“The land comes with stories, and Jim Salter comes with the land.Over here is a pile of cedar shakes, some of them fashioned by Salter’s own hand. Over there is a fallen tree that bucked up as Salter cut into it with a chainsaw, giving him a smack that landed him in the hospital for 32 days. They’re still not sure how he got out of the woods for an airlift to the hospital.The stories go back 80 years. And at age 85, Salter still heads out to the Wardwell Avenue property as often as he can, to renew his connection with his five wooded acres and his past.There’s a lot of happy memories out here, Salter said, looking past the woods toward the rolling fields of Meigs Park next door.It’s a piece of property I’ve loved ever since I bought it, he said. Even before I bought it.Salter hopes to see his land preserved, and so do Bainbridge Island officials. Mayor Dwight Sutton this week announced a preliminary deal by which the city will acquire the parcel as open space. Tentative price is set at $110,000, pending a formal appraisal. Unusual are the terms, which the mayor called excellent for the city – the money would be paid out over 15 years, to ensure income security for Salter and his wife.Sutton cited large cedars, wetlands and trails as among the parcel’s amenities.It’s a natural addition to Meigs Park, he said. It provides better access from the west side than has been available heretofore.Plus, there’s all kinds of dickeybirds out there whistling away, he said, so that’s kind of fun.The mayor used the purchase to renew his call for an open space bond levy in the $5-10 million range, to give the city a bank of funds with which to move quickly when similar opportunities pop up.A citizen committee chaired by volunteer Linda McMaken is laying the groundwork for the levy, which Sutton would like to see go before Bainbridge voters before the end of the year. A round of phone polling to gauge community support is being organized.In fact, the Salter deal was one of two announced at Wednesday’s city council meeting.Sutton said a deal has also been reached for purchase of a narrow strip providing public beach access at Rolling Bay, at a cost of $8,000.The road end, which shows up on plat maps as Ocean Street, is in the vicinity of Messenger House. The deal was negotiated by city Administrator Lynn Nordby, who was out of town at week’s end; other information was not available at press time.Even with those purchases, city officials are dismayed by another open space deal that has apparently fallen through. Last month, Nordby announced the purchase of 10 acres adjacent to a city well field near the head of the bay. Purchase price for that property, mostly wetlands and with a year-round stream running down the middle, was announced as $270,000.But that seller reportedly backed out just before the deal was completed. Sutton said the administration is still interested in the property, and is weighing its options.Wardwell landJim Salter came to Bainbridge Island as a 5-year-old, settling with his family at the end of Wardwell Road in 1920.He grew up on a farm cleared of trees by his uncle. He raised his own family there, moving back and forth to Winslow a few times before settling on Grow Avenue in retirement.He made a career installing commercial refrigeration units. But the property let Salter indulge his twin passions of cuttin’ wood and huntin’ pheasants; he still recalls a time when, if you wanted to dig a pond on your land, you hauled out the dynamite instead of the Kubota.That’s how he did it, anyway.While Salter eventually sold the ancestral home, he kept five acres next door, which he purchased in 1960. And he’s continued to work the land – getting around on a four-wheeled ATV, harvesting fallen trees and making cedar shakes the same way he always has: by hand, with an adze-like tool called a froe.Next door to the north and east is the 67-acre Meigs Park, its wetlands and wildlife habitat set aside a decade ago for militantly passive enjoyment. Several other protected parcels connect the properties with the Grand Forest.Salter has, he said, been fighting off the timber guys hoping to clear his land and cash in.I don’t know how many offers I’ve had, Salter said. But I like to look at the big trees.And big trees there are, towering cedars and firs and a huge, awe-inspiring Sitka spruce – rare in this area – that soars upward and disappears into the sky.I’d sure like to see all these preserved, Salter said. It’s taken quite a while for them to get to this point.He approached the Bainbridge Island Land Trust about acquiring the property, and they in turn referred him to city hall.And to get everyone’s attention, Salter applied for a building permit. It seems to appeal to his sense of humor – or, perhaps a man who has spent decades working the land the old-fashioned way was just getting his due.The damn city took away my number one pleasure – burning brush, he said.Reminded that it was in fact the state that passed the year-round burn ban, Salter chuckled.I’ve got to blame someone close by. “