This Friday night, July 2, the Seattle Mariners will play their first home game with 100% capacity for the first time since the end of the 2019 season. The game is set to be a ‘Grand Reopening Night’ after the lifting of the Washington State COVID-19 restrictions. Many fans have been waiting for this day. Baseball is back. This Thursday, after the lifting of COVID restrictions, City Hall reopened to the public. City staff, like baseball fans, have been waiting anxiously to welcome the public back to City Hall. Although the pandemic is receding, we know it is not over. We will be safe as we continue to adjust and return to pre-COVID service levels. It is good to see the public back at City Hall again.

I want to acknowledge those City employees who have been working in the field during the course of the pandemic; specifically, Public Works Operations & Maintenance, our Emergency Management Coordinator, and Police. Water, Wastewater, storm drains and people in need did not take a break during the pandemic.

The social services community in Bainbridge Island is close-knit. As an island, Bainbridge needs to be more self-sufficient than the average city. Towards that end, the local social service organizations work with each other to help residents and increase the degree of self-sufficiency for Bainbridge Island. This week, I had the opportunity to sit down and discuss Bainbridge Island’s social services network with Reed Price of the Bainbridge Island Senior Community Center, Phedra Elliott of Housing Resources Bainbridge, Joanne Maher of Island Volunteer Caregivers, and Maria Metzler of Helpline House. I was impressed with the high degree of mutual support and the collegiality amongst the agencies. It is true that together we can accomplish more. 

More than 30 people escaped the excessive heat at the City's cooling center.

The cooling center, set up for three days at the Senior Community Center, was air conditioned and volunteers offered people cold water, Gatorade/Powerade, ice and popsicles. Emergency Management Coordinator Anne LeSage oversaw the operations with support from 18 volunteers.

Bethany Lutheran Church stayed open overnight Monday to offer a cool area for people to sleep. Five people stayed there overnight. The City provided cots for people to sleep on.

The City has a plan and multiple locations on island that can be set up for both daytime and overnight shelter (as needed) at the Senior Community Center, St. Barnabas, Seabold UMC and Island church. We also have volunteers specifically trained to assist with this type of sheltering.

The City activates its cooling center when there are four or more hours over 90 degrees.

Throughout the excessive heat event, the Public Works Department closely monitored water usage. In June, we experienced multiple days of high usage of water that we typically only experience in August. On Monday, when temperatures on Bainbridge Island peaked, the water system experienced demand about three times higher than average. Although there is sufficient ground water to meet high peak demands, the excessive heat (plus the high demand) places a strain on the infrastructure - specifically pumps - that will need to be addressed, as it is anticipated more extreme weather events will occur.

While the traditional July 4 parade and events are canceled this year, the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce is hosting the Grand Old 4th: Pandemic Edition. The event include will include a virtual fun run, classic car cruise and parade, and an islandwide picnic in the parks.

Learn more on the Chamber's Grand Old 4th of July page.

Customers should be prepared if their travels this holiday weekend include riding aboard a ferry. Some routes will be sailing on their holiday sailing schedules. Customers can note specific holiday sailings as they are marked on the timetables for each route.

However, all customers should be prepared for longer waits at the terminal no matter the route due to increased traffic for the Fourth of July holiday.

Passengers should consider giving themselves extra travel time to get to the terminal and through the tollbooth.

Please also remember that all illegal fireworks are not allowed on any ferry. This includes missile-type rockets, bottle rockets, M-80s, firecrackers, tennis ball bombs and any homemade or altered fireworks.

The safety of our customers and crew is WSF’s top priority. All traveling customers are required to wear face coverings inside terminals and vessels in compliance with the latest CDC guidelines. However, passengers can remove their masks while outdoors on the sun deck, car deck areas of the vessel, outside waiting areas at terminals and other outdoor locations. Please remember to mask up upon reentering interior areas of boats and terminals.

You can view all travel alerts at the WSF Travel Bulletins page.

As we approach the Fourth of July holiday, we want to remind everyone to have a safe and enjoyable weekend. BIPD officers will be out and available for the expected increase in activity and calls for service.

We also would like your help to keep everyone safe. With the continued warm and dry weather forecast through the holiday weekend, the risks of fire are greater than usual. The Kitsap County Fire Chiefs Association reminds us that in 2020, fireworks were the cause of 360 fires and 237 injuries in Washington State. A countywide Phase 1 Fire Danger Burn Ban was put in place on June 26, 2021, based on current conditions. Under the Phase I Fire Danger Burn Ban, all outdoor burning permits are suspended until further notice and all burning is prohibited except for recreational or cooking fires in approved devices and locations.

As a reminder, fireworks are prohibited on Bainbridge Island by City ordinance (Chapter 8.28). Violation of the municipal code is a civil infraction and is subject to a monetary penalty and a default amount of $500.00 plus statutory assessments. Continued violation is a misdemeanor offense.

