Seeking Silverdale and Central Kitsap

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I happened to put in a call to an old acquaintance yesterday afternoon. He had left me a message asking for a reference for a job he is seeking.

I called, and we had a nice conversation, but then the subject turned to the news of the day, and the initial reports about the shooting at Fort Hood in Texas. Sounds like a terrorist attack, he said.

From what I had heard, it was a shooting on a secure Army base. While the shooting suspect had been named, and the name sounded Muslim, I did not assume that it was an act of terrorism. But my friend did. The fact that I now know the suspect is Muslim, and opposed our involvement in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, still does not lead me to conclude it was an act of terrorism. It sounds like the act of a really disturbed individual.

Just as I don’t conclude that the multiple murders in Cleveland were a function of suspect Anthony Sowell’s religion, I don’t conclude that the killings at Fort Hood are a function of Nidal Hasan’s religion. But apparently many people do … there were reports this morning of hate e-mails being delivered to mosques in different parts of the county.

What happened at Fort Hood is a tragedy. We shouldn’t be making it more of a tragedy by making assumptions with no basis in fact.

— Jeff

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As my regular readers (few as you may be) know, I don’t spend each one of my waking minutes blogging about Central Kitsap for the Kitsap Sun’s web site. I do other things as well, including working a half-time job with Kitsap Regional Library, cooking meals for my wife, woodworking projects, photography, reading for pleasure and yard work around the house.

I also keep up with my Facebook friends, and pretty regularly post my status and comment on other people’s posts on that social networking site.

On election night, I posted something expressing some of my feelings about the election, and what the results seem to be saying about the mood of the electorate. I’m pretty sure that post generated more response and comments from my friends than just about anything I had ever posted on Facebook before.

What I noted was the change in voter mood since a year ago. And I’d be very interested to hear your comments about that and what you’re thinking. Please jump on a leave a comment on this blog post about it.

Here’s a synopsis of what I had to say.

A year ago, despite the sinking economy and a pretty gloomy international outlook, the majority of voters responded by choosing to express some hope in casting their ballots. Before you tune out, this is not intended as either a pro-Obama or an anti-Obama piece. It’s really intended to be asking a question about the rest of us.

In the year since the presidential election, the depth of our economic crisis became clear. The statistics confirmed that we were actually in a recession when last November’s election occurred; in fact, the worst recession since the 1930s. I lost my job; people I know, both here in Kitsap and in other parts of the country, have lost their jobs. Luckily, I don’t know anyone who has lost their home to foreclosure, but perhaps you do. And the people knew all this really before the government released the economic statistics that confirmed it.

Today, there are signs that we’ve seen the worst of our economic situation. Many of the promises that were made on the campaign trail during the presidential race last year have been kept, and there is action on many of those issues that have not yet been resolved.

Yet the voter mood as expressed Tuesday was much more sour than the one expressed a year ago, when our situation was actually worse.

That leads me to ask: Are we, as a public, simply unable to show restraint. While there was a degree of euphoria that seemed to come from the public after the election of 2008, there was a degree of real anger and disgust shown in the results this year. Is our situation that much worse this year, or are we reacting to it that much worse?

Are we manic-depressive voters, incapable of maintaining an even keel and of allowing our leaders a reasonable period of time to accomplish what they have promised to try to make happen? Do we insist upon bouncing from one extreme to another, even when the evidence would suggest that things are never as good as we see them, nor as bad?

What does this say about us and our ability to emerge from the political morass we find ourselves in?

I’m asking you, and hoping to hear your thoughts about it.

— Jeff

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I’m sure there’s been a lot happening around Central Kitsap, but the news hasn’t come my way.

There was a pretty dramatic fire in a house on Clear Creek Road last night, but luckily the family that lived there escaped safely.

The news about the black bears in Bremerton has made the Seattle TV stations, but I haven’t noticed any of the critters hanging around in my neighborhood on the Ridgetop. I have enough critter trouble with the family of racoons that keeps coming around and digging up my yard under the bird feeders. So I’m certainly not going to be inviting any bears to come around.

If you’re like me, you get some seasonal depression this time of year when Daylight Savings time ends. I hate it when it gets dark at 5 in the afternoon. I have to say there’s a lot I love about our area, but the short winter days is not on the list. I put up with them because they are balanced by long summer days. But I don’t like them. And the standard way of dealing with them (leaving in the winter to “snow bird” somewhere in Arizona) is not my cup of tea. I find it difficult enough to manage one household; I certainly don’t need two places to take care of and worry about.

But there’s no reason to be depressed today. The sun is shining. I’ve already seen several woodpeckers at my feeder this morning.

The neighborhood black cat survived Halloween and came by the back door for a treat already today.

