REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
Friday, June 24, 2016 | Vol. 91, No. 26 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
Rush-hour traffic improves on 305
WINNER, WINNER
White House Dinner
Highway relief will be temporary, however BY LESLIE KELLY Contributing Writer
Budding Bainbridge chef wins First Lady’s lunchtime challenge BY JESSICA SHELTON Bainbridge Island Review
This little chef is going to Washington. Lukas “Luke” Anderson of Bainbridge Island is one of 56 winners of the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge, a nationwide recipe contest designed by First Lady Michelle Obama to get kids ages 8 to 12 cooking and eating nutritious meals. On July 14, the Bainbridge 10-year-old will attend a kids’ “State Dinner” at the White House with his mom and other winners, followed by a visit to the White House Kitchen Garden. “I feel very overwhelmed,” Luke said about his upcoming travel plans. “This is a once-in-alifetime opportunity.” “It’s very exciting for us,” Luke’s mom, Melissa Anderson, added. “We’re very big Obama fans. And Michelle Obama, I think is such a beautiful, graceful, strong woman.” Anderson found out about the challenge through a postcard dropped in with the family’s Blue Apron subscription. Luke said he was reluctant to compete at first GAS/CHAR-
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TURN TO WHITE HOUSE | A31
Photos courtesy of Eddie Ward, Melissa Anderson
Top: The winning dish, Salish Sea Kedgeree. Below: Luke Anderson, 10, cooks dinner for his family. “I try to cook as much as possible,” the Mosaic student said, “but sometimes I need to have my off-days.”
2016 ANNIVERSARY
JUNE 25-26
Those who drive the dreaded Highway 305 north and south through Bainbridge Island at rush hour have had smiles on their faces more often lately. But it remains to be seen if that will last. The improved traffic flow on the highway can be attributed to the fact that Suquamish Tribal police officers are directing traffic at the intersection of Highway 305 and Suquamish Way NE, just north of the Agate Pass Bridge. From 3 to 7 p.m. weekdays, officers are determining when the cross street traffic on Suquamish Way will move, instead of automatically tripped stoplights. “I’ve had dozens of favorable comments,” said Bainbridge Island Police Chief Matthew Hamner. “People stop me and ask me ‘Can we please adjust the lights to match what officers are doing now?’” Hamner said he even received an email from a woman who said the change had cut her nightly commute from two hours to 45 minutes. Suquamish Police Chief Mike Lasnier said drivers are so pleased that they’ve gone out of their way to find the police department to thank him personally. “People are bringing my officers coffee and treats while they’re working at the
intersection,” he said. “I even had a couple of attorneys from Bainbridge Island offer to fundraise to cover the costs of keeping the officers there.” But that’s probably not going to happen, Lasnier said. Right now, the officers are being paid by Kitsap Transit to direct traffic through the intersection while construction is underway. Lasnier said he was asked to have officers there until new traffic lights, which are expected in late July, arrive. Because the highway is a state highway the Washington State Patrol was asked first to direct traffic at the busy intersection, but couldn’t due to staffing constraints. “It’s a week-by-week thing,” Lasnier said. “We’re not sure how long we’ll be there. But we’ll do it as long as we can.” Washington Department of Transportation spokeswoman Claudia Bingham Baker said the department has tweaked the light at that intersection “many times over the years.” She said one of the issues is that drivers on Highway 305 get distracted because traffic is moving so slowly they do other things. “They’re on the phones or they’re texting someone and they allow gaps between cars,” she said. That causes the automatic underground traffic regulators to think there is no traffic and the light turns red. That will change when new equipment is installed, however. TURN TO TRAFFIC | A8
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