Peninsular Thinking

A repaving project on Sedgwick Road hit a glitch earlier this week, when crews from the paving company contracted by the city of Port Orchard found areas of wetland upon tearing off the old roadway.
That’s no surprise said Public Works Director Mark Dorsey, who noted the road was put laid over a marshy area long before rules of the Shoreline Management Act would have made it hard if not impossible to do so.
The goal of state shoreline laws is to have “no net loss” of functioning wetlands and shorelines. Development in and around some wetlands is allowed depending on how they score on a system the state uses to rate functionality, like how well they absorb water and filter pollutants. Development allowed on or near wetlands these days must be offset or mitigated by the builder’s enhancement of other wetland areas.
As it is, Sedgwick is grandfathered in, with no mitigation required. Crews filled in squishy areas on the roadway, then put down a layer of asphalt. More asphalt is needed, but first they need to see if the issue with wet areas is solved.
The road, which has been closed all week, will be open on schedule Saturday, but crews will be looking for the new asphalt to “proof” or set up. If it breaks apart and settles as cars drive over it, more fill work will have to be done, Dorsey said.
The city council on Tuesday authorized an additional expenditure of up to $50,000 for the required fix. The original cost of the job was estimated at $191,605. The extra money is available in the city’s street fund.

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In researching a story on Port Orchard’s water quality, I was introduced to the state Department of Health’s Office of Drinking Water’s database on all systems in the state.

As you’ll read in the story, despite periodic episodes of discolored water in the Tremont Street – Pottery Avenue area, Port Orchard hasn’t had a report that raises any red flags with the state since 2004. That was for coliform bacteria, which a state DOH official explained to me is an “indicator” of possible contamination, calling for follow-up testing. In this case the follow up tests were within normal limits, said Bonnie Waybright of the Office of Drinking Water.

You’ll see a number of tests showing coliform bacteria through the years dating back to 1985, which is the extent of the online data. There are a couple episodes of e coli, including one as recently as 2002. Again, Waybright said, follow up tests showed no contamination with e coli.

My story explains the basics of water testing protocol and precautions taken for various types of contaminants, so I won’t repeat it here.

Linda Waring, DOH spokeswoman, gives the following tips on using the database.

“Port Orchard’s Water System ID is 68900. If you enter this number and leave the other boxes blank, it will pull up their monitoring history. You can also search by name. The tabs you’ll need are labeled “Samples” and “Exceedances.” Samples will give you all of their water quality results. Exceedances will show any samples that exceeded acceptable limits. If you click the sample number next to each test, the link will show you the exact results and the name of the lab that did the test.”

Waring says, “Discolored water is not an unusual complaint. Color and sediment are aesthetic concerns that do not pose a health risk.”

Here’s a link to a fact sheet that discusses color, taste and odor problems in drinking water.

The city’s proposed water rate hike is unrelated to the problems with well 9, which affect a relatively small geographic area and number of homes, said Public Works Director Mark Dorsey.

Contact the city’s public works department at (360) 876-4991 or (360) 876-2722.

Here’s a copy of the state’s certification of the water system.
POh2oOK

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Discussion of a proposed water rate hike in Port Orchard continued last week (Aug. 9) with a public hearing and sometimes testy testimony.

The council was to have continued discussion of the water rate increase at its Tuesday (today/Aug. 16) study session. But Public Works Director Mark Dorsey said that the deluge of public comment led the city’s utility committee to take a step back and recommend deferral of a vote on the rate hike until September.

Among those who commented on Aug. 9, city council meeting regular Gerry Harmon spoke on her proposal to charge by the gallon instead of the city’s current method of charging a base rate and adding a per gallon consumption charge above 5,000 gallons.

The city has 7 rate tiers. Each tier adds a higher consumption charge per gallon for the amount of water used above the tier threshold. That charge is added to base rate plus the maximum charge for the previous tier.

City officials say the utility must charge a base rate (currently $22.50 per month), because of the cost just to have the system up and running (no pun intended). In other words, it costs the city $22.50 to deliver even one gallon of water.

Harmon’s calculations were hypothetical, as if the city were to impose the rate increase. The city, in its response to Harmon, used current rates and its most recently audited data back to 2009. Treasurer Allan Martin said the city by law must deal in absolute numbers, not hypotheticals when making projections.

Both parties showed that indeed the price per gallon goes down the more water that’s used. Harmon’s calculations show the price per gallon leveling out at about 144,000 gallons. The city’s price per gallon leveled out after 133,000 gallons and increased slightly at 150,001+ gallons before leveling out again.

City officials, including Martin, met with Harmon before the public hearing to show their calculations and conclusions in response to Harmon’s question, “Wouldn’t it be more fair to charge a straight per gallon on cost?”

