Around the Island
Published 4:56 pm Friday, December 12, 2008
Move-in given okay at BHS
Bainbridge High School was given the thumbs up to begin moving into the school’s new 200 Building this week, after city Building Official Mark Hinkley approved a temporary occupancy permit for the new wing.
The entire high school staff was given a tour of the building this Wednesday, while students will get there first look inside the building next week.
Classes will begin in the new building Jan. 5, following the winter holiday. A public open house is planned for Jan. 10.
The issuance of the temporary occupancy permit was celebrated at a school board meeting Thursday. District Facilities and Capital Projects Director Tamela VanWinkle thanked her staff and the city for its cooperation in the project.
“It’s been an extraordinary effort by everyone,” VanWinkle said.
Also discussed at the board meeting was planning for the bond proposal that would fund the next phase of the district’s capital facilities plan.
The board unanimously agreed that the proposal should go before voters in May. The board would need to make an official vote in March to place the measure on the May ballot. The proposed bond package would pay for the reconstruction of Wilkes Elementary School as well as district-wide capital improvements.
McDonald places first
Zach McDonald, a senior at Bainbridge High School, won the national Cyclo-cross championship Friday in Kansas City, Mo., defeating the second-place rider by 16 seconds.
McDonald placed second in the event last year.
The win in the 45-minute steeplechase race will propel McDonald and the U.S. national team into next year’s cycling world cup events in Europe, including the world championships next month in the Netherlands.
McDonald, who is sponsored by Bainbridge Island’s Classic Cycle, is now ranked No. 1 in the world for junior Cyclo-cross racers, according to the sport’s governing body, Union Cycliste Internationale.
Vineyard Lane nets award
Vineyard Lane, the island’s 45-unit condominium community located near downtown Winslow, is one of four winners of the national 2008 Livable Communities Awards.
The awards, sponsored by AARP and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), are given annually to companies in four categories whose projects “enhance the daily comfort, ease and safety of the people who live in them.”
Vineyard Lane’s developer, The Winery LLC, won in the “developer up to 250 units” category. The winners were honored this week in Washington D.C., and will be featured in AARP The Magazine.
The award is important in that it recognizes what the developers set out to do with Vineyard Lane, said Andrew Lonseth.
Lonseth, long with Bill Carruthers, is a managing partner of Asani LCC, the Bainbridge Island development firm that owns and operates the four-acre community.
“AARP and NAHB are into promoting good development and communities that are livable,” Lonseth said. “Their agenda includes universal design – invisible features like low thresholds, large windows and wide corridors that are inviting to people with impaired mobility. They also appreciate great places to live.”
Lonseth said Vineyard Lane won the award “probably because of the social design of the community, where residents are connected and oriented toward each other and feel that they belong to a specific community.”
He said that no residents (41 condominium residents and four renters) have left Vineyard Lane since it opened in January 2007. Residents are primarily empty-nesters with the majority of them 60 or older, Lonseth said.
The awards were released in conjunction with an AARP survey showing that one in four members of the baby-boomer generation expect to move from their current home in the future, seeking primarily a single-level home that offers comfort and convenience.
New ministers to be installed
Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church will conduct an installation ceremony Sunday for its new co-ministers, Dr. Barbara W. ten Hove and the Rev. Jaco B. ten Hove.
The service will be held at 3 p.m. at Island School on Day Road.
The ministerial installation will be the first ever for the 49-year-old congregation. Robert Hardies, senior minister at All Souls, Unitarian, in Washington, D.C., will address the congregation, along with other special guests. A reception will follow the service.
Regular services are held each Sunday at 10 a.m. at Island School.
