Josh Farley writes:
Q: How does one sum up the life of the 2013 Bremerton City Council?
A: In verse, of course. Happy holidays, everyone.
***
Bremerton’s City Council, which started with nine,
in January became eight, when
Roy Runyon resigned.
The Council acted quickly to replace the space,
Wendy Priest, they found,
to be a familiar face.
There was much work to be done, too many parks to fund,
so former Mayor Bozeman was
put under the gun,
To find a solution, a way to sustain parklands,
and luckily for the city,
volunteers would lend a hand.
The city faced a choice, when
Craig Rogers retired,
and found a new police chief, who
vowed to catch frequent flyers.
In public works, the city said,
the payments weren’t enough,
So they pushed utility rates up,
without much of a huff.
Too many homes abandoned, Councilman Younger decreed,
So Council mandated they be licensed, and
it passed with esprit.
And not only them, the Council the wished to heighten,
the requirements for landlords,
and for them to be licensed.
A groundswell then formed, to study the city auditor,
They started to wonder,
what city did he monitor?
They discussed all the merits, but they couldn’t get past
one,
the public would react,
like they were pulling a fast one.
So the auditor stayed, said the conference center was
bleeding,
The city responded with what they felt it was needing.
The city said an expansion,
would bring in lots of revenue,
it was only losing money, because growing it was overdue.
And speaking of downtown,
the trees on Fourth Street,
had to go, the city said, for they were tearing up concrete.
But a backlash ensued, and tree huggers raised hell,
and a tree group was formed,
to find which would be felled.
The Council then decided, that regulations were too tight,
drive-thrus could come back, to the car lover’s delight.
But pedestrians and bikes, they would have victories too,
Lower Wheaton and
Washington, will get multimodal avenues.
Grants would cover those, street maintenance they could not,
so the Council decided, that
utility fees could be brought.
And all this despite, an election fight that pressed,
one the mayor and the judge, and
all council members would address.
Patty Lent and Todd Best,
did battle for the mayor,
in the end,
Lent prevailed, despite the naysayers.
The Tourism Bureau, the Council decided,
wasn’t pulling its weight,
and ought to be chided.
The new year will bring new faces to the table,
our second term mayor will hope
the seven’s able.
One thing is certain, for the Council’s 2014,
a lot of energy, they will need, or at least some caffeine.
Blogger’s note: The fight over electric vehicle charging stations on the Pacific Avenue improvement project was omitted from the year in verse. On purpose.
