“Sometimes I worry about this community, a city councilman commented, as we stood together admiring antique cars in the American Marine Bank parking lot Wednesday morning. There seem to be so many fights of neighbor against neighbor. But then the Fourth of July comes along, he mused, everybody gets together, and there’s not a bad thought anywhere. “
“The city has run out of time to force a contractor to build a traffic roundabout before school resumes in the fall.But persuasion in the form of money might still get the job done.I’m optimistic that the incentives we are building into the contract might get the work done before school begins, city engineer Jeff Jensen said this week.Bids for the High School Road reconstruction, which includes a controversial roundabout at the corner of High School and Madison Avenue, are to be received by July 13, a Friday. “
“Legislation so new that it’s not yet effective may allow the city to build a downtown parking structure without imposing new taxes.Called community revitalization financing, the measure allows cities to designate a geographic benefit area, and use a portion of property taxes from that area to pay for public-works improvements. “
“Arthur and Virginia Barnett’s Fourth of July was bracketed by her 88th birthday and the couple’s 65th anniversary. The proximity of private and public celebration seems fitting, for the principles that were the moral foundation of the new country have formed the keystone of the Barnetts’ merged lives. Attorney Arthur Barnett may be best remembered for defending Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese American who resisted internment during World War II. Sustained by Virginia’s support and their mutual Quaker beliefs, Arthur withstood pressure from all sides to abandon Hirabayashi’s case. “
“As author Jill Barnett’s life has changed dramatically over several years, so has her work. Barnett, a successful paperback romance writer, breaks into the hardcover mainstream market for the first time with Sentimental Journey, the World War II novel she reads at Eagle Harbor books July 5. “
“Outside, the plain gray building behind the police station looks like a remnant of Bainbridge Island’s past, right down to the 1964 Porsche parked out in front.But the sleek decor, walls of au courant graphics and rooms of computers and servers inside tell you that this is Bainbridge’s present, and maybe its future – a knowledge-based business using the Internet to reach a national and international client base.We use the web to give existing clients access around the clock and in any location, said Geoff Daigle of Daigle Design. It’s one of the reasons that we could move from downtown. “
“A 17-year-old Suquamish youth suffered serious facial injuries in a two-car collision at Blakely Avenue/Baker Hill Road Monday morning.Alcohol is believed to have been a factor in the crash, police said, and the youth was arrested on suspicion of vehicular assault even before he regained consciousness.Police said the suspect, behind the wheel of an early 1990s Honda Accord, was heading east up Baker Hill and ran a stop sign as he turned north onto Blakely.His vehicle was struck on the driver’s side by a southbound 2001 Toyota Sequoia SUV, driven by Beth Guy, 41, of Bainbridge Island. “
“The on-again, off-again Winslow Town Square project has surfaced again, this time with an arts orientation to go with the underground parking and affordable housing.Art is almost the definition of what our community is, said Winslow architect Peter O’Connor, one of the plan’s proponents.And this is a way of keeping some of the people that make this the place that it is. “
“Here lies the grave of John O’DeaWho died maintaining his right of wayHe was right – dead right – as he marched alongBut he’s just as dead as if he’d been wrong.* * * * *This epitaph – apocryphal, no doubt – seems appropriate to the lawsuit local homebuilders have filed against the city.They challenge the legality of the city’s building-permit surcharge, which was imposed, by its own terms, for the purpose of financing the Housing Trust Fund. To the builders, it’s a clear case of right and wrong. Washington law says that construction and development can’t be taxed to raise revenue, no matter how laudatory the purpose. What the city can do, they say, is levy a fee that covers the cost of the permitting process. But since the money raised by the surcharge is stated explicitly to be for other purposes, they argue, the surcharge is illegal. “
“Taps opened Friday afternoon at the new Don Nakata Memorial Pool, for a landmark leak test as the facility and its 250,000-gallon tank near completion.Construction is outpacing the park district’s ability to pay for it, though, as volunteers continue a campaign to tap local donors for $500,000 in private funding.In fact, the district is still $175,000 short of what it needs to pay for the bare bones facility – with a mid-September or early October opening date looming. We were, and are, very confident that the capacity is there to raise the money, said Dave Lewis, Bainbridge Island Park and Recreation District director. There’s a lot of potential there, and when if it comes to fruition, we’ll be in pretty good shape.Confidence, though, is just one of the faces Lewis and other district officials are wearing. The other is concern. “
“Saying they should not be taxed to support general public obligations, three Bainbridge Island builders have filed suit to strike down a building-permit surcharge the city uses to support affordable housing. We’re not against affordable housing, said Andy Mueller, one of the named plaintiffs. But that should be funded by the public at large, not by a small group of people. We want our money back. “
“Five years ago, a citizen committee charged with envisioning a post-cleanup Wyckoff site proposed a development plan, believing they had no other choice.At tonight’s city council meeting, a second committee will propose that the whole parcel go into public ownership – to be used as a park, relegating development proposals to a fallback position. “
“Ed Kushner’s real estate office will stay in the family – the Windermere family.Kushner, who started the business with two partners in 1978, this week announced sale of the Bainbridge office, a Windermere Real Estate affiliate, to corporate colleague Jim Laws.We wanted ownership of the office to be a person who was good for the people in our office and for the office, who was good for the community of of Bainbridge Island, who was good for Windermere in the big sense, and who was good for us, Kushner said, identifying goals he shared with his wife Karen. We concluded that if we could meet those first four criteria, the last one would take care of itself. “
