Peninsular Thinking

Port Orchard’s Seagull Calling Contest may be the only event at which bribery of local officials is not only tolerated but openly encouraged.
All rules and decorum are deep-sixed at the annual spectacle on the Port Orchard waterfront, in which mayors, fire chiefs and county commissioners have in past years stood in judgement of the most authentic call, best costume and most seagulls landed. The contest, now in its 24th year, will be part of this year’s Kitsap Harbor Festival, Saturday through Monday on both sides of Sinclair Inlet.
The seagull calling takes place at 1 p.m. Sunday, preceded at 11 a.m. by a “Seagull” Wings Cook-off. The birdbrained events are one small slice of a Memorial Day weekend crammed with nautical-themed fun. The Harbor Festival is sponsored by the Port of Bremerton with help from merchants, booster groups and city officials in Bremerton and Port Orchard, both with marinas operated by the port. The two towns are linked by the Kitsap Transit Foot Ferry, which operates seven days a week throughout the summer.
Steve Slaton, the port’s director of marine facilities, describes the Harbor Festival as the first of two “bookends” for the summer boating season, with the second bookend being Bremerton’s Blackberry Festival over Labor Day. As with the Blackberry Festival the Bremerton Boardwalk will be brimming with activity, including vendors, food booths and a beer garden with live entertainment. Over in Port Orchard, the Farmers Market will operate on both Saturday and Sunday for this weekend only. The Port Orchard Bay Street Association is sponsoring its own beer garden, with a separate root beer garden for kids and teetotalers.
Back this year are the Kitsap Car Cruz (Saturday on Pacific Avenue in Bremerton), an arts and antique show (Saturday on the newly repaved Fourth Street in Bremerton), and the Kitsap Harbor Regatta sailing races, both days on Sinclair Inlet. New this year is a Motorcycle Cruz (Sunday on Pacific Avenue).
Port Orchard’s Murder Mystery Weekend, hosted this year by Fathoms ‘O Fun, will spill over to Bremerton, with pirates and other characters from the interactive game roaming both towns. Contestants gather clues to solve the crime. Winners are announced at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in Port Orchard.
Also new this year, the Seafair Pirates will invade both towns, drumming up excitement for Seattle’s Seafair Aug. 1 through 5.
In recognition of Kitsap County’s military heritage — and the true meaning of Memorial Day — there will be a historic military vehicle display in Bremerton on Saturday. And on Sunday an ensemble of the Navy Band Northwest will play traditional music from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the Bremerton waterfront.
On Monday, the local chapter of the Navy League will host a Memorial Day service at 10 a.m. aboard the USS Turner Joy, on the Bremerton waterfront.
For a complete schedule of events, visit kitsapharborfestival.com.

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The Kitsap Humane Society is temporarily waiving adoption fees on cats older than one year of age, during a “Feline Frenzy” event this weekend. The offer, good through Sunday, is intended to boost adoptions in response to an unexplained influx of cats.
As many as 10 cats a day are being brought into the shelter. The rate in May has been 20 percent higher than the same time last year, leaving the shelter with limited kennel space.
“We’re not sure yet why there’s been such an increase, but it’s been a trend for most of the year,” said Director of Shelter Medicine Dr. Jen Stonequist. “We don’t expect cat intakes to slow down anytime soon and we’re looking at the possibility of having a full shelter throughout the summer.”
KHS encourages adopters to make a donation to help offset its costs. The shelter takes in any homeless animal in need for any reason.

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The movie theater in downtown Bremerton should be open sometimes in June. The owners are hoping for June 8, Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent said at a city council study session Wednesday. She said she think it will probably be June 15 instead.

That was one reason the council pushed until later any proposed changes to parking rules downtown. But there were also concerns with the proposal presented by City Councilman Roy Runyon, particularly one that would essentially allow people to park twice downtown during one day, as long as it was in two different spots.

The proposal would remove the rule that prohibits vehicles from being parked on the same street more than once in a day. So someone could come downtown and buy something in the morning and come back and buy some more from the same store later in the day. You do that now and you run the danger of getting a ticket. Council members liked the idea of removing that restriction, and that may be the next thing the council approves. They also might go for a return to the days when the city used to issue a warning for the first infraction every month. But council members did not like that idea of making someone stay out of the downtown area after parking in two different locations.

What council members seemed to favor was just living with straight-out limits. If someone doesn’t stay in a parking spot more than the three hours on the sign, then no ticket.

That doesn’t solve the parking shuffle. A downtown practice that used to be blamed on shipyard workers seems to be clearly caused by the very people it affects the most, downtown business employees. Eric Younger, city councilman, said he was in a store once when the store manager reminded employees it was time to move the cars. One employee took the keys for three different vehicles and moved them to avoid any employee getting ticketed.

Younger wondered where all the old parking meters were, then realized that no one carries change anymore. Not many store owners are interested in the reduced price parking at the city’s garage on Washington Avenue, the mayor reported.

