April 2014 Vol. 27 No. 4
The Voice of Kitsap Business since 1988
Bainbridge Pavilion up for sale, p. 23
Serial solar entrepreneur Creating some buzz at Annapolis, p. 28
Inside Special Reports: Healthcare Quarterly, pp 8-13 Automotive, pp 29-34
Kelly Samson stands next to an itek Energy solar panel array outside the APS America and Blue Frog Solar LLC headquarters in Poulsbo, holding a third-generation microinverter that connects to four solar modules and is currently being beta-tested. This solar array is the only installation in North America that has the new product. Photo by Rodika Tollefson
By Rodika Tollefson When Asani Development was looking to create the concept for a new residential development on Bainbridge Island several years ago — in the midst of a slow real estate market — the development team knew they would have to come up with something unique. As they were exploring ideas for sustainable living including energy efficiency, Washington state adopted a new program to incentivize use of solar energy. “Solar incentives were adopted (by the state) so it made economic sense. We
decided it would be a very interesting challenge,” said Marja Preston, president of Asani and the lead of the team that developed what is known as the Grow Community. The goal was to make the entire neighborhood a net-zero energy community and follow the principles of the One Planet Living program. There were multiple challenges but one in particular was a question of economics. “For solar, there was only one manufacturer Solar, page 17
Financial, pp 14, 15 Technology, pg 17 Real Estate, pp 23-25 Human Resources, pg 27 Editorial, pp 36-38 Home Builders Newsletter, pp 19-22
Harrison CEO Bosch announces his retirement By Lary Coppola Saying, “Through Scott’s leadership, Harrison Medical Center is now wellpoised to fulfill its mission for generations to come,” Harrison Medical Center board chairman Jim Civilla announced to the community that Scott Bosch, president and CEO for nearly a decade, will retire July 31. Bosch said that in the end, it was an easy decision. “There’s a personal set of reasons and a professional set for doing this,” he said. “The professional side is about me thinking over the past four to five months about my career, and the fact I’ve accomplished everything I set out to do. The personal side is deciding what I want the rest of my life to be about.” There is no doubt that Bosch has had a very positive impact on Harrison, and the quality of regional health care the hospital delivers. When he came here
from Colorado almost 10 years ago, Harrison’s reputation in the community was somewhat tarnished, and he inherited financial issues inherent in an aging Scott Bosch main facility in Bremerton and a brand new one in Silverdale. Bosch’s initiatives in numerous areas turned those, and many other situations — as well as the internal culture of Harrison — completely around. “He helped usher Harrison through a pivotal juncture in its history; one that will make a positive difference and create healthier communities far into the future,” Civilla said.
Bosch, page 3
Their business plan is going down the drain Safe Drain manufacturer’s expansion into Northwest part of national strategy By Tim Kelly, Editor Sometimes the concept behind an innovative new product seems so simple and obvious, it prompts a reaction of "Why didn't somebody think of that sooner?" That's the case with the entrepreneur behind Safe Drain International, who came up with a solution to the problem of contaminants washing down industrial storm drains and into waterways. The idea that led to Safe Drain came to John Deming when he was a police officer in
the 1990s, and he responded to a hazardous materials emergency in Oakdale, Calif. "There was a 300-gallon spill of sodium hydroxide at a semiconductor plant," he recalled. "It all went straight into the storm drain and straight out into a creek. That's sort of when the light bulb went off." The product he eventually came up with — which is now being brought to the Pacific Northwest by two Kitsap County businessmen — is a stainless steel catch basin inserted in a storm drain. Water that
pools in the basin passes through a polymer collar around a perforated drain pipe to filter out hydrocarbons and sediment that often contains contaminants. Each unit has a valve that can be closed in the event of a high flow or a spill to prevent fuel or hazardous chemicals from going down the drain. The beneficial result of Safe Drain's filtration system is improved water quality by preventing most of the stuff that pollutes water from going down the drain and into streams and bays.
Safe Drain International founder John Deming, right, with Buzz Holmes, left, and Ken Perry of Safe Drain Northwest.
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Forum will discuss oil trains in Puget Sound area State Sen. Christine Rolfes will be one of the speakers at a special public event, Oil on the Sound, that will be held April 8 on Bainbridge Island to discuss oil trains in the Puget Sound area. Rolfes, a Bainbridge Island Democrat who represents the 23rd District, will discuss the Oil Transportation and Safety Act, a bill she sponsored to regulate oil trains. She and Eric de Place, policy director with the nonprofit research center Sightline Institute, will talk about the possible impact of oil trains on Puget Sound and the surrounding area. An increasing number of oil trains carrying both tar sands and Bakken oil are slated to run through the state, and many of them will travel along Puget Sound where a derailment could cause serious long-term harm to the ecosystem as well as to shoreline property and local businesses. The focus of the Bainbridge event will be to discuss what can be done individually and as a community to keep oil trains and their related risks — spills, derailments and explosions — out of the state. De Place is a researcher, writerand policy analyst who spearheads Sightline’s work on climate and energy policy. He is considered an authority on a range of issues connected to fossil fuel transport. The April 8 event will take place at 7 p.m. at the Eagle Harbor Congregational Church on Bainbridge Island. The talk is sponsored by Coal-Free Bainbridge, Sustainable Bainbridge, The Sierra Club and Eagle Harbor Congregational Church. The event is free, though donations are appreciated.
BOSCH
— Scott Bosch, president and CEO of Harrison Medical Center anywhere and will stay here after retirement.” What is Bosch most proud of? He answered without hesitation, “The medical staff, and the hospital’s cultural movement towards quality, service, and making it a really excellent place to get complicated health care services. I’m very proud of that.” He added that the addition of the Cardiac Care Unit and the ability to do open heart surgery here in Kitsap were high points, along with the ability to provide comprehensive cancer care, along with the brand new orthopedic care unit, are all things he is proud of. “I did what I came here to do, and that was make Harrison a better place.” “Scott’s legacy is his collaborative leadership at all levels of the organization and throughout the communities it serves,” said Joe Wilczek, chief executive officer of Franciscan Health System. “Harrison is poised, as part of a regional health system, to innovate healthcare for people across Puget Sound.” Bosch led Harrison through consideration and selection of affiliation with the Franciscan Health System. That affiliation brings substantial investment into Harrison’s infrastructure, and enables the organization to adopt advanced IT systems, including the Epic electronic medical record, and to expand services throughout the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas. So what’s next for Scott Bosch? He says there’s a lot of things he still wants to do, but the job at Harrison has made finding time for himself difficult. “I’m 61, and I have my health. My wife Gail and I have a lot to be grateful for. I want to do other things with my life, and this job is so all-consuming that I’m unable to do a lot of things because there just isn’t the time,” he said passionately. “I would love to challenge myself to learn a second language. I’d like to become a sous chef. I’ve dabbled in fishing, and want to learn to be a better fisherman.” Bosch also points out that he has three grown children — who live in San Francisco, Denver, and Philadelphia — that he only gets to see once or twice a year. “I want to see more of them,” he says vehemently. “I want the discretionary time to spend with my grandchildren. I want to
be in a position where I have a choice of how I spend my time. The obligations and responsibilities at Harrison dictate how I spend my time now, and there are so many obligations and requirements, that I don’t have that choice.” Does he have any regrets, or unfinished business? “I really made this decision when I was with my family back in February. I’ve had no regrets about my career, my decision to come here, or that I’ve decided to retire,” he answers. After reflecting for a moment, he adds, “Leaving room to improve. Leaving in the middle of the integration with Franciscan. I want that to go very, very well. It’s going to be hard for me to leave before that’s totally
accomplished, but that’s several years away.” The Harrison Medical Center Board is currently developing a succession plan in conjunction with Franciscan, which they will implement over the next several months. Bosch will step down on July 31, following the successful adoption of Harrison’s new electronic medical records system. After enjoying a much-anticipated vacation, he looks forward to volunteering in the community. “The fact that I get to do this, and stay in the community I love, is truly a blessing,” he says with all the enthusiasm of a man truly looking forward to life’s next adventure.
Congratulations! 2014 Economic Development Champions
(From L to R): Jon Rose, President Olympic Property Group/KEDA Board Member and Tim Thomson, Co-chair KADA/Port of Bremerton CEO retired
KEDA salutes the 2014 Economic Development Champions for their outstanding leadership and contributions to the Kitsap Community.
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April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 3
from page 1 Over the past five years especially, Harrison has earned an industrywide reputation for excellence in outstanding clinical quality and patient care. Under Bosch’s brand of servant leadership, Harrison rededicated itself to delivering exceptional healthcare — and the organization has earned recognition for its success. Its honors include: • Blue Cross Centers of Distinction: For excellence in cardiac and orthopedic care; • American Heart Association/ American Stroke Association: Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award; • Beacon Award for Excellence: Recognized by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses for improved patient outcomes, continuous staff learning, and evidence-based practices; • The Joint Commission on Hospital Accredation: Recognized as a Top Performer in several quality measures, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care. Under Bosch’s leadership, Harrison has expanded and refined essential services, such as cardiovascular and orthopedic care, and opened new facilities in Port Orchard, Silverdale, North Mason County and on the Olympic Peninsula. Shortly, Harrison will open the doors to a new Bainbridge Island facility, providing 24-hour health care to Island residents for the first time. “I came to Harrison with specific goals and a vision in mind,” said Bosch. “More than just expanding bricks-and-mortar, I wanted to make Harrison a better place; to not only continue as a safe place for our patients, but to ensure a visible administration both internally and throughout our community, and to be recognized regionally and nationally for exceptional quality. I wanted to move this organization from good to great, and I believe I have accomplished many of those goals.” Bosch has had a storied career. In addition to his tenure at Harrison, he served as the CEO of a Colorado-based regional heath network serving four states before taking on the challenge of revitalizing Harrison. “I’m in my 10th year at Harrison. I came here with a number of specific goals, and a number of them have been accomplished. Bosch, who is youthful looking and energetic, will turn 61 in July and said that, and the fact he has accomplished just about every professional goal he has set for himself, makes this an optimum time for retirement. “That’s been a part of my decision-making process. We’ve been planning on how we’re going to do this for the past month,” he said. He added that he and his wife Gail, will not be leaving the area. “We love it here in the Pacific Northwest. Gail and I are not going
“I came to Harrison with specific goals and a vision in mind. More than just expanding bricks-andmortar, I wanted to make Harrison a better place.”
SAFE DRAIN
from page 2 Buzz Holmes, owner of Silverdale-based industrial construction company Holmes Mechanical, was so impressed with what Deming’s company developed that he recently became a partner and formed a subsidiary called Safe Drain Northwest. He said it also raised his awareness about what goes down storm drains, something he hadn’t thought much about before. “Now everywhere I go I’m paying attention to drains,” Holmes said. “There’s a lot of junk going down those drains, and I’m excited that we can clean things up.” In cases such as the chemical spill Deming encountered in his police days, Safe Drains could have made a big difference for the company by containing the spill on its property. Cleanup costs, EPA fines and negative publicity all might have been less. “If you just protect the storm drain, a lot of the other problems go away,” he said. That kind of scenario has played out, Deming noted, in several places where his company has installed Safe Drains. The company touts its technology as a way to help manufacturing firms and other companies “comply with environmental laws and regulations pertaining to pollutant releases or contaminated runoff.” Most of the company's business has been in California where Safe Drain started — including high-profile corporate customers such as Boeing, FedEx, Hewlett Packard, Intel and United Arirlines — but
there is huge growth potential across the country and worldwide, according to Ken Perry, regional sales manager for Safe Drain Northwest. “I’m selling locally, but in the process of selling locally I’m opening up national contracts,” Perry said. “A big national sale could be 10,000 drains.” The potential market includes big-box stores like Costco with acres of parking lots, manufacturing facilities, airports, municipalities handling stormwater runoff, and military bases. One example is the recent installation of 320 Safe Drain units at a U.S. Air Force base in Germany. Holmes acquired the distribution rights for Safe Drain in EPA Region 10, which covers Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. He hired Perry, who formerly ran a Kitsap-area landscape company that went out of business last year and has been involved in real estate ventures, as regional sales manager. Perry said Holmes will handle the military market since he has contacts through government contract work his construction company has done, while Perry will focus on the rest of the potential customer base. A similar regional expansion effort is happening in Texas, and Deming said the plan is to establish a Safe Drain operation in each of the EPA’s 10 regions across the U.S. Although his concern for the environment prompted Deming’s original work on what would become the Safe Drain product, he said he came to realize the extent of utilization possible for the products his
4 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
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company began manufacturing more than a dozen years ago. A big early boost came in 2000 when Safe Drain landed a $1.6 million order from Applied Materials, a major manufacturer for the semiconductor industry in Santa Clara, Calif. “That sort of launched us,” said Deming, who “took a leap of faith” the year before and quit his 11-year police job to focus fulltime on developing Safe Drain. Applied Materials, which installed nearly 500 units, was also a proving ground, he explained. The manufacturer did a threeyear study that found the Safe Drains captured over 45,000 pounds of sediments, including heavy metals. Now the company is poised to expand nationwide and beyond. Future product improvements may add smart technology to enable drains to shut off automatically when needed, and let a company know when a basin needs cleaning or a filter replacement. “I’d always imagined this could be a global scale, but it wasn’t until the last year that all the people started coming together to make that happen,” Deming said during a recent interview at Holmes Mechanical’s headquarters in Silverdale, where Safe Drain Northwest opened an office in February. “Buzz and Ken have taken this and hit the ground running,” he added. “We couldn't have found a better match.” Perry explained that the Northwest operation is focused not just on sales, but also starting a Safe Drain manufacturing facility in Kitsap, likely in the Port of Bremerton’s South Kitsap Industrial Area. He got an enthusiastic reception at a recent port commission meeting when he made a presentation on Safe Drain. A local facility could fabricate the heavyduty steel basins, he said, and handle final product assembly. Manufacturing of the valves and filters would remain in California. “My goal is to bring in 60-80 employees to fabricate only one thing, and that is the catch basin portion,” Perry said. Each basin is built to the measurements of the specific storm drain where it will be installed. Holmes’ company is the only certified installer in the area for now, but he said as the regional business grows they’ll need a network of subcontractors trained as installers. Perry said there is “a tremendous amount of potential financially” for Safe Drain, but the principals are equally concerned with helping the environment and promoting corporate responsibility. Holmes said he initially viewed Safe Drain as a source of more work for his company, but he quickly saw the benefit of providing a product that could have a positive impact on water quality in Puget
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Sound and elsewhere. He also thinks the corporate view of environmental protection is more supportive than in the past. “I believe the mindset is changing,” Holmes said. “People are looking for ways to be involved in helping the environment.” One local official intrigued by Safe Drain’s potential benefits is Bremerton public works director Chal Martin, who’s also on the board of the National Association of Flood & Stormwater Management Agencies. “I was very impressed; I thought they had a great idea,” said Martin, who met with Perry in March. “I think it has tremendous potential for municipal stormwater systems.” He said he’d be interested in setting up a pilot project to test that application of Safe Drains, and that other agencies such as the state Department of Ecology might be interested. “We could probably design a project where we retrofit one relatively small drainage area and collect and study the (filtration) data,” Martin said. “It seems like simple concept,” he said. “These guys have done a lot research and have products that seem to work.”
