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INSIDE: Kitsap Week
FRIDAY, August 22, 2014 | Vol. 114, No. 34 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
New novel has local connection
Stars Over Kitsap astrology
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AFTERMATH OF A LAST STAND
Tree-sitting protester comes down, forest soon follows BY CECILIA GARZA AND BRIAN KELLY Bainbridge Island Review
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hiara D’Angelo sat surrounded by the scraggy branches of a second-growth stand of Douglas fir trees Tuesday afternoon, 70 feet above the forest floor. Below her unexpected overnight home, she was surrounded by her supporters and fellow opponents of a proposed shopping center that many say is unfathomable and unneeded. A day later, the forest was gone, and the protesters who had supported D’Angelo’s treetop last stand had faded back to their familiar corner on Highway 305 and High School Road.
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arly Monday morning, D’Angelo scaled a nearly 100-foot Doug fir to begin a sit-in on a piece of wood not much larger than a door. “This is my home, and it matters to me,” D’Angelo said as she sat in one of the 800 trees planned to be cut down to make way for a new shopping center next to the busy intersection. The shopping center proposal has been in the works for years, and it survived a grassroots challenge earlier this year and was approved by the city in late March. Ohio-based developer Visconsi received approval to begin clear-cutting the land for the nearly 62,000-squarefoot shopping center last week.
Brian Kelly | Bainbridge Island Review
Above, Chiara D’Angelo stages a ‘tree sit’ Monday about 70 feet up an evergreen tree at the site of a proposed shopping center at Highway 305 and High School Road. At top, the shopping center site Thursday morning after the start of clear-cutting on the property. The development, located directly across from Ace Hardware on High School
Road, will include a Bartell Drugs, a KeyBank branch, restaurants, professional
services and health care facilities. D’Angelo’s tree sit — the first in the state since 1999, organizers said — followed a candlelight vigil and demonstration against the development project Saturday night. Word of the treetop sit-in spread fast. A crowd of supportive citizens formed at the foot of the tree. Two Bainbridge police officers were called to the scene just after 8 a.m. Monday and helped direct traffic to ProBuild, a lumberyard located at one end of the shopping center site. The Bainbridge Island Fire Department arrived at the site, but determined D’Angelo was not in immediate danger.
Visconsi representatives, likewise, responded by notifying city officials that D’Angelo had until 4 p.m. Monday before she would be considered trespassing and Bainbridge police had permission to remove and arrest her. As time neared the deadline, though, Visconsi officials authorized a 24-hour extension to give D’Angelo more time to come down on her own. D’Angelo continued to stay in the tree overnight. The purpose of the tree sit, D’Angelo said, was to delay the tree cut and give the community more time to voice their opposition to the shopping center project. TURN TO FOREST | A7
Bainbridge Island mourns passing of legendary teacher, mentor and author Island Treasure, poet and renowned educator, Bob McAllister dies at age 73 BY LUCIANO MARANO Bainbridge Island Review
It can be extremely difficult to summarize one dedicated man’s importance to his community. In the case of Bainbridge Island’s Bob McAllister, it is impossible. How do you briefly describe to the perhaps uninformed the impact of a teacher who, by his own students’ admissions, posi-
tively affected nearly everyone he came in touch with? How do you break down the importance of a loving father? Of a husband? A friend? McAllister, a Bainbridge Island teacher, poet, performer, carpenter and Island Treasure, passed away at his home on Bainbridge on Monday, Aug. 18. He was 73. He moved to the island in 1968, and taught English and drama at Bainbridge High School for 35 years. During that time, he produced more than a hundred stage productions, averaging two a year. McAllister also taught English and
communications at Olympic College, and volunteered as a set-builder for Bainbridge Performing Arts. He is survived by his wife, Merry, and his four daughters, Anna, Kristin, Heidi and Molly. Within hours of breaking the initial news of McAllister’s death, the Review’s website and Facebook page were flooded with TURN TO MCALLISTER | A21
As a longtime teacher at Bainbridge High, Bob McAllister made a lasting impression on a generation of students.
Photo courtesy of the McAllister family