No city funds
To the editor:
I am a Jewish person living here on Bainbridge. I noticed that BI parks is putting on a Xmas event called “Holiday at Fey” but has opted to skip celebrating all the other holidays.
Holiday at Fey is Xmas coded with Xmas trees on the marketing and Santa on the website. There is no attempt whatsoever to include other holidays, regardless of disingenuous use of the word “holiday”.
As a taxpayer on Bainbridge Island, I do not want public money going to religious displays or “Christian America” culture war events. BI makes all sorts of noise how progressive and inclusive and welcoming we are but doesn’t seem to walk that talk.
This sort of thing is best left for a church group, and government should stay out of it.
In regards to the article “Jewish community celebrates in BI,” I think mention should be made that Chabad is not the Jewish community of Bainbridge. Chabad is an orthodox cult from New York that breaks with Jewish tradition by iconizing a modern prophet (the Rebbi) and proselytizing.
While I certainly appreciate their education efforts all over the world they are not really “local” any more than Mormon missionaries sent to a certain community are local.
Joe Benoliel
Bainbridge Island
Extend funding
To the editor:
I have worked in long-term care for 27 years in Washington. Our local community has always come together in tough times to help those most in need. That has been especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the operator of an adult family home on Bainbridge Island, I support, and care for, people with disabilities who are some of the most vulnerable and most-impacted during this time of COVID.
I am far from the only person working in long-term care in our state. While every community is different, we all have more in common than we don’t. For example, I know that we are all struggling to acquire necessary PPE, care supplies, services and other items as prices and availability continue to be problematic.
And, I know that it’s hard to find and retain experienced care providers in this present economy that carries difficult labor challenges. Simply put, long-term care is as much a fundamental partner in confronting the crisis as it is an element of the crisis itself. That’s why federal funding relief was given to long-term care earlier this year, and it’s why I’m fearful of what will happen if it ceases this month, even though relief funding is still available from federal sources.
I hope our state leaders will act to extend this emergency funding into 2022 so that we can start the year on firm footing during this ongoing crisis that is impacting our seniors and people with disabilities in long-term care.
Craig Fredrickson
Bainbridge Island
Story propaganda
To the editor:
What expansion of the police department? There is no expansion of anything but floor space.
The article, as written, allowed a special interest group to deliberately mislead islanders with false arguments, suggesting we are about to become a police state unless funding is immediately shifted out of the police budget to their chosen program.
Let us be clear – mental health services in the community are inadequate and deserve serious attention, but not at the expense of the police department. If an individual in the throes of a mental crisis, is threatening others, who gets called? The police department, for containment, calming and transport. Mentally disturbed individuals can be violent and dangerous, or not, but to posit that prevention will protect us is at best disingenuous.
If you wish to question the City Council’s choice of facilities and their overpayment for a medical building no one wanted, feel free. It isn’t the first time our council has made dubious purchases for well-beyond reasonable prices. But it did, and nothing will undo it. The building is a sunk cost at this point.
The existing police building was constructed in 1947 for a fire department that abandoned it. It has no holding cell, nor adequate evidence locker or armory, and the plumbing doesn’t always work.
The Bainbridge Review has done great disservice by letting propaganda be published as fact, without demur, as the lead headline, no less. The fact that some on the City Council have made the same argument does not make their case valid.
Varon Mullis
Bainbridge Island
Police are good
To the editor:
I admit, you have my respect. Somehow, each week you are able to find a handful of disgruntled folks and turn their grievances into a headline. This time it’s “defunding” the Bainbridge Island Police Department.
We have a great police department. I feel good when I see one of their units cruising by below our house, and it’s comforting knowing that they are here for my protection. What’s not comforting is the knowledge that they are working out of an inadequate facility and our City Council can’t seem to get it together enough to help them.
Don’t mistake me: I certainly don’t condone the brutality we’ve seen from other police forces, but we don’t have that problem here.
Larry Brown
Bainbridge Island
Scout trees
To the editor:
On behalf of the 31 Boy Scouts in Troop 1565, I thank everyone who purchased a Christmas tree from us this holiday season. Your support helps fund our many hiking, camping and canoe trips; our summer adventures; new equipment purchases; and much more.
Thank you Ace Hardware for once again allowing us to set-up shop next door, take over some of your parking lot, and to plug into your power supply.
Lastly, for those of you lucky enough to get one of the nearly 40 big (9’ to 11’) trees we had this year, please join us in thanking fellow islander Mike Burns, who recently purchased some property in Poulsbo that used to be a tree farm but has been inactive for some time. He donated those trees to the Scouts after reading about the tall tree shortage in the Bainbridge Review a of couple weeks ago. Proceeds from that single donation will help pay nearly 100% of the cost of sending 10 of our Scouts to a weeklong summer camp in Montana in July.
While you’re at it, be sure to sign-up to recycle your Christmas tree after the holidays at treerecycle.net. Our friends at Troops 1564 and 1804 would appreciate your support, too.
Thank you for supporting Scouting.
Dan Miller
Scoutmaster