Kitsap Bank board member, longtime employee retiring Kitsap Bank has announced that Robert Mathwig has retired from his position on the bank’s board of directors effective Feb. 28, as he has reached the mandatory retirement age for active board members. He has served on the board since March of 1987. "Bob Mathwig has been an invaluable asset in his role on the bank's board and as a member of the board's audit committee,” board chair Cydly Langer Smith said. “His guidance, integrity, vision and insight have been instrumental in the growth of the bank. All of the Kitsap Bank community extend their gratitude to Bob for his past 27 years of service." Mathwig purchased Family Pancake House in 1963, and currently owns and operates a number of enterprises, including restaurants, lodging, storage facilities, land development and construction companies. Kitsap Bank also announced the retirement of Margaret Eddy, senior customer service specialist at the main branch in Port Orchard. She began her career as a teller at Kitsap Bank’s Kitsap Mall branch in 1980 and worked at several branches during her career. In 1999, she moved to the Port Orchard main branch, where she has been in the customer service role for the past 15 years.
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April 16th For more information: Dee Coppola 800-733-7990 or email dee@wetapple.com
Business Journal bought by Kitsap Sun's parent company The E.W. Scripps Co., publisher of the Kitsap Sun, has acquired the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal. Scripps bought the Journal from Wet Apple Media, a Port Orchard company owned by Lary and Dee Coppola. The purchase, announced March 20, includes the monthly print publication, websites and mobile application. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. Kitsap Sun publisher Brent Morris said the Journal will remain a separately branded print product. The Sun will begin
operating the Journal on April 1. The Journal is already printed by the Sun. Morris said the acquisition of the Journal was an opportunity for Scripps to extend its coverage of the West Sound business community and reach new advertisers. “The Journal is an established, respected brand in our community,” Morris said in a statement. “As the principal news provider in the county, we intend to take it into its next evolution to increase exposure for advertisers, and to
widen readership of the print product and digital content.” Lary Coppola founded the Journal in 1988. Its circulation is 7,500. Coppola said he and his wife wanted to devote more attention to the magazines Wet Apple Media publishes, which include West Sound Home and Garden, and Build & Remodel Kitsap, which is published under a contract with the Home Builders Association of Kitsap County. “We feel like Scripps and the Sun are committed to taking the Business Journal
to the next level,” he said. Production and advertising for the Journal will be handled through the Kitsap Sun offices beginning in April. Morris said the Sun will hire an editorial staff member to provide content for the Journal. Wet Apple Media has a staff of seven who work on all the company’s publications. Scripps owns 13 daily newspapers and 19 local television stations across the United States. Its other media properties include the video news provider Newsy.
Keyport presents award for Federal Engineer of the Year
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April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 5
Laura Watson of Bremerton has been recognized as the Federal Engineer of the Year for Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division, Keyport. The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) presented the award to Watson for leading engineering efforts to develop a sophisticated reverseengineering process for complex circuit boards to Laura Watson replace advanced ship, submarine and aircraft electronic packages. “Working as an engineer for the U.S. Navy is itself an honor and I worked with a great team of engineers who deserve credit as well,” Watson said. “NUWC Division, Keyport is a great place to practice the engineering trade while contributing to the defense of our nation.” Watson was one of 24 engineers from throughout the U.S. who were recognized by NSPE for engineering accomplishments and educational achievements as well as professional and civic involvement. She holds two masters’ degrees and is a member of NSPE, Society of Women Engineers and Disabled American Veterans. A native of Chautauqua, N.Y., Watson began working as an engineer at NUWC Keyport in 2001 after serving in the Air Force for 12 years. NUWC Division, Keyport’s mission is to operate the Navy’s full-spectrum research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support center for submarines, autonomous underwater systems, and offensive and defensive weapon systems associated with Undersea Warfare (USW) and related areas of homeland security and national defense.
Bainbridge Bakers opens new location next to art museum
6 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
By Tim Kelly, Editor He scouted the location several years ago, before the striking art museum transformed the corner across from the Bainbridge Island ferry. Mike Loudon had his eye on the developing Island Gateway complex and the building that was already there, partly occupied by Avalara, for a possible second location for his business, Bainbridge Bakers. However, that building soon was filled entirely by Avalara due to the company's rapid growth, and a spot in the museum didn't work out either, but Bainbridge Bakers finally gained a foothold and is now a neighbor to both. The new café at the Island Gateway held its long-awaited grand opening March 23, although the bakery wasn’t going to be open for business until around April 1. "It's been a long time," Loudon said earlier in March, sitting on the patio outside the bakery in the Winslow Green center a few blocks down the street from the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. "We've been working on that for about six years, believe it or not." The Island Gateway location at the corner of State Route 305 and Winslow Way is similar to the original Bainbridge Bakers — which celebrated 28 years in business on the same day as the grand opening — but the new spot is intended to create a different vibe and fill a different niche. "The model we built for the new place really envisions a whole new audience," Loudon said. "We're anticipating and hoping the new place down there isn’t going to cannibalize our business here at all." His business will occupy half the ground floor in the creatively named Building B. It also will provide food service for a taproom in the other half, Ale House on Winslow, expected to open this summer.
Tim Kelly photos
Owner Mike Loudon carries out a cake for the grand opening celebration at the Bainbridge Bakers location next to the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Right: People enjoy the music of local band Paundy on the patio outside the building where the bakery/café will be on the ground floor. Bainbridge Bakers will have a 3,000square foot space, adjacent to the art museum's patio, that will be "a little more sophisticated, a little fancier" than his other bakery, Loudon said, in keeping with the new surroundings. The new place also is designed to host occasional live entertainment and it will have beer and wine service, although that won't start until this summer. "We want to keep this place (in Winslow Green) the neighborhood go-to place," he said. "The other place is really designed to service the art museum patrons, the Avalara folks and the commuters that will find us." Before the museum was more than a vision and before Avalara had moved into the Island Gateway building that's now its headquarters, Loudon's bakery had established a relationship with Avalara by
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catering meetings and social events for the fast-growing company, which also occupies the entire second floor of Building B. The building also has a rooftop venue offering views of Eagle Harbor, and Loudon hopes that will be finished before the Fourth of July. Bainbridge Bakers will handle bookings for the approximately 4,500square-foot space, which is partially covered and has a fireplace and catering kitchen. “It's going to be pretty spectacular,” Loudon said of the venue, which is at eye level with the top floor of the glass-walled art museum next door. In addition to preparing for its new place, Bainbridge Bakers also recently expanded its busy Winslow Green location into an adjacent condo unit leased from the new owner who bought that space last year. “We’ve increased our inside seating a lot,” said Loudon, who’s owned the bakery for nearly 10 years. “When we opened up the annex we almost doubled our table seating; we've got seating for almost 120 people, plus the patio.” The new location will have a kitchen for preparing breakfast and lunch items, but all the baked goods will come from the kitchen at the original Bainbridge Bakers. Loudon also said future plans for the
business could include adding an off-site kitchen to handle baking for wholesale customers. Bainbridge Bakers makes bread and desserts for Rolling Bay Café and some other island restaurants, and would like to add more. “It’s pretty clear that if our wholesale business continues to grow, and if the other bakery continues to grow and prosper, we're probably not going to have capacity here to do all that baking,” he said. “So our longer-term plan is to probably look at the potential of establishing an outside commissary bakery, not a retail bakery, … to be able to really ramp up our wholesale business.” Though it’s taken longer than expected to get his Island Gateway location open, Loudon said he’s had “phenomenal” support from the project developers. And with the substantial investment made in developing the entire complex, he noted, “one would have thought that they would have gone and found, you know, a Starbucks or some big marquee tenant for food there, and they didn’t. They rolled the dice on somebody local, and said we still want it to have that local feel, but we want to make sure that it's done to our standards. “So it’s been a really good partnership.”
Gig Harbor Paddlers Cup and Expo set for third year The third annual Gig Harbor Paddlers Cup and Expo will be April 5-6, featuring competitive paddle racing for kayaks, canoes and SUP (stand up paddleboards), as well as outriggers and Para-Canoe, to benefit the Gig Harbor Kayak Club. The event will be based at Skansie Brothers Park and Jerisich Dock in downtown Gig Harbor (www.gigharborguide.com), with races for all four categories taking place inside the harbor. The schedule of events for the two-day event as well as the course layout is online at www.gigharborpaddlerscup.com. Vendors and booths will be set up in the park during the two-day event. The Expo in the park is an opportunity to try out equipment, view new boats and learn more about paddling sports. Registration is available for competitors and vendors online at www.gigharborpaddlerscup.com. For additional information about the Gig Harbor Paddlers Cup, email the event coordinator at gigharborpaddlerscup@gmail.com.
EHL Insurance announces new staff, employee’s award EHL Insurance in Poulsbo has hired John Bower as an employee benefits advisor, and Ben Wisniewski as the newest staff member in the business insurance department. Bower brings over 20 years of strategic and human resources management experience from a variety of John Bower industries, including technology, shipping & transportation, aerospace, and manufacturing. He has a bachelor’s degree in in Business Administration from Central Washington University. He can be reached at EHL at 360.779.4448 or jbower@ehlinsurance.com. Wisniewski recently retired from playing professional basketball in Vietnam and is currently the head varsity boys basketball coach at Kingston High School. He has a degree in business finance from Edgewood College in Ben Wisniewski Wisconsin. He can be contacted at 360.779.4448, ext. 8104, or benw@ehlinsurance.com. Jeff Ogard of EHL has earned the Safeco Insurance Award of Excellence, an honor recognizing superior underwriting skill that is achieved by a select group of agents across the country who sell Safeco Insurance. The award honors Jeff Ogard agents who have developed a solid underwriting relationship with Safeco and whose agencies have qualified for the Safeco Insurance Premier Partner Award, the company’s top recognition program.
Martha & Mary’s Generations of Care benefit luncheon and auction will be held April 27, from noon to 3:30 p.m. at Kiana Lodge, 14972 Sandy Hook Road in Poulsbo. This annual event supports Martha & Mary’s (www.marthaandmary.org) mission of providing quality care for seniors and early childhood education services across Kitsap County. This year’s keynote speaker is Erik R. Lindbergh, a pilot, artist and entrepreneur, and the grandson of aviation pioneers Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Tickets are $60 general and $90 patron per person, which includes a salmon buffet lunch, and a silent and live auction. For tickets and information, call 360-262-7879 or email events@mmhc.org.
In collaboration with Quilted Strait and The Artful Ewe, Port Gamble is destined to become a fiber artist's paradise with the third annual Fiber and Fabric festival set for April 26-27. This popular festival attracts visitors from all over the Pacific Northwest and will include prizes and quilt and fiber arts displays at the Hood Canal Vista Pavilion and the historic St. Paul's Church. Visitors to the festival can participate in classes and demonstrations while visiting numerous vendors at the famed WalkerAmes House of Port Gamble.
Kris Cornell of Quilted Strait has added an antique sewing machine collection that will be on display in the basement of St. Paul's Church. The collection is courtesy of Don Elliot of Gig Harbor. The Artful Ewe owner Heidi Dascher opened The Artful Ewe II in 2009, just a couple of doors down from her main shop. She wanted to provide a space for people to learn the art of weaving and spinning. Dascher welcomes visitors to sit in the "Cozy Corner" of her shop, which is set up with instructional books, comfy chairs and a spinning wheel. She also gives free knitting and spinning lessons. The Artful Ewe II weaving and spinning studio offers 6-8 classes a year, each lasting 6-8 weeks.
Quilted Strait opened its doors in Port Gamble in April 2010 after moving the business from Port Angeles. With over 3,100 square feet of merchandise, display and class space, owners Kris and Jerry Cornell have one of the largest quilt shops in the region in the historic Stables building at 32280 Puget Way NE. The popular quilt shop (www.quiltedstrait.com) has also been featured in the national publication Better Homes and Gardens Quilt Sampler. Quilted Strait has a large classroom space that hosts over 100 classes each year. The Fiber and Fabric festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 26, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 27.
