Open Grow
To the editor,
The question … Why isn’t Grow Avenue going to be open now that the construction on Wyatt is nearing completion?
I was dismayed to see it permanently closed on the COBI FYI message sent Dec. 4, so I reached out to the project manager asking if Grow was being used as a staging area or for some other physical use necessary to construction.
His answer, “I believe the powers that be want to keep it closed to keep traffic at a minimum.”
Frankly, I am confounded by the hubris that would force so many folks, who have already endured months of detours, to face months of more so that folks living on Grow don’t have to endure any cars on their road for the next four months.
Grow is a city road, yes?
What rationale, besides a sense of entitlement and a position of power, could possibly be the driving force for the council to inconvenience so many neighbors until the project completion in March? Haven’t we had enough of this attitude lately?
We are all in this together, so I ask that the council and Grow residents consider being the neighbors they want to have and open Grow as an easy, direct link to Winslow from the south end, which will also help to unburden Finch/Sportsman Club, Weaver, Erickson, High School, Madison roads as well as the roundabout during the next phase of construction.
Mary Carlson
Bainbridge Island
Double your gift
To the editor:
We appreciated the Review’s Nov. 27 coverage of the grassroots effort to add two acres to the Ted Olson Nature Preserve. Neighborhood parks like Ted Olson are so important to our community, providing quiet natural spaces for healthy recreation, reflection and solace.
The Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation is pleased to partner with neighbors and the Bainbridge Island Trust in this wonderful preservation effort. We are pledging $10,000 in matching funds to help acquire the Ted Olson addition. Your tax-deductible gifts to the Parks Foundation’s special “Ted Fund” (www.biparks foundation.org/ted) will be matched dollar for dollar up to $10K, as we work together to save this precious land.
The Parks Foundation enhances community by supporting a thriving system of parks and trails, and the Ted Olson Nature Preserve offers the best of both for our island. It connects us to our island heritage, and reflects our community’s longstanding commitment to conservation, recreation and stewardship.
Double your gift to Ted Olson Nature Preserve with a donation through the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation, www.biparks foundation.org/ted.
Barb Trafton
Executive Director
Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation
Recycle success
To the editor
The guest column in last week’s Bainbridge Island Review was good at pointing out the necessity of recycling electronics but failed to recognize that Washington was the first of 25 states to have enacted electronics recycling legislation. In 2006, E-cycle Washington was created to provide a responsible way for consumers to dispose of certain electronic devices that contain hazardous heavy metals, to recirculate their metal contents back through the economy and to refurbish the equipment when possible.
E-cycle offers free dropoff of TVs, computers, laptops, monitors, tablets, e-readers and portable DVD players to all households, small businesses and governments, and schools at over 250 registered locations. The Bainbridge Disposal Transfer Station and the Goodwill truck are two such local sites. Additionally, the transfer station accepts electronics peripherals, a list of which can be found online in Sustainable Bainbridge’s Zero Waste Reuse & Recycling Guide.
According to the Department of Ecology, over 200,000 tons have been collected since the program’s inception in 2009. The DOE says that, on average, only 2 percent of the total volume goes to the landfill. Some of the electronics are sold or donated for second-hand use. Otherwise, the metals, plastics and glass in the e-waste are separated and sold as commodities, to be reused as raw materials in the manufacturing of new products.
Diane Landry
Director of Bainbridge Island Zero Waste
