Of all
the sad,
pathetic news coming out of South Kitsap this week, this one
really tugged at me. But then, you know I’m a big softie,
especially if we’re talking about kids or dogs.
OK, so I get this e-mail from one Alison Dockins regarding a
lost dog. What, do I look like the community bulletin board at
Safeway? Well, I guess I’m OK with that. If Gardner can post
about what fell out of his taco, I guess I can try to help this
family get their dog back, especially considering the
circumstances.
Alison wrote, “Hello Mr. Henry (Note to self – gotta do
something with that byline.) I am writing to see if you can help my
family and I. My youngest daughter has a rare genetic disorder
called Williams Syndrome, she is doing great and has bypassed so
many of her doctors expectations for her and make all of us so
proud. But the reason I need your help is our family dog ran away
on Monday. Him and my daughter are always together, he is her
constant companion and puts up with so much more then most other
dogs ever would. He is absolutely irreplaceable and my daughter and
the rest of us are heartbroken. She walks around the house asking
“where puppy? and just isn’t herself without him. Is there anyway
you could run even just a small article with a picture of him…..I
know he is around here (Port Orchard) as people have seen him….but
he is such a friendly great family dog I’m worried someone might
just keep them for their own family. Please help me!
Alison”
Since I’m not clear on whether Alison’s contact information is
for publication, I’m going to say contact me at (360) 792-9219 or
chenry@kitsapsun.com.
The family lives off Sidney Road, south of Lider Road on Logan
(see map below). Here’s what the dog looks like:
The Dockins family of South
Kitsap is missing their pet.
The Kitsap Regional Library is accepting donations to help the
Port Orchard Library replace more than 1,300 children’s books that
have disappeared from that branch in recent months, prompting an
investigation by the Port Orchard Police Department.
The value of the books is worth an estimated $22,900, roughly 20
percent of the branch’s collection.
There are no new leads in the case, which has been assigned to a
detective, Chief Al Townsend said Wednesday.
The books disappeared a few at a time over the past few months.
Since circulation was up in January and February, staff did not
immediately take note, said Branch Manager Kathleen Wilson.
The foundation has established a special account to benefit the
Port Orchard branch, which shares its collection within the entire
KRL system. Donors should designate their intention in a note or on
their check, stating “Port Orchard Branch picture books” or “POB
pic books,” said Foundation Director Peter Raffa.
The foundation will direct all donations over the next two
months toward replacement of the collection, even without a note,
Raffa said.
Donations are tax deductible. Send them to KRL Foundation,
Sylvan Way Library, 1301 Sylvan Way, Bremerton, WA 98310.
So a week ago Bellevue developer comes to this side of Lake
Washington to tell us Bremerton needs retail.
The commenters to the story first responded, “Duh.”
Here are some other observations worth noting:
Silverdale doesn’t have a city hall.
Poulsbo needs parking.
Port Orchard is hilly.
Bainbridge Island is still part of this county.
The heat was hot.
Commenters to the story also complained about the parking, with
responses that Kmart had plenty of free parking, and then arguments
that downtown needs people for retail to survive.
None of it is wrong, and Kemper Freeman’s point about Tacoma is
perhaps worth considering. Nonetheless, does his take mean
Bremerton should have put retail in first. Well then, how do you do
that? I think the whole point of these parks and conference centers
and tunnels and new bridges and hotels and government centers and
infrastructure tax breaks and property tax breaks and road paving
and condo building and Bellevue developer wooing and new marinas
and fish and fisherman statues and parking committees is designed
to create what?
It is designed to create the kind of crowd I saw the other day
at 2 Blocks Up Cafe at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Fourth
Street. On Wednesday during a break in union negotiations four of
us headed over to the cafe for sandwiches and strategizing and
found that we had to sit outside the restaurant. The place was
packed.
I don’t know what accounted for the rush that day, and I don’t
know if that’s a regular thing. You can’t create conclusions from a
single observation, try as story commenters might.
Nonetheless, what I have seen is a host of downtown merchants
who are believers in downtown Bremerton. Boston’s Pizza is doing
great night business now because of the Fairfield Inn.
Bremerton has not turned the corner it needs to for downtown to
be considered a success, but despite the economic downturn the
momentum hasn’t stopped. At least, it hasn’t as far as I can tell
from my casual observations.
Yesterday, I covered an appearance by
Henry Winkler on Bainbridge Island. Winkler is arguably best
known as the Fonz on the 1970s sitcom “Happy Days.”
