If Bremerton annexed the South Kitsap Industrial Area, having a racetrack would generate about a half million dollars a year, while not having one could cut the take about ten times, according to Laura Lyon, the city’s financial services director.

Lyon made her remarks at a meeting Wednesday in front of the city council. What the city didn’t do is measure the difference between a full build-out of SKIA against the track, which the county did.

The big event, the one we know about now, will be Bremerton’s discussion of the possible annexation of the speedway and SKIA sites into city boundaries.

Wednesday night’s issue began purely as a speedway issue, but has blossomed (or “mushroomed” if you prefer) into a broader question about who gets the South Kitsap Industrial Area should it ever build out.

This being a workshop, I don’t believe there is time set aside for public input. The council will be making no decisions. Should David Overton ever apply for annexation for real, then there would be a decision to make and a public to hear. There could be public to hear anyway, it just probably won’t be at this meeting.

The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. in the first-floor meeting chambers at the Norm Dicks Government Center

While students getting in trouble dominated the news this past week, there was good news to be had at Bremerton High School.

The Bremerton Schools Foundation Board announced it would award $9,350 in scholarships to this year’s seniors and that will award $6,000 in grants to educators in the 2007-08 school year.

According to an e-mail I received from a member, the foundation is made up of BHS alumni and community members “that came together with the goal of raising money for scholarships for students of Bremerton, and (to) help the Bremerton School District achieve their goal of improving student learning.”

To get the awards, students and parents need pick up applications from the BHS counselors’ office after February 12.

The foundation provided the following list of scholarships:

Academic Scholarships –- for students pursuing post secondary education in an institute of higher learning:

· Kegel Academic Scholarship – $1,000

· Ryan/BSFndn Scholarship – $1,350 – to be awarded to a student that is good in mathematics and would like to continue in this field.

· Shinn Academic Scholarship A – $1,000 – to student with demonstrated need.

· Shinn Academic Scholarship B – $1,000 – to student with demonstrated need.

· Alumni Scholarship A – $1,000

· BSFndn Academic Scholarship – $1,000.

Vocational Scholarships – for students pursuing training in the vocational arena:

· Kegel Vocational Scholarship – $1,000

· Shinn Vocational Scholarship – $1,000 – to student with demonstrated need.

· BSFndn Vocational Scholarships – $1,000.

In one you school you had the governor’s husband reading to kids:

On Monday the first gentleman, or “First Mike” as he prefers, stopped by Kitsap Lake Elementary School to read author Jon Scieszka’s wolf-perspective book, “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs,” to 35 third-graders gathered in teacher Diane Hansen’s classroom.

In another school you had employees cleaning up after someone fired shots into the school in wee hours, around 2:30 in the morning:

The drive-by vandalism comes on the heels of the arrest of five students at the high school last Tuesday, the culmination of a two-month investigation that resulted in 30 felony drug and firearms charges against 17 juveniles and adults.

Police aren’t saying the investigation and vandalism are related, “but it is something we’ll be investigating,” Detective Sgt. Kevin Crane said.

Bernard Jacobson, a former music critic for the London Times and Chicago Daily News, and his wife moved to Bremerton and have this to say:

Before my wife and I relocated from Philadelphia, we hadn’t realized that we would be not merely changing our geographical location but transforming our lives.

It seems he likes it here and will be writing for the Kitsap Sun.

I received this e-mail today. I’m leaving off the name because I don’t think the writer meant to go public with it. Disregard the grammar and the all caps (the Internet
equivalent of shouting) for a moment, I believe the concerns are legitimate.

