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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2014 | Vol. 17, No. 41 | WWW.BREMERTONPATRIOT.COM | 50¢
Higher utility rates part of 2015 budget
A ‘FOODLINE’ OF A DIFFERENT SORT
Increased rates allow city to keep up with costs, council president says
‘We consider this your war on the poor,’ critic says
BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
The Bremerton City Council approved increases in property taxes, utility rates and fees for services this week in order to fund the city’s 2015 budget. That action took place at its weekly meeting in preparation for adopting the budget which is set for Dec. 3. Overall, the city budget will increase from $34.4 million this year to $36.1 million in 2015. The total 2015 projected tax revenue (property taxes, sales taxes, business and occupation taxes and private utility taxes) in the General Fund is $23.048 million, approximately $984,000 more than 2014. As allowed by state law, the council opted to increase property taxes to residents by 1 percent, the maximum amount allowed. That is anticipated to bring in about $7 million. The city’s EMS levy is expected to bring in another $1.19 million, and the public safety bond levy will bring in about $891,000. In addition to the property tax increase, the council approved SEE UTILITIES, A9
City council not likely to re-visit ban on panhandling
BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
Even though advocates for the homeless told the Bremerton City Council this week that they intend to bring in the ACLU regarding the city’s recent ban on panhandling, City Council President Greg Wheeler said he doesn’t think the issue will be reconsidered. “Unless I see that a majority of the council wants to switch their votes on the ban, I don’t see this being on any upcoming agenda,” Wheeler said following the meeting. “Unless there is something that we missed, and I can be convinced of that, I don’t see this coming up again for another vote.” The council recently banned panhandling in specific locations throughout the city including near bank ATMs, bus stops and along major streets. That was done, according to Wheeler and other council members, for safety purposes. “As you know, I voted against the ban,” Wheeler said. “But I clearly can
I
t was a rainy Friday, but students from Bremerton High School were all smiles as they passed cans of beans and boxes of cereal one to another from the high school, across the street and down the block, to the Bremerton Foodline warehouse. The Bremerton High School annual student food drive garnered 4,018 pounds of food for Thanksgiving food baskets. “These kids are so important,” said Patti Peterson, executive director of the Bremerton Foodline. Included in the “Knight Food Chain” were the school’s leadership class, sports teams, the Key Club, the Junior ROTC, the Rotoact and others. They’ve now done the chain for several years, right before the holiday season. It’s a chance for them to do something about hunger,” Peterson said.
SEE PANHANDLING, A9
Thanksgiving comes early at Mountain View Middle School BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
For many students at Mountain View Middle School and their families, that festive Thanksgiving turkey dinner with all the trimmings will arrive a day early. That’s because staff, students and parents at the school, with the help of local school district administrators and school board members, are hosting Thanksgiving Dinner on Wednesday, Nov. 26. “It’s been a great way for us to build community,” said Michaeleen Gel-
haus, principal at Mountain View. “We’ve really pulled together as a community for this endeavor.” In past years, the school has made food baskets to send home with students whose families needed some help in order to have a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, Gelhaus said. But when she began planning that this year, she became aware that some of the families don’t have the ability to prepare a dinner. “We have a number of families who are living in motels, or with friends, and don’t really have a kitchen where they can prepare a turkey,”
she said. “Some of our families are in transition and getting food that they couldn’t prepare wasn’t going to help them.” About 68 percent of the school’s 850 sixth, seventh and eighth grade students are on the government’s free or reduced lunch program, thus indicating a relatively high level of poverty, she said. So, she and her staff came up with the idea of preparing the dinner at the school and offering it to any of the students and their families who wanted to attend. Gelhaus said when parents came
for fall student-teacher conferences, they were each handed an invitation to the dinner. “Confidentially, and anonymously, they could write the number of people in the family and drop the invitation off in a box if they wanted to attend,” she said. They’re expecting about 160 people for turkey beginning at 4 p.m. in the school’s commons. Most of the makings for the dinner have been donated by school officials and local churches and it will be cooked at the school by volunteers. Many families from the school have
signed up to help serve and clean up dishes afterwards. “That was a nice twist for us,” Gelhaus said. “When we handed out the invitations at the conferences, several parents said they didn’t need to eat, but they wanted to help.” Too, a couple of teachers are having their art students make decorations for the tables. And the New Life Church, which uses the school for its Sunday services, is supplying the music at the dinner. Students will be out of school early SEE MOUNTAIN VIEW, A9
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