REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
SOLAR PANELS: City Hall to get empowered by photovoltaic panels in 2012. Page A22
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2011 | Vol. 111, No. 50 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢ ISLAND TREASURES
New conditions on WSF money Settlement funds reserved for water-related use By RICHARD D. OXLEY Staff Writer
Willie Wenzlau/For the Review and Connie Mears/Staff Photo
Children’s book author George Shannon and visual artist Michele Van Slyke are the recipients of the 2012 Island Treasure Award, which will be presented Feb. 25 at IslandWood. The award, conceived in 1999 and administered by the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council, honors excellence in the arts and humanities, and is presented annually to two individuals through a double-blind selection process. See story on page A10-11.
A $2 million settlement from Washington State Ferries will only be spent on water-related projects, and only with a supermajority council approval, the city council resolved this week. “Earlier this year the council passed a motion that the funds may only be used for one-time capital projects and that the money may not be used for ongoing programs, maintenance or staffing costs,” said Council Member Bob Scales. “This resolution simply memorializes the prior council motion.” The resolution affects the funds in three ways. First it creates a new reserve fund called the “Capital Improvement Opportunity
Reserve” to hold the $2 million from the WSF settlement. It also stipulates that money from the Capital Improvement Opportunity Reserve can only be used for one-time projects with a water-related use, and may not be put toward ongoing staffing, maintenance or program costs. Finally, the resolution requires a supermajority vote — a minimum of five council members — to approve the use of any funds from the Capital Improvement Opportunity Reserve. “For the last year the $2 million has been sitting in limbo,” Scales said. “It has not been placed in any specific reserve account and there is some confusion among staff and council members about how to characterize this money. I proposed that we place the money in a restricted SEE WSF FUNDS, A5
Friends of the Farms finally gets green light Nonprofit gets a 30-year lease to manage the city’s farmland. By DENNIS ANSTINE Staff Writer
It’s taken more than two years for the city and the Friends of the Farms to reach agreement on a management contract for the city’s 60 acres of farm land. The process has been lengthy and contentious at times, but early next month the nonprofit will finally start working on leases for the 12 or so individuals who make a living on that land. It will begin with the
appointment of members to a task force, which primarily will monitor the first year of the individual leases. With the exception of Akio Suyematsu, the 90-year-old whose family originally owned much of what became Day Road Farms when purchased by the city, all of the farmers working public land will be required to pay – for the first time – to farm the city property. The genesis of the 30-year lease stemmed from the city’s desire to have an entity manage the public land rather than dealing with farmers individually. Friends was a natural since it already had a fiveyear agreement with the city
to manage the Johnson and Morales farms, and a working relationship with the farmers working other city farmland. All of them supported establishing a leasing process for the land. “One, it is important for them to have a fair value placed on the land,” said Bart Berg, who chairs the Friends board. “And, more important, it gives them security to know that they can invest in the property they control. “We will be able to protect the farmers who are there, and they in turn, with longterm stability, can care for the land. They all really care about the soil they work.” SEE FARMS, A9
Willie Wenzlau/For the Review
Bart Berg, board chair of Friends of the Farms, believes the nonprofit will be able to help the city’s Day Road farms property thrive with the formation of a new 30-year lease between the two.