Here’s the Bainbridge Islander preview for May 24. Feel free to give your events a plug in the comment section below.

Spring seems to be park project planning season.

The park board approved concept plans for a playground at Schel Chelb Park last week. It also held a public hearing for a project to replace the dock at Hidden Cove Park and make small improvements to the uplands. Comments can be sent to Perry Barrett – perry@biparks.org – through May 28.

The public dock on Port Madison is getting a little long in the tooth, to put it lightly. Popular with kayakers, dog walkers and bored teens, the dock has become rickety and rotted in places. The float also grounds out regularly at low tide, a no-no in the eyes of state permitting agencies.

Here’s a rough synopsis of the two options the district is considering:

• Option 1: A 120-foot raised catwalk, leading to an 80-foot ramp, leading to a float parallel to the shoreline. This design has the advantage of remaining inside the park’s tideland area. Pile stops would be required to keep the float from grounding out at tides of 2.5 feet or lower. This means the float would be suspended several feet above the water (or mud) during very low tides. The rough estimated cost for this project is $550,000. 

• Option 2: A 210-foot raised catwalk leading, to an 80 foot ramp, leading to a float perpendicular to the shoreline. This design would venture outside the park’s tideland area and would require a state tideland permit to build. It would have the advantage of placing the float in deeper water, where pile stops would not be required and ground outs would be rare. It would cost about $595,000. 

Hidden Cove Options by tsooter

Street of the Week: Day Road

Location: Runs east/west between Manzanita Road and Sunrise Drive

History: This year marks Eugene Leonard Day’s 137th birthday on May 28. Born and raised in Michigan, Day was drawn to the water early; he and his brother would often take their sailboat out on Lake Michigan. Day was just 12 when he headed to eastern Washington where his family grew wheat near Coulee City.

Day arrived on Bainbrdige Island in 1904 and settled in the wilderness across from Wilkes School on the corner of what is now Day Road (hence the name) and Madison Avenue.

He married fellow islander Maybel Parker and together they had five children: Ernest, born in 1905; Alice, born in 1908; Doris, born 1911; Truman, born 1915; and Walter, born 1920.

To support his growing family, Day used all that Bainbridge Island had to offer. He grew strawberries, farmed a bit and operated a shingle mill. He cut cedar and hauled it to the Port Madison Mill. Later in life, he used masonry skills learned from his father to design and construct some of the area’s finest stonework structures.

In his spare time, Eugene built and maintained a conservatory on his family’s property. By the time of his death in 1969, he had more than 200 subtropical and tropical plants, many of which he’d grown himself. His groves included luscious pineapples and bananas — unlikely fare in deed for the Pacific Northwest!

This occasional Islander series explores the history of island street names, as compiled by Elinor Ringland and fellow Bainbridge Island Historical Society volunteers.  If you have an island road story to share, email Ringland at elinorjoe@msn.com.

Here’s the Bainbridge Islander preview for May 17. Feel free to give your events a plug in the comment section below.

A ‘SINGULAR SENSATION’ | BPA’s ‘A Chorus Line’ continues to wow audiences through May.

 

VISIT FROM AN ASTRONAUT| Bonnie Dunbar speaks at Sakai Intermediate School.

SCHOOL CONFIGURATION: “No change” is popular option among meeting participants.

COMING UP: Some good news for island canines and their owners.

Weather: There will be mostly cloudy skies and a chance of rain every day for the foreseeable future, according to the National Weather Service.

At least it will be warm, with highs around 60.

Sports: Boys soccer beat Kennedy Catholic Tuesday to advance to the state quarterfinals. The defending state champion Spartans play Glacier Peak on Saturday.

Two tennis doubles teams qualified for state… as expected. Spartans softball rallied from an early loss at districts to qualify for state.

See a full Spartans schedule here and follow the Sun’s Prepzone on Facebook for updates.

Weekend Happenings:

• Jamie Workman will give a free presentation on “The Future of Water” this evening at the public library as part of the Building a Sustainable Economy lecture series.

The city posted a draft interlocal agreement with Kitsap PUD on its website advance of the Wednesday council meeting. The five-year agreement lays out the details of a management contract, except the most important detail: the price. We’ll presumably learn more about the proposed costs Wednesday, when a 30-minute discussion of the agreement is scheduled.

The City Council instructed City Manager Doug Schulze to negotiate an agreement with Kitsap PUD in April.  The council wanted to determine how much a management transfer would cost and what services the district would cover. You can read the draft agreement below:

051513 Kpud Ila Water Management

Street of the Week: Ravine Lane 

Location: Runs north/south off Winslow Way, just west of Highway 305

History: Winslow was once a city divided but not because of any rift between its citizens. The city literally had a line running through it thanks to a deep gulch that split the town in two. 

