North Kitsap Beat

How’s everybody coping with this afternoon’s snow/slush/sleet? I was in Bremerton most of the day where the skies were glorious and blue, though a bit cold. A little after 2 I ventured north and hit the snow just past Silverdale. Then it kept getting worse and worse as I made my way (sometimes slid my way) north.

Considering my tires are balder than Kojak, I decided I’d better turn around and head south when I hit Pioneer Way. (Did anybody else think the snow looked like Dip n’ Dots?)

Traffic was a mess heading towards the bridge, and NK school buses were running late.

If you’re hunkered down at home staying out of the snow, share a snow story if you’re adventurous. What’s it like in your neck of the woods?

I’m still catching my breath after last night’s Kingston Open House. I didn’t get a head count, but hundreds of people were there, as usual.

I picked up a lot of interesting tidbits, some of which I’ll share.

First, the county’s going to install three new lights on Miller Bay Road this summer. They’ll be at Gunderson, Indianola and West Kingston roads. What are your thoughts on those? Will it make the road safer? Do you have high school kids who’ll drive that way to the new high school?

Also, the Port of Kingston shared its plans for mooring buoys; several groups shared plans to revitalize and/or redevelop downtown Kingston; the big developments – Arborwood and White Horse – were there; Kingston Express Association, the co-op ferry group trying to start a passenger boat to Seattle drew a fair amount of attention; Washington State Ferries is resurrecting an idea to build a ferry holding terminal at the southwest corner of the highway and Lindvog Road and re-route ferry traffic around the downtown core.

I’m leaving out lots of stuff, so if you were there and have some news, feel free to share.

Foss Maritime will pay the Suquamish Tribe $1.1 million for “cultural and spiritual damages” suffered because of a December 2003 oil spill that inundated the tribe’s beach and estuary, called Doe-Kag-Wats. It’s near Indianola.

I’ll post the link to the full story tomorrow.

The photo’s from 2003 right after the spill.

As you can imaging, reporters see, hear and read a heck of a lot more than ever gets into print. Sometimes there’s something that’s really interesting, but isn’t enough to warrant a full-blown story. One of my goals with this blog will be to share some of those interesting snippets of North Kitsap life. Feel free to send me yours, too. Who knows, I might just post a few.

This one came up Wednesday night during the Poulsbo City Council meeting.

Peggy Stanley had heard Noll Road mispronounced too many times.

“It’s not “Nole”,” she told the council, “it is “Nawl”. (I spelled them sort-of phonetically.)

The road runs along the eastern edge of the city, and connects at the south with Highway 305. Stanley’s family still lives out there where her grandfather, Axel Yelmer Noll, settled in 1904.

This answers a question I posed in December when we were running the “How Kitsap Got Its Names” blog.

The discussion on a new CAO in Poulsbo’s been simmering for some time.
Looks like the new Critical Areas Ordinance could come within a month or so.
Wednesday night a group of interested folks in Poulsbo calling themselves the Critical Areas Ordinance Working Group made a series of recommendations to the city on how to change its law.

Click here to view the working group’s report (372K PDF file).

Click here if you want to read the city’s draft Critical Areas Ordinance.

Ok, well I did learn a few things after kindergarten that came in handy.

The North Kitsap School District is asking parents if they’re interested in all-day kindergarten. They’ll have space for it at Hilder Pearson and Poulsbo elementary schools next year because of the district-wide shuffle. It’s already at all of the other NK elementary schools.

With the new Kingston High and NKHS becoming 9-12, junior highs switch to 6-8th grade middle schools. That means the elementary schools are smaller, K-5 schools.

The offering depends on interest and teacher availability. If they do have it, your interest will probably depend on cost. It’s about $3,000 a year because the state only pays for half-day kindergarten. That’s the way it is now at the other NK elementary schools, as well as almost all of the others in the county. Bremerton is the only Kitsap district to offer free all-day kindergarten.

I don’t have kids, so I’m curious how that cost compares with what a babysitter or private school would cost parents. Anyone care to throw some numbers out there to put it in perspective?

Have, or do you think your kids would benefit from all-day kindergarten? My hunch is that it’s easier on working parents, too.

Poulsbo chef and co-owner of Mor Mor Bistro and Bar, John Nesby, will be on live TV Saturday morning cooking mac and cheese.

Kitsap Sun freelancer Ann Vogel wrote a story for today’s paper about Nesby and his mac and cheese recipe, which will be featured at 11 a.m. Saturday on KCTS Chefs 2007. A dozen other Washington chefs will be on the show, too.

Nesby owns the downtown Poulsbo restaurant with his wife, Laura.
If you’re just getting home and can’t decide what to fix for dinner, check out Vogel’s story. Nesby’s mac and cheese recipe is at the bottom.

As the Italians don’t exactly say – chow!

Last night about 40 people in Hansville got together with Kitsap County planners to begin discussions about crafting a plan that can guide the community’s growth in the future.

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Welcome to the new North Kitsap Beat blog!

From land-use to lutefisk, Lofall to the Little City by the Sea, I hope this space will become a regular news stop for folks in (or interested in) North Kitsap.

I’ll post tidbits here – some that were in the paper, some that weren’t – about Poulsbo, Kingston, Hansville, Suquamish, Little Boston, Indianola, Keyport, Port Gamble and other northern areas, and hope you’ll share your thoughts.

Together, you’ve all got a lot more eyes and ears than I do. Don’t hesitate to let me know what’s happening in your neck of the woods.

Your new North Kitsap blogger,

Derek Sheppard