Home Care In Bainbridge, IN

Steller defense from senior goalkeeper Michael Bannister combined with a steady offensive attack in the final three periods of the championship match against Newport sealed the biggest win of the season for Bainbridge Island Nov. 11, completing the Spartans’ return to the top as the 2023 water polo state champions.

It was the perfect ending to a perfect season for the club, who had found themselves on the losing end of the title match just last year. Head coach Kristen Gellert continued to credit the loss as the moment her team found the motivation to return to its winning ways once again.

“These boys put in so much, not just the last 12 weeks but over the last year,” she said. “Coming into this game last year and giving up the lead we had, it really lit a fire under us to come out and do what we just did.”

The Spartans came to the state bracket ready to play and win, flying by Sammamish 15-4 and doing the same against Mercer Island 13-3. The victories set up a championship date with Newport at Curtis High School, but early on, the final match had every appearance of turning into a shootout.

Bainbridge found itself clinging onto a narrow 5-3 lead after the first period. Senior Micah Webber kept Newport at bay with three goals of his own to lead his team, but it was clear the defense needed to be cleaned up.

Gellert admitted there was still some nervousness about the game turning into another 2022 incident, a blown lead to seat her team’s fate, but she knew her players could continue returning to form as they had all year long. “I think we just settled in, and we were able to rely on condition. Our team has focused on fundamentals every single day, so we knew that when we got tired, our go-to was going to be the right thing.”

Senior Rylan Hopp took over on the scoring front for Bainbridge in the second period, tallying three goals of his own while Bannister kept all shots out of the net. Just like that, the Spartans had a more comfortable 9-3 lead at the break.

It was the efforts of her three seniors that Gellert said brought them to where they were that night, men that she commended for their leadership and willingness to play the game. “They are incredible athletes, incredible teammates and leaders. I’m just so proud that I got to be a part of what we just did and how they led us there,” she said.

Any attempts to rally from Newport were quickly snuffed out by the Spartans, and in no time, Gellert found herself cannonballing into the pool to join her team in celebration of the 12-6 win. “It’s not something I really practiced,” she laughed. “It was just in the moment.”

Webber finished the match the team leader in goals with five, followed by Hopp at three and junior RJ Rossart with two.

OLYMPIA -- Bob Ortblad has a pet idea he’d like to see buried deep, hundreds of feet below the surface of Puget Sound.

To dive into it: Ortblad, a retired civil engineer and Capitol Hill resident, sees a future in which instead of crossing on a ferry atop Puget Sound, commuters would cross underneath it, driving through a tunnel that would stretch from Seattle’s Smith Cove over to Highway 305 on Bainbridge Island.

To stretch the idea even further, a parkway could cross the island and connect to a long-discussed bridge across to the Bremerton area.

The concept would connect the Kitsap Peninsula to lucrative jobs in Seattle within a few minutes, and in turn hook Seattle to a source of (more) affordable housing. It would allow Washington State Ferries to reassign or retire six vessels on the Kingston, Bainbridge and Bremerton runs to save millions of dollars in maintenance and capital costs.

It’d cut down on pollution belched out by the vessels’ diesel engines and also eliminate the “deafening wall of sound” the ferries create for orca whales swimming through the Sound, he said.

“A tunnel emits no sound, no air pollution, frees acres of waterfront property for development and parks,” he said Tuesday, presenting his concept to the state’s Transportation Commission, a citizen board that proposes transportation policy and finance recommendations to the governor’s office and the Legislature.

Ortblad’s Tuesday presentation was purely informational and is at this point just a pie-in-the-sky concept in search of support.

“We should always be open to listening to new ideas,” said Reema Griffith, executive director of the commission. “Is it out of the box? Yeah. Is it different? For sure. We don’t ever innovate and advance if we don’t open ourselves up for new ideas.”

The concept would come with a hefty price tag, by Ortblad’s estimate: $400 million for six miles of two, two-lane tubes crossing Puget Sound. He’d double the cost to $800 million to be safe, he said, adding that the state could finance the project, or tolls could pay for the crossing or some sort of public-private partnership could make it work.

In Ortblad’s mind: Other countries use tunnels that dip under bodies of water, why not do the same here? Examples include the Hvalfjo?rður Tunnel in Iceland, which cuts under an inlet in a 3-mile crossing; the 33-mile Seikan Tunnel in Japan, which sends rail traffic deep under the Tsugaru Strait, connecting Hokkaido to Honshu; and the Severn Tunnel, a 4-mile rail tunnel that connects Wales with western England.

The economic life of a ferry is short, (WSF plans for its vessels to last about 60 years) whereas a tunnel could last for “centuries,” Ortblad said.

“Skeptics will laugh at a Puget Sound tunnel,” he said, “but 20 years from now electric buses and cars will be crossing under Puget Sound."

