Peninsular Thinking A conversation about Bremerton, Port Orchard, Poulsbo, Silverdale, Bainbridge Island, Kingston, Manchester, Seabeck, Southworth, Suquamish, Belfair, Keyport, Olalla, Bangor, Hansville, Indianola, Port Gamble, Allyn, Port Ludlow, Gig Harbor and every once in a while something about the good folks who don't have the good fortune to live here.
The two monitors, worth about
$40,000 each, allow emergency responders to better view heart rates
while CPR is in progress, said Steve Engel, with North Kitsap Fire
and Rescue.
The monitors also send
heart readings directly to Harrison Medical Center to see if
patients require surgery for blocked heart arteries.
The hospital began receiving
heart readings from emergency responders at a scene in 2014,
although not all area fire authorities have monitors capable of
sending readings.
South Kitsap and North Mason do
not have the technology, according to Kari Driskell with the
hospital foundation.
The foundation’s goal is to
supply five monitors to South Kitsap and North Mason. A grant for
one monitor in South Kitsap has been secured, Driskell
said.
The Suquamish Tribe donated the
funds needed for North Kitsap’s two monitors, although fundraising
continues for a third one in North Kitsap.
Bremerton, Poulsbo and
Bainbridge Island already have updated heart monitors.
The foundation’s $1 million
project is to supply each of the county’s fire agencies with
updated heart monitors and CPR machines, as well as launch a CPR
smartphone app.
The app, called PulsePoint, aims
to alert those who know CPR when they are in the proximity of
someone experiencing cardiac arrest in a public
location.
PulsePoint also would notify
users where the closest automatic external defibrillator, or AED,
is.
The CPR machines provide
nearly-perfect CPR at the proper speed and depth — 100 compressions
a minute at a depth of 2 inches — and can perform accurate chest
compression while a patient is in an ambulance.
Officials from North Kitsap
Fire, the Suquamish Tribe and the Harrison Medical Center
Foundation at the North Kitsap Fire headquarters
Tuesday.
Vida Shapanus watched U.S. planes fly through the night to
Normandy, France, for the D-Day Invasion on June 6, 1944.
She was serving as an American military nurse in the British
Isles during World War II. Although there were rumors around the
base of a U.S. invasion coming, she didn’t know where the planes
had been going at the time.
Vida Shapanus, far right, and
friends during their World War II deployment in Wales.
Two days after D-Day, Vida started treating soldiers from the
invasion who had been stabilized in field hospitals and sent to her
base in Wales.
Now, the 93-year-old Poulsbo resident is looking to print a book
about her military service experience, including the night of D-Day
planes.
Vida is searching for a professional editor, graphic artist and
publisher to help finish the book, said her oldest daughter, Joanna
Shapanus.
Vida grew up in Fresno, California, where she graduated from
nursing school in 1943 before joining the Air Force as a nurse. She
has lived in Kitsap County since 1990.
She met her husband Tony Shapanus, who died Oct. 20, 1998,
during basic training. They kept in contact through letters as
friends during the war and started dating once she returned to the
states. They have four children, six grandchildren and six great
grandchildren.
She was stationed at a rural base made of portable buildings
surrounded by farmland in Wales.
“We had livestock wandering through the hospital grounds,” she
said.
Once she ran straight into a cow during a night duty.
“I bumped into something big and solid,” she said. “One end
mooed at me.”
No lights were allowed on the base at night and only a small
flashlight pointed at your feet could be used to move around, she
said.
Vida Shapanus, 93
She spent less than two years in the British Isles before coming
back to the states to be discharged in January 1946.
While overseas she saw the wreckage of London from Nazi bombing,
and rode a French cruise ship refurbished as a military vessel
since it had been left behind when Germany invaded France.
Although she kept in contact with several nursing friends she
made during the war, all of them have died.
Jeromy Sullivan, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe chairman, has felt
conflicted about the old mill site in Port Gamble.
While the mill had been a source of jobs for those in the area,
including tribal members like Sullivan’s father, it has left toxic
waste and creosote pilings across the bay from the reservation and
Point Julia.
Tribal members and friends
gather at the closed mill site in Port Gamble to bless the
bay.
The mill closed in 1994, although major cleanup begins at the
end of next month.
The state Department of Ecology and Pope Resources will begin
cleanup August 22, according the tribe.
Sullivan said it has felt strange to him that the site has not
been blessed and prayed for, which the tribe changed Thursday
morning.
The mill site and bay cleanup will include removing of about
70,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment and wood waste, a
derelict vessel and 6,000 creosote pilings along with overwater
structures.
It is the biggest creosote piling removals in state history.
Friends say goodbye after the
bay blessing Thursday, July 23, 2015.
