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Chip Seal on Bainbridge Island
Tis the season for chip seal. Prepare thyselves. What is chip seal, you ask? It’s a way to extend the life of a road by combining asphalt emulsion with finely graded aggregate over its surface. Excess...
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Financial Blue Skies for BI: Better Moody’s Rating
It may pale in the harsh glare of the latest Stock Market reports, but let’s take a moment to celebrate our Island’s improved credit rating. Brenda Bauer, the city’s Interim Manager, announced on...
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Police Blotter: 11/30/11
November 29 • Cencom advised Bainbridge units of a 911 hang-up from a cell phone on Madrona Way. Officers responded to the call. A man at the residence said there had been a verbal dispute between his...
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City Council This Week: 1/11/12
Executive Agenda The council meeting began with a motion to accept the Executive Agenda, which was the meeting agenda for a proposed followup Executive Session, closed to the public. Councilmember Bob...
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Bainbridge City Council Proposing to Vote Out City Manager Bauer
A proposed amendment to Bainbridge Island City Manager Brenda Bauer’s contract will be considered in a Study Session at Wednesday night’s City Council meeting. If passed, the Council will immediately...
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Letter to the Editor: Bainbridge Island Will Have Trouble Replacing City...
by Barry Peters, Former City Councilmember (2008-11), January 31, 2012 I believe that, if this change gets majority approval on Wednesday, the four Councilmembers (Lester, Ward, Bonkowski, and...
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Grant to DOE for Cleanup of Unocal Site Raises Concerns on Council and at...
Right before Wednesday night’s City Council meeting, councilmembers received a 15-page letter of concern written by Kitsap Transit attorney Ron Templeton. The letter expresses worries about liability...
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The Joys of Bainbridge Island’s Season of Road Repair
If you drive/ride a car, bike, moped, or hansom cab, pothole repairs all over the island and throughout the rest of June and into July are guaranteed to enhance your transportational experience. At...
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City Manager Makes Strong Case for Not Outsourcing Water Utility
City Manager Doug Schulze made a presentation to the City Council Wednesday night, at their request, of his analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing the city water utility to the...
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Letter to the Editor: Request for Council Member to Recuse Herself
Dear Councilmember Blossom, Experience in recent months indicates that when a citizen wants to express a concern about a Council member’s potential conflict of interest, they will be ruled out of...
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Experts Counsel Against Likely H20 Divestiture Vote Tonight: Why You Should Care
At tonight’s (June 5) City Council meeting, the Council will be considering approving an agreement with Kitsap Public Utilities District to take over management of our City water. So far, it appears...
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Here’s Your Easy-to-Read Chip Seal Schedule
You wanted a schedule, and COBI complied—although, to be fair, they were probably going to make a schedule anyway before you asked. The chip seal treatment for 20 Island roads is scheduled for August...
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Without Shedding Blood, Council Member Responds to Slanderous E-Mail
An anonymous e-mail titled “Politics as Blood Sport on Bainbridge Island” that Islander Gary Tripp circulated August 25 to his Bainbridge Defense Fund e-mail list accused Councilmember Anne Blair of...
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Clear Cut Bainbridge Island (with Impunity)
You’ve seen the “Clear Cut Bainbridge Island” bumper stickers, a little semi-humorous barb against Bainbridge Islanders’ purported love of trees. But how deep is that love? And is it real love when...
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Hearing Tomorrow in Public Records Act Lawsuit Against COBI—Three...
One of the complicating factors in the Public Records Act lawsuit against three councilmembers and the City of Bainbridge Island is that the councilmembers are also being sued as individuals, not just...
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Two PACS Face off in Bainbridge City Council Race
Common Sense or Quality? Pick one. Last month, Islander Gary Tripp, the man behind the Bainbridge Defense Fund e-mail list and the organizer of the Shoreline Master Program protest march on City Hall,...
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City Launches Preliminary Investigation into Allegations of Employee Misconduct
City Manager Doug Schulze says Bainbridge Island has retained the services of attorney Claire Cordon at an hourly rate to launch a preliminary investigation into the conduct of several permitting...
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Bainbridge Gets New Good-Looking, User-Friendly City Website
Remember that inelegant, boxy, imageless site that served our city? I can’t remember it either. It’s gone so you can’t go look it up to remind yourself. In its stead is an attractive, welcoming portal...
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Salt Brine? It’s Not Just Redundant—It’s Also Our New Anti-Ice Road Treatment
Salt you know. Brine, also familiar, is simply salt in a water mixture. So what is salt brine? It’s the common if overly emphatic term for a road treatment that helps prevent ice formation on...
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City Employee Charged with Unethical Conduct Is Cleared
When two island residents, Bill Knobloch and Marcus Gerlach, leveled complaints against City of Bainbridge Island Planning Manager Josh Machen, City Manager Doug Schulze launched an investigation....
