“This space has hurled its share of brickbats at those officials who we have elected when we think they have not served us well.Today we bestow a bouquet on three islanders we didn’t elect, but who have done this community great service.The laurels go to Forrest Six, Kirk Robinson and especially to Alice Tawresey, members and the chair, respectively, of the Tariff Policy Committee that recommends ferry fares. “
“The public will get its first chance Tuesday to comment on the proposed connection of Ericksen Avenue and Hildebrand Lane.And the comments are expected to be numerous and heated, because the issue appears to be a flash point in the ongoing debate about growth and change on the island.This is the first step toward installing a freeway between High School Road and the waterfront, said Sheila Crofut, who has drafted an objection on behalf of Friends of the Ravine. “
“Ann Lovejoy wants to get island gardens off drugs. Ann Lovejoy’s Organic Garden Design Book, from which she reads at Eagle Harbor Books on April 5, helps readers design easy-to-care-for and ecologically sound gardens without chemicals. Tackling such subjects as cooperation, not control and making beautiful dirt, Lovejoy espouses her belief there are organic alternatives – simple, natural ways to garden.I’ve been saying the same basic things for 20 years. I would talk about compost and manure, and people would get antsy, Lovejoy said. The book is total common sense – which is in itself radical. “
The Bainbridge city council Wednesday imposed a moratorium on filing building-permit applications that seek to include any wetlands or buffers in their density calculations.The moratorium takes effect April 6.
“Ferry fares did not go up Wednesday. But it appears only a matter of time until they do.The Washington State Transportation Commission postponed a final vote on proposed 20 percent-plus ferry fare increases, because the state Senate has not yet lifted the spending caps that limit increases to the rate of inflation.Commission members, though, left little doubt that they will impose the rate hike once the Senate acts.After all the work they have done, it would be hard to ignore the Tariff Policy Committee and say I can’t support this, said commission member Chris Marr of Spokane. “
“Jim Taylor bought batik fabric from an upbeat Yoruba woman, Nicky Davis, at Seattle’s Folklife festival in 1972.It proved the start of a friendship reflected in a heartwarming photography exhibit opening at Pegasus March 31. The batik is beautiful, but it also has mystical and spiritual meanings I can’t begin to grasp, Taylor said of the West African cloth design. I’ve maintained these close friendships, but I won’t ever be able to understand, in entirety, the culture.Taylor purchased batik fabric at the 1972 Folklife; at the next year’s event, he and Davis exchanged pleasantries. Over a decade of once-a-year interaction, the acquaintance deepened to friendship. Taylor became Davis’ point of contact in Seattle, and in 1996 she invited Taylor to her Nigerian homeland, where she teaches crafts at a school in the town of Osogbo, near Africa’s west coast.Taylor spent five weeks in Osogbo. “
“Today’s dump could be tomorrow’s park. But first comes the removal of yesterday’s garbage. And that is expected to begin in June, with excavation of 120,000 cubic yards of material – one-third of which will be trucked away for disposal elsewhere – at the Vincent Road landfill.Cost of the cleanup is expected to hit $2 million, to be split between the county and city. “
“So was it a boom or wasn’t it?Do you have any more elbow room today, knowing that Bainbridge Island’s population is a tad over 20,000, rather than the 23,000 or more some had predicted?We confess to being somewhat taken aback by the results of the 2000 census, doing a double- and triple-take when we saw the numbers over the weekend. “
“The appropriate way to memorialize the forced removal of the island’s Japanese-Americans during World War II is to re-create the long walk they took down to Eagle Harbor, and onto the boat that carried them away.That’s the view of a committee working on a memorial to those events.The group will ask the city council tonight to set aside all of Taylor Avenue from Eagle Harbor Drive down to the water for the memorial.I think it’s a tremendous idea. It’s part of history, said Paul Ohtaki, who was 17 years old in 1942, when he and his family were forced to leave the island and were sent to concentration camps by executive order of the federal government. “
“In a meditation on beauty and the transience of life, Tibetan Buddhist monks will create a complex but temporary artwork at the Bainbridge Public Library. The mandala, an intricately patterned circle of colored sand, will be started March 27, and take four days to complete.We chose this mandala, called Cheneriz, as a manifestation of the Buddha of Compassion, said Venerable Lobsang Wangchuk, among the delegation of monks. The mandala master has made these for 20 years. He is an excellent, a fantastic artist. “
Nakata Park? Camp Cleven? An iconic island family and a longtime scoutmaster head the list of honorees being considered for a renamed Camp Hopkins.
“We’re still not sure just what credentials put the Major in Major M.J. Hopkins. Some recall him to be a veteran of the Canadian or British military and the first Great War; others tell us he served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, armed not with a rifle but a slide rule.However he earned his rank, by the time World War II rolled around, the retired Major Hopkins wore ignorance on his lapel right next to his bars, as part of a cabal that tried to keep Bainbridge Island’s Japanese-Americans from returning here after wartime internment. “
“Believing it’s better to shield a single candle than to curse the brightness, members of the Battle Point Astronomical Association are campaigning against light pollution.Not that they’re advocating getting around by lantern-glow. What they do want is light directed at the area to be illuminated, rather than light that disperses to the neighbors and the heavens.There are an awful lot of dollars spent on an awful lot of power to produce an awful lot of lumens that people neither need nor want, said Mac Gardiner of the BPAA. “