An often-asked question is: “When should I call 911?” Kitsap 911 handles calls for all Fire and Police agencies throughout the county. During peak periods, their priority is threats to life or property. We ask that you call 911 only if you know the specific location where fireworks are being discharged. It is difficult for us to locate the source of fireworks from sound alone; and sometimes that sound may be coming from a location off island. These complaints may be reported online at www.kitsap911.org/fireworks.

We appreciate your cooperation this holiday weekend to keep everyone in our community safe.

Join Kitsap Transit and the City of Bainbridge Island staff and council members on Wednesday, July 7, for the launch of Ride Pingo, a new mobile app that allows anyone to book, track and pay for a shared ride on Kitsap Transit’s BI Ride, an on-demand bus service. With Ride Pingo, you simply push a button and get a bus!

Learn more about the tech-powered partnership between Kitsap Transit and The Routing Company, a mobility startup led by former MIT researchers and rideshare industry leaders.

The event will be held at 10 a.m. at the Town & Country Market north parking lot, located at 343 Winslow Way E. Kitsap Transit and The Routing Company staff will be available to show visitors how to download and use the app. John Clauson, Executive Director of Kitsap Transit, will begin the event with an acknowledgement of any council members or dignitaries present, then will share a few remarks about the app and partnership. Other speakers will include:

Get FREE stuff at the event and ride the BI Ride bus! Learn more about the event on Kitsap Transit's website.

Kitsap Transit invites Bainbridge Island residents and businesses to take a survey on their needs and transit usage. Take the survey and be entered to win a $150 grocery gift card. Start the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BIRide

Yes, we're open for (in-person) business at City Hall! The doors at City Hall opened to the public at 8 a.m. yesterday.

Some of the in-person hours include:

For the complete list of services, please visit the City's COVID-19 webpage at bainbridgewa.gov/COVID19.

All City Council and City Advisory Group meetings will continue to be held on Zoom, in accordance with state regulations. We will share additional information about when in-person meetings may resume as it becomes available.

The Public Works Department will host a virtual open house on Wednesday, July 7 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. to get feedback from residents on biking and walking facilities along the Madison Avenue corridor.

The City has two upcoming projects on the Madison Avenue corridor in the Capital Improvement Plan: widening sidewalks on the east side of Madison Avenue between Wyatt Way and High School Road, and replacing a sewer main between High School Road and New Brooklyn Road. The purpose of the community meeting will be to discuss combining and expanding those projects to include protected bicycle lanes on one or both sides of the road in those locations and south of Wyatt Way to Winslow Way.

The City Council heard a presentation from staff on the potential project expansion at the March 23, 2021 meeting. At that meeting, the Council authorized $25,000 for a study of the corridor, including the potential for protected bike lanes.

Input from residents attending the July 7 open house will be considered in the project planning and reported out to the Council along with next step recommendations in late summer.

Learn more and access the Zoom link on the project page.

We are seeking project ideas from the community that will improve conditions for people walking, biking or rolling in neighborhoods. These safety enhancements, known as “traffic calming” projects, may include physical designs or radar speed signs on existing roads to reduce vehicle speeds.

Submit your project proposal ideas through July 16 on our Engage Bainbridge page.

Projects will be evaluated, prioritized and presented to the Council for discussion in the fall.

Solutions to traffic calming problems will be developed in accordance with a "handbook" of traffic calming measures that the City is developing concurrently with the open call for projects.

City staff will present an update to the Council next week on the progress of housing goals identified in the Comprehensive Plan.

The Comprehensive Plan guides the City’s growth and establishes the long-range vision for the island. A Comprehensive Plan update, which included a 20-year planning horizon to 2036, was approved in February 2017. To ensure that the City makes progress toward housing goals, Housing Element Goal HO-2 requires biennial reports on the status of housing on Bainbridge Island. This report combines two biennial reports and includes data from 2017-2018 and 2019-2020.

The report also describes the progress toward achieving the targets set forth in Policies HO 1.1 through HO 1.7, which states that the City should “make steady progress toward the following aspirational targets for increasing the diversity of housing types and the supply of affordable housing.” This goal sets out a series of seven policies the City is to address pursuant to Goal HO-2:13.

The report also provides information on the variety of unit types on the island, the average median income and home sale prices. More information will be included in the Council agenda packet when it's published later today.

The July 6 City Council meeting will include the topics below:

The public is invited to contact members of the City Council to express concerns, questions and praise. Some council members are holding virtual office hours and others are available to meet upon request. Please visit the City Council page for more information on individual City Council members.

The Administrative Specialist III position is a key position in the Department of Planning and Community Development, working with two other administrative specialists to support work of the planning and building divisions.

Duties include, but are not limited to, providing internal and external customer service, assisting with the preparation and running of public meetings, and responding to requests for public records. The ideal candidate is a service-oriented team player eager to tackle challenging work, relying on their experience with databases, managing records and working with groups. Learn more and apply at www.bainbridgewa.gov/203.