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Update on Eagle Harbor Sewage Spill
This morning, January 27, City Manager Doug Schulze reported that, by Friday evening, January 24, around 6:30, the latest sewage line break in Eagle Harbor had been fixed. The break had happened...
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What’s a Farm Plan, What’s It for, and Does It Work on Bainbridge?
At Monday night’s (March 3) City Council meeting, the Council was introduced to the concept of farm plans during a study session presented by Planning and Community Development Director Kathy Cook and...
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17,700 Bainbridge Islanders to Be Honored by City for Volunteerism—Share Your...
Question: Does an honor diminish if shared by many? Answer: Who cares? The people who volunteer for Bainbridge community organizations such as PAWS and Weed Warriors and the Senior Center or who...
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Due to Concern About a Recent Slide, Rockaway Beach Closed to All but Local...
The City of Bainbridge Island has just announced (March 25) that Rockaway Beach Road is now closed until further notice to all but local traffic. COBI staff are on scene examining the site of a...
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Hearing Examiner’s Visconsi Decision Challenges All Parties to Step up Their...
COBI Hearing Examine Stafford Smith issued his decision today, March 27, that the Visconsi development proposed for the northwest corner of 305 and High School should be green lighted provided it...
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City Launches New Online Permitting Portal
In just two weeks, on April 14, the City will transition from the current Tidemark Permitting System to something more local: SMARTGov, which was developed by Poulsbo-based Paladin Data Systems....
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It’s National Volunteer Week: Island Volunteer Caregivers Desperately Needs You
This week, April 6-14, is National Volunteer Week. Today, the City of Bainbridge island is honoring the 17,700 islanders who give up some of their time in service of others or for a variety of causes....
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Letter to the Editor: City Trivializes the Word Sustainability
One of my pet peeves is the trivialization of the word “sustainability.” As much as anything, the word has become a marketing tool by people who either don’t know what it means or for whose purposes...
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What Will Happen to Historic Grow House and Oliver House? Your Opinion Matters
The Bainbridge Island Historic Preservation Commission is devoting May, which is National Historic Preservation Month, to identifying the places on Bainbridge that should be preserved, the iconic...
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City Council Gets Ethics Schooling
At Monday Night’s (May 12) City Council meeting, the City’s Ethics Board provided its annual Ethics Board Training to help clarify for Councilmembers what is and is not considered acceptable behavior....
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Yesterday’s Sewage Spill Released 67,000 Gallons
The City of Bainbridge Island reported this afternoon, August 11, that during yesterday’s sewage spill about 67,000 gallons of raw sewage were released into Eagle Harbor. Yesterday, City Manager Doug...
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Bainbridge Pot Producer/ Retailer Application Under Review
Updated at 11:32 a.m., September 7, 2014. When voters in our state made recreational pot legal with the passage of I-502, the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) designated up to one retail...
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Police Facility: Council Says No to Island Fitness Site and to Co-Location...
At last night’s (October 7) City Council meeting, the Council swiftly and unanimously voted to remove the Island Fitness site to the south of City Hall from consideration for the construction of a new...
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How Should City-Owned Suzuki Property Be Used?
The City of Bainbridge Island owns the 13.83-acre undeveloped parcel at the southeast corner of New Brooklyn and Sportsman Club Roads known as the Suzuki Property. But COBI is considering selling it....
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Firewall Problem Takes Down City’s Internet
If you’ve been having trouble connecting with the City of Bainbridge Island (COBI) online, it’s because COBI’s Internet service has been out since yesterday afternoon. COBI Community Engagement...
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Letter to the Editor: Recommend- ations for Suzuki Property from a 2008 Task...
I live on Commodore Lane NW, which is immediately south of the pond on the Suzuki property. I was a member of the 2008 Suzuki Task Force. Some of my suggestions below on the disposition of the Suzuki...
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Public Records Act Lawsuit Parties Weigh in About Case
by Sarah Lane with Julie Hall [Updated at 2:40 p.m. December 6, 2014.] After settlement of the Public Records Lawsuit against the City of Bainbridge Island this week in the amount of nearly $500,000...
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5 BI Tax Districts Pledge Green Commitments for 2015 in Honor of Earth Day
The Bainbridge Island tax districts—COBI, Bainbridge Island Fire Department, Bainbridge Island School District, the Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Parks and Recreation District, and Kitsap Regional...
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Ferncliff Village Townhomes Get $150K Financial Commitment from City
Ferncliff Village, the affordable housing community developed by Housing Resources Bainbridge, is still in its Phase I, despite the fact that all 30 single-family homes in the Village have been sold...
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Letter to the Editor: Has Bainbridge Island Turned Anti-Farming?
Based on actions, the City of Bainbridge Island staff and council are increasingly anti-farming. They subverted the required public process to upgrade Farm Plan requirements. The city inappropriately...
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Letter to the Editor: A Tale of Two Cities and Prop. 1
The Bainbridge Island Police Department’s facility is old, is in poor condition, and no longer meets the needs of the department. Supposedly it is beyond remodeling and needs to be replaced. COBI has...
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