Opinion Stories - Kitsap County

Let’s do right by Puget Sound

When I was young, a lot of years ago, we would come to Bainbridge for a week’s vacation. The beach was an infinite playground, especially for a city youngster like me. From morning to night we dug clams, fished, hunted for treasures, rode and swam our horses, found new birds for our house list, caught crabs, built driftwood and seaweed palaces, cooked over beach fires, poked at anemones under rafts, collected shells, beach glass and rocks with circles around them. It was a paradise. I vowed I would come back and live here. In 1973 I did.

Time to simplify, Bainbridge City Council

An open letter to members of the Bainbridge Island City Council: You have a difficult job ahead of you. As you do it, you should expect a lot of citizen disappointment and, naturally, the resulting flood of criticism from your constituents whose pet city projects no longer make sense.

IN OUR OPINION Recycling is here to stay

It’s difficult these days to find anyone who is against recycling. There are plenty of people who don’t practice it, perhaps, preferring to feed garbage receptacles with any container or waste of which they no longer have a use. But even the unconscious among us probably wouldn’t admit to actually being against making our environment healthier through recycling.

Mother Sea desperately needs your help these days

I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea – except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.

So who gets to keep the house?

Just in case the city’s budget and the community eventually support affordable housing on the island, the Bainbridge Island Planning Commission continues to plug away on the creation of an inclusionary housing ordinance. It appears that sometime this summer a draft will be pulled together and presented to island developers for their input.

Letters

Wicca

What's that humming? The Earth, scientists say | Tom Tyner

This just in: scientists say the earth is humming. Not humming the chorus to “Bye Bye Miss American Pie” exactly, nor belting out Broadway show tunes, but rather emitting random clutches of notes and tiny clusters of chords woven into a mysterious, ethereal, rhythmic thrum of primordial noise so low and deep that it is imperceptible to human ears, so low that it can only be picked up by sophisticated geothermal listening devices, African elephants wallowing in the fetid lowlands of the Kenyan rain forest, and ancient blue whales diving for albino plankton in the silent inky depths of the Mariana Trench.

It's about time someone closed Bainbridge driving shortcut

The on-again, off-again passage through the business park segment of the Island Village mall has taken another divergence. Charlie Frame, owner of CFA properties, has decided to close the northern end of his rear parking lot, which for the last two and a half years has again become a quasi-public road that allows north-south traffic to slalom through the commercial development. Assuming the business owner receives approval from the fire department, he’ll place a semi-permanent barrier on his private property that would be removed only when there’s need for emergency ingress or egress.

Bainbridge’s loss of Ron Konzak runs deep | Sally Robison

The first time I met Ron Konzak was 20 years ago. The Chamber of Commerce sponsored a naval tour of the island. A tour boat providing dinner and a dance floor sailed through our bays. (It could have stayed at the dock the entire time because drinking, eating, dancing and having a fine time were the main attraction.)

Ride ferries when they want you to

Washington State Ferries representatives will be in town Monday to discuss operational and pricing strategies, which consist primarily of taking a new approach to an old problem that can be expected for most commuter runs – congestion in peak periods and underutilized vessels and facilities in off-peak times. They want to accomplish this by tweaking the pricing system and installing a systemwide reservation system.

Rep. Appleton: '09 legislative session outlook

A couple of months ago, I wrote in this space about the highlights (and a lowlight or two) of the 2008 legislative session.  More recently, I put together a brief column designed to shine a bit of light on the legislative process, and to help interested citizens effectively and positively influence it. 

Surprise! Rep. McDermott votes yes on defense bill | Adele Ferguson

Sure enough, there in the How Your U.S. Lawmaker Voted report put out by Roll Call to the media was a listing of the vote in the third week of May on the 2009 military budget. I had quickly scanned the first part. “By a vote of 384-23, the House on Thursday authorized a $601 billion military budget for fiscal 2009, including $70 billion to fund war in Iraq and Afghanistan for part of the year.”

Plenty of ways to celebrate the Fourth in Kitsap

Whether it’s carnival games and pie-eating contests or parades and professional displays of fireworks, there’s plenty of ways to celebrate the Fourth of July in Kitsap County, you just need to know where to go.

Leadfoots can save gas money by easing up on pedal

With gasoline now over $4 a gallon, ethanol losing its appeal as a substitute fuel which would cost more to produce than gas and the ANWR still locked up for the caribou, how about doing what we did when we were crying the blues over gasoline in the 1970s?

Plans for Bremerton will hopefully improve downtown

Bremerton Mayor Cary Bozeman recently provided the members of the Downtown Bremerton Association (DBA) with encouraging words of continued city revitalization. With rents skyrocketing and small businesses closing up shop left and right, it’s hard for business owners to believe a change will come their way. The revitalization of Bremerton has transformed the city and there have been many positive changes, but will it bring the people? We hope so.

