North Kitsap Beat

Newspapers, as you may have noticed, are working hard to move into the online era. In that spirit, I’ve decided to get better acquainted with video production.

I might sound like a doofus, and the video isn’t the most hard-hitting news piece, but I spent today in Hansville trying to a.) help people better understand what the speed tables in Hansville are like and b.) give myself an excuse to get comfortable taking and editing video.

Like I said in the car, I’m not here to resolve the debate. If you don’t live in Hansville and you’re curious what all the hubbub is about, drive through town and through the speed tables. You can make up your own mind.

Here’s your route, if you’re not familiar with the area:

(The tables are located in the general vicinity of the blue pins. You can zoom in to read the streets if you need to.)

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(NOTE: I published this yesterday, but we’re having a glitch with our blog software. I apologize for the delay.)

Who wouldn’t want a free comic from a painted-up, tattooed “super hero zombie?”

Sounds like a good idea, if you’re a kid. Or not. Either way, Ron Sutherland, aka “Iron Buddah”, will give out free comics before an International Championship Wrestling match Saturday night in Suquamish.

Around 7 p.m. he’ll be giving out a big ol’ stack. Ultimately he hopes he can get kids interested in reading.

Around the country, including Bremerton’s The Comics Keep, independent comic book stores (And Sutherland, whose simply a comics fan and believes he’s the first non-store to participate.) will give out free comics as part of Free Comic Book Day.

This story got me thinking about all the old comics I have that are collecting dust in my storage locker. Also known as my mother’s house. I figure next time I’m over I’ll dust them off and take another look for nostalgia’s sake. I was a big Spider Man and Venom fan.

If you’re interested in the wrestling that follows Ron’s giveaway, it’s $10, lasts three hours and is at the gym at the old Suquamish Tribal Center on Sandy Hook Road.

Here’s a Youtube clip of a previous match:

Here’s a story out of Hansville, and I promise it doesn’t have anything to do with speed tables.

Richard Thomas, who lives on Orr’s Cove in the Driftwood Key neighborhood, heard a coyote making a racket around 4 a.m. today. Then it stopped.

About 7:30 a.m., here’s what he and his wife saw on his neighbor’s float out in the bay:

“He must have been sleeping and the tide came in,” Thomas said.

In his eight years in Hansville, it wasn’t something he’d seen before. Certainly not something I would have expected to see, either. The couple also noticed the Canadian geese circling the float, almost as if they were taunting the coyote.

Eventually the coyote swam to shore.

Thanks to Richard for sharing the interesting story and photo.

The North Kitsap School District is projecting a $2.8 million shortfall in next year’s budget.

Someone already brought the issue up in the comments, asking about the projected $1.2 million surplus from the capital facilities bond.

Fair question, but budgeting is more complicated that a lot of people realize, and certain money can legally only be used for certain things. The bond surplus has to go for things like a new roof, as an example. Capital.

The $2.8 million shortfall that’s the current subject is operating expenses. Paying teachers, gas and energy bills, etc. They’re two very different pots of money. Public agencies don’t collect one big pot of money and spread it out as they see fit.

Now, regarding the shortage. I’m sure the pool issue will come up in future meetings as the district and school board figure out how to balance the budget.

Operating shortfalls aren’t anything new to local districts, and CK has had to resort to closing schools. There was no talk of that in NK at last night’s meeting.

I’ve scanned a copy of a PowerPoint on the budget last night so you can see some of the proposed cuts. (I scanned those relevant pages. If you want the whole thing, let me know and I can fax it to you.)

Click the links below to see the document.

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Of all places to steal gasoline from – a food bank.

That’s just what happened to North Kitsap Fishline in Poulsbo. Tuesday night, someone punched a hole in the gas tank of its big delivery truck, slipped a bucket they’d cut to fit (meaning it was planned) under the tank and made off with some of the fuel.

The rest of the gas leaked into the soil around the truck, which the food bank was required to clean up. The Kitsap County Health District allowed Fishline to clean it up themselves, and with volunteer labor, donated gravel and a city backhoe, it’s expected to be cleaned up today.

