Kitsap Caucus

Brynn writes:

I received information about an open house that will be held Tuesday in a newsletter released by Commissioner Josh Brown’s office. Those interested in meeting with Brown are welcome to attend his “Open Office Hours” Jan. 24 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Silverdale Library, 3450 NW Carlton Street in Old Town Silverdale.

According to a blurb from Brown’s office, he’ll make himself available to meet with citizens to hear their concerns and ideas and to talk with them about topics related to county government. He’ll be in the Hess meeting room of the library. People can just drop by, no appointment is necessary.

For more information, call 360-337-7080.

Brynn writes:

In Saturday’s Kitsap Sun I reported that the Citizens United for Silverdale planned to submit their letter of intent to incorporate Silverdale Monday or Tuesday of this week.

It now sounds like the group is taking a little longer to get the letter submitted. Group members assure me the letter is written and notarized, it’s just the legal description that’s taking a little longer to complete.

Committee member Marcus Hoffman said Friday afternoon that the group was “still getting our legal description worked out.” Once the description meets the group’s satisfaction, they’ll be ready to submit it along with the notarized letter. Hoffman couldn’t say when that might be, other than “it will be soon.”

The group has made a point of having all their ducks in a row, for lack of a better cliche, before submitting the letter of intent to the county. That’s because once the county accepts receipt of the group’s intent to incorporate, the clock starts ticking. They’ve got 30 days to go before the Boundary Review Board and show how they envision the future city of Silverdale, including form of government and boundaries.

Once the review board dose its thing — including hearing from the public — the citizen group can decide if it wants to continue with the effort based on any changes the board may require. From there the county auditor gives the group information regarding the number of registered voters within the proposed boundaries, and the group then has 180 days to gather at least 10 percent of those signatures.

I also wanted to note that I saw many of the comments asking about the tax base of the new city and what the impact would be to the county if it lost Silverdale’s sales taxes. These are all questions that will be answered at the March 29 meeting hosted by the Citizens United for Silverdale group. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue Station 51 along Silverdale Way (next to the post office). I’ll be reporting from that meeting and will do my best to sum up people’s concerns and find answers.

Brynn Grimley writes:

Monday night the board of county commissioners were set to approve the Newberry Hill Heritage Park master plan. I wrote about the plan back in April when the committee finished its work on the document. The committee (made up of anyone who wanted to be involved and have a say) met five times and created a plan for how it would like to see the park developed in the future. An appointed steering committee then reviewed the committee’s suggestions to make sure they were in line with the larger guiding principles established by the group.

Initially there was a lot of interest in the park — both during the county’s swap with the Department of Natural Resources to get the land and at the first public master plan meeting. But by the end, while a number of people stayed involved in the planning process, the overall public interest in the project seemed to have subsided.

One reason could be because once people realized the idea was to keep the uses of the park “passive” (i.e. walking, biking, horse trails, no ball fields, no motorized vehicles, etc.), they didn’t feel the need to voice concerns.

I didn’t attend Monday’s commissioner meeting, so I’m not sure what if any testimony will be given regarding the park plan. I’m assuming the plan will pass, but I’ve learned in this business it’s never safe to assume. So I’ll update this Tuesday after I come into work if anything changes.

While there isn’t much to update on the park planning front, I did learn that the county is close to acquiring the remaining 315 acres it needs to complete the park and make it 1,082 acres. The county acquired 247 acres in the north end of the park in 2004. It then got the 520 acres to the south from DNR in 2009, but still needed the land in the middle of those to parcels to complete its park.

The state said it’d gladly convey the land to the county, but asked the county to foot the bill of that process because it didn’t foresee having the financing needed to pay for its staff time to complete the work. The county set aside $15,000 to help pay for that process. It sounds like the county spent closer to $10,000, and the land conveyance has been approved by the county and state.

Now it’s slowly making its way through the process of getting the various signatures it needs to be final, according to county Parks and Recreation Director Jim Dunwiddie. Originally the county hoped to have the acquisition done by June, but as we head closer to July, it’s now sounding like it will be finalized closer to September.