Harmon contends that the current system rewards high volume users, but there is no incentive for people like herself, who actively conserve water.

Of high volume users, she said, “Even though they have a higher water bill, they’re getting their water for less per gallon than the other people. To me it says use it right up to your limit.”

The propose rate hike does offer a discount to people who use less than 3,000 gallons per month. But there is no conservation incentive throughout the 7 tiers.

Martin, in a memo to Harmon and the city’s utility committee, outlines three possible methods for promoting conservation:
-> An increasing block rate, with the users in the first block charged at one rate, the users in the second block charged more and so on
-> High use surcharges, essentially a punishment for higher than average water use
-> Seasonal rates, in which prices rise and fall according to water demand and weather conditions

But Martin said any city must be careful with conservation incentive programs. Generally, the higher volume users have more ways and more leeway to conserve water, while residential users’ needs — based on number of people in the household and other relatively fixed factors — don’t have a lot of wiggle room. Conservation programs actually could have the unintended consequence of placing more of the burden on residential users, Martin said.

Utilities, like water, sewer and stormwater, by law must be run as separate funds from the city’s (or county’s) general fund, and they must be self-sustaining. Revenue from the utility must support delivery of the service without subsidy. So the city is limited in how much it can alter rates without running in the red, Martin said. The city’s water service has been running in the red, utility committee members say, and the purpose of the rate hike is to get back in the black.

The city has a rate formula designed so that each group of users (residential, commercial, city, other government, churches and irrigation) bears its proportionate share of the cost to run the whole utility. The percentages fluctuate a few points either way, from year to year, Martin said, but generally the formula works out.

In 2010, residential users, who as a group consumed just more than 67 percent of the water, paid nearly 69.5 per cent of the total cost. In 2009, however, the group used nearly 69.6 percent of the water and paid just more than 59 percent of the total revenue to the water fund.

In 2010, commercial users consumed 19.72 percent of the water and paid 18.82 percent of the revenue; in 2009, they consumed 18.90 and paid 21.07.

Harmon said she was frustrated that it took this long to get the city to actually run the numbers, and she doesn’t buy the thing about the hypotheticals. She’d like to see the city’s calculations using figures proposed by the utility committee.

Those figures could change, and if the committee’s move back-to-the drawing board is any indication, they are likely to do so.

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PORT ORCHARD — That One Place, 1386 SE Lund Ave., was featured Friday on Candy & Potter’s Hole in the Wall Tour. The KMPS country radio hosts held their morning show at the restaurant, which was chosen from listener nominations, according to restaurant owner Craig Kenady. Breakfast was on KMPS for their first 94 people, and Port Orchard Mayor Lary Coppola was there to represent his fair city and help raise funds for South Kitsap Helpline.

Coppola was featured earlier this week on a radio spot with Candy & Potter. Potter mangled his name, as many non-locals do, by calling him Mayor Coppola, as in Francis Ford etc.

Coppola staunchly upheld the city’s honor, when Potter asked about what he understood to be a standing rivalry between South Kitsap and North Kitsap.

Coppola: “Nah, but there is one, Port Orchard versus Bremerton, or like we call it, Bummerton. We like to think we win, you know?

Me: Ah, Grasshopper, I have trained you well.

Candy: Right, at the end of the day, Port Orchard would be the one left standing?

Coppola: That’s what we think.

Coppola politely declined Candy’s invitation to do an on-air imitation of a seagull, Port Orchard’s mascot and subject of its wacky annual seagull calling contest, set this year for May 29 on the waterfront.

“Oh, I don’t do the seagull call,” Coppola said. “I get to judge them. I don’t do them. You know, I have a grandson that does it, and it’d be a conflict of interest for me to do anything else, you know?”

Candy (laughing): And now, we’ve met Lary the politician.

Me: Honey, you have NO idea!

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What would you like to see happen with the city of Port Orchard’s parks?

There’s been some discussion of the city taking over the county’s Veteran’s Memorial Park, which is popular with soccer teams. The park already is within city limits, and the county is having budget problems. What do you think of this idea?

What else would you like to see done to improve city parks?

How would you rate city parks overall?

What is your favorite city park? Why?

The city of Port Orchard is is looking for citizens’ input on it parks. The city is updating its comprehensive parks plan and is seeking city residents willing to volunteer on a parks planning subcommittee.

A meeting of the subcommittee is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at city hall. Other meetings are set for April 20, May 18 and June 18, according to the city’s website.

The city has grown and expanded through annexation over the past several years, nearly doubling its population and acreage. The parks plan needs to be updated to reflect and respond to that growth.

The subcommittee will be made up of Port Orchard residents, planning commission members and elected officials. A draft City Parks Plan must be submitted to the Port Orchard Planning Commission and City Council by December.