Barak Obama was elected president just about a year ago, and last I noticed, the United States has not become a Muslim nation, has not confiscated everyone’s firearms, has not trashed free-enterprise, has not taken over your health care decisions (and, you know, it won’t do that even if there is a public option approved in the health care reform legislation), and has not yet suffered another terrorist attack on our soil. All of those gloomy outcomes were predicted before his election victory. And I guess some believe they will still come true; but I don’t.

Unfortunately, the recession seems  pretty intractable, despite a lot of money being spent to try to stimulate the economy. I still have some friends who are out of work, and I feel for them. Those of us who had money in the stock market through 401k plans or through other investments and who did not panic have seen the value of their portfolios bounce back a little, but not to pre-2008 levels. And for the majority of us for whom our house is our largest investment, the value in that investment is still below what it was in 2008. At least we in Kitsap were lucky to see only about a 10 percent reduction in housing values here, compared with 25 and 30 percent in the areas hardest hit by the foreclosure problem.

But I fear it will be a while before people feel more economically secure and ready to look forward again with some confidence and anticipation.

When that point comes, what will we be thinking? Will we be changed by this recession like people who lived through the 1930s were changed by the Great Depression?

I doubt it. The Depression lasted for almost 10 years. It wasn’t until the nation geared up for World War II that we really climbed out of that hole. In many ways, what we’ve been through is much less traumatic. So the question is whether it will mark our thinking and our economic behavior for the coming years.

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on that.

— Jeff

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When I asked back in June for candidates to file for the Central Kitsap School Board races so that there would be an election contest in each race, I can truthfully say I never had this in mind.

I strongly believe it’s good for people to have a choice in these elections; and it makes our community stronger to see that people are willing to run for such positions in a competitive environment.

During the filing period in June, at least two candidates filed to run for all three positions up for election this year, and in one race, three candidates filed. So, at the time, Central Kitsap had what appeared to be a very competitive set of school board elections lined up.

Then one candidate had to drop out of a race when her family got the opportunity after a long wait to move to base housing. That took her out of the area to be represented by that position on the board, and left board incumbent Bruce Richards without opposition for the Nov. 3 election.

Now, in one of the strangest election developments I’ve ever seen (and I’ve covered elections as a reporter or editor for more than 30 years), another candidate for CK School Board has come out publicly to recommend that voters cast their ballots for his opponent.

I met Robert MacDermid many years ago when our kids were both in CK schools. I liked him a lot, thought he did a lot for the schools, and I was happy to cast my ballot for him when I received it in the mail last week. Now, he’s done one of the classiest things I’ve ever seen a candidate do. After meeting his opponent, Mark Gaines, listening to him present his candidacy, and realizing that they agree on just about everything and that his opponent has more recent involvement in the schools, MacDermid came out and endorsed Gaines this week.

Sort of eliminates another possible contest. But in this case, it appears that both candidates were offering the public pretty similar commitments. And, either way, the winner will be new to the board and able to look at district policies and directions with a fresh eye.

Maybe here in Central Kitsap we’re more fortunate than I could have hoped.

— Jeff

after the June

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I can’t say I knew Darla Murker well, but I had met her and talked with her about Central Kitsap and about the Kitsap Regional Library.

Darla, 45, died Sunday of cancer.

Many Central Kitsap leaders who have worked more closely with Darla have more to say than I could.

I just remember a very busy woman who was very happy to hear that I was blogging about CK and was also very happy to share that news with the Silverdale Chamber of Commerce’s e-mail list. And I remember that she willingly took time out of her day to sit down with me a few months ago to talk about the library and things KRL should be considering about its future in its strategic plan.

Darla was a considerate, caring person who will be missed.

— Jeff

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Call me a schmuck, but I take voting seriously and have ever since 1972 when I was first allowed to vote.

So it’s always exciting when my ballot arrives and I can fill it out (though the excitement is sometimes muted a little in primary elections when there’s only one race with a choice). The November ballot came in the mail today, and I just filled it out and put it in the envelope so I could mail it in tomorrow.

We in Silverdale get to vote on the two state initiatives, on three school board races (one of which offers one candidate unopposed), on an unopposed fire district election, an unopposed port district election, and on a contested Silverdale water district race.

The only one I hadn’t really heard about before was the water district race, so I checked out the voters pamphlet, then went to the Kitsap Sun’s online election guide and made my choice. I tend to want to reward candidates who have taken the time to fill out the questionnaires sent out by the paper.

Voter participation is one sign of a healthy community. If you vote, you’re also more likely to pay attention to what goes on around here, to have opinions and share them with others, and to get involved in making the community better. When academics study how healthy a community is, voter turnout is one of the first statistics they look at.