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — For Carmen Lopez, the cup of coffee she had last week at Lynwood Center had a bit of added satisfaction, beyond its taste and caffeine bump.

Lopez is a Nicaraguan coffee farmer whose beans are regularly sold in shops on Bainbridge and seeing the result of all the labor behind those beans, thousands of miles away from where that work took place, was a bit of an experience.

'This coffee from the other place, to have it in my hands here, is a huge marvel,' she said. 'It's a source of pride to understand that a lot of people are drinking my coffee.'

Lopez was one of 11 delegates from Ometepe Island, Nicaragua, who visited Bainbridge this month as part of the 30th anniversary celebration for the Bainbridge Ometepe Sister Islands Association, and one of three who spoke with the Kitsap Sun through a translator about their experiences with the association.

BOSIA purchases coffee beans from Ometepe farmers like Lopez and imports them for sale on the island. Since 1988, more than 500,000 pounds of Ometepe coffee have been sold on Bainbridge. It's just one example of the many projects and relationships that have formed since the association's earliest days.

'In addition to benefiting the farmers with the purchase of coffee, the profits from the sale of coffee return to Ometepe, where they have been used to help the poorest people and especially with schools, clinics and attention for people with special needs,' Lopez said.

To hear representatives from both islands talk about the bond, it's clear that the association produces more than the typical evidence of a sister city relationship: a sign at the city limits or two mayors shaking hands during a photo op.

Over the years, Bainbridge efforts have included raising funds to provide grants for Ometepe health centers, as well as scholarships for Ometepe students to attend college and building water systems, a school library, cafeteria and auditorium. The association also has organized delegation exchanges like the one this month between the two islands for mutual education and friendship building.

Members of the 30th anniversary delegation traveled to Bainbridge schools, the Helpline House and other sites around the island.

Noe? Gonzalez, an Ometepe high school math teacher, said he would take back his experiences to his students.

'With what I've learned day by day, I will share it with them and in that way create a consciousness in every one of them of the necessity to continue to make stronger the connection between the two islands, to create new values,' he said.

Gonzalez sits on one of the committees that help to mediate the association's scholarships at the nine Ometepe high schools. Scholarship recipients are awarded the funds needed to complete a college degree.

'The scholarship project has also raised the general (economic) level (on Ometepe) because students who graduate and get jobs are able to support their families,' Gonzalez said.

Of all the connections between the two islands, perhaps the closest bonds have formed through marriage. According to Dora Gutierrez, the manager of the BOSIA office on Ometepe, the association can be linked to three Bainbridge-Ometepe weddings.

'It's pretty wild,' said Siri Kushner, a Bainbridge resident who met her husband, Hector Guillen, while working in the BOSIA office on Ometepe. The two were married in 2003 and have two children.

Diane Jennings, another Bainbridge resident, met her husband, Manrrique Castillo, in Nicaragua through connections she made while working with a medical delegation to Ometepe. The two were married in 2006 and have three children.

The birth of the organization stretches back to the 1980s, when the Nicaraguan government faced opposition from various rebel groups, some of which were United States-backed. According to Kim Esterberg, one of BOSIA's founding members, those in the peace community on Bainbridge opposed U.S. involvement in the conflict, which set the stage for Esterberg's first trip to Ometepe.

The trip would be an effort to reach out to Nicaraguans apolitically, 'people to people,' Esterberg said.

'The idea would be that we would simply connect with people that are on this other island and that we might do this not just as a 'protest of the month' kind of thing, but we would try to make something that would last, where this connection might grow over the years and actually might manifest itself in different ways,' he said.

Esterberg brought back his impressions and within two years, an informal association between the two islands had formed.

Three decades later, the association is thriving, long after the initial conflict that sparked its creation. How has it lasted this long? Its members have a focused mission, according to Gutierrez.

'The most important mission is the friendship between the two islands,' she said. 'The connection with the families is deep and strong. The friendship is the first thing. The projects that we do come out of that friendship instead of the other way around.'

In the words of Esterberg: 'islanders are islanders.'

'I was betting on that premise when I went there, that we don't have the same language, we don't have the same culture, they live 3,000 miles away, but we do share one thing: We're islanders,' he said. 'And lo and behold, that is quite the powerful thing to share.'

As his workload piles up in and around Church Hill, Daniil Kleyman isn’t losing sight of the south side of the river.

The local developer known for his infill projects in Church Hill and Union Hill is taking that approach to two sites along Bainbridge Street in Manchester, where he’s moving forward with new construction projects that will add 20 apartments and a corner commercial space.

The bigger of the two is 1421 Bainbridge, where he’s planning a mixed-use building totaling 14,600 square feet with 15 apartments and a 1,000-square-foot commercial storefront.

