REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
FRIDAY, September 5, 2014 | Vol. 114, No. 36 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
INSIDE: Spartan water polo: A16
Council warned against high costs of new public access TV BY CECILIA GARZA Bainbridge Island Review
Brian Kelly | Bainbridge Island Review
Time to hit the books Students of every age — except kindergarteners — from around the island met new teachers and saw old friends again as they returned to school Wednesday, Sept. 3. At Ordway Elementary, above, or at Captain Johnston Blakely Elementary, at right, some students were smiling and running, excited to be back in the classroom, while others were considerably less psyched, dragging their feet with every step. The first day for kindergarten students is Friday, Sept. 5. Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review
Bainbridge neighborhood on the lookout after cat is shot BY BRIAN KELLY
Bainbridge Island Review
Linda Wolf got scared. Then she got angry. Last week, the resident of Sunrise Drive Northeast discovered that someone in the neighborhood shot Calypso, her small and very sweet cat. The shot shattered the 4-yearold cat’s front right leg, and the surgery to repair the damage and avoid an amputation cost $2,300. Wolf has since papered the power poles in her Sunrise Drive neighborhood with posters asking for information on who could have shot the tiny blackand-white cat. An initial reward of $500 has since been increased to $800. Wolf lives in a neighborhood
of homes on large lots, and it’s not uncommon to see pets roaming free in their yards. She said her cat came home about 9 p.m. Monday of last week and limped in. “We thought, well, she got in a tussle with some kind of animal, maybe a raccoon,” she recalled. Before the wound could be examined by the family, Calypso disappeared. They later found her hiding under a bed, and a trip to a veterinarian clinic in Winslow brought disturbing news. The initial report from Calypso’s X-rays indicated she had been shot twice by a pellet gun. (A later examination showed the cat had been shot once, but the pellet TURN TO SHOOTING | A22
Brian Kelly | Bainbridge Island Review
Posters have been raised throughout the Fay Bainbridge Park area alerting the neighborhood to an incident of a cat shooting last week.
In an effort to bring back a local public access TV channel, the Bainbridge Island City Council is now considering a proposal that could total almost $1 million in equipment costs alone. Public feedback during Tuesday’s council meeting, however, convinced city officials to steer away from overspending on the “HD dream” and keep sustainability at the forefront. “This study points to a very, very lovely TV solution which is probably more than this little community needs,” said former councilman Barry Peters, who is also a member of Bainbridge Community Broadcast. At the request of the council earlier this summer, CBG Communications, Inc. was hired to assess what the city would need to restore the island’s public access channel to cable television. The needs assessment recommended the city purchase upgraded equipment, have a control room built into the city council chambers and consider adding a mobile production vehicle for off-site coverage. The cost of the equipment plus installation, training and warranty costs would sum up a shopping list at $929,600 to be paid over a 10-year period. The cost of the proposed state-ofthe-art production — which does not include the potential staff salaries needed to support the new program — some said, could cause the city to repeat the downfall of the island’s last public access channel. Due to budget cuts triggered by the 2008 recession, Bainbridge’s last public television program folded in December 2010 after 25 years. “What happened was that we didn’t focus enough on sustainability, both in the equipment costs and in the labor costs,” Peters said. “What caused us to lose BITV was the labor cost, among other things, went from a budget of $40,000 in 2002 to close to $300,000 in 2009.” Since its closure, the city has earmarked $250,000 to one day bring BITV back. “I’m really happy that your city manager and you as a council TURN TO COUNCIL | A20