Seeking Silverdale and Central Kitsap

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Whenever I leave this area for a trip, as I have twice in the past four weeks, I return with a new sense of why I chose to make Central Kitsap and Silverdale my home, and why many of the rest of you do as well.

My first trip, between Aug. 3 and Aug. 11, was to Florida, for a family gathering that celebrated my mother’s 90th birthday. It’s a pleasure to see her living independently in her own house and still going strong at 90 years old, and to have her older brother fly in for the celebration as well. But what really struck me from that trip was just how miserable it is to be in Florida in the height of summer. People spend their time scuttling from one air-conditioned shelter from nature to another, and if the heat doesn’t get you while you’re outside, the bugs will. When I’ve visited before, it’s been in the winter time. I know many people live in Florida only for the winter months, but I certainly feel sorry for those who do all year round. I know some people who call this area home spend time in Arizona in the winter months … but I’ll tell you, what we put up with in winter is nothing like what someone living in Florida puts up with all summer. There’s no comparison, and I’ll take this climate any day.

The second trip ended this past Tuesday, a family camping vacation in Yellowstone. As someone who was raised in a rural area of the Midwest, though on the outskirts of a metropolitan area, I have some sense of what it’s like to be from a small town. Some of the places we saw in northern Idaho and in Montana, though, were places I can’t imagine being from. I don’t diminish the experiences of people who are raised on ranches that are miles from towns with populations of less than 500. I just recognize how different their experiences must be from what my son had growing up in Silverdale and with easy access to a city like Seattle. And it was interesting, with all the great scenery that came our way in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, it was just as pretty driving back through Snoqualmie Pass on the way home.

I know that some of us are Central Kitsap residents because our jobs brought us here … but this place stays with us because of the variety of experiences it has to offer and because of its livability. I’m glad to be back, even though I’m enjoying going through my photos from the trip.

Jason asked if I could find out more information on the progress on the Waaga Way extension and the Waaga Way Town Center. “When will the new road open? When will we see construction on buildings in the new town center? What businesses may be opening there?” he asked in a comment to my last post.

According to the county’s web page about the project, the road construction is supposed to be finished this year. Based on what I’ve seen from the east end of the extension, near Clear Creek Road, I’m not sure it will be done in four months. Commissioner Josh Brown’s newsletter on Central Kitsap road projects also lists project completion by the end of 2009. I will check with the commissioner to see if that timeline is still good.

On Jason’s other question about the possible commercial development of the town center along the extension, it’s pretty early to get any word on what businesses might be locating there. Given the economy, I would expect that any new development along that corridor will be waiting for recovery. Remember that Kitsap tends to lag economically behind the rest of the nation and the rest of the state when we are recovering from recession (Kitsap tends to fall into recession later than the rest of the state or the rest of the country because of the stabilizing influence of the Navy as our key employer, but neither does the Navy start hiring when the economic outlook brightens). So I’m thinking it could be a while, at least 18 months, before you start seeing new buildings start to go up at the Waaga Way Town Center. I’ll ask Commissioner Brown about that as well.

— Jeff

Tags: economy, Waaga Way

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 2:14 pm by jeffbrody and is filed under Community news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.