Dissecting the job of a press secretary | Adele Ferguson

What does a press secretary do? “Well,” Jody Powell once told me, “if you remember the circus parades that came through town in your youth, the scruffy guy at the tail end, with the half-pint in his back pocket and a bucket and a shovel for picking up after the elephants and horses, that guy was a press secretary.”

Country can save gas by dropping speed limits | Adele Ferguson

Plenty of Silverdale activities to help locals save on gas

Like the rest of you, “sticker shock” at the pump has become a regular reality for me. As I turn over more of my paycheck, I joke with the attendant about whether it will cost me the farm or my firstborn male child, though I’m really not willing to give up either. That being said I’m changing the way I do things and putting considerably more planning into any excursions I do around town. That includes any recreation trips I was considering over the next couple of months. Those thoughts lead to ways to stay closer to home, which lead to thoughts of shopping local, which always brings up the quandary I feel around supporting small businesses and supporting those larger companies that have chosen our community in which to place their business and provide local jobs.

Plenty of ways to celebrate the Fourth in Kitsap

Keep the ‘bombing’ out of this Fourth of July

TORRENS TALK

It was Lilly’s bark that saved the day

FAITHFUL LIVING

Our own state champion Holm Oak has many uses

TREEMENDOUS TREES

There is sunshine on the other side of the storm | Joan Bay Klope

Have you ever considered a list of topics and free associated about them? Such an activity involves suggesting a word and making note of the first thought that pops into your mind. Most likely it’s your natural inclination or most honest response. Given these parameters, let’s play for a brief moment, beginning with your immediate thoughts surrounding the phrase “God the Father.”

Surprise! Rep. McDermott votes yes on defense bill | Adele Ferguson

Complaining never provides a solution with WSF

Washington State Ferries (WSF) is conducting another set of meetings to get ideas and information from users on how the system should operate. There is no better time to provide input to a government entity than when they ask for public comment. That said, the public needs to do its part.

Pickup truck catches fire near Shari’s in Silverdale

Numerous people called 911 at 1 a.m. Thursday to report a pickup truck with flames shooting 10 feet into the trees outside Shari’s Restaurant in Silverdale.

Kitsap County not immune to woeful economy | Comm. Steve Bauer

The U.S. economy seems to be struggling and all of us in Kitsap County aren’t immune to the economic downturn. Unbelievable fuel prices are affecting all of us. Who would have thought we would be paying almost $5 a gallon for gas?

American Dream shouldn't just apply to super rich | Marilyn Olds

I was born back in 1950, when America was still recuperating from World War II. Mom was a widow with two young daughters. At around the age of five, I begged her to buy something long since forgotten. Her final exasperated response was, “Marylin, we’re poor. We can’t afford it.” Her words shook me. At five, I didn’t know exactly what “poor” entailed, but my imagination didn’t disappoint me.

Girls’ camp

I was just sitting down to write a column exploring my feelings on pork, the other white meat, when I read “Hunting Snipe,” Wendy Tweten’s June column on summer camp. And, just like there can never be too many camp songs or too many s’mores, I thought I’d add my two cents.

FOGHORN: A PLACE TO SOUND OFF

July is the month we say goodbye to our Brazilian son, Gustavo. Gustavo has been living with us since last August, and from day one he fit right into our family.

AGINGMATTERS

Experience recently taught us more about Medicare coverage after hospitalization. For review: At www.medicare.gov, you find that “Medicare is a health insurance program for people age 65 or older, some disabled people under age 65, and people of all ages with End-Stage Renal Disease …” It’s a federal program administered by the states. If you qualify for Medicare, Part A covers hospitalization, Part B covers medical insurance such as doctors’ visits, and Part D is prescription drug coverage. Part A is our focus this month.

Medals are earned, not awarded (and other truths) | Adele Ferguson

“In your article about the person in Port Angeles who had received medals and benefits not awarded, it seemed the fellow did receive a proper sentence,” writes Dennis Wojciak of Marysville. The “person in Port Angeles” is one of the eight men in the Northwest who were caught by the Veterans Administration in a nationwide roundup of men who faked their military service and were charged with unlawful wearing of military medals and wrongful collection of military benefits.

Does warm weather make people dumber? | Editorial

There’s something about the summer sun that taps into the moron in all of us. Once the temperature hits about 75-ish, summer officially begins, turning our brains into mush. And it’s universal. Everywhere you look, people are precariously putting their skin — and sometimes their lives —  in danger without a second thought.