IM CONCERN ABOUT THE INFORMATION YOU ARE SAYING ABOUT THE SCHOOL,I AM A STUDENT AT BREMERTON HIGH SCHOOL LET ME TELL YOU THIS OUR SCHOOL IS NOT JUST THE ONLY ONE THAT SELL DRUGS OR WEAPONS, I KNOW PEOPLE WHO ARE IN A DIFFERENT SCHOOL DISTRICT WHO IS ALWAYS SELLING AT AT THE SCHOOL OR OFF SCHOOL PROPERTY.WE HAD SEVERAL TEACHER ALMOST IN TEARS WHEN THEY FOUND OUT THAT SEVERAL OF THEIR STUDENTS WERE ARRESTED. I JUST WANT TO LET YOU AND THE PEOPLE OF THE COMMUNITYKNOW THAT BREMERTON HIGH IS A VERY GOOD SCHOOL AND THE STAFF ARE ALWAYS CONCERN ABOUT THE SAFTEY OF THEIR STUDENTS.JUST REMEMBER THAT EVERYONE MAKES A MISTAKES, THIS WAS OURS……..

I don’t think anything that’s been written has been improper at all. The facts are what they are. There was a pretty big drug bust at Bremerton High School. People have had a chance to react and some of the feedback has been unpleasant. Perhaps it should be.

However, a single incident like this tends to tarnish, often unfairly, a school’s reputation. There is good news to be had at Bremerton High School, and we’ve reported it. The fact that there was a single drug bust is not necessarily a reflection on the caring or quality of the staff or parents or peers there.

This isn’t a defense of the school or the kids or their parents either. Obviously, someone wasn’t looking in the right place.

The point is, there’s obviously more to the story, and we plan to address it. The writer’s comment that BHS is not the only school where drugs and weapons are sold (By the way, the weapons weren’t sold at BHS or during school hours.) is lamentably true. We plan to illustrate how true in the future.

Also, there was a bomb threat at Bremerton Junior High Friday. A student was arrested.

Sun Sports Editor Chuck Stark wrote what I think is a fascinating story about a guy, a boxer, who clearly measures victory differently than a lot of us might. Chuck writes:

I admire Stodden’s passion for the sport and the fire in his belly that’s always burning, but there’s a part of me that wishes he would walk away.

It’s worth a read. Even if you don’t like boxing, and I can certainly understand why, it’s a good story about a man who happens to box.

UPDATE: Stodden scored an upset. Man, I gotta get back in the pool.

The school district plans to meet with residents, kids are sad at Bremerton High School and parents are worried about security at the school.

Meanwhile some kids at the mall were pretty candid about the affair. See the story and the letter from the district and the Bremerton Police Department press release.

The kids’ conversations make me wonder where the truth lies. On one hand you have some who say the school is well known for drugs and some peers from other schools who confirm it. Then you have kids from the school who were surprised by who got arrested and say the problem is probably not as bad as advertised. Still, it’s hard to argue with eight arrests.

Kids talk in hyperbole often. “Everyone” does it, “half” the kids are this, etc.

One kid told police getting drugs at Bremerton High School was like going to a drugstore. Police found out the student wasn’t kidding, hence Tuesday’s “Operation Pharmacy,” a big drug and weapon bust on campus. Police found guns, cocaine, Ecstasy and marijuana.

Bremerton residents get their official chances to hear the passenger-only ferry plan today. The two meetings will be at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Kitsap Transit Harborside building on the second floor.

As has been mentioned here, the meetings have drawn light attendance elsewhere. You can have differing views on why.

The low turnout is a reflection of difference between this election and the one in 2003. In that one, I attended meetings that drew large numbers. On Bainbridge they had a bona fide debate. Perhaps it’s the result of this election happening in February, what many label a “stealth” election.

It’s hard to get a read on what will happen this time around. I’ve heard voters on both sides who say they’re voting differently than they did on the last one.

Some people like to argue the “Why is thing being brought up again when so many people opposed it last time?” line. Personally, I think there are plenty of reasons, the main one being that people change their minds. I saw it twice on Bainbridge levies.

I also lived in Utah for several years and in the early 1990s voters turned down a tax increase to fund light rail. The transit authority later found (Seriously, found?) money from other sources and got some federal funds to build a 17-mile rail line. People were angry that the agency was building something they said voters had rejected. Track supporters argued that what people rejected was the tax increase, so the transit agency went ahead. The trains are now highly popular and people have voted for tax increases to get commuter lines to far flung places.

Kitsap Transit has a big margin to make up. The last one had 62 percent of voters against it. If the agency were to win, it would be a pretty big reversal.