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Martha & Mary annual fundraiser features speaker Erik Lindbergh
Port Gamble shops to host festival highlighting quilts, fiber arts
The Doctors Clinic CT scanner reduces radiation dose By Rodika Tollefson The Doctors Clinic has been using a low-dose radiation scanner for the past year — the only technology of its kind on the Olympic Peninsula. The computerized tomography (CT) scanner allows the radiation dose to be reduced up to 60 percent. “The scanner is faster and better but there’s also a new technique. When the computer reconstructs (the images), it uses better math so it needs less radiation,” said Dr. Patricia Burkhart, who’s worked as a radiologist at The Doctors Clinic for the past year and a half. CT scan technology, which was developed more than 40 years ago, has been credited with saving lives due to early diagnoses of diseases. However, radiation exposure could be a concern, especially for certain patient categories such as children and individuals with cancer. “We’re all exposed to radiation in the environment. Medical radiation is a small part but obviously we don’t want to add manmade radiation,” Burkhart said. The Somatom Definition AS scanner at The Doctors Clinic needs about half of the
radiation amount to produce a highresolution image, and the image has more detail than the previous equipment provided. The machine also has an improved design, with an open architecture that minimizes the need for rescanning and automated controls to streamline procedures. The scanner, described as nextevolution technology, works in tandem with a new technique called SAFIRE (sinogram-affirmed iterative reconstruction). The low-dose scanning method was developed by the Mayo Clinic while Burkhart was in training there, and she was involved in the process through her mentor. Fortuitously, The Doctors Clinic physicians had already decided to upgrade their imaging equipment just as she was joining the staff. She points out that there are now new recommendations for smokers to undergo low-dose CT screening every year for cancer. In addition to the new CT scanner, The Doctors Clinics replaced its magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment last year. The MRI scanner provides sharper images and shorter scan times. The scanner
uses radiofrequency signals instead of radiation. The imaging department, which is located at the Salmon Center in Silverdale, serves not only TDC patients. Outside providers also refer patients to TDC for imaging, and some residents choose the center themselves. Photo by Rodika Tollefson Burkhart is Dr. Patricia Burkhart with the low-dose CT scanner at The Doctors currently the sole Clinic. As a radiologist, her work is typically behind the scenes, reading radiologist, the images on her computer. reading a variety of imaging, such as Xinvolves detective work in order to come up rays, MRIs, CTs and ultrasounds, as well as with the right diagnosis. performing some image-guided “I’m the consultant for the patient’s procedures. The imaging department has physician,” she said. “Some diseases are a become increasingly busy — a second challenge no matter what, and what I like radiologist will be added this summer. about radiology is that I’m the medical Burkart said her job as a radiologist detective.”
8 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
Noninvasive prenatal testing becomes more common By Rodika Tollefson The science and best practices in prenatal care is evolving, as in any other medical field, and one of the latest tools is noninvasive prenatal testing, or NIPT. It’s a blood test used to screen for chromosomerelated conditions such as Down syndrome, and it can be performed at 10 weeks of pregnancy. “It’s considered a screening tool and not completely diagnostic. A screening test is designed to look at a large group of women and limit them to a small group that may be
at risk, and then apply more exacting diagnostics,” said Dr. Arthur Maslow, a perinatologist with Franciscan Health System. Maslow, whose practice is focused on high-risk pregnancies, has been using NIPT for about a year. He said the previous screening test — called quad — had a positive predictive value (proportion of “true positives”) of 60 to 70 percent, compared with 99.1 percent for the new NIPT. That means a much larger number of women were identified to be at risk by
the quad test but actually weren’t. The test also wasn’t administered until later in the gestational period. “Even more important than the positive predictive value (of NIPT) is the negative predictive value, which is 99.9 percent. That means there’s only a one in 1,000 chance it’s wrong. That’s huge because even though it’s a screening test, we don’t need to follow up on a negative (result),” he said. “If we have a positive, then we try to follow up with an amniocentesis.” He said in his experience, about 30 to 40 percent of women choose to proceed with the amniocentesis. An amniocentesis involves the extraction of a sample from the amniotic sac that surrounds the baby, which carries the risk of miscarriage. If the baby is found to have a birth defect such as Down or Trisomy 13, the woman has the choice to terminate the pregnancy. The NIPT looks for free-floating DNA in the mother’s blood because the cell-free DNA comes from the fetus. In the lab, the two DNA types are isolated and the baby’s DNA is examined for the correct number of chromosomes. “The technology is such that we can get to the single-gene defects in the fetus,” Maslow said. Dr. May Chambers, an OB/GYN who works as an obstetric hospitalist at Harrison Medical Center, said the noninvasive
prenatal testing is part of a new way to do integrated screening. The blood test at 10 weeks is followed by another at 16 weeks that looks for serum markers associated with chromosome abnormality. An ultrasound also looks for specific indicators such as the thickness of the baby’s neck. “It’s like a puzzle. It’s adding all the data to integrate all the data points,” May said, adding that the data is processed by a computer to determine various risks of the pregnancy. “The thought is now to get the diagnoses early so there’s more time to act on defects and make decisions,” she said. May, who as a hospitalist doesn’t order screening tests, said she doesn’t see it done a lot but feels that within the next decade, NIPT could become standard. “There’s a movement in general to learn more and study more about prenatal baby conditions,” she said. NIPT doesn’t come without challenges, specifically ethical considerations. According to the National Institutes of Health, some concerns include that because the tests are safe and can be performed early in pregnancy, the standardization could lead to using them to test for minor abnormalities and even nonmedical conditions. “There’ll be constant tension for a while between the ethical responsibilities and the gathering of information,” Maslow said.
Silverdale chiropractor shares healthy tips, habits in new book By Rodika Tollefson For as long as he’s been in practice, Silverdale chiropractor Dr. David Stedman has been giving his patients information about being healthy. Now, every patient receives a free book, “Pain-Free and Healthy: An Owner’s Manual for the Human Body.” Published in October, the book has been on Stedman’s mind for many years, until he finally decided to focus on it and get it done. “The data in the book gives people the tools to stay healthy,” he said. “The one thing I find is that giving away data and information is such a wonderful thing to be able to do.” Stedman has been in his own practice since 1981. His business, The Chiropractors Clinic and Massage Therapy Center, is right across the street from Central Kitsap High School in Silverdale. He bought and developed the property 28 years ago so he could have his own space that’s fit for growth. “I needed a big enough facility to help the people I was helping. I wanted my own place so I can grow with it,” he said. The center currently has four massage therapists and a second chiropractor, and offers services that range from typical chiropractic treatments such as
spinal alignment, spinal decompression and orthotics to nutrition and weight loss programs. Stedman grew up in Kitsap County and went to Central Kitsap Junior High, where he played several sports and was the ASB president. His family moved to Minnesota right before he started high school. Ten years later, he returned to his old stomping grounds, where he still has family.
“Pain-Free and Healthy: An Owner’s Manual for the Human Body” by Dr. David Stedman is available at The Chiropractors Clinic and Massage Therapy Center in Silverdale, as well as at Eagle Harbor Books on Bainbridge Island and on Amazon.com.
He says he was 12 when he decided to become some sort of doctor, and he started reading medical books as a kid. In his first
Healthy bacteria added to your diet are beneficial crops before bringing them to the table. With the dirt goes the naturally occurring healthy bacteria. I have a very specific view on the best sources for probiotics. Like everything else (I am not a big supplement guy) I would prefer you get them in your diet. Your best source in the diet is naturally fermented foods, such as sauerkraut and similar. I do not recommend dairy sources such as yogurt. Then next best would be to supplement in your probiotics. There are a few supplements I am fond of, but the contents are far more important than the brand. Look for the first bacterial species on the label. That species should be Lactobacillius Plantarum. It may be abbreviated as L. Plantarum. When I have done the research, this is the same organism found in our ancestors and is thus the best choice for us. To get the maximum benefit from your probiotics, you must make sure to feed them. Probiotics need fresh fiber in the form of fruits and vegetables (not grains). Make sure you are getting plenty of these. Additionally try to avoid those things that are going to kill off your probiotics. These include antibiotics (go figure), soft drinks, coffee/black tea, and alcohol. Probiotics are very worthwhile. Do your research and manage your diet well to reap the maximum benefits of them. • Dr. Carl Ehresman is a chiropractor in Belfair. He has over 19 years in practice and is a nationally certified wellness practitioner. He can be reached at (360) 275-4401 or drcarl@belfairwellness.com.
April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 9
By Dr. Carl Ehresman For some the idea of incorporating healthy bacteria into your diet is a relatively new one. I would say this is partially true. Supplementing with bacteria (probiotics) has become much more common in recent years. More and more of my patients coming in are already taking some form of probiotics when I initially interview them. There has been much more marketing surrounding probiotics and thus people are more aware. I think this trend started around five years ago with the dairy industry promoting the health benefits of yogurt. From here it spread to specialized yogurt products and then on to actual supplements. The idea of probiotics may seem new, but it has been around for about the last 100 years. I was fascinated when my next-door neighbor replaced wall insulation and found an old newspaper from the 1930s. On one of the front pages was an advertisement by a chiropractor extolling the benefits of probiotics. So, is this just a here again, gone again fad? Perhaps as far as the mainstream is considered, yes. My personal opinion is probiotics need to be a part of your life indefinitely. Your body is really a small ecosystem in and of itself. Probiotics play into that system and allow your body to function properly. The reason I suggest supplementing with them is we live in an antibiotic world, and thus we are perpetually killing off our healthy bacteria. We are also just too plain clean in general. If you do grow your own vegetables, most will practically sterilize the
Photo by Rodika Tollefson.
Dr. David Stedman is a longtime chiropractor in his hometown of Silverdale. year of medical school, he met a people come to him because of pain that chiropractor. “I knew nothing about it,” he has no relief. He says he likes to start with said. Once he found out what a simple solutions and build from there. chiropractor did, however, Stedman was The book is centered on that idea of hooked to the idea of helping people to live basics, too. Written in easy-to-read chunks, better naturally. it covers topics that range from nutrition “It’s the largest drugless healing and vitamins to proper sleeping positions profession in the world,” he said, explaining and orthotics. The tips are designed to help that it’s based on the idea that if nerves are people make small changes in their everyday lives. aggravated because of misalignment of Stedman’s practice has helped bones, the body doesn’t work properly. So thousands of patients, and it’s currently in in a sense, the chiropractor’s job is to growth mode so he is adding more staff. optimize the body. “If I can get you in as good an alignment “It’s amazing, the number of people we’re as I can, the body will improve,” he said. helping,” he said. “That’s what keeps me His patients are as young as newborns going — my motivation is to help people and his oldest patient was 103. Often times, get better.”
Hybrid operating room suite opens at Harrison for heart and vascular patients By Rodika Tollefson A hybrid operating suite that opened at Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton allows vascular and heart physicians to work together on complicated cases. Double in size of the typical operating room, the hybrid OR is part of the Heart & Vascular Center and is outfitted with top-of-the-line equipment, including advanced imaging technology, for both surgeries and minimally invasive procedures. “This hybrid space allows multiple teams to work together side by side,” said Mei-lin Gonzales, director of Cardiovascular and Imaging Services at Harrison. “We don’t have to leave the room for anything, which is important.” The hybrid suite, which opened in November, is located in the main OR area. The space became available once orthopedic services moved to the new Orthopedic Center in Silverdale that opened last year. “The endovascular room needed to be replaced and upgraded,” Gonzales said. “The
new room gives us more advanced and highquality images and it can accommodate 12-18 people.” In the past, the same procedures required more complex staging, as a typical operating room only has space for about six to eight people. In the hybrid suite, both the surgical and percutaneous multi-disciplinary teams are present at the same time. For example, a valve procedure is started percutaneously, but a surgical team is on the standby in the suite in case surgery becomes necessary. The new imaging system in the suite also includes advanced tools that minimize the radiation dosage. “Everybody is ready to go. It’s a more collaborative approach,” Gonzales said. “The end goal is the best outcome with a minimally invasive approach but always being ready for an intervention.” While the Heart & Vascular Center already offered the same services, the availability of the hybrid suite will help advance minimally
Photo by Rodika Tollefson
Two standard operating rooms were combined to create the hybrid operating suite for heart and vascular procedures and surgeries at Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton. invasive surgery. “This room accommodate services we were already doing, but we’re able to offer
more to the community,” Gonzales said. “Hybrid procedures are the way of the future. They’re just staring to come.”
