“A new season and a new beginning for the Bainbridge fastpitch softball team?Consider the following:* For the first time in memory, so many girls turned out that cuts were necessary, and both the varsity and JV squads have full complements of players;* First-year coach Bill Clement has eight solid years of fastpitch coaching experience, including two years leading the North Kitsap team;* The Spartans have experience and depth at pitching, especially in the person of newcomer Brooke Hilton, a junior immigrant from Utah, and* The team opened the season with not just a win but a domination – a 14-0 victory over Nathan Hale, called after five innings when the 10-run rule kicked in.”
“Flying Juniors, Lido 14s, 420s, Lasers, and C-Larks are the equipment – can you name the sport?Bainbridge Island Sailing Club members have to be able to handle all varieties of sailboats as they compete in regattas throughout the state, with the difference in the craft from race to race perhaps the team’s biggest challenge. Last year we won districts sailing Lido 14s in Port Hadlock. Then the team sailed 420s in national competition, said Coach John DeMeyer. Our boats on Bainbridge are Lasers, and they are small and fast, echoed co-captain Chris Utley. The other boats are bigger and harder to sail – we have to move farther, and it’s more awkward for us because we’re not used to them.Formed by DeMeyer at the urging of local kids, the club – co-sponsored by Bainbridge Island Park and Recreation District – is in its fourth year at BHS.”
“Rising gas prices can be daunting at the local Arco, especially if you happen to be the employee charged with updating the station’s outdoor sign.We want to wear our bullet-proof jacket when we go out there, said Arco manager Michelle Reynolds, who has seen prices at the pump rise over 60 percent since the station on High School Road opened a little more than a year ago.”
“If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play it, it’s recreation. If you work at it, it’s golf. – Bob HopeOn a balmy day, with the sun shining on the pristine clipped green of the course, it’s hard to think of golf as hard work. But the Spartan golf team is a serious crew, out to better last season’s almost unblemished record. And in a game where individual effort tallies for the team’s composite score, there is always something you can improve on, says BHS senior Ian Faddis. You can always play better.The girls’ varsity team went undefeated in league play last year, while the boys placed second in league with an 8-1 record, losing only to Bremerton in the last match of the season. The team boasted a 13-2 overall record. Now, with the spotlight on senior Nicole Hebner and junior Joe Lanza, the Spartans hope to contend for the league championship this year, says BHS Athletic Director Neal White.”
“What a great idea.Take some damaged street signs about to be discarded by the city. Add a couple of creative high school students. And, voila, a fence that resembled bars of a jail cell is transformed into a climbing wall for lizards and jungle plants.”
“It is, as they say, all about the Benjamins.The moolah. The greenbacks. The money.That Census 2000 form that appeared in your mailbox this week means big bucks for Bainbridge Island, and economic determinists that we are, we ask you to take a few minutes to fill it out and send it in.”
“Peeling out up a hill on Koura Road, we fishtail slightly into the other lane, then straighten out and blast ahead with a vicious roar as the Model A hot rod hits second.So I bet this thing goes a bit faster than it did in 1929? had been the question, and that answer was delivered in a shock of frigid wind as Aaron Strom demonstrated that his blue convertible showcar wasn’t just a looker.”
“You count, and they want to count you – and your kids.That was the message for ferry commuters Wednesday, as the Census 2000 Road Tour rolled into the Winslow terminal.The Bainbridge commuters are very delightful people, considering the hour of the morning, said Melannie Cunningham of Tacoma, local publicist for the $8.2 billion federal nose-tally.”
“City code enforcement complaints are down from a year ago. But is enforcement improving?Not if you ask code enforcement officer Will Peddy, who says the city council is preventing him from doing his job effectively.I keep getting interrupted by council people in our code enforcement actions, especially the critical ones, Peddy said in an interview with the Review last week.Peddy said he can’t levy fines for code infractions, because council members have convinced the Bainbridge Island city administration to exempt some development projects from punitive action.”
“You might think that for the kind of time and effort that Don and Marilyn Shaver put into their work, the material rewards would be incalculable.You’d be right.The pay is good, Don Shaver said with an ironic smile.For the past five-plus years, the Bainbridge Island couple has taken phone calls at all hours from agitated help-seekers. They’ve run up countless miles on their vehicles in response to those calls. They’ve kept painstaking records, developed priceless working relationships and periodically provided a place for their clients to stay.You couldn’t pay for the service we’ve provided, Marilyn Shaver said. It’s 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – no amount of money could cover it.”
“We drive, and sometimes we speed.Not egregiously, and not chronically. But sometimes the orange needle edges up a little past the posted limit – particularly heading east into town on Wyatt Way, on that annoying uphill stretch of 25 – and we flout the law with momentary impunity.And now, if we ever get stopped by one of Bainbridge’s finest, we now know what we’ll say:We’re with the Review, and we’re late to a city council meeting. We’re speeding in the public interest!”
“Most high-school sports teams take a year or two – or a lot longer – to recover from the loss of a dozen or more key seniors on a state-championship squad.Not the Bainbridge High School boys’ lacrosse club, however. As they have every year for the last six seasons that they’ve entered the spring as defending champs, they simply pick the best of who they’ve got waiting for a chance and reload.So if Bainbridge wins a seventh straight title this year, don’t call it lucky seven. It’s pure skill and peerless program development.”
“Chilly winter nights, no patient master’s feet at which to curl up and doze, and not a supper dish in sight.Pity the stray dogs of Bainbridge – and pity this community as we try to find a new way to help them get home.Indeed, we were dismayed this week to learn that the local chapter of the Progressive Animal Welfare Society is at the end of its leash, as longtime volunteers Don and Marilyn Shaver retire. The couple’s phenomenal efforts – taking in innumerable strays and tracking down their owners, at all hours and for no tangible recompense – are documented elsewhere in this issue. We urge readers to consider their story, a tale as remarkable as it is cautionary.”