Question: How many Kitsap Sun reporters does it take to poke fun at Port Orchard?

Answer: Three. One to dredge up old jokes that won’t die (I wonder why). One to actually pay attention to what our mayor is saying. And one to look over his shoulder in case Seattle decides it’s time for paybacks.

Authors of the Bremerton Beat tossed PO aside like a well-picked bone when a juicy new haunch of meat fell in their laps in the form of Mayor Cary Bozeman’s disparaging comments about Seattle’s waterfront. An unapologetic Bozeman made the Seattle Times front page this weekend.

Yes, the Bremerton Beat is big and important. Ooo, ah, I’m soooo impressed.

And no wonder Bremerton is full of itself. They’re in the money yet again.

Bremerton stands to get $330,000 a year for 25 years after recent changes to a bill to include Bremerton in a list of cities sharing a state revitalization pool. The money is intended to help local governments improve infrastructure, thereby encouraging private development. The idea is that the new development will raise the amount of sales taxes collected in a specific area — enough to pay back the state for its investment.

“It basically says we’re going to let you bond against future revenues that you’ll see as a result of new private-sector development,” said state Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor. Kilmer sponsored the legislation, known as Senate Bill 5045.

The bill passed in the Senate in March with a 48-0 vote. The amended bill, which includes the funding for Bremerton, passed the House on a 92-5 vote Thursday. All six Kitsap representatives voted in favor of it.

Bremerton has a great idea (kinda like those condos?) for how it will use the money. The city plans to bond against the funds to build 235 partially underground parking spaces topped by a plaza on Burwell Street between Pacific and Park Avenues.

Wow, what a concept. Why didn’t Port Orchard think of that?

Turns out they have. In February, Art Anderson & Associates unveiled a conceptual design for the city’s Town Center Revitalization Project, slated to include an underground parking garage and a new building for the city’s library. The idea is to get parking off the waterfront, create more parking and make an attractive gathering place for residents and visitors. Planning for the center, which city council members see as critical to boosting the town’s economic development, have been in the works since 2007.

On Tuesday, I’ll be at a city council work study session at which Mayor Lary Coppola (and staff) will give an update on the city’s stimulus funding requests and efforts he’s made to gain the ear of legislators. Coppola recently met with Congressman Norm Dicks, who, according to Coppola, said he’d try to work his magic for our little burg. On his list of recommended appropriations, Dicks has included $165,000 for Port Orchard’s Reclaimed Water Distribution System. (Hey, it’s a start.) Coppola has also been working with Sen. Patty Murray’s office and found them “very helpful.”

“It’s been a long time since Port Orchard has benefited from government funding, federal and state,” said Coppola, who freely admits he’s taken several pages out of Bozeman’s book. “It’s been a long time since Port Orchard has asked.”

Yes, as Coppola’s fond of saying, “Port Orchard has been the redheaded stepchild of Kitsap County for as long as we can remember, and it’s time that changed.”

Totally, I mean, can you imagine driving into town and seeing the sign, “Welcome to Port Orchard, the red-headed step-child of Kitsap County.”

The Port Orchard Chamber of Commerce is working on a branding campaign that hopefully will give PO’s image a bit of a spit shine.

Oh, well, at least we can say we don’t need a a $53 million tunnel to get the heck out of Dodge.

Deadline is today, April 20.

Port Orchard, WA — Kitsap County is asking for road project ideas and suggestions to be included in the 6-year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Each year Kitsap County Public Works completes a transportation project selection process. This year’s process determines which new roadway projects will be selected to be included in the 2010 – 2015 TIP.

Projects are scored and ranked using objective criteria. The criteria include safety and/or capacity needs, structural condition, environmental retrofits, and non-motorized needs. Projects are selected based on the availability and timing of funding, especially for State and Federally funded programs. The project selection process and TIP update happens only once each year. If you have a suggestion for a road project, now is the time to speak up. Suggestions for this year’s TIP update are accepted through April 20th.
Submit your idea online at http://www.kitsapgov.com/pw/sixyear_tip.htm. Complete information about the process, and descriptions of the type of projects considered, are also available there. Call Kitsap One (360-337-5777) if you have questions.

Citizens of Kitsap County turned out in force Wednesday — the deadline for filing federal income tax returns — to join thousands across the nation demonstrating in a Tax Day Tea Party.

The national grassroots movement takes its inspiration from the Boston Tea Party. Although they weren’t dumping any tea in the waters of Puget Sound, groups of demonstrators waved signs in Port Orchard and on the Bremerton Boardwalk, and a contingent of more than 100 Kitsap residents demonstrated in Olympia, along with several thousand other protesters, against what they say is government spending gone out of hand.

One Tax Day Tea party Web site I visited urged anyone who couldn’t take part in one of the hundreds of demonstrations going on across the country to honk their horn three times at noon.

The folks at the corner of Bethel and Lund avenues got their share of honks, waves, cheers and shouts of encouragements. I was at the demonstration for about a half-hour and did not hear anything that might be taken a criticism.