Money put into a tax-free HSA can be used for health care expenses in retirement
10 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
By Ginette Dalton If you’re like me, you love a great discount! Wouldn’t it be great if you could put pretax money in a savings account to save for your annual vacation? How about a tax-free savings account to set aside money for a new car? Even though we cannot do it tax-free, many of us do establish special savings accounts for the things that are important to us like vacations, major purchases, and our favorite hobbies. But how many of us save for things like future medical, dental and vision care expenses? Did you know that there is a way to save for future health care expenses with tax- free money? For most of us, daydreaming of our retirement includes visions of warm sunny days filled with leisurely hobbies and travel. We
picture a comfortable life we’ve earned by diligently and responsibly stashing money away in our 401k, IRA and other investments. When you think of your happy days of retirement, medical procedures, dental work and the like may not be what you spend your time thinking about, but my guess is that you would all agree that it’s not a matter of if you will have future health care expenses, but when. That’s why starting a Health Savings Account now, no matter what your age, will help you later. Health Savings Accounts have been growing in popularity since their introduction in 2003. An HSA, when partnered with a qualified High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), allows you to set aside tax-free money to pay for qualified health care
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expenses for you, your spouse and any dependents in your household, even if they are not covered on your HDHP. The IRS has set maximum contribution limits for 2014 of $3,300 if you are only insuring yourself, or $6,550 if you are insuring any dependents in addition to yourself. If you are over age 55, you can make an additional $1,000 “catch-up” contribution. The contributions you make to your HSA are eligible to deduct on your federal income taxes. Better yet, if you choose an HSA qualified medical plan through your employer, and they allow you to make contributions through payroll deduction, you can save even more by avoiding the additional FICA taxes on the amount that you direct pretax to your HSA. Say for example you have a $1,000 qualified health care expense. Let’s assume you are in an 18 percent tax bracket. By setting the money aside in an HSA first, you are saving $180 in federal income taxes, and if you are able to contribute through payroll deduction, you also avoid the 7.65 percent or $76.50 in FICA taxes. So that $1000 expense is a real cost to you of $743.50, because you saved $256.50 in taxes. Employers’ benefits with HSAs are threefold. First, employers save money on the premium expense of HSA medical plans since they typically cost considerably less than
traditional plans. Why pay more than you have to in premiums to the insurance company? Some employers see the advantage of giving all or part of the premium cost savings back to their employees as an added benefit in the form of an HSA contribution to their employees’ account. In addition, that employer contribution to the employee’s HSA is also a tax-deductible business expense. Lastly, employers save even more on FICA and other payroll taxes when employees direct pre-tax contributions to their own HSA, lowering their taxable gross income. No “Use it or lose it” rules. Unlike Flexible Spending Accounts, HSA funds grow and roll over from year to year. The idea being that folks will set aside more than they use and create a surplus that rolls over and continues to accrue interest from year to year. That way, at retirement or when you are enrolled in Medicare, the funds you have built in your HSA can supplement what Medicare doesn’t cover. HSAs provide triple tax savings. Money set aside tax-free in an HSA grows tax-free, too. The interest you earn on your HSA is non-taxable, unlike other interest-bearing accounts. As long as you withdraw the funds for qualified health care-related expenses (see HSA, page 11
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Choices you didn’t know you had in comparing health care costs By Dr. Manfred Henne It is important to be aware of the fact that you can become your own health care advocate, and to choose where and from whom you receive medical services. You have choices! You can select your physician, your medical group, your hospital and the provider of any other medical services such as imaging and physical therapy, etc. As healthcare consumers endure higher deductibles and reduced insurance benefits, it is becoming more important to understand and compare costs before receiving medical treatment. Patients can and should be more proactive about seeking high quality and the best prices for healthcare services. Although hospitals and doctors’ offices do not publicize their list prices, which can vary a great deal for the same service, these providers will often share price information with patients directly if requested. So do not be afraid to call, ask to speak to your providers’ billing department and find out what your cost for services will be. If you have a private insurance, your provider has a contractual price list with your insurance carrier. This price list is not the same for all hospitals and doctors. If you have not met your deductible you will be charged according to that price list. The insurance price list and even the Medicare price list can be higher in metropolitan areas and in outlying areas where services are limited and there are fewer providers. Thus you can often receive the same medical service less expensively by doing a little research before you book your appointment. You can shop for the best pricing and quality.
from page 10 IRS Publication 502 for a complete list of qualified expenses), now or in the future, the funds are not taxed. According to the 2012 retirement health care cost estimate study by Fidelity Investments, a 65-year-old couple retiring this year would need approximately $240,000 to cover medical expenses not covered by Medicare throughout their retirement. This represents a 4 percent increase from last year and an average annual increase of 6 percent from 2002 through 2011. Today, 35 percent of annual Social Security benefits are said to be spent on health care-related expenses, with an anticipated increase to 61 percent by 2027. Statistics like these can be distressing. Luckily you have a local community bank that cares about your financial peace of mind and will help you plan for your health care savings today so you can relax and enjoy all of your warm and sunny tomorrows. • Ginette Dalton is a career banker and has been with Kitsap Bank for 10 years.
surgical, and diagnostic services. When you call a provider, be it a hospital or physician, you can assure that you are comparing apples to apples by having the CPT code for the procedure you will need and a general description. For example, if you needed to have an x-ray of your forearm the CPT code would be 73090. So in calling to find out about pricing you could use the CPT code and description to find out your cost at each location you are considering having the x-ray done. Please note that some providers may add an additional charge for a physician’s service or a facility fee. So remember to ask if there
are additional fees above the cost of the actual procedure. When looking for a medical provider, I always encourage people to talk to co-workers, family, and friends for recommendations and to consider the cost, quality and reputation of the center and physician. Other good things to find out before you schedule an appointment are how quickly you will be seen; if there is a need for an additional test, can it be done the same day; and if someone can explain to you personally your results before you leave the office. • Dr. Manfred Henne operates the InHealth Imaging radiology clinic in Poulsbo.
April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 11
HSA
The cost savings to patients can be between 30 percent and 50 percent. If you are a cash pay patient, you can and should ask for a discount from the list price. At this point you may be asking yourself how do I compare pricing for healthcare services? All medical services use the same coding system referred to as CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) codes and each CPT code has a relative value attached to it. These codes are the same codes you will see on your medical bill. CPT codes are identifying numbers assigned to every task and service a medical practitioner may provide to a patient including medical,
Transparency in health care costs could make consumers better informed
12 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
By Tim Kelly, Editor How transparent is the health care market in Washington? There have been some advancements recently in making it easier for consumers — both patients and whoever pays for their health insurance — to compare the costs and quality of care from different providers and through different insurers, but it's still an incomplete picture. The 2014 Legislature passed a health care bill that includes a provision creating an "all-payer claims database" that would have have required health insurance companies to report information on all claims paid by the insurers to a statewide database. There was broad support from many industry stakeholders for the database, which would have made it easier to compare costs for the same treatments and procedures anywhere in Washington — but it didn't pass. Actually the bill, HB 2572, was approved by substantial margins in both the House and Senate (local Republican legislators Sen. Jan Angel and Rep. Jesse Young voted against it.) However, the all-payer claims database was stripped out of the bill by the Republican chair of the Senate Health Care Committee, reportedly as a result of pressure from Premera Blue Cross. As the Spokane Spokesman-Review reported, "Lobbying behind closed doors, Washington’s largest health insurance company persuaded Republicans in the state Senate to gut a widely supported bill that aimed to reveal health care price and quality information to consumers." Premera — which along with its subsidiary LifeWise have signed up the majority of people enrolled in Washington’s new health insurance
exchange under the Affordable Care Act — opposes the claims database because it considers payment rates it negotiates with providers to be proprietary information. Supporters of the database denounced Premera's influence and the committee's action. Patrick Connor, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business — which staunchly opposed the Affordable Care Act — called the legislative action "a ham-fisted carve-out for Premera Blue Cross." A Seattle Times editorial noted that more than a dozen other states have databases that make information about health care costs publicly available, but "the state Senate is not willing to help small business or ordinary consumers. Well, how about getting better information on the insurance the state pays for? Good luck. Premera’s cozy deal with the Washington
Education Association remains behind a wall of secrecy." The final amended version of HB 2572 that passed provides for a state database, but reporting of claims information by insurers is voluntary. The state Health Care Authority, which oversees state employees' insurance coverage and Medicaid, has received a $3.4 million grant for establishing an all-payer claims database. However, the information it provides would be incomplete without the mandatory reporting by insurance companies that was removed from the original bill. While some supporters of the more comprehensive database ripped Premera and the politicians who weakened the bill, the executive director of the Washington Health Alliance, a designated partner with the Health Care Authority in developing
Hospitals ranked on affordability Consumer finance website NerdWallet ranked the 10 most affordable hospitals in Washington state: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Olympic Medical Center — Port Angeles Central Washington Hospital — Wenatchee Island Hospital — Anacortes Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital — Yakima Grays Harbor Community Hospital — Aberdeen Samaritan Healthcare — Moses Lake PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center — Bellingham Wenatchee Valley Medical Center — Wenatchee Virginia Mason Medical Center — Seattle Kadlec Regional Medical Center — Richland
Methodology: Using CMS Medicare Provider Charge Data, researchers calculated which of 47 hospitals in Washington has the lowest price for each of the 100 most common medical procedures, and then summed the number of times that each hospital had the lowest price. The data are for services billed for Medicare patients.
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the database, praised the bill as at least a step in the right direction. Mary McWilliams, in a puff piece published as a guest column in the Puget Sound Business Journal after the Legislature adjourned, wrote that "The legislators are to be applauded for recognizing the importance of more transparent data as a building block for change." She also gave lawmakers credit for "showing the foresight to understand how transparency can benefit a broad range of stakeholders and improve the value of care in the state." Not until the end of her column does she acknowledge the shortcomings of the bill; she calls it "a policy beachhead for greater transparency in Washington," but does concede "there are issues that will need to be addressed to create the kind of database that the Legislature likely envisioned when it acted. For example, the data is mandated only for state-purchased health care, and not even all of that, since claims data for public school teachers are exempted." Dr. Manfred Henne, a radiologist who operates the InHealth Imaging clinic in Poulsbo, is a big supporter of transparency in health care costs, especially since the trend in insurance is toward policies with high deductibles. Henne, who wrote a column that appears in this issue of the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal, cited the experience one of his patients had with charges for services her daughter received at another clinic. "She approached me to review her bill," he said. "Her daughter had two MRI scans and each one was $4,000. She wanted to talk to me about it and see if it was mistake." The woman had to pay a large amount of the bill herself because she had not met the deductible for her insurance policy. "The same exam at my facility, with the same insurance carrier, would have been $600," Henne said. He said providing accurate information that's available online about costs for specific health care services from different providers would be beneficial for consumers. One potential obstacle he noted is that "multi-specialty clinics, and larger hospital organizations, want to keep their patients in their networks." One source of cost information is the consumer finance website NerdWallet, which last month published a list of the 10 most affordable hospitals in Washington and added a "Best Hospitals" search tool. Using publicly available Medicare and Medicaid data, NerdWallet researchers looked at the 47 hospitals in the state to see which charged the lowest prices for 100 common medical procedures. The site does not list fees charged by each facility for specific services, but the Best Hospitals search tool allows users to compare the average hospital charge and patient satisfaction ratings for frequently Costs, page 13
Kitsap’s Christian Medical Response Team on standby for local disasters By Rodika Tollefson When major disaster strikes somewhere around the country or beyond, chances are that a team of Kitsap medical providers is among those deploying for help. For 20 years, local physicians, paramedics, nurses, nurse practitioners, EMTs and medical assistants — volunteers with the Silverdalebased nonprofit Christian Medical Response Team — have provided medical care for major events as well as responding to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Hurricane Mitch in Honduras. And while CMRT hasn’t had to activate for one of its core missions — a major disaster in Kitsap County or the state of Washington — it’s always ready for it. “We have strategic locations set up for a field hospital in case of disaster (in Kitsap) and everyone on the team knows the plan,” said Dr. Dan Diamond, a local physician and CMRT founder and director. CMRT got its start in 1994 as The Youth for Christ Medical Team, a medical provider for a Youth for Christ conference in Washington, D.C. The five-day event drew 20,000 teens and tens of thousands of people for a rally. To understand the setup of a massive event, Diamond and his wife, Debbie, went to a Pink Floyd concert to learn, and then tapped the world-renowned Rock Medicine team for training. After working with Rock Medicine at a Grateful Dead concert, the team was asked to come back for five more shows. “Disaster needs people who have a sense of humor and can think fast on their feet,” Diamond said. “We as a group had the passion to take in all folks in a loving, nonjudgmental way.” Diamond tapped into his local network of physicians and paramedics to form the
COSTS
the medical director for Harrison’s Urgent Care. CMRT has about 50 volunteers from around the state but most of them are from Kitsap. When responding to events around the country, they deploy as a nongovernmental organization in partnership with Medical Teams International. Last year, the nonprofit organization officially obtained a 501(c)3 status. Its funding comes largely from donations. A couple of years ago, CMRT launched the West Sound Free Clinic, a mobile service that provides primary care in partnership with several local organizations that serve people in need. The clinic is a community service, but it also doubles as continuing training because the volunteer medical providers have to do their work in a conference room setting or out of the back of a converted ambulance. Several local businesses have supported CMRT with in-kind donations. Reliable Storage in Silverdale, for example, has provided free storage for equipment for years. E-bed of Poulsbo donated $10,000 worth of specialized foldable beds three years ago. “It’s an example of Kitsap County rallying around us,” Diamond said. Pam Wright, who provides administrative support and volunteer coordination, said they continue to recruit one to two new volunteers every month and most of the people come by word of mouth. Wright herself became involved about 17 years ago through her husband, Paul, a firefighter and EMT who is a battalion chief in Kent. She said what attracts many of the volunteers is their desire to serve others. “We feel it’s our responsibility to give back, especially being a Christian organization,” she said. “We provide a service that is needed in our community and could possibly be needed if something major were to happen. Our community needs us now more than ever.”
Volunteers wanted The Christian Medical Response Team is continuously recruiting physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses and medical assistants. Background checks are required. To apply, go to cmrt.org.
