Steady rain softened the earth, not the turnout, as nearly two dozen volunteers showed up for a community tree and shrub planting in Winslow Saturday morning.
The site was a newly developed pedestrian trail off Bjune Drive.
By the time volunteers were done, about 210 plants had gone in, with varieties including evergreen huckleberry, red flowering currant, snowberry and vine maples. The plants were tucked into a thick blanket of mulch provided by the city public works department.
“These guys are great – look at the turnout,” said Tim Goss, landscape architect and one of the project’s coordinators. “I thought it was just going to be Charles (Schmid) and I.”
The planting was organized by the Association of Bainbridge Communities, longtime advocates for Winslow’s waterfront pedestrian trail. Project funds came from a $5,000 grant from the city’s hotel/motel tax, proceeds from which are doled out to community groups for civic improvement.
The only problem with the path is that it doesn’t lead anywhere – it ends at a bank overlooking Eagle Harbor and a stormwater outfall.
In the short term, a bench is planned at trail’s end, plus 100 or so more plants. But Schmid hopes to see construction of a footbridge over the ravine there, and construction of a path behind several lower Madison Avenue properties slated for redevelopment.
The goal is to link up with the existing path that now ends starts between the old cleaners building Bainbridge Thai Cuisine, and continues on past the Harbour Public House. The proposed link would bring the trail within a half-block of Waterfront Park.
“I’m looking forward to when the path continues,” Goss said. “That’s the next step.”
– Douglas Crist
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***Development meeting set
City planners and developer John Green will host a community meeting on the planned “Summit at Blakely Harbor” subdivision, at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at Bainbridge Island City Hall.
Green is proposing a 25-lot residential subdivision on 62 acres, east of Fort Ward Hill Road and south of Country Club Road. The property is zoned R-0.4, or one unit per 2.5 acres. The lots are generally clustered in four sections.
As proposed, the project would include a reasonable-use exception to allow the improvement of the subdivision road through a wetland and wetland buffer, and the placement of a stormwater transmission line and energy dissipater within a Class IV stream buffer.
Neighbors are invited to review the proposal and ask questions.
For information on the meeting, call Kathy Cook at 842-2552. For information on the project, contact Josh Machen, also at 842-2552.
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***Chamber looks to the future
Sarah Ruth van Gelder, Executive Editor of Yes! Magazine and board member of Positive Futures Network will speak on “Living Economies,” at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon, 11:30 a.m. Feb. 20 at Bistro Pleasant Beach.
Also presenting will be Kat Gjovik, on businesses “reducing, reusing, and recycling” paper and other products. Cost: $12 for preregistered members, $14 for non-members and walk-ins. Information, registration: 842-3700.
