Hansville speed table meeting
Facts about the speed bump meeting
The newspaper has it backwards (understandable — it was chaotic at the meeting). Therese Reilly was told to return to Kent prior to the response about Steve Bauer returning to Bellevue. In fact, Therese didn’t make the comment about Bauer and Bellevue. Someone jumped to her defense when she was yelled at by a pro-bump person. These statements can be proven as the meeting was recorded.
Chris Endresen voted to install the bumps due to pressure applied by the RSAC/GHAAC of which Steve Bauer was a member. It was not her idea to create bumps in the road. The RSAC’s May, 2007 minutes stated “Steve Bauer will draft a letter of our recommendations for Judy to sign. He also suggested getting approval and secured funding from Chris Endresen. He will write a letter to this effect and ask for a summer/fall commitment for the work, requesting a response from her.”
Contact DeeAnn Stiles for copies of all the Hansville Log issues from 2006/2007. Some people want to deny the facts, however, they can’t change the facts. The information is available, you just have to take the time to read all the documents.
Barbara Fox,
Hansville
Coverage sets a new low
I am stunned. Really. There has been a lot said about this issue in Hansville, and I have read or heard much of it, but this sets a new low. This article is so grossly inaccurate, factually, and so obviously biased that it is difficult to see why anyone would rely on the Herald as a source of information. Was Kelly Joines even at the meeting in question? I would welcome an opportunity to meet with Ms./Mr. Joines to discuss the facts and try to ascertain why the story was written as it was. This story may have served some unknown agenda of Mr./Ms. Joines and/or the Herald, but it is surely a disservice to a readership looking for accurate, balanced, and thoughtful reporting.
John Wiegenstein,
Hansville
Coverage missed the mark
When I read your article on the traffic meeting in Hansville I was amazed by the the number of errors it contained. Here are the errors I can identify: 1) there are 10 speedbumps, not four as reported. There are four on Hood Canal Drive, two on Bridgeview, three on Twin Spits Road and one on Hansville Road. 2) Arrows were painted on the street not in people’s driveways. 3) The RSAC no longer exists. It did not get absorbed by the Planning Committee but the issues it might have dealt with in the future will be now handled by the Planning Committee. 4) Someone yelling “go back to Kent” preceded and precipitated the yelling “go back to Bellevue.”
Aside from errors, I take exception to many points made in the article: 1) It is my understanding that there are people on both sides of this who are afraid to speak up out of fear of retaliation, not just “people around the committee.” There have been threats and bad behavior on from individuals on both sides of this issue. 2) Steve Bauer is taking a lot of heat for the bumps for many reasons, not just because he happens to be the guy who replaced Chris Endreson and she is the one who voted for them. He was extremely involved in the Hansville committees that worked to have the bumps installed. He remains an advocate for the bumps even today. He has never had an in-depth dialogue with the people who want them removed. 3) Your article does not reflect what actually happened at the meeting, the number of speakers or what their presentations where about. 4) You give some history of the efforts of the RSAC and the speedbumps in Hansville, but other than Steve Stiver and Rick Raber’s comments you give no background on the efforts to have them removed or the issues behind the effort. There is no mention is your article about the issue people have with the process of how the bumps came about, which is a major part of the backlash against the bumps. The facts surrounding the RSAC’s efforts to control or seek limited input from the greater community that would be affected by speedbumps are never even mentioned. You do not mention the petition that is signed by over 600 people to have them removed or Steve Bauer’s response to that petition.
As you can probably tell from my remarks I am in support of having the bumps removed.
Laurie Wiegenstein,
Hansville
Reader questions ‘biased’ reporting
I attended the speed bump meeting the other night at HCC. In reading the report in the paper, I find most of the important points of information reported greatly distorted if not completely untrue. How can we after seeing such distortion, feel that we are getting even the slightest truth about any controversial issue, but rather a biased opinion depending on the reporter or publisher’s personal stand on the issue?
Doug Leibrant,
Hansville
Road safety committee should finish the job
After attending the April 23 meeting at the Hansville Community Center regarding speed bumps, I now realize that our county commissioner is locked in to the “road safety committee’s” solution of placing obstacles in the main roads in and out of our community.
The work the “road safety committee” did was effective in reducing speed. But the overwhelming concern of the neighborhood, to this decision, is evidence that the “committee” did not do all its’ homework. They solved one problem and created others. As we now know, the process was flawed.
