Kitsap Bank has promoted Michelle Moyer from Silverdale branch manager to companywide operations officer, according to a statement from the Port Orchard-based bank this morning.

“As manager of one of our busiest locations, Michelle has proven herself to be an effective leader who is focused on providing our customers with the best possible customer service every day,” said Marlene Mitchell, a Kitsap Bank vice president in charge of regional operations.

Moyer has been with the bank for four years.

New foreclosure filings in Kitsap County were up in March, and Washington was among the three states in the nation with the biggest increases.

In Kitsap, new foreclosures were up 37.5 percent. Seventy-seven new foreclosure filings occurred here in March, compared to 56 in February. Foreclosures in Washington rose 32.2 percent, according to the online data source ForeclosureRadar.com, as they did generally across the nation.

A release of distressed properties onto the market by Fannie Mae was to blame, in part.

“This, at least temporarily, reverses a downward trend, but even with the increase the volume of new foreclosures remains significantly down year-over-year in all the states we cover,” a ForeclosureRadar.com analysis stated. That’s true in Kitsap, too. In March 2011, there were 106 new filings.

In Kitsap last month, 585 homes were somewhere in the foreclosure pipeline.

— Rachel Pritchett

Rich Peterson, who stepped down in February as the publisher of the Port Orchard Independent, will become the development director for the Port of Bremerton. The port will make the announcement at 10 a.m. That person will shop around the port’s industrial park as well as its portion of the South Kitsap Industrial Area, among other duties. More coming soon.

Rachel Pritchett, reporter