Winkler, who was in Seattle promoting a children’s book he has
written, accommodated a request from West Sound Reads! to speak at
Bainbridge High School about the book, which is part of a series on
“Hank Zipzer, the World’s
Greatest Underachiever.” The series is loosely, and in spots
not so loosely based on Winkler’s own lifelong struggle with
dyslexia.
I learned from arts and entertainment reporter Mike Moore that
Kitsap County has its own connection to The Fonz in Frank Buxton, a Bainbridge Island
resident with a 60 year career in the entertainment industry.
Buxton and I were unable to hook up in time for me to include his
comments in the story. They’re worthy of note, however.
And yes, we were going to call this blog “Everything But
Bainbridge.” Now I guess that’s off the table.
Buxton, who spent 20 + years in Los Angeles writing, producing,
directing and acting, was a story editor and director for “Happy
Days”. According to Buxton, the sitcom evolved out of an episode of
“Love American Style,” a show he also worked on. The episode
included Ron Howard (Ritchie Cunningham) and a couple other cast
members of what would become “Happy Days.” The plot of the pilot
episode revolved around the family getting the first television set
in the neighborhood, with the dad having to walk the rabbit ears
antenae out into the hallway to get reception. (Just try explaining
this to anyone under 20. You may as well be speaking Martian.)
Speaking of martians, Buxton, in his lengthy and diverse career,
directed segments of “Mork and Mindy,” staring a then youthful
Robin Williams, known for his zany improvisation. “I would let him
go, but then I’d have to rein him in,” Buxton said. And right, I
know, Mork was from Ork not Mars.
BTW, Buxton’s career is far from over. He remains active in
local theater, on a syndicated radio program produced in Seattle
and in other acting parts. His website is worth a look-see. His
motto pretty much says it all, “I have lived for many years on the
outskirts of show business with an occasional trip into town.”
Back to the Fonz. Winkler, unlike Howard, was a relative
newcomer to television. He had played a similar greaser-type
character on the movie “Lords of
Flatbush.” Buxton said he never was aware that Winkler had a
learning disability. It did not impair his ability to memorize
lines from a script, even when they went to a
taped-before-live-audience format that required longer segments of
filming.
Buxton said Winkler’s character, which didn’t have much of a
presence until some time after the show started, was a good
counterpoint to Howard’s squeeky clean, all-American boy
character.
Winkler himself was easy to work with, Buxton said. “From where
I stood, he took direction very well. If we had a difference of
opinion, as sometimes happens, we’d work it out.”
In fact, said Buxton, the whole cast of “Happy Days” lived up to
their show’s name. “Henry was a delight to work with,” he said. “In
fact everyone was. There were no prima donnas on that show.”
That description of Winkler held up in my brief observation of
him. He was down-to-earth, funny and honest. He answered questions
from the kids in the audience with the same attention and respect
he showed the adults. At the book-signing afterward, he was warm
and genuine in his praise and encouragement of the youngsters, some
of whom had read his books. Some of whom had not.
It was refreshing to me to see someone who has spent so much
time in show biz come out so unscathed. I’m thinking his dyslexia,
which used to make him feel insecure, has given him a sense of
humility not typically associated with the words “movie star.”
In the brief time I had to talk with him before he hurried off
to catch the ferry, I shared with him that one of my kids has a
learning disability. He was very encouraging, very kind. He told
me, “You tell her, ‘When you get out of school, you’ll soar like an
eagle.'”
OK, we couldn’t check out without seeing the Fonz in action.
In part, he said, “As a person who has always accepted
responsibility for my actions, I will do so in this instance as
well, no matter how it turns out, and expect no special
treatment.”
(See the bottom of this post for links to recent city council
video coverage provided by the city.)
Coppola dedicated about two-thirds of his video to Vision 2040’s
transportation element, known as T2040. He explains his take on the
plan’s potential impact on economic development in Kitsap County
and the region. Coppola was one of only two members of the PSRC
executive board to vote against T2040 on March 25, primarily
because of tolls. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn was the other. Coppola
said he wants Port Orchard citizens to be able to get in and out of
town without having to pay tolls or a vehicle-miles-traveled
tax.
“Many of the ideas advanced in the Vision 2040 plan may be
acceptable and actually pragmatic for King County and the I-5
corridor, but we (not clear if he’s talking about the city of Port
Orchard or mayors of the county) strongly question the validity of
what amounts to a King County soluntion being forced upon the rest
of us,” he said on the video.
