February election

Levy for schools is money well-spent

To the editor:

Time for superlatives. Every Bainbridge Islander would be so impressed —more than impressed, floored, overwhelmed — with how wonderful, well thought out, efficient and economical the plans are for the new 100 Building at BHS.

I wish more islanders attended the school board meetings to hear presentations by Tamela VanWinkle, executive director of Facilities, Operations & Capital Projects, and the lead architect JoAnn Wilcox at Mahlum Architects, who is one serious sharpie. JoAnn is very familiar with the island and our schools. Mahlum was the architect for the 200 Building at the high school in 2006 and the new Wilkes Elementary in 2009.

Tamela had the smarts to recommend that the school board approve an approach to construction (GC/CM) which made it possible to choose FORMA Construction who are currently doing the new Blakely Elementary and bring them into the project from the beginning creating a partnership with the district and Mahlum. Tamela reported that constant monitoring of costs and design efficiencies all translate to cost containment. She calls it “value engineering.”

Nobody put me up to this and I’m no “big government tax-and-spend” kinda guy, but Islanders can rest assured when we vote in February our money will be very, very well spent.

TOM GREENE

Bainbridge Island