Bainbridge Islander. It is clearly noted in the committee’s books that I shared with him. We have not yet received an invoice from the Review documenting the cost of that ad.

Finally, the People for Parks Committee had no knowledge of the documentary currently running on BITV that Mr. Olsen characterizes as a “partisan piece.”

Once again, Proposition 1’s merits are not addressed in Mr. Olsen’s complaints. He chooses instead to misrepresent the activities of unpaid volunteers who support the parks district’s efforts to maintain and improve our community’s parks.

Karen Molinari

Treasurer, People for Parks

Grand Forest isn’t relevant to lid-lift

A lifelong resident of the island once told me, “My dad only read the Review if he stole it.” That said, it was interesting to read a letter (“BITV’s airing of film shows partisanship,” Oct. 29) in the Review (not bought/available at Pegasus Coffee).

Jim Olsen thinks that showing a 26-minute video (on BITV) about the history of the Grand Forest is some way relevant to the levy-lid increase (BI Metro Park) on next week’s ballot.

Mr. Olsen believes that the history of the Grand Forest is promoting the passage of this ballot issue. Before the Metropolitan Parks District was established, BI Parks came to the voters every two years for funding. As commissioners, we worked hard not only for the salaried district employees, but for the programs offered to the island’s population.

When the Grand Forest was made available to the school district and the park district, a majority of Bainbridge Island voters voted to save a forest. We worked very hard to secure the Grand Forest.

If you, Mr. Olsen, would like to deny the BIMP District and its levy lift, “go for it.” However, the Grand Forest was earned and voted for, and will never be developed.

Billy Walik

Battle Point Drive

Community

Who’s to blame for noisy air space?

I stood in the autumn yard this week as SeaTac jets arced over the island. It used to be one jet. At 4 a.m. from the Orient it came so low the hydraulics sounded like a snore. Now every weekend, we are an air-rally beacon for amateur pilots.

Don’t you remember the July 4th single biplane that transfixed us by flying antics over the parade until, alas, (s)he got banned? How we used to listen to neighbors’ float planes slowly try to lift off from island harbors, louder than Wednesday night Sportsman Club gun shoots? None ever missed.

I started to blame the mayor for how we’ve changed. As she tries for grants for sidewalks and fewer parking places, the air above us is loud and out of control. Why doesn’t she do something?

Then it hit that the “enemy” was all about someone else. Four-dollar-a-gallon gas was not done for good. The “all about” is sustainability. One less trip downtown a day to use sidewalks and parking was overdue. One less trip to the Orient was timely. What the 30 percent resources over-depletion we do needed was a time out.

Six miles of random driving a day on the island by motor vehicles, times 23,000, is an incalculable depletion. So, mayor, I apologize.

R.O. Conoley

Sunrise Drive