Police warn of creep in truck — News Roundup
Published 3:00 pm Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Bainbridge Police are seeking information on suspicious incidents in which a man in a pickup truck approached youths waiting for their school buses this week.
The first incident was reported at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at Wyatt Way and Lovell Avenue, when a middle-school-aged girl reported that a suspicious man pulled up and offered her a ride.
The next morning, a young boy reported a similar incident while waiting at a bus stop on Fort Ward Hill Road.
The suspect is described as a white male, with dark hair and a short goatee, alternately said to be 35-42 years old or middle-aged.
His vehicle is said to be a white Ford truck, a two-door with a honeycomb chrome grill.
Anyone with information is asked to call Bainbridge Police at 842-5211.
Work under way on walk
Workers are installing two retaining walls above Rolling Bay Walk to protect two formerly condemned homes slated for re-habitation this winter.
“We want to turn this back to the viable beach it once was,” said Rob Smallwood, a contractor leading on-site efforts to revitalize the beachfront neighborhood.
Near-record rains in 1997 sent a portion of the steep hillside crashing into a home, killing the family of four inside and spurring the city to condemn a number of nearby homes.
The steel retaining walls, each valued at $150,000 will protect two shoreline homes facing Seattle.
Early plans to build condominiums on the former landslide site were nixed by the city because of density restrictions, Smallwood said. Instead, he plans to build one or two family-size homes, possibly protected by another retaining wall.
– Tristan Baurick
Pair bound to christen ship
The city will send two island representatives to the christening of the USS Bainbridge in Maine next month.
Councilman Bill Knobloch will join retired U.S. Navy Admiral and island resident Stuart Platt for the Nov. 13 ceremony at Bath Ironworks.
“Our presence signifies our community’s support for the troops,” Knobloch, a former navy pilot, said.
The USS Bainbridge is a state-of-the-art guided missile destroyer set to enter service next year once it is equipped and crewed. The navy will likely base the ship in a warm-weather port on the East Coast.
Knobloch served his first tour of duty as a navigator for reconnaissance flight crews near Bath some 40 years ago. He said his first return trip to the area will be “full of nostalgia,” adding that he considers it a “distinct honor” to represent the city at the christening.
Like the island, the ship is named after Commodore William Bainbridge, who pummeled the HMS Java in the War of 1812. Four other navy ships bore the commodore’s name, starting with a 250-ton brig commissioned in 1842. The USS Bainbridge name also adorned the hulls of two destroyers and a nuclear-powered cruiser that was decommissioned in 1997.
Island resident David LaFave served on the previous USS Bainbridge and has led local involvement with its latest incarnation.
Work commitments as the manager of Winslow Wharf Marina will keep LaFave from attending the christening, but he intends to take part in the navy commissioning ceremony set for November 2005.
LaFave has proposed sending a gift representing the island to the Bainbridge’s crew, such as exercise equipment or a painting from a local artist to hang in the ship’s mess hall.
– Tristan Baurick
