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After two decades, Bainbridge in Bloom reigns as one of the Northwest's premier garden tours, boasting high-profile speakers, internationally celebrated landscapes and bus loads of green-thumbed gawkers.

"It's the grand lady of garden tours," said gardening guru Ciscoe Morris, who will lead one of the tour's workshops this weekend.

But the two-day event's origins came out of the not-so-grand financial troubles of an island nonprofit group.

"We were just sitting around a living room trying to come up with ideas for a source of income to keep our organization going," said Janice Shaw, one of the early board members of the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council.

Several ideas were bandied about, but board member Joanna Newnham's spur-of-the-moment notion for a garden tour stilled the brainstorming session.

"It was an 'a-ha' moment," Shaw said. "We said 'that's it' and everything just started clicking. We cranked the tour out in a short amount of time."

Hoping for at least $5,000, members were stunned when the 1988 tour of six island gardens generated $11,000.

"It was extremely successful and exceeded expectations," Shaw said. "We knew we had a winner."

Citing water quality concerns, the city's made it a little tougher for the park district to install artificial turf at Battle Point.

Read on...

Read Josh Farley's story below...

Read on for my story on why the city is struggling to hold on to its senior managers....

Islander John Waldo has joined a group in a lawsuit to force Washington State Ferries to pump up the volume of onboard announcements. Read Josh Farley's story below.

This week, police busted a tipsy boater, a sloshed street dancer and a tanked teen driver who managed to crash a car with its engine off.

A hip new diet craze may explain the shoplift this week of almost $100 worth of steak and vitamins.

Get the full blotter below...

The Sun's Josh Farley reports that four Bainbridge teens were charged by Kitsap County prosecutors for their suspected roles in using homemade bombs to destroy portable toilets around the island in June.

The Bloedel Reserve has been named the 2008 recipient of the Award for Garden Excellence from the American Public Garden Association.

The north island reserve -- which consists of 150 acres of gardens, woods and ponds -- was honored for its design, displays and environmentally friendly practices, according to a statement. It was also chosen for its commitment to plant collections.

"It is a place, unlike most public gardens, that minimizes its messages to its visitors," said Richard A. Brown, the reserve's director. "Rather, it provides a high-quality environment within which visitors are given ample opportunity to receive messages from nature."

The former estate of a Northwest timber baron has been open to the public for 20 years.

Other gardens honored by the APGA include the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Missouri Botanical Garden and the North Carolina Botanical Garden.

The reserve is open for public tours by reservation. Visit www.bloedelreserve.org for more information.

Bainbridge Island earned the county's first red tide closure of the year.

The eastern side of Bainbridge Island has been closed to the harvest of all clams, mussels and oysters following the discovery of high levels of a dangerous toxin.

It is the first full "red tide" closure in Kitsap County this year, although the entire eastern side of the county remains closed to the harvest of butter clams, according to Jim Zimny of the Kitsap County Health District.

Paralytic shellfish poison is a toxin produced by a species of plankton. The toxin tends to concentrate in the tissues of shellfish. Mussels collected in Eagle Harbor on Monday showed concentrations of 152 micrograms per 100 grams of shellfish tissue, Zimny said. Beaches are closed when the toxin level exceeds 80 micrograms.

When consumed at high levels, the toxin can affect the nerves and breathing and may be life-threatening. Symptoms usually begin with tingling lips and tongue, moving to the hands and feet. Anyone with symptoms should seek medical help.

The toxin cannot be seen and must be detected with laboratory tests.

The new closure area is from Point Monroe to South Beach Road, including all the bays and harbors in the area. The closure does not apply to crabs, but crabs should be cleaned before cooking and the "crab butter" discarded.

For information, call the health district at (800) 2BE-WELL or go to www.kitsapcountyhealth.com

Bainbridge native Emily Silver earned herself a spot on the U.S. Olympic squad Friday.

Read Annette Griffus' story below.

Ferry commuter Chris Hanacek has found a new fast food stop on his way home from work.

"It's awesome," the island resident said, holding sacks of fresh snap peas and broccoli. "This stuff was picked today and I'm going to take it home and eat it in 10 minutes. And the whole thing took 20 seconds."

Faster than a supermarket stop and healthier than the offerings on a drive thru menu, the new Wednesday evening ferry farm stand at the Winslow ferry terminal furnished hundreds of commuters with the makings of a locally grown dinner.

"We want to get more people introduced to the idea of what's growing right here, right now," said Sallie Maron, who wore a yellow apron and hawked vegetables along with a half dozen other volunteers from Sound Food, a Bainbridge group promoting local farms. "The more we connect people to the local economy and farms, the more we connect them to the Bainbridge story, which is about people who care about the land and living sustainability."

The stand features a different farm each week, with every dollar going directly to the growers. On Wednesday, vegetables from Poulsbo's Farmhouse Organics were on display, along with purple garlic and strawberries from island growers.

"This works great for us," said Farmhouse's owner Anne Webber as she watched the action at the stand. "This is such a good community, and to have people volunteering to do this...the concept is amazing. Honestly, only on Bainbridge."

Carol Badzik's resignation is the latest in a series of recent senior management departures from the city.

While Badzik declined to say why she is leaving, her boss, Finance Director Elray Konkel, hinted that Badzik has been frustrated with the long, drawn-out processes that have become a distinguishing feature of Bainbridge city government.

"When you put in 60 or 70 hours a week, you want to see it produce something," Konkel said. "The good people...the really hard working people are finding it difficult to stay."

A stop work order was posted by the city at a controversial sand extraction project on the island's south end.

The developer in charge of the project will likely have to refill the holes, clear the piles and replant the 4-acre area.

Read my story below.

City Halts Extraction of Sand From Bainbridge Pit
By Tristan Baurick

Spurred by residents complaints, the city halted work at a sand pit that had grown beyond its permissible boundaries.

Permitted for a 2.9-acre excavation project by the island-based Nelson Wood and Glass company, the triangle-shaped dig site at the intersection of Fletcher Bay and Lynwood Center roads actually encompasses about 4 acres, according to the city. A stop work order was issued Friday afternoon, following site visits by city and state officials.

"The site will have to be restored," said City Administrator Mark Dombroski. "They can't leave the holes or the piles."

Read on for two weeks worth of Bainbridge police tales...