The 0.34-acre site is at the northeast corner of Bainbridge and 15th streets, beside the Dogtown Dance Theatre building and on land Kleyman purchased from Mercer Street Partners, the owner of the next-door Manchester Grand senior apartments.

“They had extra land that the owner was looking to carve off and utilize in a better fashion than what it was currently being used for,” Kleyman said.

Kleyman purchased the parcel through his Evolve Hld LLC. Online city property records did not reflect the transaction, but Kleyman said the LLC paid $232,500 on July 28 last year. The city most recently assessed the parcel at $105,000.

The three-story building will total 11 one-bedroom apartments and four two-bedrooms, with floorplans ranging in size from 670 to 1,300 square feet. The apartments will be market-rate, though Kleyman said monthly rents have yet to be determined.

He said he envisions the corner commercial space housing a cafe, or potentially an office.

“My preference would be to put a business there that’s going to be an amenity to the neighborhood,” he said.

He’s estimating the project cost at $2 million, though he warned that figure could change.

“Especially given how quickly costs are changing right now, I will have a better idea when it gets closer to breaking ground,” he said, referring to rising costs of building materials.

Kleyman is aiming to break ground by the end of this year or in early 2022. Bryan Traylor’s Unlimited Renovations is lined up as the builder. Design work is by Mario DiMarco Architects, whose work in Manchester includes the 7west townhomes at the foot of the Manchester Bridge.

Tracy Winkelman with Kine Vue Consulting is handling civil engineering for 1421 Bainbridge, and Balzer & Associates is the structural engineer. ONeil Engineering Services is handling mechanical, electrical and plumbing.

Three blocks east along Bainbridge, Kleyman is starting site work on another development: a five-unit apartment building at 1122 Bainbridge St.

The three-story, 4,600-square-foot building will include three one-bedroom apartments and a pair of two-bedrooms. Kleyman said the units will likewise be market-rate, and he’s estimating the development cost at $650,000.

Kleyman’s Evolve Hld LLC purchased the 0.11-acre parcel for $82,000 in 2018, property records show. It was previously owned by Church Hill Ventures LLC, tied to Michael Hild and his wife Laura. The parcel most recently was assessed by the city at $61,000.

Kleyman is working with the same engineering team on that building, with Unlimited Renovations also on board as the builder. Johannas Design Group is the architect on the project.

The buildings add to an increasing project list for Kleyman, who’s also planning a $20 million development with 122 apartments on a vacant site downhill from Chimborazo Park.

Nearby in North Church Hill, Kleyman developed and has finished leasing out a mixed-use building at North 30th and Q streets. The building consists of 13 apartments and a 1,200-square-foot commercial storefront, which Kleyman has leased to Church Hill caterer Soul N’ Vinegar.

And in Union Hill, he’s behind the 21-unit apartment building that’s taking shape at 2416 Jefferson Ave., a triangular-shaped lot beside the 25th Street roundabout that he’s developing with Matt Jarreau.

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This Atlanta brewery produces an array of lagers that explore the flavors of Noble hops, while also pushing for focused expression in their Belgian-style beers.

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Halfway Crooks cofounders Joran Van Ginderachter and Shawn Bainbridge may love the wide world of craft beer, but with their Atlanta brewery the goal was to create a space and the kinds of beers that would encourage drinkers to find one they like and stick with that beer all night. If you arrive with the goal of maximizing check-ins to the widest number of beers, you’ll quickly find you’re in the wrong place.

The same design principles inform the space and the beer itself—equal parts recontextualized nostalgia, funky creativity, wry humor, and dry deadpan delivery. The bathrooms feature illustrations of chickens from the late 1800s, floral-patterned wallpaper, and a separate soundtrack (Blade Runner and Twin Peaks) from the main taproom. A video screen at the door plays low-fi digital animations. They embrace the digital present with a bit of warm vacuum-tube analog glow. And the same can be said of the beers—they’re fresh and current, but with tweaks of nostalgia and fuzz.

The brewery may be best known for their lagers, which center around separate hop varieties.

“You go to a taproom sometimes and see seven different IPAs,” Bainbridge says. “You come to this taproom and you see seven German pilsners.”

They source hops from some of the most sought-after farms in Germany and build beers around them, yet there’s also an American mentality—boosting aroma through later additions and whirlpooling, using modern enzymes to ensure fermentation proceeds on schedule. They use a brewhouse that’s not optimized for lagers, but they’ve figured out how to get the most from it—single-infusion mashes are producing beers are tight and structured.

In this episode, Bainbridge and Van Ginderachter talk extensively about their approach to lager brewing, as well as the creative and technical process behind their Belgian pale ale Sanguine—a Craft Beer & Brewing beer of the year in 2022—which they say is the one beer in their lineup they’re least happy with.

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