REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME
Remember to turn your clocks forward one hour Sunday at 2 a.m.
FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2012 | Vol. 112, No. 10 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
Tawresey takes leave from school board after DUI arrest Documents detail previous hit-and-run By RICHARD D. OXLEY Staff Writer
Joel Sackett / Courtesy Photo
Voracious reader Elsa Knowlton emerges from the Bainbridge Public Library with a stack of books and other media. The library kicks off a year-long celebration of its 50th anniversary with a community event March 17.
Library turns 50 By CONNIE MEARS Staff Writer
Bainbridge photographer Joel Sackett said he’s been “working in two time zones” these last six weeks. Contracted to document activity at the Bainbridge Public Library in preparation for its 50th anniversary, he wandered the aisles with an eye on the present and the future. “What I’m really asking is
‘What is this going to look like 50 years from now?’” he said Tuesday in the library’s meeting room. If pictures are worth a thousand words, the 40 black-and-white images he has assembled will tell volumes about the community and its relationship to the library. “I take my cues from historic photos,” he said. “I’m distilling from the
1960 The First Bainbridge Island Rotary Sale and Auction raised $5,663.15, all of which was designated for a new library.
present so that it reads well. I’m thinking about how something’s going to look to future generations.” Visitors to the library’s full-day celebration Saturday, March 17 will get to see an exhibit of the photos displayed on the bookshelves throughout the nonfiction section. Not a regular patron, Sackett was surprised at “how important the place
was, how central it is to the community.” “It’s kind of a hub,” he said. Sackett also will take a community photo at 3 p.m. the day of the event. Board treasurer and historian Charles Browne has been working in two time zones lately, too — the past
1961
1962
Construction begins on land donated by Edmund Stafford; architect, John Rudolph.
Rolling Bay Library closed and Bainbridge Public Library was dedicated and open for service on March 17.
SEE LIBRARY, A10
Bainbridge Island School Board Director John G. Tawresey has asked for a leave of absence following his arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol and hit-and-run — his second hit-and-run within two months. Tawresey was taken into custody late Wednesday, Feb. 29 by Bainbridge Island Police after bystanders called police after Tawresey allegedly struck another vehicle near San Carlos Restaurant on Madison Avenue. Tawresey requested the leave of absence late last week in a letter sent to his fellow board members. School Board President Patty Fielding said John Tawresey Tawresey’s leave of absence is due to his concern that the investigation relating to his “recent personal incident” will be distracting to the work of the school board in the coming weeks. “We have always put the interests of students first in our deliberations and decisions,” Tawresey said in his letter to the board. “That shared focus of this board should not be compromised by distractions that detract from our primary responsibilities.” Fielding also noted that she concurred with Tawresey’s request and that the school board is “saddened” that for the time being, Tawresey will be not be a “contributing advocate for students and teachers.” The leave of absence will give an opportunity for a “neutral period of time for an objective investigation of fact,” Fielding said. Tawresey did not return repeated calls for comment. Witnesses to the Feb. 29 hit-and-run have declined to talk about the incident on the record. A police report released Tuesday indicates that Tawresey, 67, joked when speaking with police and while taking field sobriety tests in the parking lot outside San Carlos Restaurant. When they first encountered him, police noted that he spoke SEE LEAVE, A8