“After nearly 20 years in the Christmas tree farming business, George Gregg is ready to pull up his roots.In the past 12 months, he’s been forced to say goodbye to his life’s most constant companions – his wife, Joy, died of emphysema in January, and his faithful 14-year-old Labrador dog, Nick, died in September.Now, Gregg is getting ready to say goodbye to his 11-acre Gregg Christmas Tree Farm near Island Center as the current season draws to a close.”
“Do we hear sleighbells?We hope your stockings are hung by the chimney with all due care, and that you’ve been very, very good over the past year. We’re confident that most of you have been. So come Christmas morn, will you find a candy cane or just a lump of coal? Looking back over the year’s headlines, here are our humble suggestions to Santa Claus as he makes his rounds on Bainbridge Island.”
“It was a nice day to be in the water, provided nature gave you fins or a shell.But for divers Betsy Peabody and Joth Davis, in pursuit of the rare Olympia oyster, conditions Thursday were rather less welcoming.”
“It was a Catch-22 that would have confounded even the late Joseph Heller’s Yossarian:“We can’t prosecute you, Mr. Leonard, because you’re too paranoid to stand trial; but we can’t keep you in a mental institution because…well, we’re not saying, but here’s the door – out you go.”But this suggests that the strange case of Eagle Harbor liveaboard Ralph F. Leonard plays as farce. It does not.”
“Bainbridge Police had spent the past several weeks pondering several possible ways to recapture Ralph F. Leonard, newly accused of a police officer’s attempted murder last year.The last thing anyone expected was that Leonard, whose violent past and paranoia toward police was well documented over the past year, would come to them.”
“Tuesday’s match between the Bainbridge and Port Angeles high school boys’ swim-and-dive teams was expected to be a tight, tense affair that would likely determine this season’s Olympic League champion.Instead, Bainbridge blew the class 4A Roughriders out of the water. The Spartans, winning nine of 12 events, coasted to a 119-67 victory at the Ray Williamson Pool.”
“Where’s the fire?Next time it’s at your house, be glad someone cares. And on an island where runaway home prices are a constant threat to the viability of our largely volunteer fire brigade, we’re always glad to see the department take strides for the good.Last week, with the formal hiring of longtime volunteers Jim Dow, Sequoia Jones and David Bailey, as paid firefighters, it happened.”
“The cities of Bainbridge Island and Bremerton are teaming up for a legal challenge to Initiative 695.The suit, expected to be filed in Thurston County Superior Court today, was announced by officials from both cities Monday.“This suit reflects the underlying feelings and philosophy of Bainbridge Island citizens,” said Dwight Sutton, Bainbridge mayor. “It was a poorly crafted initiative, and it will mean economic disaster for all of us.””
“The real Bainbridge High School girls’ basketball season is finally under way.That’s because the defending state 3A champions are finally at full strength – and it was in evidence in every minute of the Spartans’ 83-32 rout of Sequim Friday night.Alexis Kimball, making her first start since being sidelined by a knee injury, looked like she had never been gone against the Wolves before a packed house at Woodward Middle School.”
“It’s not as hot as last year. Not quite. But Bainbridge Island’s real estate market still has local agents pleased with 1999 sales.“There’s a fair number of smiling faces,” said longtime island broker Ed Kushner of Windermere Real Estate. “It’s been a good year.” Eleven-month figures compiled by Kushner show 412 island home sales so far this year. At this time last year, 430 sales had closed, en route to a single-year Bainbridge record of 483.”
Two days at the mediation table have left the Bainbridge Island School District still holding the bag for an estimated $5.4 million in repairs to Woodward Middle School – half the building’s original construction cost.Formal mediation sessions Sept. 29 and Nov. 8 failed to determine who is responsible for poor construction that led to extensive water damage at the school – or who will pay how much to fix it – according to school board president Bruce Weiland.
“Believe it or not, the most stirring moment in the Bainbridge High School girls’ basketball team’s 80-35 win over Klahowya Tuesday night came in the contest’s final minutes.That’s when Alexis Kimball, the Spartans’ 6-1 junior, shrugged off her warmup jacket and stepped onto the floor for her first live-game action since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in her knee just five months earlier.”
“Not so fast, Bremertonians.“Bainbridge Island doesn’t stack up to Bremerton,” crowed the lead sentence of a front-page story in a Bremerton newspaper’s Thursday edition.The news story, about a “Sprawl Report Card” released this week by 1,000 Friends of Washington, a Seattle-based land-use watchdog organization, trumpeted the fact that Bremerton ranked fourth and Bainbridge Island 29th in a study of 33 Puget Sound municipalities’ approaches to growth-management strategies.”