The cleanup will take about two years, with the first year being
the south portion of the former mill. Piling removal and cleanup on
the north area of the site will take place the second year.
While cleanup is taking place there will be increased water
traffic.
On average, at least three vessels will be needed on site at any
one time.
Vessels are not to be on or come too close to the Point Julia
side of the bay where the Port Gamble S’Klallam Reservation is.
The tribe will hold community events and celebrations at Point
Julia during the cleanup.
The Rifes have five children and two of them still live at
home.
Rife’s mother stays at home to take care of the two youngest
children and her father is a retired Navy veteran with 22 years of
service, according to the fundraising page.
The online campaign has raised more than $1,000 in a day with a
goal of $10,000.
Jim Norberg, 53, and his daughter, Kayli Norberg, 14, were
airlifted to Harborview Medical Center with critical injuries,
according to the campaign website.
Kayli had head injuries and a broken femur in the wreck, and her
father had head injuries, two shattered ankles, a shattered
femur and a lacerated liver, along with multiple other broken
bones.
Residents and supporters cram
into the Poulsbo City Council chambers to hear proposals for what
the Little Valley Ball Field should become.
Poulsbo’s park board will be recommending two of four proposals
for Little Valley Ball Field — a bike track and softball field — to
the City Council.
The board ranked the proposal after every organization presented
Monday night at Poulsbo City Hall where a crowd of residents and
supporters spilled out into the hallway.
“We certainly know this process works,” said Mary McCluskey,
Parks and Recreation Department director. “That was the best part
of it. Know what? We could do this again if we had another piece of
property.”
Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance West Sound Chapter proposed a
bike pump track, while the Diamond Dusters wanted a “home” softball
field. North Kitsap Little League also wanted to leave the property
as a ball field to use for practice, and Kitsap Children’s Musical
Theater wanted a new facility for rehearsal space.
The board did not discuss why the bike track and softball field
proposals were chosen over children’s theater or the little league
field, although McCluskey said it was likely a combination of
factors, such as timeline, cost, support and the organization’s
need.
While five proposals had originally been submitted to the city,
one — a solar park proposal — was withdrawn at the request of
PIE Inc. owner Pedro Valverde, who told the city via email that
partners for the $1 million project did not come through.
The children’s theater proposal also had changes announced at
Monday’s presentations. The Kitsap Children’s Musical Theater
decided to scale back plans for a $5 million performance and
rehearsal center to a $3.9 million rehearsal only facility.
The project would take about five years to complete fundraising
and construction.
After the board announced its recommendation, the neighbor who
shares a driveway with the ball field spoke up about concerns with
being able to leave and enter his property, along with preventing
contamination to the shallow wells on his and his father’s property
nearby.
Maurice “Gene” Foster, who has lived by the park for 55 years,
told the board he did not want to favor any one proposal, although
he wanted the board and the city to consider his comments.
“I really support the children of this community,” he said. “I
built that field. I built that driveway. Every time we have asked
the teams to keep the driveway vacant, I’ve had to weave around
cars and ask people to move.”
Poulsbo City Council will consider the parks board
recommendation, although council members will review all four
proposals.
The final proposal must meet building code and environmental
standards, McCluskey said.
The bus makes a full loop around town about every 30 minutes,
giving riders access to the Doctors Clinic and Group Health, the
Poulsbo library branch, Hostmark Apartments, downtown, Olympic
College, WalMart, Central Market and the NK Medical Center.
Poulsbo has three bus routes running Monday through
Saturday.
Kitsap Transit buses do not operate on Sunday anywhere in Kitsap
County.
Poulsbo City Councilwoman Linda
Berry-Maraist announced her resignation in December. She was an
advocate for the city’s parks and area trails. LARRY STEAGALL /
KITSAP SUN
Poulsbo City Council
will interview four candidates and appoint a new member Wednesday
night to Linda Berry-Maraist’s vacant seat.
Berry-Maraist announced her resignation at the end of last year
to focus on family and starting her career back up. Her term did
not end until December 2015, along with three other council
members’ terms.
Boone Eidsmoe, Hunter McIntosh, Kenneth Thomas and Shane Skelley
are vying for the seat.
Each candidates said they would like to run for election in
November.
Council members serve four-year terms and earn $6,000 a
year.
BOONE EIDSMOE
Eidsmoe, a recent graduate of North Kitsap High School, is a
sale associate at Dahlquist Fine Jewelry in Poulsbo. During his
time at North Kitsap High he was the drama president where he
helped budget for projects and productions, his application
says.
Eidsmoe also is the youngest Poulsbo Lion’s Club member, joining
last year. His volunteer work includes helping rebuild trails
around Raab Park.
