“Not afraid of the dark? Or does mommy keep the night-light glowing?Whatever degree of fright they can take, island kids will have their pick of haunted (or unhaunted) houses this Halloween weekend.From a candyland playland to a witch’s den to an alien autopsy, the level of scariness varies. And to help parents and kids pick just the right fright, we’ve ranked three haunted Bainbridge abodes on our Terrific Terror Meter™. “
“Bainbridge Island Police Chief Bill Cooper is one of 20 applicants being considered for the top cop’s job in Federal Way – a position that will likely be filled by year’s end.Cooper, who has been Bainbridge’s police chief since January 1999, says he doesn’t want to leave the island. He may, however – because, in a sense, he was never here.Cooper, 49, who came to Bainbridge from Tumwater, still lives and commutes from his home in neighboring OIympia. He hasn’t been able to sell his house there in its more than 16 months on the open market, and can’t financially manage a move here until a sale happens.As a result, he has wearied of what has become a two-to-three-hour drive each way over an average of four days a week. “
“Just when we were ready to consign it to the dank and musty earth, laid by the heels with other great ideas gone lifeless, the Winslow parking garage plan has skipped back from the edge of the grave. Must be Halloween.Not to imply that the garage idea has any ghoulish qualities about it – not yet – but in the latest Town Square proposal, it’s seen a resuscitation worthy of a certain Transylvanian count.As now envisioned, the project would include four levels of underground parking, a two story cultural component that may or may not be a convention hall, and two stories of rental housing, half of it subsidized. Total cost for the project is projected to be $15 million. “
“We’re tired of writing endorsements.We’re tired of scripted debates and cynical campaign ads on television, tired of achievements trumped up, voting records distorted, shortcomings blown all out of proportion.And we’re really, really tired of the thousands of meaningless campaign signs cluttering up local roadsides – an unhappy irony, we think, that the road to our collective future could be so ugly.So we’ve decided that since most readers have already made up their minds how they’re going to vote Nov. 7, we’re dropping out of the madness altogether. For the rest of this campaign season, we resolve: no more endorsements. “
“There is still some splashing to be done over the Bainbridge Island School District’s decision to drop school-year swim programs for three elementary-level grades.A group of parents, supported by a stack of petitions bearing some 1,500 signatures, will urge school board members to reconsider their July vote to drop the first- and third-grade swim classes – as well as those for fifth-graders, dropped a year earlier – at the board’s 7 p.m. Thursday meeting in the Bainbridge High School library.We’re going to let the school board know that the community wants to keep these programs, and that the alternatives they’ve presented don’t work, said Kathy Cooper, a parent and swim instructor who spearheaded the petition effort. I know this has upset a lot of parents.When the program was dropped, district officials cited the inability to fit the swim lessons into a school-day time frame increasingly crowded by other burgeoning options, such as art, music and reading. “
“Local youths have already caught the holiday spirit, and hope to spread it around the world.Sixth graders at Bethany Lutheran Church hope community members will participate in Operation Christmas Child, by filling shoes boxes with small gifts. The boxes will be sent to children around the world who have been affected by war, disease and poverty. It is not just a church thing, said Mary Harmon, organizer. This is a way to promote an idea. It’s so humanitarian. “
“Ralph F. Leonard, the Bainbridge liveaboard resident turned shooting suspect, will spend another six months in the bowels of the state’s mental health evaluation system.Maybe.Leonard, 63, rearrested last December after his release following a late 1998 armed standoff with police officers aboard his boat, could be released at any time without notice – thanks to the state’s secrecy-shrouded commitment process.That’s frustrating for Bainbridge Police Lt. Scott Weiss, grazed by a blast from Leonard’s shotgun during the Blakely Harbor incident.Weiss, who has been tracking the case ever since, gets what little information he can from a contact he’s developed close to the case.If the doctors want, they can let him go and not notify anybody, Weiss said. “
“Should it be called a cultural center? A convention center? A gathering center?No one seems sure.But the idea of a really big room with a kitchen – with apartments on the roof – seems to have revived plans for a parking garage just north of Winslow Way.My daddy used to say, when the ducks fly, you’d better be ready to shoot,’ City Council Chair Merrill Robison said, after a presentation on the $15 million Town Square project at city hall Monday evening. This duck is flying.Joining Robison on the dais were Mayor Dwight Sutton and four council members, for a two-hour presentation by Winslow architect Bill Isley and several representatives of the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority. About two dozen citizens attended. “
“For lack of support, the Adopt-A-Road program is losing coordinator Nancy Sutter.Sutter said there are hundreds of volunteers for the garbage-cleanup program, but many simply aren’t doing their jobs.I get sick of people (who are not volunteers) calling me and complaining about the trash on their road, said Sutter, who has managed the program for the past seven years.A frustrated Sutter said that people don’t want to get involved anymore, and think that it is someone else’s job.It’s a democracy, and everyone needs to participate, Sutter said, not only a few old ladies like me. “
“For the second year in a row, a citizen initiative looms over the city budgeting process.Initiative 722 – which would roll back last year’s increases in local taxes and fees, and cap future valuations on island real estate – shadows the task in uncertainty.It’s like I-695 – nobody knows how it will be interpreted, said Ralph Eells, finance director for the city. A worst-case scenario, he suggested, would result in city staff layoffs and cuts to both discretionary spending and essential services.I don’t mean to sound alarmist, Eells said, but we don’t have $1.5 million we can take off the top. “
“The clinical term would probably be cathartic. To those charged with demolishing the inside of the future Marge Williams Center Friday morning, one could probably get by with something less stuffy – perhaps fun.This is pretty cool, said Ty Evans, catching a breather next to an overflowing dumpster in the building’s driveway. It’s a great way to release stress on a Friday afternoon.Evans was one of a 15-person work crew, mostly comprised of Windermere Real Estate employees volunteering for community service, who got the Williams Center project under way at long last. “
“So, why should Bainbridge Island care about the races for Kitsap County commissioner? Well…10 percent of your property tax bill still goes to county government, to support courts, election services and what not; commissioners serve on various regional planning boards whose decisions impact the island; and we are, after all, still Kitsap, not King. “
“Road work scheduled to begin this week at the intersection of Ferncliff Avenue and High School Road has been postponed indefinitely, according to Dave Nelson of the city public works department.The work would have included extension of city sewer lines north on Ferncliff, to serve the proposed Woodland Village development.Public works officials said that Woodland Village developer Doug Nelson elected to defer the work, possibly pending resolution of a court challenge to the size of the development. “
