Trust belies mission
To the editor:
The Bainbridge Island Land Trust did not consult donors when it acquired the Lovgreen property with plans to develop part of it.
This direction does not bode well for the land trust. Organizations need to focus on their core mission. The Lovgreen property is a clear example. BI’s affordable housing strategy has wisely focused on building in areas already targeted for density, have transit options and are near jobs. But the Lovgreen property puts high-density housing in a rural, car-dependent part of BI where a resident that wanted to try to ride a bus would have to run across a 50 mph highway to get to the stop.
As a BILT donor, I now need to re-evaluate my gifts to it. On the housing side, I have to decide whether to support this project or a women’s shelter that pulls families out of encampments. On the preservation side, I have to decide whether to invest in the BILT, where my dollars might go toward preservation, or they might go toward a housing project, vs. preservation opportunities in our broader region.
I love the land trust and genuinely believe that its future is at stake. I hope its board will reconsider and give up the development schemes. An argument that it can do housing and preservation is really one that it should do housing instead of preservation. There are already organizations on BI where donors can support housing projects, but there is only one organization that focuses on preserving BI’s natural places. At this moment, it needs to double down on that mission.
Marshall Tappen
Bainbridge
We’re ignored
To the editor:
We are appalled. With an average annual household income of $215,000 and only 29,000 residents, our tax dollars can’t get traffic control on Grow Avenue. The powers that be, who obviously don’t live in the downtown core, have ignored the residents for years. We have appealed, made great suggestions and yet our “right to quiet enjoyment” in home ownership continues to be ignored.
Trucks, buses, speeders and lawn services who can’t properly tie down their equipment have made this their thoroughfare all day and all night. It’s constant. There is no police control, no radar indicators, no abatements where it’s needed.
The majority of the traffic comes from Wyatt to Winslow Way. Yet the focus went from High School Road to Wyatt with a few orange cones and some rinky dink white pylons contraptions. What on earth does that do? I’ll tell you, it’s made people avoid that section and heap it on ours.
This Fourth of July is the worst with road closures diverting more traffic through our neighborhood.
Speeders don’t care, city planners don’t care, but the police should. They could make some money and post a car. I’ll bring the donuts.
Mollie Crittenden
Bainbridge
Pool outdated
To the editor:
The world was a little different when the Ray Williamson pool was built 54 years ago. Floppy disks had not yet been invented. Email had yet to be invented. The world had yet to hear about pickleball!
I have tremendous gratitude for the folks on Bainbridge Island who built the Ray Williamson pool many years ago. Thank you for the experiences and memories we’ve had in the pool you built. Now it’s our turn to pay it forward and provide a pool for the future.
The Ray Williamson pool has reached its end of life and desperately needs updates. I’m voting yes for BI Aquatics.
Travis Crawford
Bainbridge
No pool bond
To the editor:
Save Island $$$ – let Parks renovate the Ray pool without the bond
It is true that the Ray pool has been declared to be at the end of its useful life, as a pool that is 50+ years old. Parks voted months ago to fund the necessary improvements to the Ray in its current configuration to keep it running for an estimated 20 more years.
Parks District Proposition 1 is being proposed to expand the pool — to add two additional lanes and make the depth consistent. However, the proposal language is clear that expansion will occur only if it’s financially feasible. If it’s not financially feasible, funding from Prop. 1 will instead be used to fund pool renovations that Parks already agreed to fund without this bond.
Prop. 1 is being messaged as necessary to renovate the Ray, which is simply untrue.
Our entire family has been involved in aquatics programming since moving here in 2007. We do not support expanding the Ray to eight lanes, even if it’s financially feasible. Parks cannot articulate how expansion is a long-term solution for aquatics users across age ranges and diverse uses.
In contrast, expansion has the potential to not only keep the status quo for families who are waitlisted for basic swim lessons but also result in missed sports seasons and critical training for athletes due to poorly planned and lengthy pool closures. An expansion would create an unworkable space for events due to loss of an already too small pool deck and spectator area.
Prop. 1 doesn’t provide for our community’s aquatics needs.
Beth Lipton
Bainbridge
