Serenity House’s sad ending

One of the island’s (and the state and county’s) greatest failures in tending to its humanitarian safety net was the closure of Serenity House at Lynwood Center which, until this year, was home to 18 developmentally disabled adults. In March, Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority closed the facility because of financial problems and relocated all but two residents off island.

Photo of Serenity House by Jay Trinidad.

South-end islanders know that a couple of the former residents still frequent the neighborhood. Recently, I saw Jerome (I don’t know his last name) who used to do odd jobs at Walt’s. According to Walt, Jerome is a cousin of guitar great Jimi Hendrix, and suffered traumatic brain injury after a stint as a boxer. When Serenity House closed, he was placed in a nursing home in Bremerton, and now takes a bus to the island a couple of times a week just to visit. I asked how he was doing in his new home.

“I don’t like it,” he replied, shaking his head forlornly.

Island photographer and artist Jay Trinidad has posted a photo essay of the empty Serenity House on his blog. His pictures are full of absence and abandonment, as well as the humanity of those who lived there.  Take a look. Take a moment to consider the sorrow of some of our most vulnerable (and beloved) former neighbors, as their lives were up-ended through no fault of their own.

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Don’t forget the island’s first-ever-in-this-blogger’s-memory Soup Kitchen, Saturday night, May 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. on Madrone Lane across from Mora Iced Creamery. Free food and fun for all—soup, cornbread, rhubarb lemonade, lots of music and conversation with neighbors and friends.

For more info, visit the Soup Kitchen’s blog here.

I’ll be on cornbread-making detail, along with a horde of other volunteers, so come on down. There’ll be a full menu of music too, the better to feed both body and soul. With a couple of lemonades on board, we might even sing the Mock Turtle’s soup song, if anyone can remember the words.

Fans of Alice In Wonderland can sing along after the jump.

 

Bainbridge passes change of government; school bond falling short

UPDATED: As of 4 p.m. on May 20, with 200 additional votes left to be counted, the Kitsap County Auditor reports that the change in government  is passing with a vote of 69.76%. The school bond is still just short of the supermajority, at 59. 57%. Over 9000 people cast votes on these measures (9205 on the form of government vote, and 9414 on the bond). On another note, our change of government vote was featured on KUOW today, with Mayor Kordonowy and change of government campaign member Bob Fortner giving their comments by phone. Click here for the audio.

The voters have spoken and they want real change in local government. Last night’s unofficial vote count from the Kitsap County Auditor gave the change of government measure an impressive lead at 71.4%, out of  7511 votes counted. The school bond measure is falling short of the required 60% supermajority, at 57.68%. Results will be updated today at 4 p.m. when ballot drop-offs and late mail-ins will be counted. 

Change-of-government supporters celebrated at the Treehouse last night, noshing on pizza and salad and marveling at the wide margin of victory. Council members Debbie Vancil, Kim Brackett, Bill Knobloch and Barry Peters were in the crowd of about fifty. Shortly after the results were in, state Representative and former Bainbridge Councilor Christine Rolfes, dropped in. Rolfes sponsored a bill in Olympia that enabled the change-of-government measure to be on the ballot in May, instead of during the general election in November.   

Friendships planted in the garden

A pile of dirt. Lumber. Bags of compost. Galvanized steel tubs. Nothing, really, but a hodge podge on a lawn. 

But then, the trucks and cars arrive. High school students, retirees, moms with their kids, drill-wielding dads. A man in a wheelchair, another with a cane. Someone fires up a barbecue and turns on some music. It’s a party. Little kids play on the swings and supervise the grownups. Big kids haul dirt in wheelbarrows and hammer lumber to make raised beds. Men drill holes in the tubs, fill them with gravel, dirt and compost. In two hours, nothing really becomes something wonderful. The Island Terrace apartment complex has a community garden. 

On Saturday, a dozen Bainbridge High School students from the amazing Camp Siberia program provided muscle, equipment and good humor. Other hardworking friends of the project included Debbi Lester and her father-in-law, Richard Vancil (husband of Councilor Debbie Vancil, who checked in on the work too), my husband Dan Mallove, Councilwoman and farmer extraordinaire Hilary Franz and her son Nathaniel. Island Terrace manager Renee’ Levesque organized the tenant-gardeners, who not only worked on the garden, but fed the crew a tasty barbecue potluck. A special shout-out to Helen Loleas who put together the potluck and rounded up donations from local businesses. There are pictures of the fun and a couple of Youtube videos (courtesy of Debbi Lester) after the jump.