By the end of the conversation council members said what they really wanted to see before making a decision was what kind of impact the new 10-screen theater will have downtown. There are parking spaces in the garage dedicated to the facility and on-street parking around the block is three hours.

On June 22 “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter” opens. It’s in 3D. I haven’t been able to find out how long it is. If it’s more than three hours, you won’t be parking on the street unless you’re willing to risk a ticket.

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If you get the print edition of the Kitsap Sun, you’ll have seen today’s full page apology on A3 from our Publisher Charles Horton regarding problems with printing the Saturday and Sunday editions. Those papers were printed with assistance from the Tacoma News Tribune.

Charles explains what went wrong, saying, “Within the gears and grease and all things mechanical of our workhorse press lies a computerized inking system. A software malfunction has been repaired, and the ability to print on our own presses has been restored.”

I thought this would be a good time to reprise a 2010 video made by then-Web Editor Angela Dice about “How News is Made.” The video details the daily jobs of the newsroom, advertising department, press room and mailroom, which result in the daily paper. Its a complex dance with hundreds of potential missteps, but there are also hundreds of cross-checks and multiple back-up plans.

I got renewed appreciation for the process last week, since I was working as fill-in night editor. In truth, producing the news is like a relay race, with different workers within each department handing off the baton. On Thursday and Friday, I got to participate in part of the process that I hadn’t before, namely the back-and-forth between the newsroom and our designers down in Texas.

The editor reads stories and signs them off as ready to go on the page (along with photos and advertising). Once the pages are ready, the designer (in Texas) prints  them out on the newsroom printer (in Bremerton), and the editor (in Bremerton) proofreads the copy. A final click signals to Texas that pages are ready to go. Bremerton and Texas communicate by email or phone about any corrections or changes that need to be made, as deadlines loom. Texas releases the pages to prepress (downstairs from the newsroom, in Bremerton), which makes the plates (like giant negatives) for each page. The press is also downstairs, and a great sound is the whirring and thumping as it comes to life each night.

Angela’s video explains how the plates are bent to attach to the big drums of the press and also how just four colors — yellow, cyan, magenta and black — combine to make full-color pages. The final step is assembly of the paper in the mailroom (off the newsroom, in Bremerton) -— also quite noisy. It’s all pretty interesting, and, I think, amazing.

But enough about us. Forward ho.

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On May 9, I wrote a blog post about a report we heard on the scanner of three teens on skateboards hanging onto the back of a vehicle that was going 45 miles per hour.  A few days later, we got word via Facebook and other sources of a young man who had been hospitalized in a skateboard accident. More than one person wondered if there was a connection between the two incidents.Turns out there was not.

The scanner report mentioned Sedgwick Road in South Kitsap. The hospitalized teen, Ries Meyer, is a student at Olympic High School. He took a face first spill near the Parkwood neighborhood in Central Kitsap when his skateboard caught a small rock the wrong way, according to Kevin Parrish, whose daughter Martika is a friend of Ries.

Martika Parrish and some other friends are selling T-shirts to benefit Ries, who was in the intensive care unit of Harborview Medical Center in Seattle following the accident. Last week, he was moved onto a regular floor of the hospital and his condition had improved to “satisfactory.”

Here’s Martika (below) modeling the T. They are $10 each, and the best way to order one is to find Kevin Parrish on Facebook and message him or post to his wall. Keep healing Ries, and all you other skateboarders, take care.

Martika Parrish

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Port Orchard kicks off its First Friday Art Walk tonight (the art walk is held on first Fridays through the warm weather season). Can summer be far behind?

Also on Friday is the kick-off of Viking Fest, Poulsbo’s celebration of its Norwegian Heritage. Events are scheduled through Sunday.

Festival season kicks off as well. The Armed Forces Day parade is set for Saturday in Bremerton. This year’s event will focus on the community’s healing from two shootings that took place in February. The parade will include a tribute to Trooper Tony Radulescu, who was shot and killed during a traffic stop Feb. 23. Amina Kocer-Bowman, 9, will be the civilian grand marshal. Amina suffered critical gunshot wounds Feb. 22 when a gun a fellow student brought to school went off. She is healing slowly.

And mark you calendars. Kitsap Harbor Festival runs May 26 and 27 (Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend), with multiple events on both the Bremerton and Port Orchard waterfronts.

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Boaters in Manchester will soon be able to fuel up on caffeine as they launch at the Manchester dock. The Port of Manchester Board of Commissioners has given approval for a coffee and muffin vendor to sell her wares from the early morning to mid-afternoon on days to be announced. The port had to get special permission from the state’s Recreation and Conservation Office, which has given it recreation grants, said Commissioner Jim Strode.

The addition of the vendor, which is seen as a potential draw for visitors to Manchester, was discussed by the Port Advisory Committee, Strode said. The committee also has recommended allowing South Kitsap Helpline to sell flowers, vegetables and plant starts at the Manchester Library one day a week.

