News Roundup — Clinic plan on back burner/New park gets under way/Running into a (toe) jam (hill)/Ten choirs to unite in song/Race to live and thrive

Published 5:00 pm Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Clinic plan on back burner

The owners of the Virginia Mason Winslow Clinic property have tabled a request to loosen zoning restrictions that could ease the clinic’s expansion.

“There’s no urgency on doing this,” said co-owner Dr. Tom Haggar. “I’m having a busy couple of months and don’t want to rush into this. I want to let Winslow Tomorrow go forward and see if it fits what I want to do.”

Haggar and his partner Dr. Rob Scribner had requested an amendment to the city’s Comprehensive Plan, to alter land use designation for nearly one acre encompassing the clinic’s Ericksen Avenue parking lot and the building formerly occupied by Exotic Aquatics.

A public hearing on the proposed change was scheduled for today, but was dropped at Haggar’s request.

The owners had hoped to broaden the downtown “Core Overlay District” to include their parcel, which is currently part of the “Ericksen Overlay District.”

Under their proposed changes, the property would be brought in line with other contiguous properties they own, for uniform zoning.

Haggar asserts the proposed changes are not specifically geared for clinic expansion, but would permit him more flexibility for future development.

Some residents feared the zoning changes could allow for a large building that would alter the character of Ericksen.

According to the island’s Comprehensive Plan, the Ericksen Avenue Overlay District is intended “to preserve the unique and historical features” of the avenue and “should provide for a mix of residential and small-scale nonresidential development.”

Some members of the Bainbridge Island Historical Society and others said the zoning changes could hurt the residential feel of the area and set a precedent for more land use changes.

Haggar said his decision to indefinitely postpone the zoning change request was not in response to criticism, but was partly drawn from advice from friends who said he should wait until downtown planning catches up with him.

“Lots of people have said I should wait and let Winslow Tomorrow soak in,” he said. “I can wait a little longer.”

Some downtown business interests have backed Haggar’s proposal, arguing that eased development restrictions could allow the clinic to expand without having to leave downtown in search of a larger parcel with less constrictions.

The clinic’s medical director Kim Leatham also expressed support for the proposed rezone. She said the clinic hopes to expand services that are limited by the building’s present size.

Winslow Tomorrow project manager Sandy Fischer also backs the zoning change, but supports Haggar’s decision to wait.

“It might be a good idea to wait…until his request is what all property owners on the north side (of Winslow Way) want,” she said.

“Why not join and be a part of the other projects and a process that may yield what you asked for?”

– Tristan Baurick

New park gets under way

Six months later than planned, the Bainbridge Rotary is ready to replace the “Welcome to Bainbridge Island” sign on the highway at the north end of the island.

The Bainbridge Island Park and Recreation District and the state Department of Transportation completed an agreement March 31 to lease the “air rights” to a section of the land that will become a park around the welcome sign.

Earlier negotiations for Rotary to purchase the land from the state fell through, as the club decided it would be too costly to pursue.

To celebrate the centennial of Rotary International, the club will give the refurbished sign and surrounding grounds – to be known as “Centennial Park” – to the park district to manage.

Unlike most Rotary projects, the club is taking the lead on the project rather than contributing to projects initiated by others.

The budget for the project is $178,000, of which $40,000 in in-kind donations have already been received and the club is actively seeking more.

Rotary Club officials said contractors could complete the project by May.

“My initial idea was to enhance the sign,” Rotary Club President Joanne Croghan said. “It’s wonderful to see how this project’s developed.”

Plans call for much more than a sign enhancement. Replacing the current sign will be one twice the size of the original, on a wall about 80-feet long.

For visibility, it will be angled toward the highway, whereas the old sign was angled to the old highway route that extended from Komedal Road.

The north end of the grounds will be a grassy meadow, with a bike path off the highway winding through to Komedal Road.

Behind the sign will be a picnic and play area and parking for cars and an RV.

Behind the sign, a trellis constructed like the upended hull of a boat will display a cultural history of the island, and the floor will depict an outline of Bainbridge Island embedded in concrete about 20-feet long.

Mesolini Glass studio is planning to work with Sakai Middle School students to create glass icons of prominent island landmarks to embed in the map of the island. Beach glass will represent the water.

The island in the turnaround in the parking area will feature a “legacy tree,” a seedling taken from an old-growth island cedar tree.

A fence covered by plantings – which the state is planning to donate to the project – will surround the play area to keep children and pets away from the highway.

Currently the park is conceived as a dawn-to-dusk park, with no lighting or restrooms.

Rotary past president Tom Lindsley says he hopes Eagle Scouts might build a bench or two and other enhancements might be added in the future.