PORT ORCHARD
A candlelight vigil will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Marcus Whitman Junior High School, 1887 Madrona Drive, for the late Alina Elizabeth Brown, 14, a student at Marcus who died on Easter.
Alina suffered from a seizure disorder and was found unconscious in her bed Sunday morning, according to her Aunt Marge Shaw of Auburn. She died at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma that day.
According to Shaw, the family has had more than their share of hard luck. Their house burned down a couple of years ago, and Alina’s father, Dean Purdue Perdue was recently laid off from his job as a carpenter. Sheri Purdue Perdue, Alina’s mother, works part-time to support the family, Shaw said.
Alina was in the ninth grade at Marcus. Her family says she loved the Blazer Choir, bowling at Hi Joy Bowl and her youth group at the Church of God of Prophecy in Bremerton.
Her aunt describes her as an exceptionally loving, beautiful girl with a deep faith.
“It was almost like she was an angel on earth,” Shaw said.
Alina had seven siblings, including two younger brothers who lived in the family home, two grown brothers and three grown sisters, two of whom are in the military.
Her funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, at Miller-Woodlawn Funeral Home, 5505 Kitsap Way Bremerton.
A benevolent account has been established to help the family with expenses. Donations can be made to the Alina Brown fund at any Washington Mutual/Chase branch.

Addendum, 4:30 p.m.: As it happens, a feature story on Moondogs, Too ran Saturday in South Kitsap Life. The deadline for that publication is Tuesday, so editor Rodika Tollefson would have had no idea about the incident that occurred Friday (referenced below). The story references Moondogs family-friendly policy (kids are allowed until 7 p.m.), their open mic nights, cribbage group and fund-raisers.

See kitsapsun.com for details on a fight Friday at Moondogs, Too in downtown Port Orchard that Port Orchard Police Commander Geoffrey Marti described as “chaotic.”

“A woman was hit with a crutch, another woman with a bottle and a man attacked in the eye at a Bay Street bar early Saturday, according to the Port Orchard Police Department,” Crime and Justice reporter Josh Farley wrote.

Police eventually arrested two people in the alleged assaults, said Marti, who added his department will be forwarding their reports of the incident to the state’s liquor control board.

“There’s been what I would describe as a pattern of problems at this particular establishment that needs to be addressed,” Marti said. “And it needs to be corrected.”

Josh has a call in to owner Darryl Baldwin, who was unable to speak to him earlier. Josh will update the story with Baldwin’s comments as soon as he hears back from him.

In the meantime, I called Port Orchard Mayor Lary Coppola for his take on the situation.

The Mayor said Police Chief Al Townsend made him aware of a previous incident at Moondogs, Too. In Coppola’s opinion, two incidents don’t make a clear pattern of lax security at the bar. City Hall, however, is paying attention to this recent event and is working with Baldwin on tighter security, Coppola said.

“I don’t think this is a real pattern,” Coppola said. “From what I understand from talking to Chief Townsend, this is something that just got out of control and is not the usual way they do things there.
“Their clientele appears to me to be somewhat older as a rule, and I know they work at being family friendly.”

Baldwin is president of the Port Orchard Bay Street Merchants Association. He has held numerous community benefit events at Moondogs, including holiday dinner fund-raisers for South Kitsap Helpline food bank.

On a related note, we have no recent developments in the March 8 incident at Slip 45 in which a 40-year-old South Kitsap man was flown to Harborview after an alleged assault. A 26-year-old Port Orchard man was arrested and held on $250,000 bail in connection with the attack. Josh, who tracks Kitsap County’s courts, has not heard when the suspect’s court date is scheduled, but will follow up when he does.

PO Sgt. Dale Schuster at the time said over-serving did not appear to be a factor in the incident.

Today, Coppola said of Slip 45, “The owners there have been very, very diligent about keeping a tight rein on the clientele.”

The state Legislature has yet to finalize its 2009-11 budget, but it’s looking like South Kitsap Regional Park will receive $500,000 in Recreation Conservation Office grant funding.
The park is recommended by both the House and Senate to receive the total amount requested by Kitsap County for this budget cycle.
The county is in the first phase of expanding the developed portion of the 200 acre park. Two-thirds of the park is designated to remain in forested trails.
The grant will be used toward phase one projects on the park master plan, which was developed last year with community input. The county has also been drawing on $1.2 million in funding from its own budget dedicated in 2007 for park development.
Phase one projects include improved safety and better access at park entrances, the construction of a maintenance building, replacement of aging playground equipment, additional parking and a lighted path around the park perimeter.
The county’s Board of Commissioners recently approved a contract for a topographical survey of the park.
Over the next month, Parks and Recreation staff will be conducting site walks with groups interested in the playground, skate park and BMX complex, gardens and trails.
Also in South Kitsap (Port Orchard), Paul Powers Park did not receive recommendation for funding. The City of Port Orchard had applied for $300,000 from the RCO for walking trails and replacement of equipment deemed unsafe by a citizens’ group that spoke to the city in 2008.

A story to run tomorrow in the Kitsap Sun covers a growing (no pun intended) trend toward local gardening that provides fresh often organic produce for food banks. Negotiations are in the works between the owners of Port Orchard Nursery and South Kitsap Helpline on the possibility that the nursery, closing due to retirement, could get sold to the food bank. A group of folks with dirt under their fingers, Gardens for South Kitsap, wants to help with the fund-raising and eventually with expertise as Helpline moves into growing its own.

Gardens for South Kitsap has one plot dedicated to their use. There will be a ground-breaking on Saturday. Volunteers are needed, not just for the groundbreaking, but to help throughout the growing season. They also need more dedicated plots (or one big plot of land). Here’s information on the groundbreaking.

Gardens for South Kitsap will hold a ground breaking of a community garden to benefit South Kitsap Helpline from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday. Produce grown will benefit needy families through South Kitsap Helpline. Volunteers are needed, and the group needs use of a Rototiller. Bring shovels, gloves and trowels. The group welcomes donations of seeds and starts. Compost also welcome. For the site location, contact Mary Colborn at gardensforsk@hotmail.com, (360) 621-0050 or (210) 296-6252, or Kareen Stockton, at kareenstockton@yahoo.com, (360) 871-0619.