REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
Friday,February 13, 2015 | Vol. 90, No.7 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
INSIDE: SPARTANS SOAR: Sports, A14
BAINBRIDGE OKS NEW CENTRAL PARK, NEW FIRE HALLS AND EXPANDED FIRE/EMS SERVICES Park supporters jubilant over approval of parkland purchase BY SERAINE PAGE AND BRIAN KELLY Bainbridge Island Review
Election Night jitters turned into hugs and hoorays as Bainbridge voters approved a $5.9 million bond measure to pay for the purchase of the 23-acre Sakai property for a future park during the Feb. 10 Special Election. Proposition 1 was passing in a landslide with 69.6 percent in favor of the measure during the initial vote count on Election Night. A total of 30.4 percent were against the proposition in the first vote tally. “I knew the community valued parks space,” said Bruce Weiland, co-chairman of People for Parks, after the results came in. “It makes me love this place even more.” The proposal needed a 60-percent supermajority to pass. As of press time on
Thursday, 8,897 ballots had been counted. People for Parks committee members and volunteers gathered at Treehouse Café on Tuesday to watch the numbers roll in. But if the usual process of watching results wasn’t nerve-wracking enough, the Internet reception inside was spotty. A good-spirited volunteer waited outside where the signal was a bit stronger, making an announcement all the more exciting once the door to the outside swung open with the good news. The rest of the group took a break from their pizza and beers once the results rolled in, offering one another hugs and congratulations. Jason Shutt, co-chairman of People for Parks, said the committee was “cautiously optimistic” about a win. “I’m excited about what the community is going to do together,” he said. “We TURN TO PARKS | A4
PARKS PROP. 1: BIFD PROP. 1: BIFD PROP. 2:
Voters say ‘yes’ to fire levy and bond
69% YES 30% NO 72% YES 27% NO 63% YES 36% NO
BY SERAINE PAGE AND BRIAN KELLY Bainbridge Island Review
Seraine Page | Bainbridge Island Review
Supporters of the parks’ Prop. 1 react to the news of the landslide Special Election results at the Treehouse Café. People for Parks committee members said they were overjoyed by the prop passing.
Election Night saw two big wins at the ballot box for the Bainbridge Island Fire Department, but the department was quick to point out that it’s the community that will benefit from expanded services and new fire halls. Bainbridge voters approved a proposal to replace or renovate aging and cramped fire stations on the island, as well as a companion measure to raise the Bainbridge Island Fire Department’s property tax levy. Both measures won by landslide proportions. Bainbridge Island Fire Chief Hank Teran called it a win all-around for islanders. “This is a community win, not a fire department win,” TURN TO FIRE | A19
GOING WHOLE HOG AT HEYDAY FARM
Island farm offers delicious demos, culinary classes BY LUCIANO MARANO Bainbridge Island Review
There is an art to proper food preparation at every level, from farming to serving — and even in the stages some people would rather not think about. For instance, the purpose of animal butchery is, ultimately, culinary. So, you shouldn’t be too concerned if you don’t remember all of the names of every fancy cut of beef or pork, and don’t be intimidated by the overall process. If the animal is slaughtered humanely, and if the result is delicious, you’ve done it right. It’s more like art than surgery. That’s just one of the tips and
tricks that was handed out by Brandon Sheard of Farmstead Meatsmith, a visiting teacher who recently led two workshops at Heyday Farm on whole hog butchery and curing. Sheard’s demonstrations were some of the most popular yet hosted by the farm, said Alice Skipton, who, along with her husband Craig, has managed and operated the 25-acre farm and its burgeoning educational program since it was first established nearly four years ago. “We designed this as kind of a holistic business,” she explained. “We have our farm store, we have rooms for stay here and then our
make change in classes, so it’s meant “When you’re trying to the world, you to connect people to can fight against each other and their make change in the or you food.” world, you can fight something can fight for someThe farm’s eduagainst something thing. For us, it’s cational offerings, [about] gathering Skipton explained, or you can fight for around the table are designed in partsomething.” and celebrating nership with Kerrie Alice Skipton what we are proSanson, Heyday’s Heyday Farm Manager ducing here on head chef and kitchthe land.” en manager, who “That’s kind of also works to help the heart of it,” she added. coordinate guest instructors like Three sites on Bainbridge stand Sheard and noted wild food lecturas production centers for the er Langdon Cook. farm’s various operations including “For us it’s really celebratory,” the Pederson Farm on Old Mill Skipton said of the program’s Road NE, the Winney Farm on ideals. “When you’re trying to
McDonald Avenue NE and the Farm Store on Lynwood Center Road. Heyday has hosted tours and school groups as well as traveled to island classrooms to give lectures and presentations about modern small-scale farming, ecology, sustainability and nutrition, all of it done to get people “really thinking about your plate,” Skipton explained. “[Consider] what you used as a special occasion food versus an everyday food, and how much meat you eat versus vegetables and how to make all of that work TURN TO HOGS | A7