“To paraphrase the line about the significance of location in real estate, veteran legislator Paul Zellinsky says he offers voters of the 23rd District experience, experience and experience.And the independent, write-in candidate claims he can use that experience and non-aligned status to cut a better deal for Kitsap County in Olympia than can his opponents, Republican incumbent Beverly Woods of Poulsbo or Democratic challenger David Harrison of Bainbridge Island.”
“Harry Potter gladdens the hearts of more than children and their parents. For booksellers, the young wizard is the biggest thing that’s happened since Herr Gutenberg came up with the idea of movable type.There’s never been anything like this, said Mary Gleysteen, events coordinator at Eagle Harbor Books in Winslow. The fourth volume of the Harry Potter series was the largest first run in the history of printing – five million copies. And I understand they’re on the second printing already.Introduced in 1997, the fantasy series – chronicling the exploits of a young magician going through the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – has created an international phenomenon, attracting both young readers and adults and numerous critical plaudits.”
“So much for rural Bainbridge Island.Perceptions of the island landscape may be changing, but queasiness over growth isn’t, according to the results of a community values survey released by the city this week.I guess it’s notable in its lack of surprises, said Marti Stave, long-range planner for the city. People don’t feel any different about growth than they did (eight years ago) – they don’t like it.The survey, one of the first steps in the mandatory five-year review of the Bainbridge Island Comprehensive Plan, suggests that islanders support the same land-use policy goals that drove the plan the first time around – clustered development, preservation of the natural landscape, and rural-looking roads that maintain at least the illusion of a community of wooded idyll.”
“Where other farms have been priced off their land, one of the island’s biggest growers barely uses any soil at all.But Northwest Sea Farms, Washington’s largest grower of pen-raised Atlantic salmon, still faces challenges spurred by suburbanization. A growing residential population in the Fort Ward area has objected to management of the fish farm in Rich Passage, raising aesthetic, safety and ecological concerns.(The salmon farmers) are in an odd place, not through any fault of their own, said South Beach Drive resident Henry Jameson. Everything is changing, and they are going to come under increased pressure, simply due to the growth of the population.Jameson and other neighbors have objected to the salmon operation’s proposal to replace aging fish pens with new facilities that many feared would blight their waterfront views.”
“You know it’s a small world when a pop superstar and a citizen diplomacy project that helps Southeast Asia converge – where else – through Bainbridge Island.But that’s the happy news, as our own Peace Trees Vietnam organization this week accepted a $5,000 donation from pop singer Natalie Merchant.”
“Islander Alan Vogel is a modern Midas.In these days of environmental awareness, his ability to turn disused barns into tables pioneers the way for recycling as a kind of alchemy.I don’t do this for the money, says Vogel, although he admits that he makes gold enough to line a pocket-sized business. Stroking the uneven surface of a 64- by 80-inch table whose body came from a barn in Sequim and whose legs are made from Montana wood, he explains that his real ambition is to supply families with tables that will serve as heirlooms.”
“With 80,000 fish in eight pens, John Steiner’s Atlantic salmon farm in Rich Passage is small for an aquaculture operation.That doesn’t make running it any less work.One of the common things with all of the farmers out here is that you get to go through some of the worst days in your life, said Steiner, and that’s when it’s 30 degrees outside, waves are pouring over the fish pens, and you’re just really getting pounded by the howling wind.But on a calm summer morning, all of that seems hard to imagine as Steiner arcs out smoothly from the dock in his motorboat and casually moors against pens full of salmon jumping in such constant frenzy that one wonders if they don’t envy the pleasant weather above.”
“If there was one item not to be missed at the Rotary Auction, those in line at the gates of Woodward Middle School Saturday morning knew precisely where it was.But what article, exactly – amidst the panoply of trinkets, power tools, and old Barbara Streisand albums – made the pique of an early rise and the quarter-mile spread of parked cars on Sportsman Club Road bearable, few shoppers would have agreed.And although this was apparent as soon as the gates were opened and bargain-hunters sprinted in myriad directions, it also became frightfully clear that, amidst a crowd of thousands, almost anything of arguable value incited competition most fierce.”
“With its legislative membership now complete, the new Joint Task Force on Ferries is ready to get to work.But its job is tremendously complicated by the upcoming Initiative 745, said Sen. Betti Sheldon (D-Bremerton), a newly appointed member of the task force.That initiative, expected to earn enough signatures to appear on the November general ballot, would mandate spending 90 percent of state transportation money on highways – whatever that means. The initiative will make an already challenging job much more difficult, Sheldon said in an interview with the Review Monday.We won’t know until November whether the initiative will pass, Sheldon said.”
“America’s youth may not incline her to reviving the past, but island students’ lively approach to history bodes well for the future.I prefer to work hands on, said Chase Sandbloom, who placed seventh in the recent National History Day competition. First-place and $1,000 winner Catherine Macala agreed that textbooks are not the most stimulating way to learn about former times.”
“Bainbridge’s newest and arguably most spectacular office building is the product of sheer serendipity – being taken to the cleaners in the right way at the right time.I took some clothes to the cleaners, said John Ellis, building principal, and the woman at the counter said I had to pick them up by next week. I asked why, and she said the building was for sale. When I told my brother Ed that, he said, ‘buy it.’So the Ellis brothers bought the old PFR drycleaners on the northeast corner of Winslow Way and Ferncliff Avenue in 1995.”
“So, we were going to use this space to opine on some land use issue or other. Then we went down to the Team Winslow barbecue Monday evening for some dinner, and were largely deafened by the opening salvo of street-dance entertainment, an island rock band calling itself the Future.A hot dog! we yelled to the woman at the food booth. HOT DOG! The server just looked at us helplessly until we pointed to the proper tray; we paid our three bucks and sulked off to munch away in a corner, realizing that whatever point we were going to make about island zoning had been bludgeoned from our mind by a pounding bass guitar. But what the hey – we can talk about music.”
“Are they building a school in the Grand Forest?Not exactly. But two of the island’s next three public schools will probably be right next door.We love the trails, we love the trees, said Bruce Weiland, Bainbridge Island School Board president. But as kids come (to the island), we’ve got to have schools for them.Weiland said the school district office has received a number of calls over the past week, since signs were posted announcing a future school site in a wooded area off Mandus Olsen Road, south of Koura Road.”