I’m not suggesting that you vote just so Silverdale looks good the next time someone does a study. I’m encouraging you to fill out your ballot because I believe when we fail to vote we lose our voice in how the community should be run. So get those lavender envelopes in the mail to the auditor’s office, and I’ll stop moralizing.

— Jeff

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My wife and I had planned to take a hike with friends today, to enjoy the beautiful weather for a mid-October in the Northwest. Originally, we were heading for Mount Walker in the Olympic National Forest south of Quilcene. Rather than test her legs on a trail that forest firefighters train on, Joyce asked if perhaps there was something a little less uphill that might serve the purpose.

So we ended up at Buck Lake in North Kitsap, just on the edge of Hansville. While we’ve been to Point No Point several times, I’ve never visited the Kitsap County Park at Buck Lake before. And we’ve never had the chance to explore the trail system that the Hansville Greenway community volunteers have been working on for several years. I’m glad we did.

We started at the parking lot of the park, and walked down to the lake to take a look. It was deserted when we arrived … not a soul in sight. Aside from the call of a flicker, and seeing a few robins, there weren’t many animals in sight either.

After getting our bearings and finding the trailhead for the greenway, we headed south along the shore of Buck Lake, then through a meadow, and then through some woods past Upper Hawks Pond and then finally toward Lower Hawk’s Pond, where we saw two mature bald eagles on a tree overlooking the wetland. (It was hard to call it a pond today; the dry weather has just about drained the area.)

Along the way, I came upon this scene, where a ray of sunlight illuminated a fern on the forest floor.

The volunteers and the Hansville community should be congratulated for creating a very special place. Yes, some of the woods we walked through had been logged and were regrown. But still, it seems much more natural than most of the areas served by the Clear Creek Trail in Central Kitsap. It’s unfortunate there weren’t enough natural areas left in Central Kitsap when the Clear Creek Trail volunteers began their efforts.

— Jeff

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When Ken Burns’ latest series on the National Parks was broadcast on PBS, I recorded each episode because I wasn’t able to watch them all in real time.

Finally, just yesterday, I was able to finish watching the last of the episodes.

I didn’t measure, but I would have to guess that the three National Parks devoted the greatest amount of time in the series were Yosemite, Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Yosemite, because it was the first area to be set aside for preservation by an act of Congress, although it did not become the first national park because the law preserving it also gave the state of California the responsibility of managing Yosemite. Only later did it become a National Park. The honor of being the nation’s first national park was given to Yellowstone. It happened because the area was so unique. It also happened because no one thought there was anything of commercial value there, and so no one opposed the idea of creating it.

That was not the case with other national parks, including the Smokey Mountains, Olympic, and the Grand Tetons. Burns’ series explores in great detail how the fight between commercialization of federal lands and preservation of federal lands played out in the history of the national park system. And it was interesting to see that many who had opposed expansion or creation of new parks because of fear that the local economy would be harmed or that their way of life would be eliminated later came to be happy that their opposition did not win the day. It’s interesting that we don’t tend to rue our decisions to preserve wondrous natural places; we only rue our complicity in their destruction, especially when we find that we’ve destroyed such places often for very transitory gain of natural resources that are wasted as much as they are utilized.

The focus on Yellowstone and Grand Teton reinforced my recent trip to both National Parks. My family carved out a week just before school started and drove to Yellowstone, where we camped. Included was a day trip to nearby Grand Teton, and a memorable hike through the area near Jenny Lake. The photos with this post are from that trip.

At Yellowstone, we saw grizzly bear, elk, bison, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, coyotes, a weasel, a golden marmot, many chipmunks and ground squirrels, osprey and mountain bluebirds. We took the hike in Grand Teton in part because we hoped to see moose. That never happened, but we did see golden eagles soaring over the face of the mountains.

I had been to Yellowstone before; but neither my wife nor my son had. And none of us had visited Grand Teton before. So it struck me a significant when the Burns film talked about how the parks are our inheritance and our legacy, experiences we may have shared with our parents, and that we in turn share with our children in a belief that they, too, will be able to share the same thing with their children, and their children’s children.

I found the film moving and wonderfully photographed. I wished I would have seen more of Olympic National Park, though there were a few scenes I recognized of Lake Cresent and a sunset from Rialto Beach. But I thought one segment of the film did great justice to Mount Rainier. My only complaint is that it seemed like the filmakers reused too many clips, sometimes even repeating the same clip (a grizzly bear and her cub romping in Denali National Park) twice in the same episode. The stories of the creation of the parks, and the people who played a role in making the park system what it is today, were well told.

I feel lucky to live so near three national parks, having grown up in a state with none. I pledge to visit them more, and visit them reverently.

— Jeff

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In a blog entry posted a week ago, I promised to say more about a series of meetings I conducted as the manager for strategic planning of Kitsap Regional Library.