During the above-mentioned meeting, I learned that Commissioner Steve Bauer wants the entire community to come up with a “no one loses” solution. But he is not willing to remove the speed bumps until a solution is agreed to. I find this unacceptable when a petition with 632 signatures wanting the bumps removed was presented to him. Commissioner Bauer is holding the people trapped by the bumps hostage until a solution is provided. Commissioner, you have at least 632 angry people trapped, and you want us to solve the problem? I don’t think so.
We need decisive action. We don’t need more meetings that last for hours and accomplish little. Remove the bumps and reconvene the “road safety committee” so they can complete the task. They will now have the hindsight of community reaction to the bumps.
There are many ideas to solving the speed problem. I have heard dozens since the controversy started. One that makes sense to me is to narrow the roadway by repainting the fog lines and use the extra pavement for a bike lane. This combined with increased enforcement, during peak speeding hours, may have the desired effect.
So, remove the bumps, give the road safety committee a new charge, develop alternatives, and check for community consensus prior to selecting the preferred. Build on the increased sensitivity to vehicle speed that our community now shares.
I am surprised that the county legal folks advised that speed bumps were OK on collector roads. Some communities have concluded they are a legal liability.
Bob Latham,
Hansville
Reader questions biased reporting, part II
Your article was quite one-sided. You obviously did not interview the leaders of the opposition, John Hostvedt and John Wiegenstein. You listed the supposed threats to people who asked for the bumps. You did not mention the much greater threat to the people who opposed the bumps. John Hostvedt received a threat to burn his house down, a threat that the sheriff is working on solving. That certainly is a lot more terrifying than people who asked for the bumps having to listen to occasional horns beeping.
You didn’t mention that 632 people signed the petition to remove the bumps, while only 70 people signed the petition to install the bumps.
The anger is not only at the bumps, which are tearing up our cars, and slowing emergency response vehicles (didn’t you hear the story of Ms. Butler who recently was being transported by fire paramedics and who could not be adequately treated for heart attack until after the ambulance passed all the bumps??).
The anger is that Chris Endresen and Steve Bauer used executive order to bypass all the county regulations, regulations which would have forbidden the speed tables on major arterial roads. They were put on roads which had only 10 percent of the traffic speeding (and bumps can’t be installed according to the county road code until 25 percent of traffic is speeding), and bumps were installed at the request of 70 persons, out of a population of about 2,000 persons.
By county law, bumps can not be installed until 70 percent of the citizens petition for them. We now have 10 times as many citizens petitioning to remove the bumps as petitioned to install them — and Commissioner Bauer refuses to listen to the will of the people.
He isn’t practicing democracy. He’s doing a Bush-Cheney maneuver — ignore the people and do what the ruler wants.
You missed the point behind the comment for Steve Bauer to go back to Bellevue. He came out to this tiny rural village, and instead of remembering why he liked this rural, sparsely inhabited place, he proposed to build a roundabout at one intersection in “downtown” Hansville. (If you haven’t been out here lately, we have one repair shop, one grocery store, one church, one post office. Period.) Roundabouts are put at heavily trafficked intersections that have thousands of cars per day. Hansville probably doesn’t get a thousand cars through it in a week. As one long-time resident said to Bauer when he proposed the roundabout, “Are you freakin’ crazy?” I mean, how far can a commissioner get from reality before people begin to question his sanity?
Jennifer Moon,
Hansville
Reader questions biased reporting, part III
The article is inaccurate in its statement that the speed bumps are three inches high. Actually the bumps are supposed to be three inches, but were installed at six inches in Cliffside on Hood Canal Drive.
Much of this conflict could have been avoided if the bumps had been installed correctly.
This article is completely one-sided and shows the bias of your paper. It obvious that you are a supporter of Steve Bauer and are doing what you can to undermine a political process that should lead to solutions benefiting the majority of citizens.
Again, your article is the shallow and one-sided coverage we have come to expect in Kitsap County. What the area really needs some journalism with depth, not political sound bites, and press releases from politicians.
What the local news has not covered is the polarizing nature of Steve Bauers lack of leadership in this issue. The April 23 meeting was another example of that lack. I was there from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Steve did not put forth any new ideas or information. He also did not address the fact that over 600 signatures were submitted in a petition to have the speed bumps removed. Nor did your article address that question. What about those 600+ petitioners?
James Wesson,
Hansville