April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 13
from page 12 performed in-patient procedures. For example, for knee or hip replacement or reattachment surgery at hospitals in the greater Seattle area, the lowest average charge is $31,753 at University of Washington Medical Center, which does the surgery for 215 patients annually. At Harrison Medical Center, which does 413 of the surgeries annually, the average charge is nearly twice as much at $60,944, and it's even higher — $71,391 — at St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor. Supporters of health care cost transparency say it will help drive down the cost of care, though some who are skeptical of that claim note the trend toward hospitals and clinics consolidating. That results in less competition among health care providers, which could run counter to the goal of reducing the cost of quality care. Another question is to what extent patients would utilize comparative cost information, if it's accessible, to make health care decisions. Henne, for one, believes they would do just that, and that it would contribute to lowering health care costs overall. "If it was truly transparent, then the game would change," he said.
early teams. He said the partnership worked out well because physicians and paramedics could learn from each other. “I learned a lot about field medicine from paramedics,” he said. “They taught us a lot about how to keep a team safe and how to approach a crowd while going against thousands of people.” The group became affiliated with Kitsap County’s Department of Emergency Management and the state of Washington after Diamond approached the DEM’s director, Phyllis Mann. “I said I had this team and we had training, and offered to be the county’s team. It worked out to be a great arrangement. We’ve clocked thousands of hours of work,” he said, adding that CMRT became the first stateaffiliated disaster team in the country. Over the years, they have provided care at events such as Metallica’s concert in Seattle, Bumbershoot and Creation Fest at the Gorge. “It was an amazing training environment for us,” Diamond said of Creation Fest, where the team saw more than 500 patients during the first week one year. The festival was in July, and in August the group responded to Hurricane Katrina. “We used the same strategy to handle a crowd,” Diamond said. Diamond’s personal disaster response work is quite extensive and he is recognized nationally for his expertise on resilience. During the Katrina response, he served as the director of the medical triage unit at the New Orleans Convention Center. Using his disaster experience, he trains others on strategies for performing under pressure. He’s in the process of writing a book, “Triage Thinking,” geared toward business people in high-pressure situations like cutbacks and acquisitions. Locally, he has practiced as a physician for The Doctors Clinic for more than 25 years. He now practices at the Harrison Medical Center’s Urgent Care in Port Orchard and serves as
Saving is good... but it's not investing By David Hawley Jr. It’s a good thing to have some savings. When you put the money in a low-risk account, you can be pretty sure it will be readily available when you need it. Nonetheless, “saving” is not “investing” — and knowing the difference could pay off for you far into the future. Think about it this way: Saving is for today, while investing is for tomorrow. You need your savings to pay for your daily expenses, such as groceries, and your monthly bills — mortgage, utilities and so on. In fact, you might even want your savings to include an emergency fund containing six to 12 months’ worth of living expenses to pay for unexpected costs, such as a new furnace or a major car repair. These are all “here and now” expenses — and you could use your savings to pay for them. But in thinking of your long-term goals, such as college for your children and a comfortable retirement for yourself, most individuals typically can’t simply rely on their savings — they’ll need to invest. Why?
14 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
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Because, quite simply, investments can grow — and you will need this growth potential to help achieve your objectives. To illustrate the difference between saving and investing, let’s do a quick comparison. Suppose you put $200 per month into a savings account that paid a hypothetical 3 percent interest rate (which is actually higher than the rates typically being paid today). After 30 years, you would have accumulated about $106,000, assuming you were in the 25 percent federal tax bracket. Now, suppose you put that same $200 per month in a tax-deferred investment that hypothetically earned 7 percent a year. At the end of 30 years, you would end up with about $243,000. (Keep in mind that you would have to pay taxes on withdrawals. Hypotheticals do not include any transaction costs or fees.) This enormous disparity between the amounts accumulated in the two accounts clearly shows the difference between “saving” and “investing.” Still, you might be thinking that investing is risky, while savings accounts carry much less risk. And it is certainly true that investing does involve risks — investments can lose value, and there’s no guarantee that losses will be recovered. Nonetheless, if you put all your money
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you find yourself constantly dipping into your long-term investments to pay for short-term needs, you probably don’t have enough money in savings. On the other hand, if you consistently find yourself with large sums in your savings account even after you’ve paid all your bills, you might be “sitting” on too much cash — which means you should consider moving some of this money into investments with growth potential. Saving and investing — that’s a winning combination. • David Hawley Jr. is an Edward Jones financial advisor in Belfair.
How will Social Security fit into your retirement income strategy? By Jeff Thomsen Have you given much thought to collecting Social Security? The answer probably depends on how old you are — but whatever your age, you’ll want to consider the best way of incorporating Social Security benefits into your retirement income strategy.
Of course, if you have several decades to go until you retire, you might be wondering if Social Security will even be there for you at all. The basic issue is that the Social Security system is experiencing a sharply declining worker-to-beneficiary ratio. In plain English, this means that fewer workers are contributing to Social Security while the huge Baby Boom generation is retiring and taking money out. Still, Social Security has Strategy, page 15
You Rightfully Earned It. Now Rightfully Keep It.
Looking to keep more of your income and cut your taxes? Then federally taxfree municipal bonds* may be for you. * Bonds may be subject to state, local or the alternate minimum tax. Before investing in bonds, you should understand the risks involved, including credit risk and market risk. Bonds are also subject to interest rate risk such that when interest rates rise, the prices of bonds can decrease. In addition, the investor can lose principal value if the bond is sold prior to maturity.
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in savings, you’re actually incurring an even bigger risk — the risk of not achieving your financial goals. In fact, a low-rate savings account might not even keep up with inflation, which means that, over time, you will lose purchasing power. Ultimately, the question isn’t whether you should save or invest — you need to do both. But you do need to decide how much of your financial resources to devote toward savings and how much toward investments. By paying close attention to your cash flow, you should be able to get a good idea of the best savings and investment mix for your particular situation. For example, if
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A traditional 60/40 approach to retirement income pension and Social Security. They wanted their investment portfolio to generate an additional $60,000 per year. When we first met, their investment portfolio was valued at approximately $1.5 million. After several meetings and a lengthy discussion, they liked the idea of allocating about 60 percent of their portfolio to actively managed individual bonds, and about 40 percent to an actively managed portfolio of individual dividendpaying stocks. We talked about the risks associated with both stocks and bonds. These folks said, “Jason, we do not really care about market fluctuations or what the value of the portfolio is at any one time as long as it is consistently producing the income we need. That is all we really care about.” In the past I’ve discussed the disadvantages of buying bonds in a zero interest rate environment. If you are going to buy bonds today, then I prefer owning individual bonds over bond mutual funds. In a rising interest rate environment, I’m concerned we could see a mad dash for the exit as people begin to lose money in bond funds due to rising interest rates. If a lot of people exit a bond mutual fund all at once, then it could cause a bond fund manager to liquidate positions to raise cash to make the mutual fund shareholders whole. At least with an individual bond you have the ability to hold that bond until maturity. You have control over when it is sold. You may see the market value of the
STRATEGY
reach your full retirement age. In fact, you can get even bigger monthly checks if you delay taking your benefits beyond your full retirement age, although your payments will “max out” once you reach 70. Keep in mind, though, that other factors, such as your anticipated longevity, should also enter into your calculations in considering when to take Social Security. As mentioned above, your retirement income may also include withdrawals from retirement accounts, such as an IRA and a 401(k), along with other investments, such as a fixed annuity. And these other accounts are quite important, because Social Security provides, on average, only about 40 percent of retirement income for the average 65year-old today. Consequently, in the years and decades before you retire, contribute as much as you can possibly afford to these other accounts. Given the advances in medical care and the greater awareness of healthy lifestyles, people are living longer than ever — which means you could spend two, or even three, decades in retirement. To enjoy those years fully, you’ll need adequate income. By planning ahead, you can determine how best to fit Social Security into your retirement income strategy. Every move you make to help “secure” your retirement can pay off for you in the long run. • Jeff Thomsen is an Edward Jones financial advisor in Bremerton.
from page 14 enough money to pay full retirement benefits to every eligible American until 2038, according to the Congressional Budget Office. After that point, benefits would have to be reduced unless changes are made to the Social Security system. And several changes have indeed been proposed. Given that we do have nearly 25 years until benefit cuts may need to be made, it seems reasonable that some type of solution could be reached to put Social Security back on solid ground. In any case, when thinking about your retirement income, you need to focus on those things that you can control — such as when to start taking Social Security and how you can supplement your Social Security benefits. Depending on when you were born, your “full” retirement age, as far as collecting Social Security benefits, is likely either 66 or 67. You can start getting your checks as early as 62, but if you do, your monthly payments could be reduced by as much as 30 percent — and this reduction is permanent. Consequently, if you can support your lifestyle from other sources of income — such as earnings from employment and withdrawals from your IRA and 401(k) — you may want to postpone taking Social Security until you
bond drop as a result of rising interest rates, but as long as you hold the bond to maturity and the company issuing the bond does not default, then you would have received all of the income over the term of the bond. Plus at maturity you would get back the value of the bond plus or minus your initial investment depending on if you had purchased the bond at a premium, discount or at par. The nice thing about the dividend stock portfolio we constructed is the individual dividend-paying stocks have a history of increasing their dividends. No guarantees exist that the companies will continue to pay their dividends or increase them, but having the potential for dividend increases and buying companies who have a track record of raising their dividends can help provide for a hedge against inflation. Many companies have paid dividends for years. Once a company starts paying a dividend, they generally want to keep paying the dividend, because if they stop it can have a negative impact on the company and the management. In some instances it can cause shareholders to exit their positions. Now these folks had a higher propensity for risk and enough assets to make this work. These folks have been clients for a few years now, and the markets have behaved well so their portfolio is now valued at about $1.7 million and generating
more than $60,000 of interest and dividend income every year. But just because their portfolio is generating more income does not mean they have to spend all of the income every year. The key to this approach is you need to accept the risks associated with it. The portfolio will fluctuate and in some years those fluctuations can be great. But, if you are like these folks and you don’t really care what the value of the portfolio is from year to year, plus income is your primary concern, then this can be a great way to create a diversified portfolio that is geared to that. • Jason Parker is president of Parker Financial LLC, a fee-based registered investment advisory firm working primarily in wealth management for retirees. His office is located in Silverdale. The opinions and information voiced in this material are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual, and do not constitute a solicitation for any securities or insurance products. All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however, no representation is made as to its completeness or accuracy. Please consult your trusted professional for advice and further information. Parker is insurance-licensed and holds his series 65 securities license. He offers annuities, life and long-term care insurances as well as investment services. Follow Jason’s blog at www.soundretirementplanning.com.
April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 15
By Jason R. Parker I met some folks recently who wanted to use more of a traditional 60/40 approach to their retirement income planning, and they were comfortable accepting the risks associated with it. They explained they had an aversion to annuity contracts and when constructing their retirement income plan they did not want to use any. My job as an adviser is to listen to people and help them do things the way they want them done. I’m fond of the old saying, “God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we would spend more time listening and less time talking.” I also have a responsibility to help highlight the risks, fees, taxes and other consequences of the choices people are considering. You want to make sure you find an adviser who has the flexibility to help you accomplish your goals the way you want to accomplish them. While I feel strongly about the systems we have created to help diversify both their time horizon as well as the products you use, I recognize some people have a different vision for accomplishing their goals and that is OK. This is your retirement, and you should do it your way. When these folks came to see me, they already had good income from both a
Sheriff’s office on solid foundation but challenges remain A Q&A WITH KITSAP COUNTY SHERIFF STEVE BOYER
16 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
By Rodika Tollefson Steve Boyer, Kitsap County’s sheriff for the past 15 years, announced recently that he will retire at the end of his fourth term this year. With 43 years in law enforcement — first with Washington State Patrol — he’s the third law enforcement officer in the state for seniority. In a recent congratulations letter, WSP Chief John Batiste, who rode as a rookie with Boyer, described Boyer’s career as “storybook.” Boyer said he had three principles to guide his office: hiring and retaining the highest quality of people; providing them with the best training; and having the best equipment possible for their efforts. During his tenure, the sheriff’s office underwent a major reorganization and added the Office of Professional Standards, as well as more jail personnel during a 325-bed expansion. Technology improvements have included in-car mobile computers. Kitsap Sheriff’s Office also worked in partnership with the Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS) to develop a system for agencies in the region to informally exchange information. The system has been growing nationally. Other achievements include enhanced communications with citizens via an annual report and a new Public Information Officer, among other things; improved SWAT training and equipment; increased
volunteer programs and partnerships with various organizations; and establishing an annual agencywide in-service training program. “He has always been a change agent in law enforcement,” Undersheriff Dennis Bauer said in a written report about Boyer’s achievements. “…Being more immersed, approachable and interactive with the community we serve still remains a priority for Steve, an area we need to continually work on.” The Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal sat down with Sheriff Boyer to ask him a few questions about his career. KPBJ: Why did you want to be a sheriff? Boyer: It’s unique. It was an opportunity to do something different. I was looking for new challenges. I didn’t realize what the challenges would be — I didn’t realize the political aspect. The police chief works for the mayor, the state patrol chief works for the governor. The sheriff works directly for the people. It tends to make you more attuned to your people and the community. It gives you a sense of purpose. KPBJ: What were some of your biggest challenges? Boyer: The last few years, the economic downturn. The expectations still go up and the funding goes down. We use technology to improve processes (like electronic
Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer has served four terms in office and been in law enforcement 43 years, but he has decided not to run for re-election again. Rodika Tollefson photo
fingerprinting) but you still need people; this is a people business. The labor contracts are another challenge. They seem to take forever. It’s frustrating and it drains energy out of the organization, and at the end of the day I still have to make it work. We have 70 percent of the county population and provide resources to the cities. Our staffing levels are 0.65 per 1,000 population and the cities have 2 to 2.5, Bremerton has 1.8. In spite of being understaffed, crime went down for eight straight years. You get a high level of service out of the sheriff’s office. My goal was to make folks who work here proud of
working here and make the community proud of their sheriff’s department. KPBJ: Do you feel you’ve achieved that? Boyer: Yes but there’s more to do. I think we have a solid foundation now and if properly done, we could achieve even greater reduction in crime. KPBJ: What would be the next sheriff’s biggest challenge? Boyer: Revenue. You’re in competition for a piece of the pie. I would have no problem going for a tax measure with a sunset (clause) that can be renewed. It involves all your people and they have skin in the game. You have accountability as a result and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. We tried this seven or eight years ago (and failed). The problem was, there was no crisis. I was looking to plan for the future — it’s called effective planning. I think it needs to be looked at again. KPBJ: What’s been the best part of your career in law enforcement? Boyer: Working with good people. Not everything goes perfectly in police work but the vast majority of people I know like to do the work in the community and they like to put bad guys in jail. KPBJ: Best part as the sheriff? Boyer: I strived to create an environment where people can succeed and for people to be proud of the sheriff’s office. We’re part of the community. KPBJ: Any regrets? Boyer: There’s some things I would have liked to do but couldn’t get done. But that’s OK because you never reach nirvana. So do I have regrets? Nah. The world’s been good to me. I’ve had a great life and great kids and I’m still married to the same girl I met in high school. KPBJ: What are you retirement plans? Boyer: I want to see the granddaughters more and be involved with the Rotary and other groups. I’ve had some job offers in law enforcement and the private sector but I think I’ll smell the roses a little more. It’s no secret I’ve had some health issues and that’s stabilized but it’s made me think about things. It’s hard to go. I will not miss the ugly things human beings do that cops see all the time. I won’t miss the circus but I will miss the clowns.
