Bainbridge commissioner hopefuls eager to guide new park improvements

Bainbridge voters have a choice this November between the island’s premier promoter of public trails, or a longtime incumbent who’s quite familiar with the sometimes rocky path facing a Bainbridge parks commissioner.

John Grinter, the challenger, is taking his second shot at a board position for the Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park & Recreation District.

Grinter, 53, ran for a seat on the park board in 2001 but lost out in a five-way race.

Ken DeWitt, 61, is seeking another term for the park district he’s served for 15 years.

Two seats are up for election Nov. 3, but the Position 2 seat is the only contested race; Commissioner Jay Kinney is running unopposed for the Position 4 slot.

The job carries a six-year term, but DeWitt said he’s eager to help guide the park district as it takes on its next major project: the creation of a central park for Bainbridge on the former Sakai family farm.

“It’s been a lot of fun, but there’s a lot of challenges, too,” said DeWitt, a mortgage banker and commercial property owner and manager.

The park district hit a plateau of sorts during his first few years on the board, he recalled, but things have only improved since Terry Lande was brought on as the district’s executive director a dozen years ago.

“He’s provided a lot of energy for the district,” DeWitt said.

“We have more than double the number of programs that we had in 2003. We have developed great public-private partnerships,” he added. “I really enjoy being part of an organization that is doing good things and making a meaningful difference.”

DeWitt said his priorities center on developing and expanding programs, parks and facilities.

Those who know him, he said, know that he stands behind his word and brings common-sense decisions to the choices faced by the park board.

Like his opponent, DeWitt is also big on trails.

DeWitt moved to the island in 1979, but he said his interest in parks started as a teenager when he led the restoration of the backcountry trail, called the “Boy Scout Trail,” in Joshua Tree National Monument. On Bainbridge, he’s long served on the park district’s Trails Advisory Committee and helped to plan, lay out and build many of the trails on the island.

“I believe I have a very well-rounded view of the park district,” DeWitt said.

Grinter came to Bainbridge from Whatcom County, via Seattle, in 2000. He’s a stay-at-home dad and small-business owner who currently serves as a volunteer on the city of Bainbridge Island’s Non-Motorized Transportation Advisory Committee.

A strident supporter of improved and connected pathways across Bainbridge, Grinter’s clashed in the past with park officials over trail projects.

“I’m passionate about our parks, our open spaces and creating a greenway network of trails and quiet roadways,” Grinter said.

“I think the need for that network is more critical now than ever, and more feasible, because, in the last 15 years, we’ve acquired even more public land that links these assets together,” he said. “That’s the number one reason I’m running.”

During his campaign, Grinter has faulted the park district for being “unwilling to bend” with other public agencies on issues of mutual concern — trails topping the list — and said he was anxious to bring a collaborative approach to dealings with the city and school district.

He’s also called for projects once considered by the park district but abandoned — such as a disc golf course or a rebuilt spray pool — to be built on parkland.

Battle Point Park was once home to a very popular, community-built spray pool, Grinter recalled, and could be again.

The original spray pool was shut down over concerns raised by county health officials; the facility lacked a treatment facility for water polluted by hundreds of kids and sweaty runners on hot summer days, and people also washed their dogs at the spray pool. The lack of a lifeguard, and dangerous and slippery tiles at the pool, also led to its demise.

Grinter recalled being at Battle Point when a bus filled with kids from Indianola rolled up, and children with towels on their backs began running toward the spray park.

Then they realized it had been shut down.

“And they were totally crestfallen,” he said.

Grinter said only political will is lacking for a spray pool.

“It’s just a matter of putting the resources toward it,” he said.

“There are thousands of spray parks in this country. Whatever the regulatory needs are, they can be met.”

There are other projects, too, that could bring needed amenities to Bainbridge parks. Grinter has suggested creating a pump track for bicyclists, a “senior citizen playground” in Winslow, and off-leash trails for dogs.

New facilities don’t have to be budget-busters, he said.

“In most cases, these amenities are designed, developed, built and maintained by user groups — so that the cost to the community is small and borne by those who use the facilities,” he said.

DeWitt, for his part, supports some of the ideas raised by Grinter. A demonstration pump track was put up at Battle Point Park for the park district’s 50th anniversary celebration earlier this year, he recalled, and seemed like a good fit.

One area where the pair part company, however, is a community center for the Sakai farm, which was purchased by the park district this year after voters OK’d a bond sale to buy the 22.97-acre property on Madison Avenue.

Grinter has said he opposed a community center on the district’s new central park, and said it would be better located near Commodore School.

DeWitt, however, said Bainbridge is in desperate need of a community center.

The lower gym at Commodore will be torn down in a few years, he noted.

“I would love to see a community center that’s got some gym space in it, some meeting space in it, and maybe an indoor track,” DeWitt said.

The jury is still out on what will happen on the Sakai property.

And DeWitt said that’s one of the main reasons he’s running for another term: to see the community come together to set a vision for the new park.

“I want to get the planning process done for the Sakai property. I want to make sure that is truly a community process,” DeWitt said.

Commissioners have agreed to set aside any personal preferences for possible amenities on the property, he explained, and let the public decide.

“Then, we need to figure out how we’re going to pay for it,” he said.

Ken DeWitt

Age: 61

Education: Humboldt State University, BS in Business Administration, emphasis in Natural Resource Management