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.

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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.

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Questions of conflict of interest follow both of the candidates to succeed Alan Corner as Bainbridge fire commissioner.
But both believe the conflict situations are relatively insignificant, and would not prevent them from serving.

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Breaking from standard practice, the Bainbridge School Board let Superintendent Steve Rowley begin the school year without a three-year contract in hand.
School officials confirm that over the summer, the school board declined to add a third year to Rowley’s contract, set to expire at the end of the 2002-03 school year. At the same time, the board made provisions for his possible departure by naming another district official as Rowley’s immediate successor.

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Kitsap freeholders believe that a county council elected by district only deserves a chance, given what they see as overwhelming public support.
But they also think voters should have the final say.
So the charter that the freeholders will put to voters next February calls for the five council members to be elected by geographic district in both the primary and general election. Then in 2003, the whole contentious issue of election method will be put to a vote.

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Washington voters are asked to do only a moderate amount of legislating this year.
Other than Tim Eyman’s annual mischief-making, two initiatives and two referenda on the Nov. 6 ballot take aim at generally good ends, although we have reservations about one of them.

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Ericksen Avenue and Hildebrand Lane should be connected within the next two years, the city engineer says.
And while the city council’s public works committee will consider the recommendation Monday, at least one member wants to delay any final decision until the already volatile issue of Ericksen’s design is finally resolved.

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Environmental concerns are driving out other values in city decision-making, contractor Bill Nelson says.
In what he calls an effort to “restore balance,” Nelson is running for the central ward, position 4, city council seat being vacated by Merrill Robison.
“For the sake of protecting Bainbridge Island’s environment, we’ve forsaken other parts of the quality of life, such as human interaction,” Nelson said.
The 42-year-old island native says that excessive regulation is driving up costs and depriving the island of diversity.
He is critical of council decisions such as the proposed landscape ordinance that have the effect of lowering housing densities, saying that lower densities require more land per home, which, in turn, raises prices.
Conversely, he believes that to make housing more affordable, zoning needs to be changed to make higher densities possible in areas such as Lynwood Center.
“We can promote affordable housing through zoning,” he said. “We don’t need higher density everywhere, but we need it in some areas for affordability – you can’t have it both ways.”
Nelson believes the city could contract out much of the regulatory work it does, particularly on development matters, saving both money and staff time.
“The developers have to pay for bureaucracies, and they pass those costs on to the end-users,” he said.
“And it takes time away from work that the city engineer, for instance, needs to spend on public projects.”

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What started it all was a conversation over a cup of coffee, between the milkman and a doctor’s wife in 1959.
“I was the head of the United Good Neighbors drive, and she was the head of the Red Cross drive,” said Ernest Biggs, who in those days maintained a dairy route around the island.
“I had a quota that year of $10,000, and she said they’d raised $200, so we decided we had to do something.”
The problem, they decided, was that too much effort was being duplicated.
“The women on the island seemed to be the ones chosen to go door-to-door, but they were doing it half a dozen times a year, and were kind of worn out” Biggs said.

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