SOLAR
from page 1 in the state and it was expensive,” said Kelly Samson, one of the original Asani developers of Grow. For Samson, who has founded various enterprises in the United States and in Europe, the answer was obvious. “We started looking at how to get more manufacturing in the state,” he said. He met John Flanagan, who had extensive experience owning and operating manufacturing companies around the world. He had an idea that came after several years of research and planning — for a photovoltaic plant in Washington — but he needed a partner and he needed capital. Enter Samson. “We became that second (solar panel) manufacturer in the state,” Samson said. That was about four years ago and today, itek Energy, based in Bellingham, has 35 full-time employees and is the largest solar manufacturer in the state, with the capacity to produce enough panels annually to produce more than 25 megawatts of solar energy per year. For Samson, that economic question for the Grow project was the beginning of a new path. He eventually sold his interest in Asani, and is now focused on the opportunities presented by a growing solar industry. The panels — usually placed on a rooftop — are the most visible part of a solar project. But for them to work, the installation needs a microinverter, a device that converts the DC power created by photovoltaics to AC power that a house needs. “And it needs to make that transition in harmony with the grid. The microinverter has to make changes constantly in real time,” Samson said.
APS America, a global supplier of solar microinverter technology, has hired Michael Ludgate as vice president for business development. Ludgate has more than six years’ experience in the solar industry, and will lead the Poulsbo-based company’s sales, business partnership and engagement strategy. Previously, Ludgate served as senior director of sales and marketing for Sharp’s Solar Energy Solutions Group and Kyocera Solar. Before joining the solar market, he held senior management positions in the high-tech sector, including positions with Intel Corp., Hewlett-and Iomega Corp. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from York University. “We’re gratified to attract someone of Michael’s caliber,” said APS America CEO Kelly Samson, who’s also the co-founder of Blue Frog Solar in Poulsbo. “Michael
John Doerr photo
Through itek’s third-party testing lab, Samson got introduced to APS Global, a manufacturer and distributor of microinverters. Its products were unique because they’re based on a chip, which means it can be easily reprogrammed. For example, if one microinverter can serve two solar modules, it is less expensive. “I liked the technology because it can be so nimble,” Samson said. So what does Samson do? He forms an independently owned subsidiary of APS Global, called APS America. APS Global develops and owns the intellectual property, while APS America uses the “recipe” to manufacture and develop the devices. The major market for APS Global is in Australia and China, while APS America’s major market is in Hawaii. GTM Research ranked APS as No. 2 in global market share among the top microinverter suppliers in 2013, based on shipments. Samson, who lives on Bainbridge Island, said he had no idea he would base his company in Kitsap County. “I didn’t see it knows the solar market, and he’s well known in the industry. He’ll be a dynamic presence as we establish new strategic partnerships for sales and growth.” APS microinverters convert the DC (direct) current generated by rooftop solar panels into the AC (alternating) current for home appliances and the surrounding power grid. Unlike conventional “string” inverters, which channel all the output from a solar array through a single unit, APS microinverters allow monitoring and management of individual panels in a solar array. The company’s proprietary, chipbased architecture ensures maximum system efficiency and power output in all conditions. Based in Poulsbo, APS America supplies and services APS products in North America. APS was founded in Silicon Valley in 2009 and is now a global leader in the development, manufacturing and marketing of solar microinverters based on their own leading-edge technology. For information on APS solar microinverter products, see www.apsamerica.com or call 206-855-5100.
coming. When we looked at employees in Kitsap County, the quality was amazing,” he said. APS America is located in a nondescript building off Hostmark Street in Poulsbo, where the microinverters for the Washington market are manufactured (the ones distributed outside of Washington are made in China). A second company, Blue Frog Solar, was created as the marketing arm to distribute itek, APS America and other products, including solar packages. The two businesses employ 13 full-timers and several part-timers in Poulsbo, and they’re in growth mode. The company
— Kelly Samson, president of APS America and Blue Frog Solar works with several installers from around the state to offer its products. Samson said APS America has outgrown its facility for manufacturing, so he’s looking for ways to expand both the space and employee base. Quick to point out that the success of APS America is not about him but about his employees, Samson likes to stay under the radar. But his passion about the solar industry is obvious, as he talks about the challenges and the potential of the industry. He’s also extended his passion into charitable work, as the co-founder of Extend the Day. The nonprofit organization, based on Bainbridge Island, Solar, page 18
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April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 17
Solar technology firm hires new VP for business development
This photo shows an array of itek Energy solar panels installed on top of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.
“The phrase in the industry is that solar is contagious. The number of people using it is growing exponentially but it’s still nascent.”
The Food Shed to reopen at new location after hiatus By Rodika Tollefson The Food Shed is coming back to Kingston, at a new location that cofounders Leslee Pate and Pam Buitenveld say is more central than before. The slowfood café, which was previously located on a Kingston farm, closed about a year ago and the two women had scaled back to only catering and events while looking for a new space. The new location, on Ohio Street in the downtown area, was once a residential home and later a bed & breakfast. It housed Little City Catering for the past 15 years and already has a commercial kitchen, but Pate and Buitenveld have to upgrade it to bring it up to current requirements. With their lease kicking in on April 1, the pair were planning to make a few other changes to get the space ready and to apply for occupancy permits. The main dining area can seat about 20-25 people, and a smaller room to the side has the potential to become a bar where local microbreweries would be served. There will also be outdoor seating, and a larger room in the back may be used to host “farm-to-fork” dinners and other events. While getting ready for their re-launch, the business partners were also trying to raise some funds through a crowdsourcing loan program offered by Community Sourced Capital. Their goal was $20,000$40,000 by April 1. If the minimum of $20,000 isn’t met, The Food Shed doesn’t
SOLAR
from page 17 distributes worldwide an inexpensive, compact solar-powered light for free to children who don’t have electricity. The goal is to especially make an impact on education and to replace kerosene lighting, which is expensive and can pose danger.
18 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
Growth potential The Washington State Legislature passed a bill in 2005 for residential and commercial solar-array owners to get paid for the power they produced. At the same time, the federal government offers tax credits and rebates. Over the past few years, as interest has grown, the cost of solar has also decreased. “The number of users is growing exponentially because prices are going down,” Samson said. He said it cost $5.50 per watt to produce panels when itek first started, and it’s about half that now. Part of the growing interest is due to available financing — where solar projects in the past could not receive financing on their own, now many financial institutions offer solar package deals. “The phrase in the industry is that solar is contagious,” Samson said. “The number of people using it is growing exponentially but it’s still nascent.” APS America is poised to respond to the increased demand, according to Samson. Its most popular product, the second-
Photo by Rodika Tollefson
The Food Shed co-founders Pam Buitenveld and Leslee Pate outside of their new location in Kingston. get the loan. But the two women remained optimistic. “We’ve always been bootstrappers and we have a plan B,” Pate said. For Pate, the new location is almost like a homecoming. Her grandparents homesteaded just around the corner and she spent many summers in the area. A third-generation farmer, she shares many of the same passions Buitenveld does — for
farming, baking and cooking with fresh, local ingredients, and educating others about slow food and the benefits of small farms. While running a café for a few months in 2012, they also sold baked goods at a farmers market, offered a bakery on a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) basis, farmed and catered for special events. The CSA and the farmers market sales will
generation YC-500A-MIW, is designed to handle two solar modules, but the company is beta-testing a third-generation microinverter that works with four modules — a product geared more toward the commercial market. The YC-1000 is about two to three months away from the market, and the APS headquarters in Poulsbo is the first place to have one installed. According to Samson, APS is the only company that’s has been able to develop a two-module microinverter with success, and is now leading the way as the only manufacturer with a four-module microinverter. Its performance is being watched from the Poulsbo location as well as from China, using an APS device that can monitor the solar production remotely via the Internet. “Customers can see production daily and over time in watts, and it’s in real-time,” Samson said. The device, called ECU (energy communication unit), collects module performance data from the microinverter and adds it to an online database. A special web-based program allows the property owner to view the information, and APS America has additional controls to help with troubleshooting. The monitoring capability was a crucial part in the Grow project, which is the largest solar neighborhood in the state. The goal is to show that the neighborhood is carbon-free for eight years. “Not a lot of developers monitor
performance, so that is unique,” Asani’s Preston said. The Grow Community may be a good example of why solar is bound to become even more enticing with time. Asani considered other energy-efficient options but opted for PV panels because a large portion of the cost would be paid through incentives. “Itek made the project viable because of pricing coming down,” Preston said. Homeowners had the option of choosing or declining the solar package — and every home in the first phase, which has been completely sold out, includes the optional package. “People moving into these houses will not have an energy bill,” Preston said. “The homes all sold very quickly, we didn’t even list them.” The company plans to start presales of the second phase in a few months and Preston expects the solar package to continue to be in demand. She notes that not only the costs are decreasing but the efficiency of the technology is also improving. One major problem in the industry is mass storage, the ability to efficiently capture solar energy when production is plentiful, and store it for use when production is down. Samson believes that when that problem is solved, solar use will become ubiquitous. “Renewable energy is rapidly growing,” he said. “We’re at a tipping point. Solar is in the critical mass.”
be restarted this year. The Food Shed concept had proved popular in the past, and the partners’ goal was to eventually become a slow-food hub. “We feel the community was so behind us, it was such a bummer to lose the (old) space,” Pate said. “We have a lot of people rallying around us.” In mid-March, the plan was to start baking and relaunch the CSA the first week of April, with the goal of obtaining an occupancy permit for the café opening around May 1. So far the plan is to be open Thursday through Sunday, with the café on Thursday and Friday and other events on the weekend. The café menu will change a bit to focus more on light fare, soups and salads. “We’ll change things up a little bit and be more creative with the food,” Buitenveld said. The ingredients will continue to be sourced from local farms and the menu will be built around the sourced ingredients, she added. “We want people to feel like they’re coming to our house and eating what we’re feeding our families,” Pate said. The two women said they’re both excited and nervous about their reopening. “But we’re more excited because it will feel good to get back into that mode of cooking we like,” Buitenveld said. For more information about The Food Shed, go to kitsapfoodshed.com or search for it on Facebook.
Wellness center in the works in Silverdale A building under construction on Ridgetop Boulevard in Silverdale will be home to a newly created Silverdale Wellness Center. The center will have four chiropractors, along with massage therapy, a weight loss program and pain management. Each of the four chiropractors — Dr. Sean Joseph of Integrated Chiropractic, Dr. Joseph Christman of Silver City Chiropractic, Dr. Bradley Franklin of Franklin Chiropractic, and Dr. Tony Lane of Lane Chiropractic — are solo practitioners. Joseph, a managing partner at the center, said the four complement each other in the type of services they offer. Three of them are already co-located at a Bucklin Hill office, not far from their future home. Joseph said they are also seeking two massage therapists and an intervention pain specialist to add to the roster. Another available service will be cancer screening using thermography. The new, 14,000-square-foot building, part of Creek View Business Park, has two floors and underground parking. At 3,600 square feet, Silverdale Wellness Center will take up about half of the first floor. One other medical provider was in the process of signing a lease in mid-March, according to Lisa Phipps, a broker with Sound West Group. Construction completion is expected in August.
April 2014 Edition
Events And Activities VISIT the NEW HBA Website! www.kitsaphba.com On Line Registrations! Wednesday, April 2 Kitsap HBA Remodelers Council, 4 p.m. HBA Thursday, April 3 Developers Council, 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 9 AHC Auction/HBA Dinner Cmt. Mtg., 4 p.m. Silverdale Beach Hotel Thursday, April 17 HBA NOTHING BUT FUN SPRING FLING SOCIAL Location TBD — watch Email & HBA Tuesday, April 22 Builders Golf Classic Cmt. Mtg. Location & Time TBD Watch Email & HBA Calendar Thursday, April 24 Executive Committee 2:00 p.m. Government Aff. Cmt. 2:30 p.m. Board of Directors 3:30 p.m.
