Does the freedom to neglect your own safety
outweigh your responsibility to show a little
common sense?
Where use of our public roadways is concerned, society has decided that the answer is “no.”
The Bainbridge gym is reopening this morning on a short-term basis. But the new operators hope to be around for a long time.
“This is a dream we’ve had,” said Mike Rosenthal. “We had been studying the possibility of opening a parallel gym on the island for the last six months when rumors started circulating about the old gym failing, but that would take a lot longer than getting in here.”
How might the muse have visited Robert Frost, had the poet lived on Bainbridge Island?
Indeed, one sees a bit less charm in the verse, “Good vegetated buffers make good neighbors.”
With minor tinkering, the state Transportation Commission Thursday unanimously approved ferry fare hikes averaging 12.5 percent, on top of last year’s 20 percent increases.
The increases take effect May 12, the same day that peak-season fares begin.
The city council’s plan to restructure its budget process, to increase participation both by the public and the council, itself was greeted with optimistic caution in these quarters.
Our optimism arises from the basic concept. While the council is the policy-making arm of our government, the budget is where the rubber meets the road. Abstract objectives are well and good, but what the city actually does in a given year is what finds its way into the budget.
Sixty years after a community was torn apart by wartime fears and prejudices, hundreds of Bainbridge Islanders came together on the same spot to vow that it will never happen again.
“There is a sacredness to this corner of land, a sacredness enshrined by 227 men, women and children,” said Gov. Gary Locke.
Workers apply a final coat of sealant to the concrete floor of the main dining room while a disembodied voice tests the audio system.
But these are just last-minute details.
The buildings are ready, the paths are groomed.
With the same sense of hope that we greet the new baseball season, we also bid a welcome to Harbor Square, the latest incarnation of a mixed-use project that could transform the landscape of downtown Winslow.
Two previous plans have been launched on the prime five-acre tract north of the ferry terminal. Both foundered – in part because of community opposition, but mostly because of the improvidence of first developer, who borrowed heavily and pledged the land as security. Those debts sank “The Landing,” as it was then known, and forced a foreclosure sale that took the parcel out of the hands of the next would-be developer as well.
If bad things do happen in groups of three, then the commercial real estate market on Bainbridge Island can breathe easier for awhile.
Last year brought a triple whammy, which suggests that this year, things have to get better.
The state has agreed to pay Rich Passage property owners nearly $4.5 million, settling a class-action lawsuit over shoreline damage caused by speedy passenger-only ferries.
The settlement – which brings the dismissal of all claims in the suit, but does not preclude future legal action – will compensate property owners for beach erosion and damage to bulkheads and other shoreline structures.
Bainbridge schools have joined the growing ranks of Washington school districts that seek private funding.
District officials and community members have announced formation of the Bainbridge Island Public Educational Trust, an independent nonprofit organization to raise money for local schools.
“I don’t believe that Washington state is funding basic education when I walk into a classroom and a teacher asks me for reams of paper,” school board President Cheryl Dale said. “As a community, we can’t sit back until March of every year and wait to see what the state cuts.
Josh Gosik calls himself an “insect guy.”
Gosik, who works as a cook for both the Harbour Pub and Pegasus Coffee House, spends his off-hours making dragonflies.
“I’ve always been kind of a ‘bug person,’” Gosik, who once wanted to be an entomolgist, said. “As a kid I always had ant colonies and spiders.”
The city council is considering an ambitious new process for budgeting, intended to better align spending with citizen priorities by bringing both the public and the council into the process at an earlier stage.