REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
OUTSIDERS: Young cast brings edge to controversial play. Page A9
FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2012 | Vol. 112, No. 2 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
Bauer’s future being debated by City Council By RICHARD D. OXLEY Staff Writer
Willie Wenzlau/For the Review
Marine Cpl. Jordan Williams, a 2008 graduate of Bainbridge High, talks with friends during a homecoming event held last Saturday. Williams spent deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan before being injured during an IED explosion.
A HERO’S WELCOME Bainbridge grad returns from Afghanistan with a Purple Heart just exploded beneath him as he sat working the radio in the commanding officer’s light armored vehicle (LAV). He would live, though he had multiple fractures to both legs and his pelvis, and a helicopter was flying him to a field hospital in Bagrams, Afghanistan. No other Marines in the vehicle had serious injuries.
By DENNIS ANSTINE Staff Writer
T
he last 18 months have been a nightmare for islanders Earl and Jada Williams, whose two sons simultaneously served as U.S. Marines in Afghanistan’s dangerous Helmand Province. Beginning in late 2010 and until mid-April 2011, Cpl. Jordan Williams, 22, was a radio operator for the commanding officer of a 1st Marine Division reconnaissance battalion serving in the southcentral part of the province. He’d already spent time in Iraq and had trained for a year for a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan. Further north, Sgt. Jonathan Williams, 25, was serving as a dog handler for the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines in the province’s Sangin District. He and his canine searched for buried improvised explosive devices (IED) and bomb-making material in perhaps the most dangerous section of the war-torn country. “We had a lot of sleepless nights,” said Jada, “but we worried more about Jonathan because of what he was doing. I wasn’t really worried about Jordan because he was a radio operator with the commanding officer for crying out loud. That’s supposed to be a safe job.”
If it happens… Photo courtesy of Williams family
Jordan Williams has left war behind. Jordan said it was “pretty nervewracking for our parents,” especially because of where Jonathan was stationed. “Being there,” Jordan said, “I knew what was going on in Sangin – all the casualties. But for us, you just take it in stride and know that your training was for a good reason and you’ll be OK. But it was pretty bad for our parents.” Jonathan ended his harrowing seven-month deployment at Sangin without being harmed and on April 15 flew home to Camp Pendleton, Calif., where his parents met him. Three days later, they received a call from Jordan’s sergeant major, who said the young Marine was the victim of a roadside bomb that had
In fact, the lives of Jordan and his fellow recon Marines were being threatened almost daily during the months he served in the central area of Helmand Province, where there is heavy traffic of Taliban fighters, weapons and drugs traveling to and from the Pakistani border. The IEDs are used to clear the way, simple as that. Jordan said he had spent nearly 200 trips “outside the wire,” often lasting 24 hours and were generally repeated as soon as the men were rested. “We were going out all the time,” he said, “so it was not if but when we were going to be hit by an IED. After a while, you just hope you can make it through the day. If it happens, it happens.” While Jordan’s LAV was presumably less susceptible to carnage SEE MARINES, A5
In its second meeting of the year, Bainbridge City Council ended its cordial honeymoon period and sparred throughout the evening over a performance review of City Manager Brenda Bauer. It became apparent that a discussion about Bauer’s position was part of an executive session after the agenda item was added Monday, then it was argued during Wednesday’s regular meeting whether or not such discussion was executive session material. The debate lingered throughout the meeting, continually popping up across various topics, draw-
ing lines and reflecting upon the changing dynamics of the new council and the possible change in the city’s administration. The item in question pertained to the “Review Performance of an Employee RCW 42.30.110(1)(g),” which deals with evaluating applicants for public employment and handling issues with current public employees, including disciplining or discharging employees. “Quite frankly if this is what we want to talk about, let’s get it out on the table whether it’s in here or it’s in (executive session),” Council or Kirsten Hytopoulos said. “We all had a very clear SEE COUNCIL, A4
Ferries thrown lifeline by state By SCOTT PANITZ WNPA Olympia News Bureau
Gov. Chris Gregoire’s $3.6 billion transportation proposal came with a warning when she presented it to state legislators this week. “Without new funding our ferry system will not survive as we know it,” said Gregoire, whose plan includes nearly one-third of the funding being used to cover a projected $1.3 billion deficit in the ferry system. Gregoire’s state-of-thestate message to a joint session of the Washington legislature on Tuesday described how the 10-year development and operations package would be funded with a $1.50 fee on each barrel of oil produced in the state. She said
the planned expenditures would create an estimated 5,500 jobs per year for transportation infrastructure. As a fee, the proposal is a way around the two-thirds legislative vote needed to pass new taxes in the state. “I think of it as a good down-payment on what we need to do for transportation,” said House Transportation Committee Chair Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island), though the package only addresses operations and maintenance costs, not projects, including the construction of new ferryboats. “She left the legislature with a big job of, say, do we go out to the voters with a SEE FERRIES, A4