The meetings, one at each of the library system’s nine branches, were designed to pretty much wrap up the opportunity for the public to suggest ideas for the library’s new strategic plan. The plan offers guidance to the library administration and to the Board of Trustees in setting priorities and approving the KRL budget. The current plan is about to expire next year, so the new plan is being prepared to cover the time period from 2010 to 2015.

As the person responsible for drafting the new plan, under the guidance of the board and the library administration, I’ve been seeking public involvement in the process since April. We’ve had a series of meetings with community leaders about the library. I met with the staff of each library branch and with KRL central office staff. I talked to patrons in the libraries. I had a few special meetings with some Bremerton parents and some South Kitsap teen library volunteers. I posted a survey on the KRL.org web site to get public opinion that way. And if you haven’t taken the survey yet, please click the link now … we still want to hear your ideas.

No one at the library thought there would be broad public attendance at this series of meetings. The KRL board meets every month, and aside from one former employee who comes to every meeting, seldom sees a single member of the public in attendance. Port Orchard Independent columnist Robert Meadows suggested the library had been disappointed at the turnout. Actually, we were pleased to get as many people as we did. In several meetings, the public visitors at least outnumbered the library staff in attendance. But even in the worst attended meeting, in Silverdale, where one person came to talk about the library, we invariably had an interesting discussion about the library and issues it should consider for the future.

I wanted to take this opportunity to summarize what I have heard from the public during these nine meetings. Read the rest of this entry »

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I represented the Kitsap Regional Library last Tuesday at the Port of Bremerton’s Job Summit. While I was there, Patricia Graf-Hoke, the new executive general manager of the Visitor and Convention Bureau pulled me aside to talk about some of her thinking behind the issues I have raised in this blog about marketing Kitsap County to visitors.

The VCB parted ways with is former director, Grant Griffin, we were told in part because Griffin wanted to market Kitsap to the 5 million people who live along the Interstate-5 corridor, while at least some on the VCB board wanted to market Kitsap to Kitsap.

Graf-Hoke told me that emphasis may have been wrongly understood in reporting the story and in my interpretation of the Kitsap Sun reports.

She told me that local hotel and motel managers tell her that their two biggest pieces of business come from 1) the Navy; and 2) special events that happen here, such as weddings and family reunions. When there is a wedding or reunion here, usually it’s because someone involved in planning it lives in Kitsap. The local hotels and motels want to make sure that people who live here know that there are accommodations for their wedding and reunion groups. That’s what was meant by marketing Kitsap to Kitsap.

But, you know, it still doesn’t make sense to me. Marketing a specific hotel or motel or other lodging or meeting facility to people in Kitsap County is not the VCB’s job. That’s the job of the hotel or motel or other facility. That’s really a zero-sum game. If I decide to put my wedding guests up at the Silverdale Beach Hotel rather than the Comfort Inn in Bremerton, I’m taking hotel dollars from one Kitsap business to another. If I’m going to have a wedding here, I’m going to put my guests up here. I don’t need the VCB to convince me to do it … I’ve already made the key decision.

If I need information on where I can put my guests up for the night, or what facility can host my wedding in Kitsap, I will seek out that information. And perhaps the VCB’s web site is a good place for local hotels and meeting facilities to advertise their accommodations. But that’s not winning tourist dollars for Kitsap. Those are dollars that were already coming here.

I still believe the VCB’s main job, and main focus, has to be marketing Kitsap to people who live elsewhere and who might come here to visit, especially to stay overnight. That includes people who love to golf at our courses, and people who may play or whose kids may play in sports tournaments that are held here.

To me, it makes more sense to market Kitsap along I-5, or in the rest of Washington state, than it does to try to attract people who live far away. But I still don’t see the return on investment in marketing Kitsap to people who live here.

One of the key takeaways from the jobs summit was the need to market Kitsap much better. Port Director Cary Bozeman suggested the Port may play a role in that. The Sun, in an editorial, chided him for doing so, suggesting that the entities involved should work together, not at cross purposes.  “Leave Branding Kitsap to the Pros,” the headline suggested. Just who are the branding pros here? Certainly not the VCB, which has not succeeded in branding Kitsap though it’s been in existence for years to do just that.

Bozeman always has been someone willing to step into a vacuum to get something done. He sees a vacuum there, and he’s not the kind who is willing to wait for the VCB to get its act together if he thinks there’s a need to act quickly on this.

One final thought: I really wonder if marketing Kitsap to tourists is really the appropriate focus of an immediate effort to revitalize the local economy. I just think we fight too much among ourselves, over too small a slice of the pie. For Kitsap to make significant strides, we’re going to have to stop worrying about which community gets what and realize that new jobs in Kitsap can help all communities.

— Jeff