UPCOMING BIG EVENTS May 30, 2014 - NEW DATE AHC Auction/HBA Dinner July 11, 2014 Builders Classic Golf Tournament Membership Fact #4 Local members are members of the National Association of Home Builders! Part of the dues you pay each year includes funds that we forward to NAHB. As an NAHB member you benefit from their Federal level lobbying, participation in key litigation, as well as their vast amount of industry data tracking, reporting and analysis. Through them you also get buying power. Be sure to create your log-in and log onto www.nahb.org to access a whole new world! Members ONLY To be entered to win the quarterly drawing, please email tosinski@kitsaphba.com and put this in the subject line: “Membership Fact #4 News”
Think You’re Paying Too Much to L&I? You’re Probably Right! Employers in Washington State are locked into a state run monopoly insurance mandate that requires they pay a per hour/per worker premium to the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. As employers you are all too aware of the costs to employ workers and no matter how well you follow all the requirements, and no matter how safe your work place is you only see that premium increasing. Those in the construction trades have the opportunity to participate in programs that might get them some of those L&I premiums back. Are you in a risk pool? There are several available to construction trades — that term is very broad so you should assume it includes you! The largest risk pool in the state is the BIAW ROII® Select program. This program is available to safe companies (you pay L&I more than L&I pays out to your workers) that are members of a local association (like the Home Builders Association of Kitsap County) and agree to have policies and practices consistent with the requirements of the program. Would you be interested in learning how you could get back 5% of the premium you’ve paid to L&I in a given year? What if it was 10%? Would 15 to 20% get you going? There are no guarantees with a risk pool, but the ROII® Select program has two decades of experience in selecting companies, helping participating companies handle claims, and educating employers about the proper way to deal with claims. If you’re operating a safe company, think you are paying L&I too much, and would like to find out if you could qualify to get some of it back, then you need to complete the ROII® Select request form. You do not need to be an HBA member to find out about the program or to get pre-qualified, but you will need to join the HBA before you can join the risk pool. HBA Membership is required during all years you are in the program. Now is the time to take action and learn how this program may put some of your hard earned dollars back into your company. Safety is the key and if you’re doing all you can to keep your workers safe, why not be rewarded for it? Please call the HBA (360479-5778) to receive a packet about the ROII® Select program. There is no obligation to you, but why not improve your competitive edge? 65 HBA member companies are already enjoying the benefits of this program and you may too!
Building or Remodeling? NEW HOMES • REMODELS • COMMERCIAL The Home Builders Association of Kitsap County debuted their new consumer-focused magazine Build & Remodel on the Kitsap Peninsula, at the Spring Home & Garden Expo. If you’re considering a project, large or small, be certain to pick this magazine. The features are on-trend, the photography stunning. For more information, call the Home Builders Association of Kitsap County at 360-479-5778. www.wetapple.com
The Official Publication of the Home Builders Association of Kitsap County
2014 OFFICERS President . . . . . . . . . . . Judy Mentor Eagleson First Vice President . . . . . . . . . . . . Kevin Ryan Second Vice President . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Heins Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Randy Biegenwald Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dee Coppola, CGA Immediate Past Pres. . . . . . . . . . Robert Baglio
2014 BUILDER & ASSOC. DIRECTORS Karla Cook • Walter Galitzki • Stuart Hager Joe Hurtt • Berni Kenworthy • John Leage Leslie Peterson, CGA, Jim Ullrich Miriam Villiard • Jim Way, CGB
2014 STATE DIRECTORS Robert Baglio • Judy Mentor Eagleson Jim Heins • Joe Hurtt • Justin Ingalls, RCS Wayne Keffer, CGR, CAPS Ron Perkerewicz • Kevin Ryan
2014 ALTERNATE STATE DIRECTOR Dale Armstrong • John Armstrong Kevin Hancock • Brent Marmon
LIFE STATE DIRECTORS Bill Parnell
2014 NATIONAL DIRECTORS Judy Mentor Eagleson • Jim Heins Shawnee Spencer
2014 ALTERNATE NATNL. DIRECTORS Michael Brown • Jeff Coombe
LIFE DIRECTORS Rick Courson • Bob Helm • Bill Parnell John Schufreider • Dori Shobert Jim Smalley • Larry Ward
2014 COUNCIL & CHAIRS Build a Better Christmas . . Randy Biegenwald Built Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Walter Galitzki By Laws & Nominations. . . . . . Robert Baglio Developers Council . . . . . . . . . . Byron Harris Golf Classic . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shawnee Spencer Govt. Affairs Cmte. . . . . . . . . . . . . Kevin Ryan Remodelers Ccl Chair. . Wayne Keffer, CGR, CAPS Membership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Heins Parade of Homes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TBD Peninsula H&G Expo . . . . . . . . . . . Lena Price Peninsula H&R Expo . . . . . . . . . Dee Coppola
HBA STAFF Executive Vice President . . . Teresa Osinski, CGP tosinski@kitsaphba.com Administrative Coordinator. . . Kathleen Brosnan info@KitsapHBA.com Events and Administrative Assistant . . . Katie Revis hbaevents@kitsaphba.com
Home Builders Association of Kitsap County 5251 Auto Center Way, Bremerton, WA 98312 360-479-5778 • 800-200-5778 FAX 360-479-0313 www.KitsapHBA.com
April 2014 Edition
A “Floater” in Olympia Every year I am amazed at the bills our Legislature decides are worth their time Mentor Company and energy. In my opinion, this year ’s winner of the 2014 President worst bill was a bill sponsored by Representative Fitzgibbon. The bill would have required all toilets offered for sale, sold, and distributed in the state to be high efficiency toilets by January 1, 2016. The bill was expanded to include faucets. This all sounds well and good, but let’s “flush” out the details. First, we need to talk toilets. Pre 1994, residential flush toilets typically used 3.4 gallons of water per flush (gpf). In 1992, the US Congress passed the Energy Policy Act which mandated that beginning in 1994, flush toilets would be restricted to 1.6 gpf. This standard of 1.6 gpf remains the Federal standard today as well as the standard adopted by the Washington State Building Code Council. I have many concerns with this bill but will only address my top three — how much do you really want to read? My first concern with this bill is why, once again, does our State need to be more restrictive than the rest of the nation? The Federal gpf level was determined after significant study, and even then we have seen unintended consequences. In 2011, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that, while low-flow toilets are estimated to have saved the city of San Francisco 20 million gallons of water per year, the reduction in water volume has caused waste sludge to back up in the city sewer pipes that were designed expecting a higher ratio of water to solids. My second concern is why is the Legislature mandating building code issues? The State Building Code Council (Council) was created to advise the Legislature on building code issues and to develop the building codes used in Washington State. Water conservation and efficiency is very important, but harmonization of all of the different types of water use needs to occur. That review is better performed by the Council. Let the Council bring everything together for review, and then make their recommendations before moving forward at the State level. My third concern is does an additional mandate really address the main concern of water conservation? Is the problem the 1.6 gpf tanks or the older 3.4 or larger tanks? These older tanks could be addressed through public education and outreach. While some homeowners have taken matters in to their own hands, and simply put a brick in the toilet tank, how about the water companies offering an incentive to replace older tanks — similar to the incentive offered by the energy companies to replace your light bulbs? And, if you don’t think incentives will do enough, then, perhaps a requirement that older toilets be changed out when a home is sold with, perhaps, a tax incentive given to cover this cost. Believe it or not, this bill passed in the House of Representatives, with Representatives Appleton, Hansen and Seaquist voting for the bill. Thank you to Drew MacEwen, Kathy Haigh, and Jesse Young for understanding what a bad bill this was and thus voting no. Luckily, the bill was “flushed” in the Senate. Let’s take a hard look at who we send back to Olympia this fall!
Judy Mentor Eagleson
Teresa Osinski
A Note of Appreciation to Member, Wet Apple Media
By now you have probably all heard that HBA member Wet Apple Media has sold their long Executive standing, high quality, monthly Vice President newspaper, the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal to the Kitsap Sun. As I am writing this article it is unclear how the sale is going to impact the HBA’s monthly newsletter (where this article appears each month), but it has me thinking about Dee and Lary Coppola and all that they have given to the HBA. Wet Apple Media remains a member of the HBA and will continue to be an important publisher in Kitsap County for years to come, but the sale of the KPBJ is a big deal and its sale is a good time to reflect on, and appreciate publicly, all that Dee and Lary have done in service to the HBA --- I’m sure to miss important points, but I’m going to give it a shot. Dee and Lary have each served many years on the HBA Board of Directors and Dee is currently the Secretary of the Board. Over the years they have stepped up and offered their expertise in formal (including: HBA publications, HBA newsletter, Parade of Homes Maps, etc.) and informal (including: a logo design for this or that, hundreds of hours of committee work, thousands and thousands of dollars in items collected for our annual auction, committee chairmanships, etc) ways. Never afraid to raise their hands and offer their service, both Dee and Lary have done huge things for this Association. In addition, for many, many years their generosity allowed the HBA’s monthly newsletter to be printed as the center insert to the KPBJ; not only saving the HBA on the expense associated with producing the newsletter, but also in allowing an incredible reach beyond just our members about issues Kitsap should be aware of. Dee and Lary have not only done important things for the HBA, but they have encouraged their peers in the business community to support the HBA as well. Over the years Dee has earned 284.25 SPIKE credits and Lary has earned 63.5 SPIKES. Spike credits are awarded by the National Association of Home Builders to those members that have recruited new members to the Association as well as encouraged those members to renew. We are a memberbased association and the knowledge they have shared with so many local companies has had a huge impact on the HBA. Additionally, Lary has donated valuable time by actively participating on committees at our State Association, the Building Industry Association of Washington. Both Dee and Lary have been recognized by their peers in the HBA by being awarded the Associate Member of the Year award (Dee: 1996, 2000, 2003, and 2011; and, Lary: 2006 as well as Public Official of the Year 2009). Most recently Wet Apple Media won the contract to publish the new HBA publication, Build & Remodel On The Kitsap Peninsula. We launched this new magazine at our recent Peninsula Home & Garden Expo and it is beautiful. If you haven’t had a chance to pick it up and read it, I hope you will soon. It is free and the best resource for Kitsap’s consumers looking for information about building (residential and commercial) or remodeling any structure they care about. I am looking forward to continuing our relationship with Dee and Lary, but it just seemed like now was an important time to call attention to all they have done and continue to do for the HBA. Big changes often come with reflection and the HBA has much to reflect on and appreciate. Thanks and congratulations Dee, Lary, and the whole Wet Apple Media team for your continued excellence! CGP
April 2014 Edition
We Are One Family As members of the HBA we are sometimes reminded of how close knit we all are in the construction Kevin Ryan Tim Ryan Construction community. I was reminded of this recently when one of 2014 Chair our HBA family members was injured in an accident at a local jobsite. Traveling to an AHC meeting I just happened to pass by the active job site of a member contractors. It was refreshing to see progress on local projects and the smell of fresh lumber never gets old for me. The sun was out at that moment and shimmered off the new sheeting as I drove past. Framing of the building shell was in progress. As contractors we appreciate watching buildings go together and whether it is a one story structure or a 20 Story high rise the thrill of ones accomplishment in the process is why we do what we do. I continued on my way to the meeting and thought of longer days now that spring had finally arrived. The meeting was productive and as I returned to my truck I had one stop to make on my way home. A consultant of ours on a job-site was preparing structural drawings and so I stopped by his home to check on their status. While chatting he mentioned that he had received word of an accident to a client of his and one of or local HBA family member contractors. It was the same project I had seen just hours before. What really resonated with me at that moment was how quickly we are reminded of the risks we take every day to keep projects moving forward. While we sometimes compete as we work to support our families and local communities we never lose our sense of brotherhood in this crazy construction business. As a member contractor of the HBA you are not only part of an outstanding regional force for change in the construction industry but, you can be assured that we all look out for our own. Knowing that you can contact our great staff or any member contractor for support on the job or off has been a great benefit of our membership. I encourage our membership to remember daily the sacrifices we all make and remember the intangible benefits of being associated with your extended HBA family. At the HBA of Kitsap County our thoughts and prayers go out to all affected by this accident and we wish all involved a speedy recovery.
Government Affairs Committee
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Government Affairs Committee Meeting 2014 Schedule Last Thursday of each month 2:30-3:30 p.m. at the HBA Office in Bremerton Periodically extra meetings are added or the standard meeting is extended, or moved. Please watch the HBA online calendar for the latest info or your monthly events postcard.
