“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.”
“You are going to love the new city hall building.Or you’re going to hate it.Of course, your reaction will probably depend on whether or not you thought it should have been built in the first place.Proponents should be impressed by the new one-stop shopping approach to permit applications and fee payment. Detractors may see in its cavernous foyer, abundance of gleaming timber and top-of-the-line office furniture, a Taj Mahal to a local government gone wild and profligate.It all depends, it seems, on where one stands.”
“In the baseball world, a brand new stadium is no guarantee of a competitive team.But in the civic sphere – where quality of service rather than batting average is the measure, and general public satisfaction puts one high in the standings – a city is competing only against itself, and defining its own standard of play.”
“The new chair – ultramodern and comfortable. The workstation – more than functional, the very picture of ergonomics.Even the little under-the-desk tray for Diane Todd’s computer keyboard goes up and down to accommodate the height of the user.I haven’t figured out how this works, said Todd, a city finance department employee, fiddling with the keyboard stand. But I know I can raise it.She paused.It took us two hours to get the (computer) monitor on the monitor tray.”
“Bainbridge’s beachfront homes don’t look very pretty from under water.At least, not from the perspective of endangered Chinook salmon. Their habitat and food sources have been decimated, along shorelines damaged by bulkheads and contaminated with toxic chemicals seeping off lawns.We’re degrading the near-shore habitat, said Bainbridge City Councilman Michael Pollock, a science and policy analyst for the U.S. Department of Commerce. This could mean problems for many shoreline dwellers, because the federal government will soon require implementation of new measures aimed at rescuing the Chinook from extinction.”
“Waterfront Park lost two of its most timeworn landmarks Monday, and nobody is complaining.Dozens of spectators passed by the park’s edge throughout the afternoon and gawked as a 140-foot floating crane drifted within feet of the shoreline, eventually hoisting two derelict, algae- and barnacle-covered boats high into the air and onto a barge.”
“So, your cable TV rates are going up again, you’re mad as heck and you’re not going to take it anymore. Who ya gonna call? The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission? Sorry, but local cable television operators answer to no one. Their rates can soar and their service stink, and you have no avenue of redress. What little oversight there is rests with the distant Federal Communications Commission in Washington D.C., neutered by the shears of deregulation and inherently indifferent to local complaints.”
“When fortune smiles our way, we’ll always be the first to greet her with an accommodating lap.So we were certainly delighted this week to learn of the fortuitous purchase by the city of a marvelous shoreline area and tide flat on Eagle Harbor’s colloquially known head of the bay. We hope it won’t be the last open space purchase you read about in these pages over the coming year, a sentiment – helloooo, Lady Luck – shared by Mayor Dwight Sutton.”
“Welcome to Court TV.Northland Cable Television is threatening to sue the city, hoping to overturn a 6 percent utility excise tax that went into effect last month.It’s not right, it’s not fair, and we’ll fight it, said Marit Saltrones, manager of Northland’s Bainbridge Island office.Our customers should not have to make up revenue lost to the car tab initiative (I-695). It’s ludicrous.”
“Sometimes, buying a swamp makes good sense.That’s certainly true if you don’t plan to build – and the city doesn’t, after making a significant open-space purchase this week.Oh, it’s awesome, said fisheries biologist Wayne Daley, treading the marshy ground at the head of Eagle Harbor Friday afternoon. Awesome.”
“It’s increasingly likely that Ralph F. Leonard won’t slip through the cracks of the civil and criminal justice systems a second time.So say county officials, despite the fact that 13 felony charges, including attempted murder, against the 62 year-old Leonard were dropped last Friday in Kitsap County Superior Court.”
“What they’d really like is a phone system – preferably with voice-mail capability.But cash and checks will do just fine, as a fund-raising drive for the Marge Williams Center gets under way next week.“I’m convinced we will do it,” said Ed Kushner, who chairs the campaign to raise $420,000 in private donations for renovation of the Winslow Way West building. “I know we will do it.””
“What’s in a name?Plenty, when it comes to naming Bainbridge Island’s new swimming pool.The park district is considering selling the right to name its soon-to-be-constructed aquatic facility to any community-minded philanthropist willing to make up part, if not all, of its current $350,000 budget shortfall.”