For now though, they are eager to get going on the sign.

“When I see that contractor building that (sign), I’ll feel like we’re on our way,” Lindsley said.

– Tina Lieu

Running into a (toe) jam (hill)

Just remember, what goes up – even if it’s super steep Toe Jam Hill – must come down.

Keep that in mind for the annual Toe Jam Hill half-marathon and other races this Saturday.

The Bainbridge Island Boys and Girls Club hosts this year’s event, and has added a fund-raiser pancake feed from 8 a.m. to noon at the Boys and Girls Club in the aquatics center, where runners can park, register and pick up T-shirts.

The runs begin and end at Bainbridge High School, with the 10K race starting at 9:30 a.m., looping south along Eagle Harbor Drive and Old Mill Road; followed at 9:45 a.m. by the half-marathon race, which has Toe Jam Hill at its halfway point; and at 10:30 a.m. a 1-mile fun run goes around the high school track. An award ceremony will be at 11:30.

Event sponsors are Island Fitness, New Motion Physical Therapy, Opus NW and Seattle Running Company, with all proceeds benefiting Bainbridge Island Boys and Girls Club programs and services

To sign up, download a registration form at www.bipositiveplace.org or www.island-fitness.com.

The club is still seeking volunteers who can donate three hours or any amount of time on Saturday morning on the course, directing traffic or helping aid runners at a water station.

Call Linda Hinman at 855-8486 or email lhinman@positiveplace.org.

Ten choirs to unite in song

The choirs from 10 faith communities – some 175 voices strong – will sing hallelujah together in the third annual Interfaith Community Choral Festival this Sunday.

The free concert begins at 3 p.m. at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church, with each of 10 religious groups – from Jewish, Unitarian, Protestant, Mormon, Muslim, Buddhist and Baha’i congregations – presenting a song or two from their faith tradition.

Then the choirs will join together for Beethoven’s “Hallelujah from the Mount of Olives” and “I Got Me Flowers,” with text by George Herbert and music by Dan Burton.

“This is a representation of our ability to connect with one another, despite differences in our faith traditions,” said Alice Tawresey, the concert’s co-coordinator with Greg Keyes. “We are all expressing the glory of music in the creation of the world.”

As each group shares its own sacred music, “We are showing how we celebrate the glory of God, and saying, ‘I want to hear how you do it, too,’” Tawresey said.

Paul Roy of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church will be directing the massed choir, with Ann Pell accompanying.

In addition to sacred music, the event will feature a show of work by local artists titled “Celebrating Spirituality Through Art,” from 1-5 p.m. Artists who would like to exhibit their work can contact Olga Ruys at 780-0835 or Jill Taylor at 780-2366.

The event is sponsored by the Interfaith Council of Bainbridge/North Kitsap. A reception will follow.

Representing nearly 20 religious communities in the area, the event was formed to “connect and involve individual members of faith traditions, and not just the leaders,” Tawresey said. “And this concert is one of the ways it’s being expressed.”

– Rhonda Parks Manville

Race to live and thrive

Pink T-shirts and purple caps will be blooming again on June 4 for the annual Race for the Cure that raises money in the fight against breast cancer.

Team Town & Country Kitsap will hold sign-ups April 29-30 and May 6-7 at Town & Country and Central Market in Poulsbo for the June 4 event at Qwest Field, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Registration is $25 for adults and $15 for ages 6-12, free for under 6, and includes an official Race for the Cure T-shirt, a pink survivor T-shirt and hat for breast cancer “thrivers” and a classic purple “Team T&C” hat.

Race day events include a kid’s race, 1K co-ed walk, 5K co-ed walk, 5K co-ed run and 5K women’s only run.

In addition, T&C is holding a quilt raffle through June 4 for a “Hope in a Hatbox” handmade, hatbox-style quilt designed by T&C staff member Susan Calhoun and friends.

All proceeds go to the Komen Foundation, which provides grants for breast cancer research and to local groups providing services and promoting awareness to underserved women.

Tickets and photos of the quilt are at check stands in T&C. The drawing will be on June 11 at the new T&C Mill Creek store.

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Race for the Cure Series is the largest series of 5K runs/fitness walks in the world.

Since its inception in 1983 in Dallas as one local race with 800 participants, it has grown to become a national series of 109 races, with over 1.4 million participants expected in 2005.

Last year’s Seattle race raised over $1.2 million and had about 15,000 participants.

For more information about Team T&C team, contact Kay Jensen, 842-9126 or kayruns@yahoo.com. For race information, call the Komen Foundation at 633-658 or see www.seattleraceforthecure.org.