Food for body and soul

There’s more good food news on Bainbridge Island. On May 23, a group of islanders will host a soup kitchen on Madrone Lane (across from Mora Iced Cream). The meal will feature music and art as part of the nourishment. Take a look at the kitchen’s blog, “Soup Kitchen: Promoting Good Things with Free Food.” 

From the blog:

Growing the best of our island

UPDATED: On Saturday, May 9 at 11 a.m. with some earth, sunlight and your help, a little magic will happen on Bainbridge Island. 

A group of volunteers are putting in an organic community garden at Island Terrace apartments, the island’s only low income housing for all ages, located at the corner of High School Road and Ferncliff. And we need your labor, skills, and donations of materials and cash. 

The idea grew out of a community garden meeting in March, sponsored by Sustainable Bainbridge. With the enthusiastic support of Renee’ Levesque, the manager of Island Terrace, Kathy Cooper of Housing Resources Board, Chuck Estin, Debbi Lester, and Island Terrace residents, we’re ready for the May 9 work party. 

We need a better form of government

After months of waffling, I’ve finally decided I’m voting in favor of changing our City government to the council-manager form.

I’ve gone back and forth on this question because it wasn’t clear to me whether the City’s problems are structural or simply the result of two terms with a divisive mayor, abetted by eight years of ineffectual Councils.

If we vote to adopt the council-manager form of government, we probably won’t see any big changes right away. After the election is certified, Mayor Darlene Kordonowy will become the eighth member of the City Council (if she chooses) until her term expires at the end of 2009. The often contentious 4-3 split on Council will widen to 5-3, because the current Council majority has been supporting Kordonowy’s policies all along. City administrator Mark Dombroski will, in all likelihood, keep his job. Citizens will still distrust City government, and we’ll continue to see the symptoms of that distrust: political controversies, large numbers of public records requests, and litigation between islanders and their government.

Live blogging from City Council: Approving another bond

Given the filing of the lawsuit  today by Winslow ratepayers (Bainbridge Ratepayers Alliance), I am at the City Council meeting to see whether they will approve the financing of the watewater treatment plant in spite of the lawsuit. After public comment, the Council went into a lengthy recess (apparently to discuss the lawsuit). When the Council resumed its meeting, Council member Bill Knobloch moved that items concerning the financing for the wastewater treatment plant on the Council’s agenda be removed due to the filing of that lawsuit. The motion failed, with Mr. Knobloch voting in favor of removing those items, Kim Brackett abstaining (stating she doesn’t have enough information to vote on it), and the other Councilors voting against it.

Winslow utility ratepayers file suit

The Bainbridge Ratepayers Alliance sent out the following press release this afternoon:

Bainbridge Ratepayers Alliance filed suit in Kitsap Superior Court against the City of Bainbridge Island, Wednesday, April 22. At issue is how the city has used, and plans to use, fees paid by 2,200 water utility and 1,800 sewer utility customers. In addition to portions of Fletcher Bay and Rockaway Beach, city utility ratepayers live within the Winslow core area from New Brooklyn south to Eagle Harbor and from Sportsman Club Road/Finch to the eastern shoreline.

In a statement issued at the time of filing, Bainbridge Ratepayers Alliance Secretary, Sally Adams, said “We greatly regret that the City has pushed the ratepayers so far that it became necessary to file this lawsuit to counter the misuse of utility ratepayer fees. Under law, COBI utility ratepayers may only be charged for services they receive. They may not be charged for costs that benefit other public projects.”

The Senior Center’s money is there. Somewhere.

During public comment at a City Council meeting in mid-February, Senior Center Vice President Joan Treacy noted that in the City’s councilmanic bond issue last fall, the Council included $250,000 to begin work on an expansion of the Senior Center. Nearly a half-year later, the Senior Center has not seen any of the proceeds. “Where is our money?” she asked.

Finance goblins

It was a question heard ’round the island, at least among serious City watchers who worry about the City’s solvency, given its borrowings from the water utility, staff layoffs and the budget cuts still necessary to weather the financial downturn.

As the City’s financial crisis has deepened, many of our most cherished plans and programs have been trimmed or eliminated. We can argue whether a new Senior Center should be started now, and whether it should become a higher priority than other projects still waiting in the wings. But when the City borrowed money by issuing bonds for the express purpose of putting money toward the project, the decision was made, and the City has no choice but to spend the money for the Senior Center, as promised in the bond contracts and offering documents (or pay it back).