Helpline owns the old Port Orchard Nursery property and grows plants in the greenhouses to help fund its food bank operations. Helpline’s application to the Port Orchard Farmers Market was declined, because the market does not allow vendors with storefronts. Helpline also sells its wares on the nursery property, but Executive Director Jennifer Hardison said they need to expand to increase their revenue.

Helpline is selling at the Bremerton Farmers market on Thursdays and has secured a sidewalk space in Port Orchard outside Bay Street Custom Picture Framing on Saturdays, the same day as the Port Orchard Farmer’s Market. Permission to sell there was granted from the building owner, Hardison said.

The port commissioners will discuss having Helpline sell in Manchester at its meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the Manchester Library. The likely day for sales would be Sunday, when it would not conflict with library traffic, Strode said. Port meetings are open to the public.

Helpline is hoping to upgrade its greenhouses from costly oil heat to more efficient natural gas so that they can grow throughout the year, Hardison said. They have signed a letter of intent with Don Ryan, who plans to open an indoor Pike Place-style market in downtown Port Orchard this summer.

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Every year, the National Association of Letter Carriers and the United States Postal Service host a “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive.

This year’s drive is Saturday, May 12.

Donations of nonperishable food go to local food banks. Place the items by your mailbox for the letter carrier to collect. Suggested items are canned goods, including meat, fish, soups, juice, and vegetables, and dried goods such as pasta, cereal or rice. No expired items or glass containers, please and thank you.

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Tristan Baurick wrote a nice story about a memorial service for Mel Wortman, who died at 91 in March. He had an obit in our paper as well.

In an effort to better learn how to navigate the Congressional Record, I came across this. U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, honored Wortman in Congress on April 24.

Here is the entire text of the speech, which was entered into the Congressional Record.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) for 5 minutes.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to note the passing of a constituent and friend of mine who was a true friend and one of the great leaders of the city of Bremerton , Washington.

Mel Wortman died last month at the age of 91, and he was remembered this past weekend at a service in Bremerton by his family and friends for his wit and for his many enduring personal relationships he developed over decades of working at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton , and during the years of service to many organizations in our community.

I knew Mel for most of my life. He was a graduate of my mother’s high school, and he always joked that he never would have graduated if she hadn’t helped him through math class. He was also a great friend of my father, and they were often enjoying their favorite past time, fishing for trout out on Kitsap Lake. In fact, they had a secret formula that I was hoping Mel would have passed on to me.

Mel served in the Navy in World War II before taking a job at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, eventually rising to be superintendent of Shop 31, which was the machine shop.

Mel’s personal advice to me ranged from pointers he gave me when I played sports with his sons, Dave and Gary, to the suggestions he offered when I was running for Congress, and later, as a member of the Defense Appropriation Subcommittee, on important things we could do to make the shipyard in Bremerton function better.

Mr. Speaker, Mel Wortman was one of the remaining members of this Greatest Generation of Americans who selflessly served in World War II and then returned home to raise families and pursue their careers without asking for thanks.

I think it is appropriate once again for us in the House of Representatives to express our thanks to those great Americans as we note the passing of one of their finest, Mel Wortman.

I submit for the RECORD Mel Wortman’s obituary as it was published in the Kitsap Sun, noting his wife Jane and the many members of his family who have lost a great patriarch.

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Heard on the newsroom scanner: ” … three youths on skateboards hanging onto the spoiler of a vehicle … going 45 miles per hour … down Sedgwick Road.”

The reporter in me said, “Well, there’s breaking news in the making.” The mother in me said, “I hope they’re wearing their helmets.”

By some miracle, likely law enforcement intervention, said youths did not end up the subject of a Code 911 item.

When I mentioned I might write a blog post about the stunt, fellow reporter Steve Gardner warned me that people might misconstrue the message and think I was glorifying the teens’ stupidity. So let me make this perfectly clear, if I were their mother, those kids would so be grounded.

A lot has been written lately about the teenage brain. David Dobbs’ article last fall in National Geographic outlined research indicating there’s an evolutionary purpose to the risk-taking behavior that teens seem compelled, despite their own better judgement, to engage in. Taking risks serves to prepare young people to become independent, leave home and start their own lives, the article states. That’s something I’m guessing most parents would endorse. But that doesn’t make parenting, especially parenting teens, any less scary.

From the time you welcome a child into your home through birth or adoption it seems life becomes one great video game in which hazards and threats pop up on the horizon either aimed at your child or toward which your child is rushing headlong. At some point, you’ve got to let go of her hand, the bicycle seat, the car keys … and the notion you ever really had much control to begin with.

Probably the scariest thing is remembering yourself at the same age. I will not hereby recount some of my teenage risk-taking behaviors because I don’t want readers to think I’m glorifying stupidity.

Happy Mother’s Day to all, especially the moms of those lucky lemmings on skateboards.

Chris Henry

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