The Bremerton Beat

A piece of Bremerton’s tragic past will be spotlighted this coming spring.

True-crime author Gregg Olsen has a new book about the 1997 murder of Dawn Hacheney. Her husband, Nicholas Hachney, a former Bainbridge Island pastor, was convicted in 2002 of killing her in and hiding the evidence by setting fire to an East Bremerton apartment. He was sentenced to just over 26 years in prison, though he could be released in 16-19 years. Details of his post-prison community custody terms still must be worked out in court again.

The case drew gasps and wide eyes of horror from community members when sordid details of the case came out in court. Nicholas Hacheney had reportedly had affairs with several parishoners, including one mistress’s daughter. One woman claimed she had a vision from God, who told her that Dawn Hachney was going to die and that she would become Nicholas Hachney’s new wife.

In other words, the details of the case proved perhaps inevitably that a true-crime writer would seize upon it. That seems apparent in the promotional video for the book “A Twisted Faith,” which is set for release March 2010 (see promo video below).

It may not one of the highlights of Bremerton’s collective memory (we’ll just blame Bainbridge), but then isn’t all PR good PR?

- Angela Dice

Dear Bremerton,

This is just a little note in case you’re feeling a little blue lately. You’re walking around with pride in chest and a comfortably fitting hat because you held your own in that smackdown with Seattle. All is well in B-Town, you think.

Then your hometown bank gets taken over by the feds and a bank from Port Orchard, your mayor and your high school principal quits and you’re losing police officers while those guys across the bay are talking about hiring more. And we’ve still got a lot of empty condos.

Let me start with a story I think you can relate to.

There was this guy. Job. (Pronounced Jobe, and it’s not the one from “Arrested Development,” but the one from the Bible.) According to the books written about him, he had it goin’ on, if you know what I’m saying.

OK, he lived in a place called Uz, but otherwise he had a pretty good gig.

He had a hot wife, amazing kids, tons of bank, a loyal posse of friends and a killer crib. Actually, I don’t know if his wife was hot or if it’s appropriate at all for me to speculate. But the guy had 10 kids. You decide.

Word was he was a righteous dude, but Satan didn’t buy it. God and the devil get into this conversation and decide to let Job get tested. First he loses his stuff and some of his kids.

Job shaves his head, which is something I can relate to, because I once shaved my chest hair after a girlfriend broke up with me. TMI. Sorry. Then he says something like “Easy come, easy go.”

So then he gets boils all over his body. Now I don’t know what a boil feels like, but I had an abscess that got me hospitalized for a couple days and off work for a week. I had the benefit of drugs to get me through it. Job’s boils were so bad his wife suggested he curse God and die.

Job’s friends came to see him and didn’t recognize him, then didn’t say anything for a whole week. When they do speak they tell him all this stuff is probably his fault.

Job complained a lot, but not about God. In the end Job eventually gets it all back and twice as much.

This could be your lot (not “Lot”) Bremerton. Sure things look tough now, but let’s just call this a Job moment on the way to the “twice as much” part. We’ve got a new downtown park opening this weekend and I had someone tell me it’s pretty kickin.’

And if we needed any other reasons to feel good about ourselves, there’s this display on Sixth Avenue:

We’ll be fine, Bremerton. Keep your chin up. We’ll be making fun of Port Orchard again in no time.

Sincerely,

Steven Gardner

Quick, name anything else these guys ever did. I thought so.

Anytime anyone writes in the news or blogs about Bremerton, I get to hear about it through the magic of Google Alerts. Many of you are probably familiar with Google Alerts and use it to be notified when things like “Bremerton School District,” “MxPx” or “salamander” come up somewhere.

I’m curious, though, in my role as monitor of scurrilous attacks on our fair seaside city, why every once in a while I get an alert about Bremerton that has nothing to do with this place. Moreover, it usually involves crime.

Case in point: Today I received an alert about a murder in Manassas, Virginia. Sometimes when we get news like that there is a verifiable Bremerton connection. But in this story there’s no link whatsoever.

Are we being typecast? Are we the Adam West of crime now? For all the talk of revitalization and no new taxes, Bremerton still gets tagged with stories of residential murders?

It’s not all bad news. Thanks to the link to the story I found out that Laura Bush “totally forgot” about Obama’s speech.

*eghemmm* Could somebody drop me some beats, please? Rap with me, now.

Here’s a boring kinda story ’bout a reporter cruisin’ sixth,

With a burger in hand and a phone that takes pics, 

Econoline stops and he does a double take,

Gotta flip up the camera and prove this ain’t fake

This van’s a bremelo

This van’s a bremelo

Hope you guys channeled your inner Mix. 