A city parks survey will be available in March on city’s website at http://www.cityofportorchard.us/city-parks-plan. Citizens’ comments will be incorporated into the parks planning process. Those who wish can be included in an “interested parties” list.

Comments and suggestions can be sent to City of Port Orchard, 216 Prospect Street, Port Orchard, WA 98366, or e-mailed to Planning@cityofportorchard.us.

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On Tuesday, the Port Orchard City Council formally approved a resolution naming the roundabout at Bethel Road and Mile Hill Drive after the late “Great Dane” Niels Nielsen, a long-time member of Rotary clubs in Bremerton and Port Orchard.

Nielsen, born March 24, 1932, in Kalundborg, Denmark, died Dec. 2 of a heart attack while cruising the Rhine River in Germany with his wife Margie. The couple have lived in South Kitsap for many years.

The Port Orchard Rotary installed and maintains landscaping on the roundabout, which includes flowers, shrubs and a flowing fountain. Kristy Ewing, representing the organization, said the tribute would be fitting because of all Nielsen did both locally and abroad on behalf of Rotary International.

“He was the consummate Rotarian,” she said. “He was a humanitarian who exemplified the Rotary motto of service above self.”

As I found out covering his memorial on Jan. 1, he also was a colorful and exuberant character who pretty much broke the mold.

“There’s no way to describe Niels,” Ewing said.

As a Rotary ambassador, he traveled to scores of cities in all continents but Antarctica. He helped found new branches of the service organization and promoted humanitarian projects, for which he was honored by the Rotary Club of Port Orchard with its first ever Lifetime Achievement Award..

During the 1990s in Russia, he helped fledgling Rotarians embrace their new-found freedoms. He later traveled to Vietnam more than eight times to help establish orphanages and programs for children injured by land mines, through Rotary’s Kids First initiative.

On one of Nielsen’s trips to Vietnam, in a remote area, the group was offered blood from a snake freshly killed at the table. While most of the party choked back gags, Nielsen happily added the proffered liquid to his beer and offered up many a toast to his awestruck hosts.

When it came to securing speakers for Rotary meetings, Nielsen was known for pushing the envelope. His guests over the years included a nightclub owner with alleged Mafia ties and a former prostitute, who founded the Seattle organization COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) seeking to decriminalize prostitution.

Several members of the city council who knew Nielsen, agreed that honoring him by naming the roundabout after him was an appropriate gesture the city could make.

“He was great guy, very energetic,” said Councilwoman Carolyn Powers. “It seemed like he was always laughing and smiling but serious about Rotary and his business.”

Even Councilman Jerry Childs, who doesn’t believe city property should be named after people, said he’d bend the rules in recognition of Nielsen’s reputation and the Rotary club’s dedication to maintaining the roundabout. “I’m really pleased with what the Rotary’s done,” he said.

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A YMCA in Port Orchard?

Why not, says Mayor Lary Coppola, who broached the topic on his Facebook page with this comment on Feb. 8, “I’d like some feedback on the idea of undertaking a major capital campaign to build a YMCA like the ones in Gig Harbor and Silverdale in Port Orchard. Click ‘Like’ if you think this is a good idea. If not, leave a comment about why not. Thanks!”

On Feb. 11, I asked the mayor what were the chances of a Y in SK (South Kitsap for you out of towners). He said he was approached by some people with 18 acres on Bethel Road, a possible site, who floated the idea by him. To bring the idea to fruition, there would have to be a capital campaign and whole lot of legwork.

In Silverdale, the Haselwood Family YMCA is taking shape and on schedule to open in July. Talk of a YMCA began in the late 1990s, spearheaded by the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority. But the housing authority was no longer involved from 2008 on, due to it financial struggles. Planning in earnest for a Y, which is the first piece of the Central Kitsap Community Campus, began in 2007.

In 2009, an agreement approved by the Kitsap County Board of Commissioners paved the way for the Y, to be built by YMCA of Tacoma-Pierce County.

The total cost of the project is $15 million. The county will contribute $1 million from real estate excise taxes, as well as use of the land — an in-kind contribution of approximately $2.5 million. The county has applied for grants to help cover its portion of the cost. The rest of the project cost will be covered by the capital campaign, which got big boosts from the Haselwood and Ross families.

Coppola said he would support the city’s involvement in helping bring a YMCA to South Kitsap. “If a citizens’ group wanted to get together and do this, I’d be behind it,” Coppola said.

On Feb. 11, Coppola posted on his Facebook page a link to a new group “Port Orchard Wants a YMCA!” The group was created by South Kitsap developer Lars Kvinsland of Peninsula Brokers Real Estate Inc. So far, there are two members, Kvinsland and Coppola.

