A ferry commuters comment on those who make the last-minute dash to board the ferry.
Why is it that whenever a community pours its heart and soul into an event, a few individuals see the need to go out of their ways to tarnish it for everyone? North Kitsap has seen it happen again and again through the senseless act of vandalism to places the entire citizenry is meant to enjoy.
Entering its 39th year yesterday, Viking Fest has stood the test of time in Poulsbo due to several factors, the biggest one being the town’s deep Norwegian roots. It’s doubtful that tree will ever fall and seeing that the annual festival is tied into Syttende Mai (Norwegian Constitution Day), it will likely continue to branch out and bloom each spring.
Being on deadline all week and having to get both the North Kitsap Herald and the What’s Up entertainment section to press on time, I tend to procrastinate a tad in other aspects of my life. I see it as a way of balancing things out to some degree.
Giving a yin a yang and whatnot. (Yeah, right.)
Before the five development teams submitted their proposals for the latest round of “Pin the City Hall somewhere in Little Norway” everyone knew the rules, especially when it came to the contentious issue of parking in the city’s historic downtown core.
And so the Kitsap Regional Library system and the Poulsbo Fire Department are seeking their respective lid lifts as they struggle in the wake of Initiative 747. KRL seeks an additional 18 cents per $1,000 assessed property valuation, the PFD 49 cents more per $1,000 valuation.
The Herald has endorsed both.
It’s 11 p.m. on a Saturday night, do you know where your teenagers are, and what they’re doing? If you answer this query with “I think…” you might want to re-evaluate your relationship with them a bit.
The question is do you know?
Lions will be on the prowl starting Friday morning and Saturday great strides will be made for cystic fibrosis research in the North End, giving residents two opportunities to make a difference in the world around them.
Feeling sluggish?
It seems like, “There’s nothing to do in North Kitsap” is an all too common lament among youth here. Yeah, all this wide open space, ballfield accessibility, woods and water, what the heck’s fun about any of that? But adult residents can only take so much of the “are we there yet?” attitude before they feel the need to reply, or as the case may be, do something about it.
I usually don’t get too excited about pageants. Beautiful, talented girls take the stage, one wins a crown, right? Call it being a guy or what you like, that’s just the way it is for me. Do I feel a sense of pride when I see Miss Poulsbo, Miss Viking Fest or Miss Kitsap at a parade? You bet. As a member of the community, I feel this should come naturally.
Pride in the accomplishments of one’s neighbors, that is.
Once in 55 years. That was the closing thought Kitsap Regional Library Director Jill Jean left members of the North Kitsap Herald Advisory Board with Monday night. She was talking about a levy lift for the library system, which has seen its usage here bloom and revenues wilt since Initiative 747 took hold across Washington.
There wasn’t a whole lot of discussion Monday night after members of the North Kitsap Herald Advisory Board met with proponents of the Poulsbo Fire Department levy lift. It wasn’t needed.
PFD Chief Jim Shields and commissioners Jim Ingalls and Conrad Green stated their case for a 49 cent increase — bringing the fire tax Poulsbo residents pay from 80 cents in 2008 to $1.29 per $1,000 assessed property valuation — to a T.
As far as parks go, it might be Poulsbo’s best kept secret. Residents and visitors alike drive by the Front Street site, tucked away on a hillside across from Martha & Mary and nestled amongst the trees and the shoreline of Liberty Bay so often they probably don’t even realize it.
Last year, when gas prices soared past the $3 per gallon mark, North Kitsap residents were up in arms. It was an outrage, after all, and the hunt was on here and throughout the country for unseemly gas station owners who were price gouging.
The tactic was sort of like the hopeless war on drugs in which the Feds bust the street dealer for selling a dime bag of crack whilst the Colombian cartels have lunch with the politicians. Ah, the swift and vengeful hand of justice.
A few years ago, the Poulsbo City Council came to an agreement that it would no longer endorse taxes of its citizenry or candidates as an elected group. While individual members were free and clear to do so on their own, they decided that as a whole, it wasn’t fitting for them to do so.
International Speedway Corporation’s push for a NASCAR track in Bremerton hit the wall of opposition with enough force to push it out of Kitsap County for the foreseeable future. The loss of the proposed speedway is still sinking in to those financially-minded folks down south who saw dollar signs as opposed to true economic improvement.
Poulsbo’s neighbors to the west are to be thanked profusely for stepping up to the fuse and igniting the fireworks show for the annual Third of July celebration. The donations from Port Madison Enterprises (owner of the Clearwater Casino) and the Suquamish Tribe provided the bulk of what it will take to launch the popular event.
Where does it all come from? One moment it’s not there, the next it is. No one really ever lays claim to it, even fewer ever step up and do anything about it. Yet, its very presence says something about each community in North Kitsap. Are we incorrigible slobs, or do we care about a basic quality of life that many seem to overlook? Cleanliness.
Trash is still a problem in North Kitsap.
It’s an oddity, too.
This space apparently has heavier ink than that which appears on every other page in the North Kitsap Herald and because of that, people tend to take more notice when their names are mentioned here.
That lesson was learned by an aspiring editor because of statements made in the March 17 editorial about Poulsbo’s Critical Areas Ordinance.