Bremelo is indeed a less-than-flattering reference to a type of lady from our fair city, immortalized in song by the great Sir Mix-a-lot in 1988.

(If you’re new to the area, urbandictionary.com defines bremelo here.)  

Love it or hate it, this guy’s celebrating a slice of Bremerton’s pop culture heritage, I can’t deny. 

Photo Credit

When a stranger insults your mom, there might be a fight.
When it’s your brother insulting your mother, you give leeway.

In this case, the insults came from a stranger, so that means there is a going to be a fight.

Keep that in mind, and bite your lip, Bremerton Beat, hike up your highwaters and brush your tooth, because we are taking a condescending tour of how our betters see us.

This comes from a blog, “A Vivid and Continuous Dream,” which seems to focus on pets. You know, animals that you’re not supposed to eat unless real hungry?

Our Tocqueville has made Bremerton the hometown of a “main character” of hers. She’s writing a novel, or an opera. I’m not sure, really. Maybe it’s an operatic novel.

Bremerton was much like I imagined it to be, at least his neighborhood; very drab and filled with bleak, nondescript ramblers with overgrown lawns and old faded curtains in the windows and peeling paint. Almost exactly the way I pictured it, in fact.

Initially I was tempted to write a blog post that began:

“A Vivid and Continuous Dream was much like I imagined it to be, very drab and and filled with bleak, nondescript ramblings with an overgrown ego.” I would make several references to misplaced priorities and our society’s increasing dependence on psychiatric medications. But no, I thought, that would be immature. And fun.

But wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. At least this person made the effort to confirm what she already believed to be true.

Instead, I tried to put myself in the blogger’s shoes: what’s the use of getting to know a place that doesn’t have a yoga studio, or where people work for a living and spend their money on food, clothing, grape Swishers and 40 ouncers instead of IKEA drapes and custom Martha Stewart colors? Isn’t it easier to imagine the world outside Wallingford (I don’t know if she lives in Seattle, or even in Washington state) as a vague yet continuous sprawl of unwashed masses who don’t know what “vegetarian alternative” means? What an earthy, authentic place for a “main character’s” hometown.

What we’re talking about is class. Money. And on its route to that goal of “revitalization,” Bremerton will likely confront more of this kind of prejudice. In fact, guessing from the slogan out of the mayor’s office, “It’s not about out past. It’s about our future – don’t miss it,” the powers that be are more than aware.

It’s a two-headed hydra, however. Consider this story, in Washington CEO, previously commented upon in these pages, which takes a purist (shall we say?) position and compares Bremerton to Oakland, Harlem and Compton. I guess because if you are poor, you must be black.

Our town wants the bucks and the energy of a wealthier population. However, many of those people, and their followers, have already made up their minds about us. Not because we are Bremerton, but because we aren’t Fremont.

Bremerton: More Hippies Than Olympia

Bremerton has made another list.

Soon we here at the Bremerton Beat might have to create a list of all the times Bremerton has been put on a list.

This time County Home magazine ranked us #22 in the country for “green living,” one notch below Salinas, Calif. and one above Duluth, Minn.

And, for the record, it’s “Bremerton/Silverdale.”

Top billing went to Corvalis, Ore., home of the Oregon State Beavers and not much else. Last on the list, #25, was Medford, Ore. (I once slept in a ditch next to I-5 in Medford, and I can tell you, I awoke feeling refreshed.)

For a list of the “also rans,” click here. It’s kind of funny the magazine lists the “best” 379 green cities. Las Vegas got #132. Is it just me, or does any list of green cities that includes Las Vegas seem a bit dubious?

Only one town in a state east of the Mississippi River was included in the Top 25, Pittsfeld, Mass. As for Washington, “Seattle metro” got #13.

“Our list comes from a formula that weighs a variety of factors key to living a more eco-friendly life,” the magazine said.

Former Kitsap Sun reporter Chris Kornelis, now at the Seattle Weekly, wrote a story about the chasm between Bainbridge Island and Bremerton. It seems to me he pretty much makes the case that there is more perceived animosity than real discomfort between the two cities.

They’re in the same county, share the same courthouse, and are separated by less than a mile of water. But for many of the roughly 60,000 residents who call Bainbridge and Bremerton home, there’s been a chasm, sometimes real, sometimes purely perceived, between them. Islanders, so the story goes, are the rich elitists who make local calls to Seattle and would rather be part of the King County conversation than that of Kitsap. Then there’s Bremerton, cast as a Navy town with stabbings, ax murders, cheap housing, and a fondness for NASCAR.

You can find the story here. I found it because Chris shamelessly told me about it.

He touches on my favorite issue.

