The City of Poulsbo ushered in 2010 with a new leader at its helm, while the community was plagued with many issues that have been stirring debate for years. Parking, city growth and the economy remained in the headlines for the first half of the year, as new mayor Becky Erickson took on the city’s largest capital project to date: a new city hall.

In her first days as mayor, Erickson, previously a member of the Poulsbo City Council, famously removed the door to her office in the name of open government. Erickson was elected over one-term incumbent mayor Kathryn Quade. She would go on to supervise the completion of the new municipal campus, a project with a scope and cost she, at times, voted against.

“I’m humbled the people of Poulsbo put a huge amount of faith and trust in me,” Erickson said Jan. 6.

Erickson led the city through difficult budget and staff cuts, an office move and an annexation. Reflecting on her first year in office this month, she said she is proud and relieved things went smoothly.

“I hope I’ve maintained a level of stability in city government,” she said.

With Erickson’s move off the council, former Public Works Director Jeff Bauman, who had recently retired, was appointed as a replacement member. Bauman, chosen from a pool of six applicants, worked for the city from 2006 to 2008.

On Jan. 29 Poulsbo patrons of American Marine Bank were surprised to discover the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had taken over bank operations. American Marine Bank, a Bainbridge-based company, served Kitsap County for more than 60 years. A month before its closure, the bank’s loan policies came under FDIC review. Its Poulsbo branch, as well as 10 others in the county, were soon reopened as Columbia State Bank, a subsidiary of a publicly owned holding company based in Tacoma.

In February the Kingston Art Gallery announced its move to downtown Poulsbo. Renamed the Front Street Gallery, it joined Himalaya Chutney and Eleven Winery, two other downtown establishments that opened later in the year.

Mid-March brought about an investigation at the Poulsbo Post Office, where some residents fell victim to mail theft. The U.S. Postal Service conducted an internal investigation into what they believed was an employee targeting correspondence that appeared to contain cash. Nadine Kvinslend, 88, of Lofall, sent nearly a dozen cards to relatives that weren’t received.

“I’ve lived here for over 50 years and never had anything like that happen,” Kvinslend said at the time.

Postal Service spokesman James Masters said the thefts were an “anomaly.” At least some cards and letters were recovered and returned to their original senders.

Parking was the talk of the town in Poulsbo in April and May. Drivers began parking their cars illegally in the Poulsbo Place area, where parking spots were few and far between. That left residents and business owners scrambling to find space. Liveaboard residents at the Port of Poulsbo faced a very different problem. When the Poulsbo Police began enforcing a no-overnight parking rule in Anderson Parkway downtown, they were left without a space to leave vehicles at night.

The city suggested the port provide its liveaboards parking accommodations, but space in the area is limited. The debate prompted the creation of a Downtown Parking Advisory Committee, comprised of city leaders, citizens and business owners. That committee made recommendations later in the year that included building a parking garage on the King Olav parking lot, redeveloping Anderson Parkway and instituting a peak-hour parking fee. While the city took the lead in organizing the information, leaders stressed it won’t necessarily be able to pay for parking projects downtown.

On May 5 the city council unanimously approved the annexation of nearly 44 acres on the west side of Liberty Bay between Liberty Road and Marelaine Lane, known as the Gaines Annexation. That particular annexation had been contested for nearly a decade, and was put on hold in 2008 so the city could reevaluate its policies before moving forward. The annexation fell within Poulsbo’s Urban Growth Area, an area designated by the county for municipal growth.

“I’ve never seen a more painstaking annexation,” said Councilman Ed Stern.

In June a group of county residents lodged an appeal against the city’s Comprehensive Plan, passed after much reworking in 2009. They contended the city skirted the public participation process and didn’t take into account environmental impacts of development. A Washington Growth Management hearings board dismissed the appeal over the summer, though it found some validity to a complaint made against the city’s public participation process. The board acknowledged the “real-life experience” of the petitioners, though it denied a motion to reconsider the appeal this fall.

See what made news in Poulsbo during the second half of 2010 in the Dec. 31 North Kitsap Herald.