REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
Friday, May 29, 2015 | Vol. 90, No. 22 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
INSIDE: Sparty off to state, A24
Four feet, two pairs of sneakers and 1,500 miles BY SERAINE PAGE
Bainbridge Island Review
Two Bainbridge Island women will lace up their shoes for the walk of a lifetime. Sally Noedel and her daughter, Emma Bigongiari, will journey nearly 1,500 miles from Bainbridge Island to Arizona to raise awareness about a proposed copper mine in Oak Flat, Arizona. If built, the mine would cut off access to sacred lands where the San Carlos Apache Tribe practice religious ceremonies. Oak Flat is considered an important part of the San Carlos Apache Tribe’s religious customs and traditions. “It’s good to say this is like a church,” said Noedel of the forest land, which is currently open to the public. “There’s no building, but
that’s not the way their religion is observed. “We are not speaking for the Want to help? Apache Donate to “Walk to Save people,” Oak Flat” by sponsoring she added. the walking duo online. “We just Visit their website www. see a great walktosaveoakflat.com injustice here and a great ecological travesty unfolding.” The idea of copper mining didn’t sit well with Noedel — a lifelong nature lover — and TURN TO WALK | A30
Photo courtesy of Sally Noedel
Sally Noedel and her daugher Emma Bigongiari trace the route of their walk on a map.
2015 BLAKELY AWARDS: Fort Ward teens, owners of McRedmond Cabin honored BY LESLIE KELLY Contributing Writer
To some it may look like an old relic, not worthy of saving. But to a group of Bainbridge teens, it’s a piece of history that they don’t want to lose. The teens, who formed the Fort Ward Youth Advisory Committee, along with their advisor Sarah Lee, are the recipients of 2015 Blakely Preservation Leaders Award for their work to restore the 1910 Fort Ward Bakery Building. Students Aila Ikuse, Kate Merifield, Mark Dettman and Erik Appleberry were recently honored at a Bainbridge Island City Council meeting. “They have shown
Leslie Kelly | Bainbridge Island Review
Mark Dettman, Aila Ikuse, Erik Appleberry and Kate Merifield were named as the recipients of the 2015 Blakely Preservation Leaders Award. remarkable poise and persuasive ability in presenting their project before the public and demonstrated awareness of and dedication to preservation of the history and historical environment
of their community,” said William Shopes, who nominated the youth. The Blakely Awards have been given annually by the Bainbridge Historic Preservation Commission to
recognize significant contributions toward historic preservation in the community. The students, all juniors at Bainbridge High School, live in the Fort Ward area and recalled walking past the 1910 brick building as kids when they would play in the area. “It’s just always been a part of us,” said Aila. “We’ve grown up with it.” It was about a year ago when the students thought about taking on restoration of the building as a senior project. But soon, Erik said, they decided that it had to be more. They wanted it to become a community project. With the help of Lee, a Kitsap County Sewer District
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No. 7 commissioner who lives in the area, they formed the advisory committee and began plans for the restoration. First came Phase One, which was creating the plans and researching the history of the building. As the kids will tell you when you tour the place, it was built in 1910 by the U.S. Coast Artillery Corps as part of Fort Ward, a military fort that existed to protect Admiralty Inlet and the Puget Sound from attack. The bakery building was where the cook made bread to feed the soldiers who stood guard. By World War II, there wasn’t a need for the bakery, since rations came pre-packaged to the fort, and it was
converted to a power station to supply electricity to the fort. During World War II, the fort was where Navy ship radio operators came to learn Morse Code. At least that’s what the public thought. Later, it became known that they were actually intercepting Japanese messages, including one that was sent early on the day of Pearl Harbor. After World War II, the fort was rarely used by the military and eventually the bakery building was surplused by the federal government around 1960. It became a private residence until 2007, when the sewer district bought the old brick TURN TO BLAKELY | A10