On the west side stood the church, the school, the grocery store and steamer dock. On the east, the butcher, baker and barber.  Needless to say, running errands in early Winslow took a good deal of strategic planning.

Near the shipyard stood the Winslow Hotel. In 1904, two sisters, Margaret Bradley and Katherine Clements, became the new proprietors. 

The pair remodeled the hotel and added a washroom where the shipyard workers could clean up from work before sitting down to a hot meal. Most ate there whether or not they also called the hotel home.

Then in 1924 the hotel burned to the ground. It was never rebuilt. But if it had been, the hotel would stand directly across the street from the present day police station located at the intersection of Winslow Way and Highway 305.

As Winslow continued to grow and prosper, the residents realized something had to be done about their city’s physical divide so a wooden bridge was built across the gulch, offering at least temporary relief to the problem. 

Today, the ravine is hardly noticable alongside the wide streets of Winslow. Located to the east of Ericksen Avenue under Winslow Way, it no longer hinders the people of Bainbridge from enjoying their city.

Source: “A History of Bainbridge Island.” Katy Warner, 1968, page 41-43.

This occasional Islander series explores the history of island street names, as compiled by Elinor Ringland and fellow Bainbridge Island Historical Society volunteers.  If you have an island road story to share, email Ringland at elinorjoe@msn.com.

Talk about bad karma: Two 30-pound bronze Buddha statues were reported stolen from a home in the Agate Passage area May 3. The Buddhas were valued together at $5,000.

Also this week, gasoline theft was reported from two areas of the island and a bicyclist suffered injuries in a crash on El Cimo Lane.

The blotter is below:

May 7

Theft: A 10-speed bicycle was reported stolen from a Camelia Loop apartment complex. The owner said he’d ridden home at midnight and parked the bike outside. It was missing by 10 a.m. The bicycle was a dark blue Raleigh with gold lettering valued at $200.

May 6

Vehicle prowl: About $300 in cash went missing from the glove box of a vehicle parked on the 600 block of High School Road sometime during the day. The owner told police she’d left the windows to the car rolled down because of the warm weather.

Check fraud: Bremerton police informed a Winslow shop owner that a former employee of the shop may have been forging checks. The employee had been arrested in Bremerton. While searching her cell phone, police found pictures of two checks from the shop made out in her name. Each check had missing or incorrect details, suggesting they were forged. The shop owner confirmed neither check had ben paid out. A report was taken.

Found: An iPad was found on a bench outside a Winslow Way shop. The woman who found the iPad filled out a form to claim it if the owner couldn’t be identified. The tablet was password protected. It was placed in evidence for safekeeping.

Gas theft: A Ferncliff Avenue auto shop reported the apparent theft of gasoline for the second time in two weeks. Employees arrived at the shop that morning and discovered someone had tried to drain fuel from a postal truck parked outside the shop. The perpetrator had left a garden hose attached to the tank and there was a large stain on the ground around the vehicle. A similar incident was reported April 26.

May 5

Gas theft: A Crystal Springs Drive resident reported the theft of gas from a Toyota pickup parked at his property. The man said someone had pried open the door to the gas tank and left a siphoning hose behind. He noted the perpetrator was also “kind enough to leave my gas cap.”

Bicycle crash: A 57-year-old bicyclist suffered a possible broken elbow and lacerations after crashing on El Cimo Lane, in the Point White shortly before 2 p.m. The woman’s husband, who was riding behind her at the time of the crash, said she was traveling 15 to 20 mph when her bike hit a speed bump and went airborne. The woman fell over the handlebar and hit the ground. She was wearing a helmet. An aid unit transported her to a Bremerton hospital for treatment.

May 4

Drunken driving: Police arrested a 49-year-old Bainbridge man for driving under the influence of alcohol at 1 a.m. after his BMW was seen speeding and swerving on Highway 305. Police contacted the driver in his Lovgreen Road driveway. The man admitted to drinking “more than five beers.” He performed poorly on field sobriety tests and declined breathalyzer tests. He was booked into Kitsap County jail on $2,500 bail.

May 3

Found: A pair of skis were found on the 800 block of Ericksen Avenue and turned in to police.

Theft: Two bronze Buddha statues were reported stolen from an Agate Passage-area home. The 4-foot-tall statues were hollow and weighed about 30 pounds each. The owner valued the pair at between $4,600 and $5,000. He said the theft occurred sometime in the previous week.