His three highest priorities for the city would be dealing with
the issue of drugs and homelessness, along with bringing more
businesses to Viking Way.
HUNTER MCINTOSH
McIntosh is the managing director with The Boat Company where he
has worked since 2000, with a two-year stint in computer
communications from 2006 to 2008. The Boat Company is a “nonprofit
educational organization offering luxury eco-cruises through
Southeast Alaska,” according to its website.
McIntosh’s career has been spent working with environmental
policy for nonprofits, his application says.
His earned his bachelor’s degree in political science,
communication and marketing from Sacred Heart University in
Connecticut in 1999.
McIntosh has lived in Poulsbo for two years, and half of his
community involvement is in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington,
D.C. He served on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission, the
Environmental Policy Commission and the Youth Policy
Commission.
His three highest priorities would be redeveloping Viking
Avenue, create a “college town” with Olympic College and strengthen
the city’s position as a destination local via water access.
KENNETH THOMAS
Thomas bought a Poulsbo home in 2009, before becoming a
full-time resident there in 2012.
He is a retired Naval officer, working with the Navy for about
20 years and was most recently responsible for a maintenance
training program in the Puget Sound region last year.
Previously he taught high school and middle school in Arizona
from 2001 to 2005, after working with the Navy since 1982.
He also served as an elected Goodyear City Councilman in Arizona
from 1977 to 1979.
Thomas earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at
Arizona State University in 1991 and a master’s in secondary
education from the same university in 1997. He also earned a
bachelor’s in history at Regents College in New York in 1991, and
“completed graduate-level courses in public administration,” which
was taught by city managers, his application says.
His top three priorities as councilman would be preparing the
city for review of its urban growth areas in 2016, ensuring public
safety with a well staffed and trained police department, and
maintaining Poulsbo’s quality of life and character..
SHANE SKELLEY
Skelley is a general contractor and owner of Skelley Works LLC
in Poulsbo, which he started in 1998.
His company does bid on public works projects, his application
said, and it has helped with city projects, including the
educational amphitheater at Fish Park.
Skelley has lived in Poulsbo seven years, graduated from North
Kitsap High School in 1993 and attended Clatsop Community College
in Oregon from 1993-1995.
He was a member of the Poulsbo Planning Commission and Port of
Poulsbo Citizen advisory board. He is currently a member of the
Poulsbo Rotary Club and Poulsbo Chamber of Commerce.
Skelley’s top three priorities would be “keeping ahead of new
storm regulations,” establish stormwater fee incentives for
commercial and residential property owners to reduce impervious
surfaces, and help streamline permitting processes, “especially
when it relates to habitat restorations and projects involving non
profits,” according to Skelley’s application.
Technology has made Poulsbo’s Community Police Advisory Board
obsolete, leading to the City Council disbanding it.
The board was established in 1991 to “ensure quality citizen
input and information exchange concerning police services and
programs,” Police Chief Al Townsend told the City Council Wednesday
night.
Before Twitter, Facebook or even easy access to the internet,
the board members were the connection between the community and
police department.
It was not an investigative, watchdog or review board, Townsend
said.
Townsend and the Poulsbo Police communicate directly with
citizens these days using an email newsletter and Townsend’s
Twitter feed, which has nearly 700 followers.
“These new methods of communication reach a considerably wider
audience and supply immediate feedback from both supporters and
critics of the police department,” Townsend said.
The department doesn’t have a Facebook. It’s too trendy for that
right now.
“The high schoolers tell me that is old school,” Townsend
replied in a tweet.
The Twitter account is where the department reaches its younger
and “more mobile audience,” he said.
Beyond emails and Twitter, the department has neighborhood
meetings, survey audits for those that contact the police and
individual meetings with citizens.
“I still have meetings with people in our community routinely. I
had one this morning at 8, another one at 1:30,” Townsend said
Wednesday. “We are still reaching out. We’re still doing the
one-on-one conversations with people, but now we have new methods
to reach a much wider audience.”
While online communication grows, the department was struggling
to fill the nine board seats and had only seven members.
“People’s schedules have changed over the years,” Townsend said
before noting evening meetings are difficult for residents to
routinely make, pointing to the small audience of four at the
council meeting.
Mayor Becky Erickson also noted that when the board first formed
there were no City Council committees, which now include a public
safety committee chaired by Councilwoman Connie Lord.
“We’ve really multiplied ways we do outreach to our community,”
Erickson said.
Lord said that with current technology and outreach programs the
Community Police Advisory Board’s time has “come and gone.”
The monitors also send
heart readings directly to Harrison Medical Center to see if
patients require surgery for blocked heart arteries.