No word yet on what it might cost/insurance details on the truck repair, but the food bank doesn’t use the big truck all that much. Gas is too expensive.

This story has been circulating on and off for a few years as gas prices have continued to surge, but the Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing offers a fact sheet on another kind of gas theft – they call it “drive offs”, I’ll call it a “pump and run”.

You might also try going to Google News and typing in “gasoline thefts”.

I just got home and sent my story on the meeting tonight about the Hansville speed tables.

I wrote that there were easily over 100 people there. I’m didn’t have time to get any sort of count, and I really didn’t want to overestimate. Regardless, the Hansville Community Center was packed.

Given space limitations, there’s quite a bit that never fits in stories. I didn’t even get to stay until the end of the meeting because of my deadline. (People started leaving as I was writing in my car in the parking lot around 10 p.m.)

One of the points that the anti-table folks have focused on is emergency response times, and how they belive the tables will slow police and fire responses.

Sheriff Steve Boyer and NKF&R Chief Dan Smith said the effect was negligible, though some in the audience expressed more serious concerns over Smith’s estimation that each table slows a truck by about five seconds.

It’s clear the thought of “what ifs” is part of the concern over response times.

Smith said ambulances rarely leave scenes with lights and sirens because patients are treated in the ambulance.

Smith also said he analyzed response times for the Hansville area in 07, and 08 (which would be post-table install.) and that they’ve actually gone down by about 30 seconds and that Hansville is typically an area with the fastest response times.

So, the tables slow emergency response vehicles. No surprise given that’s the intent of the devices. (To slow vehicles, not just police and firetrucks, of course.) but data after the install says paramedics and firefighters are arriving quicker.

So are they good or bad? Well, this example seems to illustrate the complicated nuances of the pro vs. anti sentiments and how nearly every element to the debate is in dispute. It will be interesting to see how this works itself out.

The North Kitsap School District announced today that Richard O. Jones and Mary Vedra are the finalists for the superintendent position, which Gene Medina is vacating at the end of the year.

Jones is the superintendent in the Burlington-Edison School District.

Vedra is the executive director for learning services in the Arapahoe County School District in Englewood, Colo.

If you’re into public meetings, you’ve got plenty to choose from in the next couple days.

– First up is a seemingly intractable debate in Hansville over speed tables, or speed bumps, or whatever you want to call them.

Frankly, I was surprised when it became such a controversial issue, at least for some folks in town, because usually Hansville is a pretty quiet place. Some of the objections run deeper than the tables, and reflect a backlash against the local advisory group representing Hansville to the county government.

A meeting is 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Greater Hansville Community Center.

– Also Wednesday, the Poulsbo City Council and Planning Commission meet again to have a workshop, government-speak for a discussion, on land designations and densities.

Any discussion of density is nearly guaranteed to rub some people the wrong way. It doesn’t matter if you discuss more or less density. There doesn’t seem to be a Goldilocks density.

The boards meet at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 19050 Jensen Way NE.

– On Thursday the North Kitsap School Board gets its crack at a meeting. At 5 p.m. a study session will review next year’s general fund budget. The regular meeting starts two hours later, and will include a public hearing on I-728 funds, an agreement for the Kingston High School scoreboard (something boosters have been working on a while.), and, a resolution accpeting the KHS construction contract as being complete, and a look at instructional changes at the high schools. Don’t have any info on the last one because my packet is mailed to Bremerton, and I’m in Poulsbo today.

The meeting’s at 18360 Caldart Ave. NE in Poulsbo. Student Support Services Center next to Raab Park.

(I’m back from vacation, hence the lack of updates lately. My apologies for forgetting an away message.)

I usually don’t update on cops/courts issues because Josh Farley covers them with his blog, but given the community connections to the McKinstry family of Kingston, I feel it’s worth noting today’s story that Garrett McKinstry, 21, will remain at Western State Hospital for at least 90 days because he’s been deemed unfit to stand trial.

The city’s got the annexation task force schedule and mission statement up on it’s Web site.

Read it HERE [PDF].