Nothing articulates the perceived class struggle as well as the ferry system. Whereas Islanders get the nice boats, the quick, 35-minute rides, and the frequent trips, Bremerton commuters spend two hours a day on board and have to choose between the 10:30 p.m. and 12:50 a.m. boats during Mariner games.

Kornelis also put together a slide show with conversations with the mayors of both cities.

The people quoted in the story are mostly friendly. The first commenter, naming himself “guillermo,” resorts to all the standard stereotypes, playing the part of “troll.”

When I covered Bainbridge Island, though, someone named William did speak to me of the “Bainbridge tax,” the extra fee contractors charge because they assume you have money. The William I knew would never use the term “Bremelo.”

src="http://web.kitsapsun.com/1newsroom/blogphotos/horizonair.jpg"> Bremerton’s presence in this magazine is a “breakthrough” for the city, according to Mayor Cary Bozeman, because people who hire people will see it.

Hey look! Port Orchard made it onto the cover of Horizon Air’s in-flight magazine!

Seriously, look past the big fountain (the one in Bremerton’s Harborside Fountain Park) and you can see the hills of Port Orchard.

Way to go, guys! Your flight from 98312 paid off!

All kidding aside, Bremerton really is the lead in Horizon’s September issue.

(Bremerton Mayor Cary) Bozeman said he didn’t know if the Horizon magazine was specifically targeted by the city, but the local focus did have a home-field advantage. The magazine’s editor, Michelle Andrus Dill, said she lives in Kitsap County and has been thrilled with Bremerton’s revitalization efforts.

Bainbridge and Port Ludlow also get major play after Bremerton.

Of all the attention Bremerton has received in non-local press, this may be about the most significant. You don’t have to be a CEO to fly in an airplane, but a Washington Post story from 2006 shows that airline travelers are on average more wealthy than those of us who seldom test gravity.

That’s the point Bozeman was making.

Bremerton Mayor Cary Bozeman called the cover presence a breakthrough for the city in its marketing efforts.

“I think the important thing about having a good message in a magazine like that is it gets read by a lot of influential people,” he said. “We’ve been working hard at letting a lot of people know that this is a great place to do business and to live and to bring your company.”

I checked further into airline passenger information and came across the following information from Mediamark Research.

Source: Mediamark Research Inc.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported in August that the median household income was $48,200 in 2006. That means the airline with the lowest median passenger income level, Southwest, still can boast that its magazine readers make 72 percent more than the national median. I couldn’t find information about the income levels of Horizon or Alaska fliers, but I can’t immediately think of a reason they’d be significantly different from the others.

src="http://web.kitsapsun.com/1newsroom/blogphotos/springsteen.jpg"> Hey, at least 1980 gave us this.

A guy from Austin, Texas vacationing by himself in the Pacific Northwest passed through Bremerton, had this to say about his experience:

You know that South Park episode where they find the guy that’s been frozen for the last three years, and when they unfreeze him he can’t fit into society so they have to send him to Des Moines because Des Moines is three years behind everywhere else? Now imagine instead of three years its 27 years, and welcome to Bremerton. All the cars are from the ’80s, the people look like they’re from the ’80s (sort of a Chess King/Judy’s look), there’s absolutely no sign of any chain stores, the marquee in front of the local auditorium was advertising for a “destruction derby,” and I swear I heard that Twilight Zone music. There was a store that said “Compact Discs and Tapes.” Tapes. My black rotary dial phone thinks that town is behind the times. Creepy.

I was so offended I ripped my OP shirt, threw my pet rock at my VCR, broke my Devo record and kicked the back of my Ford Pinto, ruining my Vans. When I went back in the house there in the shag carpet was a thumb tack that poked my shoeless foot. Rough start to my day. If I were a drinker, tonight I would let it be Lowenbrau.

On the Web site Cannabis.com a newcomer to Kitsap County named Darwin writes that he’s new to the area, loves to “Camp and troutfish,” and play “C@C Red alert2.” That he loves doing something else should be obvious by the site he’s posting on.

He’s looking for like-minded people. I’m guessing he wouldn’t mind a “connection” either, but I digress.

Killerweed420 responds “Bremerton sucks.lol”

Lol? Really? If you think “Bremerton sucks” is laugh-out loud funny, then it’s 4:20 somewhere.

Same for JoeBear, who wrote “Welcome to Washington. I guess this means i’m not the new kid anymore! YAY! lol”

These people crack themselves up over the lamest comments.

SaH was in a bad mood, though, writing in response to the “Bremerton Sucks” line, “Yeah escape while you can….”

Boy I’d like to know what the rest of that thought was.

I don’t know if all marijuana enthusiasts dislike Bremerton, but this bunch did. That can’t be good news for the folks at Pied Pipers Emporium.