“When Bob Skodis visits Battle Point Park with his dog, he usually brings home more than pleasant memories.The Fletcher Bay resident says his frequent sojourns are followed by a noisome period spent cleaning bird droppings off his shoes, as well as from his dog’s paws and fur.It’s really disconcerting when you get home and you realize you’ve got duck crap on your shoes and your rug, he said.Now Skodis is lobbying the Bainbridge park district to ban the feeding of ducks and other water fowl in local parks. Handouts of stale bread and other goodies, he believes, exacerbates a problem of once-migratory birds loitering and fouling the park grounds.When somebody goes up to the edge of the lake with bread, the ducks fly right up, 100 or more, Skodis said. To a certain extent, they rely on that. That’s why they stick around.”
“No matter how the House and Senate resolve their fight over the state budget, islanders should be sitting pretty – at least in the short term. Ferry service will be maintained, and city taxes could actually decrease, local officials say.Those assessments are based on the information trickling out of Olympia this week. The special session of the Washington State Legislature was expected to adjourn Friday afternoon with no budget agreement, and reportedly was not slated to reconvene until House and Senate negotiators agree on a budget.According to Rep. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island, the budget plans from both House and Senate would give the ferry system the same amount of money for the upcoming fiscal year, and Bainbridge ferry service wouldn’t be affected at that funding level.”
“What does a little encouragement cost?For Bainbridge Music and Arts, about $300,000.Over the past 32 years, that’s what the all-volunteer nonprofit organization has paid out in scholarships and awards, enabling more than 2,000 middle and high school students to pursue training in dance, drama, music, creative writing, and mixed-media art (painting, sculpture, jewelry, photography, paper making).And how the program has grown!Because of the generosity of donors and other arts organizations, says BMA president Caryl Grosch, we’ve been able to increase the amount we give to the kids.”
“They stood beneath hand-lettered signs and – it being November – umbrellas. They protested the cutting of trees, and perhaps the irony that in a country founded on individualism, the arrival of generic hamburgers could be seen as progress.Their image graced the front page of the Review on Nov. 22, 1989, some two dozen islanders taking a stand against the groundbreaking of the McDonald’s eatery on High School Road. The restaurant did in fact go up, and seems to enjoy loyal patronage to this day. Now we wonder – do the local zoning restrictions on formula fast-food restaurants that McDonald’s inspired still have a following of their own?”
“Allow a Papa Murphy’s pizza franchise on Bainbridge Island, or risk seeing the city’s fast-food ordinance overturned in court.That’s the challenge from restaurateur Mike Cooper of Sequim, and his attorney. Do the city a favor and interpret the ordinance in a way that permits our operation, attorney Peter Eglick told a city hearing examiner Monday, because I don’t think this ordinance will last a day in court.Cooper said his plan to open a Papa Murphy’s U-bake pizza outlet in the Village shopping center was approved in December of 1999. But after a complaint from another local pizzeria, a sizeable investment by Cooper, and an executive session of the city council, city Planning Director Stephanie Warren reversed her decision, a sequence of events that has prompted charges of favoritism and closed-door dealings.”
“On a sunny afternoon, Rebecca Slattery’s farm seems as inexorable as spring itself.But these days, the mysterious force of nature pushing the first intrepid crops to the sky withers in the face of an element perhaps even more arcane: the market.As Bainbridge farmers search for ways to sell their crops for enough money to meet the rising costs of staying on the island, they are learning to nurture not only chard, kale and cauliflower, but also potential clients.We definitely need (to do that) on Bainbridge, Slattery said, because we’re such an endangered species – farmers here.”
“The future of rock n’ roll starts with the tried-and-true essentials.We came out here with a guitar and an amplifier, a couple of sleeping bags, a dog, and a color T.V. that didn’t work very well, says Ric Autumn, the oldest member of the Bainbridge-based rock band the Future.The band was formed several years ago by brothers Erik and Mike Future, and after practicing for months at Seabold Hall, is recording its first full length album in Canada this weekend.”
“New fashions and downtown improvements are bringing down the curtain on Bainbridge Cleaners. After 46 years in business, the island’s first dry-cleaning outfit will close at the end of the week.Changing times and changing fashions, owner Mike Okano said. I never thought it would come to this. I mean, people gotta wear clothes, right? But they don’t have to wear dry-cleanable clothes.”
“Point of order, please!That was the request from the gallery, when our old friend Lois Andrus called us earlier this week. After last Wednesday’s split city council vote on the Woodland Village subdivision – in which Mayor Dwight Sutton declined to cast a deciding vote to break a 3-3 tie – Andrus insists that lacking majority support, the issue is settled in the negative.Once you have a vote, and you announce the results of the vote, it’s over – period, Andrus told us. I even went out and bought ‘Robert’s Rules of Order’ to find out.”
“Power. Drama. Excitement.And numbers.The power of more than 200 people on stage is very exciting, enthuses Bainbridge Chorale music director Anthony Spain. Chorale member Pat Putman is more succinct: It’s a real audience pleaser. Spain and Putman are expounding on the delights of tomorrow’s performance of Carmina Burana at the high school gym.It’s very exciting to be singing with the full orchestra, says Chorale member Barbara Saur. It’s a very exciting piece of music to sing. You give it all you’ve got for a full hour, and then you’re hoarse.”
“Some suggestions for prudent, lawsuit-free land use decision-making: * City councils should be loathe to fiddle with the recommendations of the planning staff, presumed to be skilled professionals. No reconfiguring projects, adding or subtracting lots or what have you, when subdivisions come up for approval;* The best way to keep politics out of controversial, project-specific decisions is to leave them to a hearing examiner; * A council should not try to make broad policy changes through its decisions on specific projects.”
“Quick: How do you save a great blue heron stranded and dying in a jumbled tangle of metal wire?That question confronted Bainbridge resident Nan Lofas two weeks ago, when her dogs discovered one of the giant birds trapped and thrashing in the frigid waters of her neighbor’s lake.He looked terrified, Lofas said. The more he tried to flap and free himself, the more he ended getting tangled up.I didn’t really know what to do at first, she said. You feel helpless because as much as you want to rush in yourself and rescue it, you realize that it’s a wild animal and you could do more damage than good.Lofas called local veterinarian Elizabeth Greenleaf, who extricated the heron with a blanket and heavy gloves. She transported the bird – chilled and exhausted – to the Island Wildlife Shelter on Dolphin Drive.That’s when rehabilitation Director Emily Meredith stepped in, nursing the weak heron to recovery.He came in, and we tubed him with warmed fluids and he was fine, Meredith said. He flew away that afternoon, beautifully.”
“Herb DeBoer plans to hold a party soon, but he certainly wouldn’t call it a celebration.The Point White resident intends to invite neighbors, journalists, and city officials to his beachfront property, to observe the beginning stages of erosion along his shoreline. The damage, he says, is sure to occur, since the Washington Supreme Court ruled last week to allow the high-speed Chinook ferry to again fly through Rich Passage at its full velocity of 39 miles per hour.”