Be a good citizen — obey fireworks laws | Val Torrens

The season of terror is now underway. It is fireworks time. Because of liberal laws regarding private use and the abundance of stands, both tribal and non-tribal fireworks can be heard exploding virtually everywhere in the county. If people would use them appropriately and safely, they would be tolerable. But, there are too many who do not. These folks are the problem that causes headaches and heartaches for the rest of us.

North Kitsap schools aren't underfunded

All across the state, public school districts are announcing that they’ll have to make major program cuts next year. Nancy Moffat, executive director of finance and operations for North Kitsap Schools, recently told reporters that the state’s funding formula “is way out of date and it is way inadequate.” Is it? North Kitsap Public Schools spent $15,766 per pupil in the just-completed school year.

We’re all in this together

There are plenty of things most of us would rather do than idle in roadway congestion while nearby behemoth backhoes fill our cars with the heavy scent of exhaust.

WSF: Come out and join our live chat group

TORRENS TALK

Surprise! Rep. McDermott votes yes on defense bill | Adele Ferguson

I was stunned. I read it again. Sure enough, there in the How Your U.S. Lawmaker Voted report put out by Roll Call to the media was a listing of the vote in the third week of May on the 2009 military budget. I had quickly scanned the first part. “By a vote of 384-23, the House on Thursday authorized a $601 billion military budget for fiscal 2009, including $70 billion to fund war in Iraq and Afghanistan for part of the year.” It was the next part that had me reaching for the telephone. Voting yes: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Hastings, McMorris, Rodgers, Dicks, McDermott, Reichert, Smith.

Here's proof: Public transportation slower, dirtier, less cost effective

There is global warming. Plus a world-wide energy crisis. There is an antidote, conservation. So in a well-intended but ultimately hopeless and pathetic effort to do something about it, I chose to take public transit yesterday from Vancouver, B.C. to Indianola, rather than drive I-5. Here’s a log, like a captain’s log, of my experience.

Legislature will have its work cut out for it in 2009

Sound Off is a public forum. Articles are selected from letters to the editor or may be written specifically for this feature. Today, 23rd District Washington State Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo) anticipates what could be the major issues the state will be grappling with during next year’s legislative session.

Gas prices quell hope of economic growth in South Kitsap

For years now, “growth management” has seemed to involve efforts to control land use to restrict real estate development in some areas and hope for economic development in others. What happens when there is little growth to be managed by government? Many people had supposed that completion of the Tacoma Narrows bridge project would spur population and economic growth in South Kitsap. Rush-hour traffic congestion on the old bridge was an obvious impediment to growth.

D’oh! We all need to understand our rights

Quick — can you list the five rights named in the First Amendment?

For better or worse, the readers respond

“In your article about the person in Port Angeles who had received medals and benefits not awarded, it seemed the fellow did receive a proper sentence,” writes Dennis Wojciak of Marysville.

Did judge give Bainbridge vandals preferential treatment?

In the case of the recent vandalism of Bainbridge Island’s police cars, the crime itself may have been confined to Bainbridge but the troubling response to it resonates throughout Kitsap County, prompting discussions from the specific (when a prank is no longer a prank) to the general (how a permissive, affluent society can ruin our children).

Supreme Court ends union effort to silence employers

On June 19, the U.S. Supreme Court (by a 7-2 decision) struck down a California law imposing so-called “union neutrality” requirements on employers in the state. The law limited what employers could say about union organizing campaigns in the workplace. The high court’s ruling should be the final stake in the heart of a similar union-backed proposal here in Washington.

Top-two primary actually limits people’s choices

I have to take issue with state Rep. Judy Warnick’s June 21 Guest Opinion (“Top-two primary best reflects people’s choice”) lauding the so-called “top-two” election process Washington state will adopt starting with the primary in August.

Can’t drive 55? Maybe we all should

With gasoline now over $4 a gallon, ethanol losing its appeal as a substitute fuel which would cost more to produce than gas, and the ANWR still locked up for the caribou, how about doing what we did when we were crying the blues over gasoline in the 1970s?

Cribbage clubbers addicted to fun, competition

They gather together in the Olalla community center, some coming from as far away as Wenatchee and Tacoma.

WEA Supreme Court decision: 1 year later

June 14, 2007. Our day started early that Thursday morning. We were expecting a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in our case against the Washington Education Association (WEA), and we knew the decision would come down this week or the next. As I waited tensely at my desk, the alert flashed on the computer screen. I grabbed the phone and buzzed (Evergreen Freedom Foundation Executive Director) Bob Williams. “Bob, we won. Unanimous.” “Good,” he said, and hung up. The rest of the day was a blur. We spent the first hour scouring the Supreme Court’s opinion. We sent out hundreds of e-mails, several press releases, and did radio interviews all day long. We rushed to Seattle for a press conference and talked to numerous national newspapers. The question on everyone’s mind: “What does it mean?”