The Kitsap County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday on the formation of a Utility Local Improvement District to provide sewer service to Manchester residents within the ULID boundary. A majority of residents within the proposed ULID earlier this year submitted a petition to the county for sewer service. The public hearing is required by law.

The Port Orchard Chamber of Commerce is working with the City of Port Orchard and other groups to spiffy up the towns image through branding campaign. A survey soliciting residents’ and visitors’ impressions of the town and the area will remain up through the rest of today. So speak now or forever hold your peace.

To have a little fun, I ran the draft “brand positioning statement” from the Web site through one of those word cloud programs that visually highlight prominent words in a block of text, and here’s what I came up with.

Hmmmm, does this make the Port Orchard community the big easy of the Kitsap Peninsula?

Here’s the logo they’re considering using.

To which I might add … “but hurry, we’re filling up fast.”

The Port Orchard City Council will vote tonight on an open space tax classification request from Laurie Walton, the owner of a 10-acre property on Melcher Street. Walton could be the first city resident to receive a tax break through classification of her land as open space. The city is likely to see more such applications as its boundaries expand through annexation, said Development Director James Weaver

Walton’s property, which she and her late husband Bob bought in 1972, is zoned for eight dwelling units per acre, but she wants to leave it undeveloped. Hers is the first open-space application to come before the city council, which held public hearing on her request May 26. The public hearing will continue tonight before the vote is taken.

Vivian Henderson, speaking strictly “as a taxpayer,” testified at the hearing. Henderson, well known in Kitsap as executive director of the Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners, emphasized that she was not in any way representing that organization in this particular testimony. KAPO advocates for individual property owners’ rights.

Henderson said she sympathized with Walton, whose property taxes doubled (from about $3,000 per year to $6,000 per year) when her land was reassessed within the past three years. “Six thousand dollars in taxes for a nine-acre property is absurd,” said Henderson. “I don’t blame Mrs. Walton, but I don’t want to pay her taxes. I have a hard enough time paying my taxes as it is.”

Henderson objected to the provision for extending a tax break to those who leave their land as open space as “a fairness issue.” She said the entire tax system is unfair and burdensome.

Walton, as a widow receives disability benefits and works at a daycare. The fact she has a choice piece of land does not make her a member of the privileged gentry, she said. “My wages, trust me, are not great. … I feel bad if I make someone else’s burden. I’m just trying to see a way I can keep my land.”

The City of Port Orchard with Brem- Air Disposal is holding its semi-annual clean-up week, during which residents can dispose of mattresses, furniture and assorted junk at reduced cost. There is a fee for some items. The resident pays for these items in advance in the Treasurer’s Office at City Hall and places them, along with other allowed cleanup week rubbish, at the street curb with their regular trash on their regular pick-up day. If you have questions about what’s “allowed clean-up week rubbish” call City Hall at (360) 876-4407.

I’ve been out of town. For those of you who missed the spring clean-up on your trash day, there will be another in the fall.

Here’s more from the city’s Web site:
“White goods, such as stoves, washers, dryers, refrigerators, and freezers can be included for Clean – Up week. The City will, for a fee, haul white goods/appliances to be recycled. Fees for white goods/appliances should be paid, in advance, at the Treasurer’s Office located in City Hall. The City will take items, that have been paid for, to the recycle site. White goods/appliances must be placed at the curb on the normal garbage collection day.”

This is a follow up to a blog post I wrote earlier, in which I reviewed the comments of incumbent city council members Fred Chang and Carolyn Powers, running for re-election. I have since heard from challengers, Amy Igloi-Matsuno, up against Chang (position 6), and Cindy Lucarelli, challenging Powers for position 2.

Tomorrow in the Kitsap Sun, we are running an overview of the first day of filing week. I will run more detailed stories on individual races, and candidates, including their positions and backgrounds, at a later date. For now, emerging as issues in this race are age and length of service.

Lucarelli, a co-organizer of the upcoming Cedar Cove Days, admires all Powers has done for the city, but says she herself has new ideas and energy to offer.
“I think someone who’s been on the council for 22 years, it’s time to step over and give someone else a term,” she said.
Powers disagrees. She will campaign on her years of service to the city.
“I don’t believe in term limits,” she said. “I think the public can vote people in or out as they see, if it’s warranted.”

Port Orchard Mayor Lary Coppola said Powers is the only candidate he would “openly support” in this race.
“I believe Carolyn has done a great job for 22 years,” he said. “She has institutional knowledge that goes back before her late husband was mayor, and I don’t think we want to lose that.”
Powers supported Coppola in his campaign for mayor in 2007, according to his campaign Web site.
“It has nothing to do with Cindy,” Coppola said. “It’s about … Carolyn has been very supportive of what we’ve tried to accomplish, and we don’t want to lose that momentum.”

Coppola said he won’t take sides in any other races. He said he and Fred Chang have sometimes been portrayed as ideologically opposed – a factor Chang cited in Igloi-Matsuno’s challenge since she, like Coppola, sees things from a business owner’s perspective. (Chang is a public relations officer for the state Department of Transportation). But, said Coppola, “I don’t think Fred and I are that opposed on most things. I think we think alike on most things.” Chang said more or less the same.

Coppola went on to say, “On the other hand, Amy brings a totally different perspective. She’s 28 or 29 (28 actually), a successful entrepreneur. People like her are the future of the city. We have to listen to them as well.”

Chang is 50.

And while we’re talking about age, don’t bother asking Powers. She never has and never will give her age in connection with a campaign. “I don’t think it’s relevant, and I never have discussed my age publicly,” she said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the job I’m doing, and I will be doing.”

Lucarelli has followed her opponent’s suit and won’t say how old she is – “It just kind of labels you” – except to hint “I’m old enough to have a 24-year-old daughter.

The reason the issue of age came up at all (Other than the mayor’s comment about Igloi-Matsuno), is that we run candidates’ ages in stories on the Kitsap Sun. I think when I’ve let the term limits poll run its course (main page of blog through Wednesday), I need to do one on what relevance, if any, age has to do with public service. We also list ages of people in key positions, such as school district superintendent.

I’ve been kind of fixated on age since I did the story about the centenarians in Kitsap County. I have a clipping in my desk from a magazine (can’t remember which one – probably something only old pharts like me are interested in):

“What you should have learned about memories by age … 50: You learn from your mistakes; 75: You learn from your kids mistakes; 100: You realize there were no mistakes.

BTW: I tuned 54 last month.