May 1

Drunken driving: A 28-year-old Bainbridge woman was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol shortly after 10 p.m. Police first noticed the woman driving erratically and tailing another vehicle on northbound Lynwood Center Road. Police stopped her vehicle on Fletcher Bay Road. The woman spoke extremely slowly when contacted by police and nearly fell while getting out of her vehicle. She performed unsteadily on a field sobriety test and refused to finish the evaluation. At the station she demanded to speak to a lawyer but couldn’t provide contact information. She refused to talk to a public defender and declined breathalyzer tests. She was booked into Kitsap County jail.

Town & Country Market released an artist’s rendering this week for a proposed remodel of its iconic Winslow store.

The project will bring the market onto a single story and generally modernize the 56-year-old building. The familiar reader board sign on Winslow Way will remain intact.

T&C first announced the proposed remodel in 2012. The company filed an initial project application with the city Thursday, according to a news release. Remodeling work could begin in early 2014 depending on the permit timeline.

Island architects Devin Johnson and Priscilla Zimmerman are designing the project. Tom Chiado is project manager. Abbott Construction of Seattle is the general contractor.

Company representatives say the extensive remodel signifies T&C’s commitment to staying put in downtown Winslow.

“We feel now is the right time,” T&C Chairman Larry Nakata said in the release. “We are fully committed to downtown and recognize the store’s place in our island’s history. We want to be part of Winslow’s exciting future.”

The Loverich and Nakata families opened the Winslow market in 1957. The store expanded in 1990, adding a cafe and floral department. Town & Country Markets now operates five stores.

Here’s the Bainbridge Islander preview for May 10. Feel free to give your events a plug in the comment section below.

A section of downtown Winslow was shutdown April 28 while law enforcement investigated a suspicious package left outside the post office. The box, which was marked “Pray for Boston,” was determined to be empty.

Also this week, a real bomb blew up a mailbox on Ward Avenue and a Craigslist poster offered a gun “good for a gangster.”

The blotter is below:

April 28

Suspicious package: Police closed down the Winslow post office parking lot at 12:30 p.m. after a resident reported a suspicious package outside the building. The package in question was a cardboard box marked with the words “Pray for Boston.” Fire crews and police set up a perimeter around the package and the Washington State Patrol responded with bomb sniffing dogs and a robot. The robot was used to pull apart the box, which was found to be empty aside from a plastic bag. Shortly afterward the addressee of the package, a Bainbridge woman, called police and explained the situation. The woman said the box had been full of t-shirts which were shipped to her from Boston to be sold in a fundraiser. The box was too large to fit in her car so she left it in a dumpster outside the post office.

April 26

Vehicle prowl: The manager of a Ferncliff Avenue repair shop reported the possible theft of gas from five vehicles on the property. The manager said employees noticed the gas caps removed from the vehicles when they arrived at work that morning. It was unclear whether gas had successfully been siphoned from the tanks.

April 24

Bicycle crash: A 54-year-old Bainbridge woman was bicycling west on High School Road at 4 p.m. when she was suddenly ejected over the handlebars. No other vehicles were involved. The woman was wearing a helmet but suffered facial fractures and a head injury. She told a witness she was having trouble with the brakes on her bicycle.

Theft: Two flags were reported missing from the Rolling Bay post office. The American and POW flags were valued at $40.

April 23

Collision: A good deed turned sour in the Aquatics Center parking lot when two people tried to push a disabled Volkswagen sedan closer to another vehicle so it could be jump started. The Volkswagen was on an incline and rolled away from the people pushing it. The unmanned vehicle jumped a curb and crashed into a second car, which collided with a third. The vehicles were unoccupied and no injuries were reported.

Found: An iPhone 4 was found at a Winslow Way shop and turned in to police.

April 22

Dog bite: Police were contacted by a 56-year-old woman who said she was bitten on the leg by an dog at Pritchard Park on April 21. The woman said she was walking at the park when she encountered two off-leash dogs. A small white dog bit her on the calf, breaking the skin and drawing blood. The dog’s owner, a 68-year-old Bainbridge man, gave her his contact information. Police forwarded a report to animal control.

April 20

Malicious mischief: A Ward Avenue woman reported her mailbox destroyed by an explosive device. The woman said she had returned home shortly after 11 p.m. the previous evening and collected her mail. A few minutes after entering her house she heard an explosion. The next morning she found the door to the mailbox taped shut and the back end blown off. The woman said she was glad to have collected her mail before the blast occurred because she’d received some important documents.

Suspicious incident: A Kirkland resident sent police a link to a suspicious Craigslist ad posted on Bainbridge. The ad was titled “need a gun?” and was posted in the personals section. The poorly-spelled listing read: “Got a 38 special for sale. 1000 bucks. good preotection. comes with extra bullets. no paper work, untraceable. Good for a gangster ;-p.”