Coppola also talks about the importance of the region investing
in technological infrastructure to promote telecommuting, which
would reduce impact on roads, bridges and ferries.
As an interesting little grace note at the end of the video,
Coppola talks about the recent downtown spring cleaning event. “I
personally spent four hours on the end of a power washer, and
several people pointed out that if this whole mayor thing doesn’t
work out, perhaps I should get a job in the public works
department,” he said, laughing. “Hopefully it won’t come to
that.”
The Senior Action Committee will present an afternoon of fine
art and music from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Town Square
Mall, 1700 Mile Hill Road in Port Orchard.
In an earlier e-mail, they solicited “senior” exhibitors 50+.
If, like me, you are in the 50+ group, you may not consider
yourself a “senior.” It’s interesting how the term “senior” like
adolescent has grown to cover a broader range of people in recent
decades. Used to be you were briefly a teen, then you a got a job;
then you were an adult until you retired. Then you were “old.” Then
you died.
Now kids are termed preadolescent as young as 9. And AARP starts
courting new membership after they’ve barely turned 50. On the
other end, young people in their early 20s could still be thought
of as adolescent. And “senior” applies to people,
many of them remarkable active, into their
100s and beyond.
So if you’re hung up on the word “senior” get over it. It’s just
a way to describe a large, diverse group, many of whom are much
more active than people of comparable age in previous
generations.
OK, more about the event. It will include handicrafts and
photography. There will be raffles, food specials and plenty of
free parking.
Special guests will include Port Orchard Mayor Lary Coppola,
Rep. Jan Angel, and Kitsap County Commissioner Charlotte Garrido,
all of whom qualify as seniors.
If you are younger than 50, you should come anyway and see how
the Old Pharts roll. Hopefully, you’ll see it’s not so scary to get
“old.”
Did you remember that
there are some people who want to be able to have hens in their Bremerton
backyards. Here’s the latest from a purely
observational standpoint.
I haven’t written much about it lately, but I saw another
Facebook post last week to suggest the group is gathering
signatures. One note said nine sheets were turned in, which would
mean the group has 180 signatures and needs only 2,320 more to get
on the ballot.
Meanwhile, the city council has remained silent on the issue in
every meeting I have attended, and that has been quite a few. That
can’t be too good a sign for those who want to decriminalize
poultry in the city. You may recall that chicken fans don’t really
want to go to the ballot box to get their hens, but they’re
willing. This weekend they’ll travel to Port Orchard to gather
signatures from Bremerton registered voters disloyally shopping
across the inlet. They also have plans to hold more
signature-gathering meetings to get petitions out at outdoor
markets and other events.
Thursday afternoon I spotted the sign posted here, took a
picture, then drove all over much of the rest of town to see if I
could find even one more sign like it. I didn’t find one.
If you’re one of those
people who believe there are no accidents in life, then you have to
wonder, like I have, what message I was sent on tax day.
That was the day there was a tea party in Olympia I didn’t
attend, favoring instead a chance to stay in town and get liquored
up, and by that I mean to write about the privatization of liquor
sales in this state.
Good fortune smiled on me for making that decision, because
Taco Del Mar was offering a free taco
just for showing up with a coupon Jim Campbell printed out and
handed to me. Had it not been Campbell I might have sensed
treachery. But that guy is solid. I’ve also been well trained by my
beloved to stop feeling guilty about freebies.
So on to Taco Del Mar I went, wondering if a free fish taco
would be as good as one I’d pay for. It was a sunny day, so I
decided to take my food to the Harborside Fountain Park on a quest for profanity.
Out of the taco fell what you see pictured here.
This has to mean something.
According to Wikipedia, the source for all
truth, unicorns are pretty awesome. Conservapedia says the unicorn might
actually be a rhinoceros. There once was a British band called
Unicorn. Who can forget them? (Raises
hand.)
As many cheese sandwiches as I’ve grilled over the years, you’d
think I would have had a holy visit before now.
But this was a first. I carefully placed the cabbage back in a
bag, then decided to take it out again to make sure to get a
picture in case it was fragile. It was.
The picture you see here is a re-creation. I found the horse and
the horn, but they were no longer attached. This is pretty much
what it looked like.
I was cursed for not taking full advantage of my good fortune.
On the way back I was forced to take a longer way home because of
construction. When I got back to the office I carefully sealed the
unicorn in the best sealant I could find (the tape in my desk) and
put the apparition on the wall in case anyone wanted to come see it
for inspiration or favors.
