“A $3.35 billion transportation budget that preserves existing ferry service in the Central Sound region sailed through the House Transportation Committee this week, and now heads to the full House for a vote.And on Thursday, the Transportation Commission finally approved the 20 percent ferry fare increases recommended by the Tariff Policy Committee. “
“On the Sunday Arts Walk, artists and artisans will sell a wide variety of items, but quilter Maggie Ball’s offering will be the written record of a project.She will be in front of Esther’s Fabrics, signing copies of Creative Quilting With Children, the new book that documents Ball’s years quilting with 900 Bainbridge students.I would never have thought, when I saw my first quilts in the Ozarks 15 years ago, that this book would be the result, Ball said, and it started because I couldn’t afford to buy a quilt myself. “
“Kathy and Leon Kos like history, as they demonstrated by buying and preserving Bainbridge Island’s oldest house. And after putting that much time and trouble into an 1856 structure, she wants to make sure the next buyer and the one after that are also interested in history, and not simply in the Port Madison half-acre where the house is located.It really scares us that it might be torn down sometime, she said. We’ve done a lot to the house to preserve it, and I’d really like to see some way to save these old buildings. “
“The literal Sanskrit translation of the word yoga is union.That’s what five island yoga teachers have formed for a fund-raising event Sunday.Island yoga teachers are banding together for the first time to work for cancer research, teaching yoga classes as a fundraiser for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The Day of Yoga is one of the local events under the umbrella of Positive Yoga 2001, based in Seattle and the country’s only yoga fundraiser. “
“Everyone has a favorite band and balladeer, but not everyone founds a music series to share those musicians with friends.That’s what Susan Goodwin did when she invited singer/songwriter Peter Rowan to the island in 1998, a series that continues May 6 when Tom Russell performs with Andrew Hardin.The series started because I liked Peter’s music so much, Goodwin said. I had seen him many times, I had told friends about him. Bringing him here was like getting to take your friends to your favorite restaurant. “
“After 105 days of a regular legislative session and into the second week of the first special session, our folks in Olympia have finally staggered to the starting line on improving the state’s increasingly dysfunctional transportation system.Gov. Locke has proposed a revenue package that would boost the gas tax by 7 cents a gallon; levy an excise tax on auto sales; and increase fees on commercial vehicles. Estimates are that the plan would raise some $9 billion over the next 10 years, to be matched by another $9 billion-plus raised on a regional basis.Predictably, Locke’s proposal has drawn flak from all sides. “
“For Fred and Willie Grimm, community involvement is just part of the deal.Fred, an island orthodontist, has put in stints on the park board, the school board, and the board of Bainbridge Performing Arts. Willie is the long-time manager of the Bargain Boutique.Volunteerism comes naturally. It’s something we’ve always done, Fred Grimm said. It’s part of the way our parents expected us to live.For that 30-year history of civic involvement, the Grimms have been named Business Couple of the Year by the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce. “
“The setting will be Island Center Hall, but the sound is urban.Cabaret singer Deborah Cheadle will transport the audience at her May 4 performance to a hole-in-the-wall piano bar in New York City, with songs of love, loss and longing.I’ve always been drawn to songs about the difficulty we have opening our hearts, said Cheadle, a long-time island resident. Here, I’m actually telling very specific stories about my thwarted love attempts since eighth grade.She regards cabaret as primarily a storytelling form, one in which the lyrics are key and the show is shaped thematically. It’s analogous to constructing a theater piece. But unlike the actor, who functions at a remove behind theater’s fourth wall, the singer makes an intimate connection with the audience. “
“Closing buildings and going to the voters for more money are among the suggestions of a group looking at school district funding for the coming year.The District Budget Advisory Committee – comprised of school staff, parents and community members, serving as advisors in budgeting for the coming year – discussed those and other options with the school board April 26.The district, still coping with current budget problems caused by falling enrollment and fixed operating costs, could face another revenue shortfall of $1 million next year, with possible cuts in the state education budget, underfunding of Initiative 732, and higher utility costs. “
“Radar loves a blind corner. The crest of a hill will do just fine, too, as a driver on New Brooklyn Road is about to find out.Coming into sudden view from the direction of Mandus Olson Road, a Volvo zips over the hill, greeted by the sight of Bainbridge Police Officer Rob Corn. On the latter’s dashboard, a small radar unit clocks the vehicle’s speed and – click! – locks on.I’ll take 58 in a 40, Corn says as the vehicle goes past, its driver tapping a belated foot to the brake. The red-and-blues light up, Corn does a quick U-turn, and a minute later he’s chatting to the driver through her rolled-down window. “
“The blooms have done their part. Now the Vrooms will see whether Bainbridge flower-buyers will support their dream of a family-owned greenhouse operation.Herman and Elizabeth Vroom have 300 hanging floral baskets for sale at their Faylee Greenhouses, which opened last week. And while their product may come naturally, that’s not the same thing as easily.There is a lot of labor involved, Elizabeth Vroom said. Every day I start at 5 or 6 in the morning, and it takes me five or six hours to water, deadhead and check the plants for insects.Although the greenhouse will sell some bedding plants – mostly annuals – the principal product will be hanging baskets, arrangements of plants and flowers growing in baskets made out of moss. “
“It would be hard to miss: Loud calls for better traffic control and tougher enforcement have come from around the island over the past year.Even in today’s Letters column, south-end parents and a Winslow-area resident, faced with the proliferation of vehicles traveling at speed on their neighborhood roadways, weigh in with the oft-repeated concerns for the safety of children, pedestrians and other motorists.Now, with the designation of Bainbridge Police Officer Rob Corn as the department’s full-time traffic officer (reported elsewhere in this issue), tougher enforcement is here. “
“Zoning is nothing more than a matter of political will. Within the legal give-and-take of land use regulation, long-established principles of property rights, and general public sentiment, what today’s city council thinks is already too-high density can turn into tomorrow’s subdivision. Sometimes, vice versa.To that extent, even without the extension of sewer service to four south-end island neighborhoods – Pleasant Beach, Emerald Heights, Point White and Rockaway Beach – there are no guarantees that future generations won’t see more houses there than crowd the shoreline today. “