What do you think about a YMCA in South Kitsap/Port Orchard? Do you think a capital campaign would take off? What if any role should the city of Port Orchard play in bringing the YMCA to the community? (Take the poll on the homepage of this blog.)

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Bremerton gets yet another a new statue. Port Orchard gets sewer TV. Right, that’s how we roll in the big PO.

Or as my son would say, “Why would anyone want sewer TV? Oh, yeah, there’s some healthy poop.”

I’m guessing it has something to do with checking on the soundness of PO pipes, kind of like a city-wide colonoscopy. The company they’re contracting with is “C-More Pipe Services.” Folks, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. It came from the Port Orchard City Council agenda for this Tuesday.

And as we’re all learning, much is riding on what runs downhill.

Here are the highlights of the meeting:

Tuesday
Port Orchard
7 p.m.: At city hall, the Port Orchard City Council will hold a public hearing on the city’s Six-Year Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) for Years 2011-2016 and later vote on its approval; the council also will authorize the mayor to approve a contract for “sewer TV” (and lining maintenance) with C-More Pipe Services. The council also will approve a public event, Celebrate Life Walk for Life and 5K.

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This question came up a several times over the past week.

First, I was contacted about a candidate’s financial woes by someone in real estate who reads legal notices religiously.

Second, I heard about a woman who was wondering if she could get a “blurb” about the estate sale she was holding for a late family member. She was taking out a classified ad, which is in the same general neighborhood of the newspaper, which is what made me think of it. Part of the proceeds were to go to combat pancreatic cancer. I told her about “The Rail,” where we run such items (file them on our online calendar or submit to sunnews@kitsapsun.com). In the end, she decided a legal notice would be adequate.

Third, I wrote about a bit of a dust-up between Councilman Fred Chang and Port Orchard Mayor Lary Coppola over the bidding process for the city’s newspaper of record. It’s all been settled now, but in the course of my interview, the mayor and I discussed the importance of online publication, given the mass migration to the Internet.

Here at the Kitsap Sun, where we just celebrated our 75th anniversary of publication, the print edition is hardly dead. But the online version of the Kitsap Sun is where growth and innovation is progressing at an exponential rate. That may be a bit of hyperbole, and I’m sure to hear from you mathematicians out there. But it’s not every day you celebrate 75 years of anything, let alone publishing a newspaper in this day and age, and I’m feeling a little giddy.

Back to the city of Port Orchard. Like other municipalities, the city is required to publish legal notices in print. The city prints notices online also because “web postings are just another means to reach a wider audience and provide transparency to the general public,” City Clerk Patti Kirkpatrick said.

City officials are lobbying for a new law that would allow online publication to meet the letter of the law. Online legal ads would free cities from deadlines for print editions that can slow down the public notification process. And then there’s the issue of reaching a wider audience.

On Wednesday, for example, the kitsapsun.com had 99,632 page views (or total number of clicks anywhere on the site) and 23,797 unique visitors, individuals represented by an IP address who visited the site.

According to Coppola, a bill in the last Legislative session to allow online legal notices to meet the statute never made it out of the committee. Gee, I wonder if they were a little busy with other things. But the city will try again, he said.

Coppola believes that there may be resistance to the idea among legislators of a certain age. They’re missing the handwriting on the wall, he said.

“That’s where things are moving,” Coppola said. “The legislature is really going to have to address this in the next few years.”

Coppola says as younger legislators fill the ranks, the state will be more nimble about keeping up in the digital age. That may be an unfair characterization. After all, he and plenty of other local leaders over 50 are perfectly savvy about social media.

I read legal notices sporadically; probably should make a habit of it. But what I really want to know is, who else (besides the reader who contacted me and my editor, who’s always sniffing for a good story) reads them on a regular basis? If so why? And what do you think about making online legal notices valid as the print version?

Chris Henry, reporter of a certain age and not a total digital dummy

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Wednesday
5:30 p.m.: The Port Orchard City Council Tourism and Economic Development Committee will meet with Sen Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, to talk about economic development.

Members of the Port Orchard City Council’s Tourism Committee (now the Tourism and Economic Development Committee) have been mining other jurisdictions for ideas on how the city can attract and retain businesses and lucrative industries.

(I don’t necessarily mean “industry” in the industrial revolution sense. As fast as things are changing with Internet technology, promising fields could well have to do with information delivery and management, for example. Not to mention the opposite end of the spectrum, sustainable agriculture.)

The committee is taking a close look at Tacoma-Pierce County’s Economic Development Board’s “Toolbox” especially designed for new, prospective and existing businesses. The resource is a list of tax incentives, financing options, trade resources, workforce resources, transportation, procurement resources and other key contacts.

As committee chairman Jerry Childs said, “As you can see Port Orchard has a long ways to go with our approach to business, but nonetheless, here we go!!”

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