After a couple of days it started turning black, though, so I
decided to dump it in the trash.
Still I feel so rewarded for my faith in free-dom that I was so
honored by a visit from something so powerful as a unicorn. That
never would have happened if I had lunched in Port Orchard. Over
there the best you can hope for is a narwhal.
At the end of last week I finally made it out to the future site
of the Silverdale Dog Park, located
along Silverdale Way where the Rotary Gateway Park is situated.
There’s also an entrance to the Clear Creek Trail from this
location, and of course the skateboard park where local teens
practice their boarding skills.
I was at the site to see students from CK High School, Navy
Seabees and other area volunteers put in their time for Earth Day.
It’s been a while since I wrote about the dog park so I thought
what better time to write an update than after seeing first-hand
how quick progress has been made.
Through the Earth Day volunteer efforts, a 600 foot gravel trail
was built in just under two hours. The trail runs from the parking
lot (near the public bathrooms) all the way to the end of the
property where it connects to the roadway. The grassy area along
side the trail will be the dog park, which will be fenced off so
trail users won’t have to walk inside the park to use the
trail.
Inside the dog park there will be a small dog area, and another
area for medium to larger dogs. The chain-link fence will allow dog
owners to have their pets off leash. The project is being organized
and completed by the Silverdale Dog Park stewardship group, which
is 100 percent volunteer driven. The money being used to build the
dog park is from various fund raising efforts, from private
donations and money that was raised by selling plaques along the
chain-link fence and advertising space within the park.
None of the money is from the county. To date the group has
raised close to $30,000.
They hope to have the park open for use on July 4, but have a
few more hurdles to jump over before that can happen. The biggest
project still to be done is the expansion of the parking lot. A
condition of the county approving the location for the dog park was
the installation of 14 more parking spaces.
The group will add those by removing the berm that separates the
lot from the road. They are looking to put a rain garden in to
handle the stormwater run off. Right now they’re waiting to see if
the stormwater will be handled by the garden, or if they’ll also
need to use pervious payment in the lot. For cost purposes they’re
hoping a rain garden will meet the needs, because the pervious
pavement is not cheap.
Installing the trail section of the park is the first visual
indication that things are moving quickly to get the park
operational, said Mike McCown, vice president of the Silverdale Dog
Park stewardship group.
“We’ve been looking forward to Earth Day,” he said. “This is
being done with volunteers and volunteer dollars.”
The group hopes to know by this week which direction to go with
the parking lot. Once the lot is ready, the chain-link fence will
be installed and from there I am sure people will be anxiously
waiting for the gates to open so they can let their dogs run
free.
Warning: This post contains a word that, while anatomically
correct, may be offensive to some.
When I was talking to John Robbecke today about his putting Al’s
Grocery on the market after its 50 years in business (story to run
tomorrow), we got to talking about the
annual Polar Bear Plunge off the bridge above Olalla Lagoon,
across from the store.
John and 10 other charter members of the plunge decided in 1984
to ring in the New Year in a totally new and crazy way. A lot of
what he said about the experience of jumping into 52 degree water
in the middle of winter, I couldn’t put in the paper or on the web
version of the story (only partly because of space constraints).
With my assistant editor’s permission, and John’s, I bring you the
uncensored version.
“New Year’s Day is kind of amateur drunk day on the couch. If
you’re not drinking, what do you do? And if you don’t like sports,
you’re pretty out of it. So we said, ‘OK guys, if you have enough
testicles, come on down and join us, and we’ll do something
different. We thought, at high noon, we’d jump off the bridge.”
John described how “invigorating” it is to feel to icy stab of
the water on your various appendages as you jump or cannonball in.
“You go, ‘Woah!’ You’re swimming under water before you reach the
top. Once you pop out of the surface, you’re like a windmill. Once
you get out of the water, you dance around and stand by the bonfire
warming your buns and shake out your hair. It’s a fun time.”
Like a class reunion, the event brings together people who only
see each other once a year. Some people dress in costumes. John
remembers one woman whose marriage had gone sour and who jumped
into the salty brine in her wedding gown. Another guy in a business
suit set down his briefcase, jumped off the bridge in a
businesslike way, calmly swam to shore, picked up his briefcase and
drove away without so much as a shiver.
I asked John if anyone ever jumped in the nude. Yes, indeed, he
said. However, “They don’t do it again, because if you’re male, and
you’re climbing out of that ice cold water, and some woman says,
‘Is that it?’ you ain’t coming back.”
