The Great Island Friday walking group may not travel fast, but it goes the distance.
“Power walkers drop us right away,” member Ron Williamson said. “We are a meandering group – we stop, we look.
“We especially like small houses and mailboxes that are funky, the art that people have in their yards – the things that make this island what it is.”
In four years of casual Friday rambles, TGIF has covered more than 700 miles of island trails, beaches and roadways.
Surveying the field of city council candidates on the Nov. 6 ballot, voters may ask: Whatever happened to the simple goal of public service?
We wonder. Over the past few elections, we’ve watched council races veer into the politics of reaction against previous policies, decisions and trends. In 1997, the successful theme was “fiscal responsibility.” Two years later, candidacies were largely defined by skittishness over growth. We see this year’s races as an extension of the latter contests; among the six candidates, two are Ferncliff-area residents galvanized by controversial developments in their neighborhood (following the successful bid by Michael Pollock two years ago on the same theme).
After three years of negotiations, the city has reached agreement with owner Akio Suyematsu for public purchase of his 15-acre farm on Day Road East, to preserve the land as open space.
For amateur archaeoastronomer John Rudolph, the Bainbridge petroglyph is like a postcard from the past.
Rudolph believes he can read the meaning of the carved stone that juts from a Bainbridge beach as if it were a message from ancient islanders.
“The purpose of the site is to determine what time of year it is,” Rudolph says. “The petroglyph lies precisely west of the Skykomish canyon 60 miles away. On the vernal and autumnal equinox, one sees the rising sun shining straight through the canyon, if one is standing at the petroglyph.”
For a property manager, the loss of a major tenant in the middle of a less-than-robust market is a crisis.
When the Day Road industrial park lost Watson Furniture Systems, Sheri Watson saw an opportunity. And by offering high-speed internet access, she has filled the vacant space and then some with what she believes will be the jobs of the future on Bainbridge.
Jonathan Miller-Lane loves a good question.
“A really good subject can hook anyone,” Miller-Lane said. “You have to have a question that you yourself are truly interested in.”
He poses one both pointed and timely when he asks a panel of Bainbridge youth and adults Oct. 24 how Americans perceive their national values – as opposed to what the rest of the world understands them to be.
Few encounter Bainbridge nonprofit organizations without meeting the retired volunteers who contribute time and money to many of these organizations.
And as more families need both parents in the workforce and have less time to give, retirees take up the slack.
If the number of candidates is any indication, the most sought-after elective position on Bainbridge is the fire commission seat that Alan Corner is vacating after two six-year terms. The race drew a total of four hopefuls.
Sharla Graham is always looking for the next great pucker.
“I might be speaking with someone, and I’ll be thinking ‘great mouth,’” said Graham, whose Zephyr Flute Choir plays Pegasus Coffee House Oct. 20.
“It’s the lips that are most important. Anyone can learn how to play the flute, but there are mouth shapes that are just better.”
To handle operations at the larger, more complext Bainbridge Island Aquatic Center, the park district has hired Eric Khambatta as pool operator.
Khambatta, who grew up in Suquamish, is no stranger to Bainbridge aquatics, having worked at the Ray Williamson Pool while in high school and college.
Since then, Khambatta has served as pool manager in Kirkville, Mo., and Anacortes before returning to this area with well over a decade of experience in pool operations.
For the new owners of two well-established Bainbridge stores, the lure was the island, not simply the enterprise.
“Small towns give me the opportunity to get involved,” said Bob Schoonmaker, new owner of the Chandlery with partner Kimberly Corrigan.
The two avid sailors live aboard a 40-foot boat in the Harbor Marina, and were long-time customers when John and Jane Jay owned the store.
“I was looking for an opportunity to re-orient my life from the city back to Bainbridge Island because I love it here so much,” said Schoonmaker, who works with a Seattle outdoor-clothing firm.
“This is a marriage of my passions, which are boating and managing a business,” he said.
An unexpected package in the mail. A handful of powder or dust, spilled on the floor in a public area.
With America at war against nebulously organized terrorist factions abroad, and reports of possible contagion spread through our national post, we find in even the little surprises and petty annoyances of life the taint of fear and suspicion.
Even on our tiny island, a seemingly unlikely target for the warped aims of international terror, we are touched by a world gone suddenly somewhat mad.
Just how much pool will $5.5 million buy?
The public can find out this Saturday, at an open house at the new Don Nakata Pool and larger Bainbridge Island Aquatic Center.
The event will give users a preview of the layout before the pool is filled with water next month.
“We’re getting a heck of a lot,” said John DeMeyer, park district aquatics supervisor. “By capitalizing on the existing pool…we’ll have a major two-pool complex, plus a water slide, two complete locker rooms and a family changing area. That’s a 30,000 square foot facility.
“And everybody will have access. There’s something for everyone.”
