Comments on: Bainbridge Island — cleanest trails in the county!

By: wendy

wendy — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:32:14 +0000

Hey, Ed, I was a lawyer and I resemble that remark!

Actually, I was the kind of lawyer who would hike a trail FOR the leaves, dirt and peace it offers. And even slip on my butt where it was wet (which it was ALL the time in Juneau).

I wonder if it is general policy here, then, to clean all wooden boardwalks on trails? That is expensive trail maintenance! I wonder if the taxpayers in favor of new trails realizes this policy?

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:42:40 +0000

I think before you get too carried away about the leaf blower, you should give the parks staff a call and ask what the worker was doing. That wooden walkway in the center of the trail needs to be swept so it doesn’t get too slippery. A slippery walkway and an island full of lawyers can be a very bad combination.

I also invite you to attend the upcoming trails committee meeting if you want to find out what the parks staff is doing on the trails. It is this coming Monday at 7pm at Strawberry Park.

http://www.bainbridgeislandtrails.org/forum/index.php?topic=151.0

By: Jim Thomsen

Jim Thomsen — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:44:46 +0000

Now that I’ve been called out — I am one of those hateful old-timers and, now, off-islanders — I must speak out.

To agree with you. Freaking ridiculous. The island’s new tourism logo should be a big toilet-seat cover that says: “Bainbridge Island: Sanitized For Your Protection.”

That being said, the Bainbridge parks department is its own entity, and not a city agency. So the city’s funding woes have little to do with leaf-blowing budgetary line items.

Then again, the parks department is hardly rolling in the green stuff, either. When I covered it as a reporter, it would regular go for a fat two-year maintenance levy election, lose, threaten to chain up all the parks, try again with a leaner ballot measure, and get back to “normal.” Does that still happen? I haven’t been following all that closely.

Wendy, I think you should write a letter to the editor. Call out whoever thinks leaf-blowing on trails is necessary and worth paying for. Get a good civic debate going.

In the Bainbridge Islander, of course. Screw The Review.

(Then again, I wonder if maybe it was a misguided volunteer or Eagle Scout or something doing leaf-blowing on their own.)

By: SheriL

SheriL — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:58:04 +0000

Alright, alright, they were leaf blowing a dirt trail. Gotta make you smile…..

By: wendy

wendy — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:35:33 +0000

The trail in question was DIRT!! with a little boardwalk tossed in. He was on DIRT!

By: SheriL

SheriL — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:33:42 +0000

Hummm….I wonder Wendy, was the trail paved or dirt. I hope you had bags for what came out the back end of Becca or he might aim that leaf blower at you.

That off island on island thing has always bothered me. Even for an event as positive as training for the Breast Cancer 3-Day the first thing some of the island women did was ask if my Kingston friend whether she was off or on island. Course if you give the “correct” on island answer then they want to know where you live so you can be further catagorized. Wouldn’t want anyone judged on their own merits when we can use debt or salary as a benchmark now would we. Risky risky stuff…..

By: citizen of the world

citizen of the world — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:09:44 +0000

I think its probably truw everywhere that the established folks and the newcomers are at odds. Here, you don’t count as a local unless your family has been here at least three generations.