The Not-So-Obvious Benefits of Buying a New Home Stephanie Pagan, NAHB Home buyers have the choice of two types of houses on the market: resale or new. Home buyers planning to buy a brand-new house or condominium often cite energy efficiency, open layout, a warranty, and being able to select appliances, flooring, paint colors and other design elements as factors driving their choice. But builders say that buyers can be drawn to a new house for reasons that aren’t so obvious. Here are a few more benefits of a brand-new home that you may not see in the sales brochure. Building a Community Together — A brand-new community is one of the built-in benefits of many new homes. When families move in to a subdivision at the same time, they often form lasting bonds of friendship and neighborliness right away. Popular amenities like walking trails, sports facilities, and open space amenities offer additional opportunities for interaction among neighbors of all ages. Often new communities are comprised of home owners in the same stage of life, such as young families or active retirees, so neighbors can get to know each other through carpools, PTA meetings, tennis matches or golf games. Entertaining — Throwing a party in an older home can be a challenge because smaller, distinct rooms make it difficult to entertain guests in one large space. Today, new home layouts feature more open spaces and rooms that flow into each other more easily. The feeling of spaciousness in today’s new-home layouts often is enhanced with higher ceilings and additional windows that bring in more light than you would find in an older home. A Clean Slate — For some buyers, parking the car in a sparkling-clean garage or being the first to cook a dinner in a brand-new kitchen is part of the appeal of new construction. In addition, you won’t have to spend time stripping dated wallpaper or repainting to suit your own sense of style — creating your own home décor from the get-go! The advantages of being the first owner extend to the outdoors. Instead of inheriting inconveniently or precariously placed trees, or having to tear up overgrown shrubs, you can design and plant the lawn and garden you want. Outlets, Outlets Everywhere — New homes can accommodate advanced technologies like structured wiring, security systems and sophisticated lighting plans, and can be tailored to meet the individual home owner’s needs. Anyone who has ever lived in an older home can also attest to the fact that there are never enough outlets, inside or out! Today, home builders plan for the increased number and type of electronics and appliances used by today’s families, so you can safely operate a wine cooler, Christmas lights and your laptop — and more.
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April 2014 Edition
Welcome New Members Cobalt Mortgage Walt Hannawacker 1480 Sid Uhink Dr., Suite 200 Silverdale, WA 98383 (360) 516-5001 Walt.h@cobaltmortgage.com And the SPIKE goes to...
Dee Coppola Wet Apple Media
Port Madison Enterprises Construction Corporation Mark F Randolph PO Box 96 Suquamish, WA 98392 (360) 598-1326 (360) 779-8104 fax mrandolph@pme-cc.com And the SPIKE goes to...
Mark Eisses - MAP LTD.
Thank You Renewing Members 10 Years Over 40 Years Armstrong Homes of Bremerton (43) AmericanWest Bank Team 4 Engineering 30 Years Over 5 Years Pioneer Builders Inc. JWJ Group LLC (8) Over 20 Years Central Highlands Builders (21)
Mark Your Calendars for Friday, May 30, 2014 Callin’ all cow pokes, barrel racers, rodeo clowns and the like to donate to, attend, and sponsor our annual Affordable Housing Council fundraiser auction and HBA dinner! This year’s event is scheduled for Friday, May 30, 2014, at the Kitsap Golf & Country Club and we are excited about our “Rodeo!” theme. This is always one of the most fun events of the year and this year is sure to impress. Your Chairman is Kevin Ryan, HBA 1st Vice President. Be sure to find your best cowboy/cowgirl gear, reserve your seats for dinner, and come out to enjoy this important fundraiser for the political action committee of the Home Builders Association of Kitsap County. This information is found on our website at www.kitsaphba.com or by calling the HBA directly at 360-479-5778. Please RSVP early, consider a high quality, new item to donate, or select a sponsorship level to help out. With almost all County seats up for election and most of our Legislators, this is a big year for campaigns. We look forward to your support!
5 Years Invisible Fence Peninsulas Acupuncture and Wellness Center
Over 15 Years Washington Federal (17) KG & Sons Inc. (17)
Over 1 Year Knox Design (3) Estes Builders (3) Hope Roofing & Construction Over 10 Years LaMont Design Hard Rock Inc. (14) Sentinel Construction & Cnslt. Srvc. Sound Custom Siding Hands of Joy Air Masters Inc. PHC Construction LLC Ahearn Electric Inc. Dana’s Heating Inc. Talbot Excavating
1 Year First Federal Bank
HBA Golf Classic! Mark Your Calendars! The annual HBA golf tournament is set to go for Friday, July 11. This is a FUNdraiser for the HBA and is heavy on the fun. We hold this tournament at Rolling Hills Golf Course and we encourage all our golfers to take full advantage of the theme, side games and distractions provided by hole-sponsors, and our wonderful buffet dinner at the end of the day! We are looking for member companies to raise a hand to participate on the event committee. Maximize your membership by networking through your role on this committee. The Chair of this important event is Shawnee Spencer, First Federal Bank and we will be beginning committee meetings this month! Please call Katie at the HBA and join the committee! Golfers! Remember: the EARLY BIRDIE GETS THE LOWER PLAYER FEES! Don’t delay sign up your team today! Call the HBA for the details at 360-479-5778 and watch for the online registrations at www.kitsaphba.com.
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Bainbridge Pavilion property up for sale Asking price is $14.9 million for 3-acre site with established retail base, room to build housing project
Tim Kelly photos
Eric Fredricks, Kinam Sohn and John Eisenhauer are part of the ownership group that is selling the Bainbridge Pavilion property. The Pavilion (above right) is home to Bainbridge Cinemas and other retail and restaurant businesses. wash,” he said. “It would be three stories of residential on top of two parking levels.” Since the lower parking level would be underground, a four-story building would be allowed above it. Entry to the underground level would be from the Pavilion parking lot. Fredricks said building affordable rental housing on the property would be a good fit with the Grow Community, a sustainable housing development under construction in the block to the west of the Pavilion. The property is listed through the real estate office of Kinam Sohn, who is Fredricks’ wife and also a partner in the Pavilion ownership group. Another primary owner is John
Retail & Office For Lease
Eisenhauer, founder of technology firm Kombi Corp., who moved his company’s offices to the second floor of the Pavilion last year. Regardless of the additional development potential on the site, Fredricks said the 69,000-square-foot Pavilion is a unique commercial property, with lots of high windows and two levels around a central open court on the ground floor. “It’s the only building on Bainbridge Island that has such a high percentage of its space as common area,” he said. He also noted while there is a substantial
amount of vacant commercial space around Bainbridge, a potential buyer of the Pavilion would be getting a property with all its space filled, and some tenants locked in with multi-year leases. “We have the best mixed-use opportunity because we did the hard part, we filled the retail,” Fredricks said. “What we are marketing is a lot of reliable rent and a development opportunity,” he added. “Most developers don’t want to go in mixed-use (projects) because they can’t count on filling up the retail space.”
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April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 23
By Tim Kelly, Editor The place you can go out for dinner and a movie on Bainbridge Island could become a place some folks call home in the future. The owners of a 3-acre property that includes the Pavilion — an enclosed twostory center with restaurants, retail and office space, and the Bainbridge Cinemas — have put the site up for sale, with a listing price of $14.9 million. Eric Fredricks, one of the principals in ownership group Madison Avenue Real Estate LLC, described the property as a mixed-use development that’s ready for an affordable housing component to be mixed in with well-established retail tenants already there. “With the Pavilion, our retail part is done,” Fredricks said of the distinctive building that opened in 1998 on Madison Avenue, a couple blocks up from Winslow Way. “It’s full; now we want to do housing. But that takes a different kind of developer.” Madison Avenue Real Estate bought the land between the Pavilion and Wyatt Way in 2008, and those parcels amount to an acre of the property that’s for sale. The Four Swallows restaurant is on one of the parcels and a car wash is at the Madison Avenue/Wyatt Way corner. Fredricks, who also has his own business building custom homes, said there’s space on those lots to build an apartment complex with about 100 studio and onebedroom units. That could be done in three phases while preserving the existing businesses, he said. The members of the Pavilion ownership group have their own businesses to run, Fredricks said, and they would prefer to sell the property to a developer interested in building affordable housing there. “We’ve drawn plans to put the first 36 units behind Four Swallows and the car
Penny’s Team real estate office sold and rebranded as Better Homes & Gardens The Penny’s Team real estate business in Poulsbo has been purchased by the owners of a Bainbridge Island real estate company, who have rebranded the operation as Better Homes & Gardens McKenzie Group. New owners Rod & Barb McKenzie have owned and operated the Coldwell Banker McKenzie office on Bainbridge Island since 2002. However, Rod McKenzie said they decided to convert the Penny’s Team operation to the highly recognizable Better Homes & Garden brand. “It's a stand-alone business; it’s not associated with Coldwell Banker at all,” Rod McKenzie said, although he explained that Better Homes & Gardens, Coldwell Banker and other real estate franchises such as ERA, Century 21 and Sotheby’s are holdings of global real estate company Realogy Corp. He said he and his wife, who is the designated broker for their Bainbridge business, viewed acquiring the former Penny’s Team operation as “an opportunity for us to establish ourselves in Poulsbo and the entire Kitsap County area.” McKenzie also said the new Better Homes & Gardens office will retain the staff from Penny’s Team, except for the previous owner/designated broker Sean Thompson. Rob Clark is the managing broker for the business. Thompson bought the Penny’s Team business from its founder, Penny McLaughlin, in 2012. “We heard she had moved on, so we investigated it, and our investigation turned into buying the company,” McKenzie said. “We’re very excited to be there, and we purchased the building as well and we’re remodeling that,” he added. “We’re looking forward to carrying on a very high standard of business.”
Storyville Coffee’s plans still vague for coffee shop at prime Bainbridge Island location bought in 2011 Storyville Coffee, which operates a roasting facility in the Coppertop business center on Bainbridge Island, may be preparing to open a coffee shop in a Winslow Way building the company bought in 2011, but no opening date has been announced. Storyville sells its gourmet custom-roasted coffee online for $16-17 for an 8-ounce bag. In the past six months, the company opened its first three coffee shops, all in the downtown Seattle area. The site of Storyville’s planned Bainbridge Island coffee shop is 240 Winslow Way, in the old Bainbridge Hardware building in the center of downtown. The 6,350-square-foot building, which has been vacant since Port Madison Home closed three years ago, was purchased in November 2011 for $1.55 million, according to Kitsap County Assessor’s records. The 2014 assessed value of the property is $1.2 million. Jeff Sanchez, customer service manager at Storyville’s facility in Coppertop, confirmed the company plans to open a coffee shop in Winslow this year, but he referred further questions to corporate officials. The Storyville logo is on the Winslow building’s glass front doors, but the storefront windows remain covered up. The Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal emailed questions through Sanchez for Storyville’s owners, but no response was received by press time. According to local media reports in late 2011 on the sale of the building, Storyville originally planned to have a coffee bar there and to develop a marketplace with multiple vendors.
The empty building at 240 Winslow Way has the Storyville Coffee logo on the front doors. The community news website Inside Bainbridge reported last October that company officials said they planned to open a coffee shop at the Winslow location sometime this year. That online article drew numerous critical comments about Storyville. Some posters were upset that the prime downtown property has been left vacant so long, while others expressed negative views of Storyville because the company’s co-owners have ties to the controversial Seattlebased Mars Hill Church, whose pastor is known for extreme conservative views on homosexuality and women’s rights.
— PRIME LOCATION —
Marine View Office Space in Port Orchard Windermere Real Estate/West Sound, Inc. 24 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
Serving Poulsbo, Silverdale and Bremerton
PROPERTY FOR SALE OR LEASE Poulsbo CBA#509029 BUILD FOR LESS THAN LEASING. Build-to-Suit opportunity in Poulsbo across from new Safeway. Approved for 4,790 sf building. Perfect for medical or financial services user. Great visibility with views of Olympics. $239,000. Kelly Muldrow at 206-949-3420 or Joe Michelson at 360-282-5340.
Poulsbo CBA#525540 $612,000 7600 sq.ft. warehouse for sale. Seller will lease back 1/2 and there is a long term tenant in 1/4 of the building leaving 1800 sq.ft. to lease or use by new owner. Joe Michelsen 360-509-4009.
Poulsbo CBA#501452 Retail bldg in highly visible location by State Hwy 305. Owner remodeling former auto service bldg into retail use. Space range 1,000 SF-7,200 SF. $15.00/SF/YR NNN. Mark Danielsen 360-509-1299.
Bremerton CBA#537138 $990,000 8.25 Acre Multi Family site adjoins Periwinkle Park in Bay Vista (uptown Bremerton). Zoning in place for high density MF. Victor Targett 360-731-5550.
Kingston CBA#218220 Built out office space in a retail center. Great visibility to Hwy 104. Former Real Estate office. Joe Michelsen 360-509-4009.
Clear Creek CBA#587592 $1,125,000 Fully occupied 12,120 sq.ft. contractor warehouse & storage facility on 2.5 acres on Rural Comm’l zone bet Poulsbo & Silverdale. Two add’l bldg pad sites for approx 2,700 sq.ft. bldgs. Owner occupies 2,400 sq.ft. – May stay or go. Mark Danielsen 360-509-1299.
Bremerton CBA#599790 $190,000 Long-time, successful social club/bar with pool tables, patio and plenty of parking. Provided a comfortable income for 30+ years for the founder/owner now retiring. Building also available for additional cost. Bob Guardino 360-710-7844. Silverdale CBA#573886 $256,880 Great location for retail or office use; currant use is real estate service companies. 5,000 square foot expansion area (second lot) is available at additional cost. View of Dyes Inlet. Bob Guardino 360-710-7844.
Bremerton CBA#537001 $500,000 Rare Kitsap Way frontage property. Zoned VC (Commercial). Many retail uses, including drive thrus are allowed here. Excellent exposure and easy access to Kitsap Way and Hwy 3, north or south bound. Victor Targett 360-731-5550.
• View of Sinclair Inlet • Walking distance to City Hall & Kitsap County Courthouse • Ideal for startup business, attorney, CPA, consultant, counselor, etc. This bright 850 square foot suite features two large offices, a big reception area, and a private restroom. There is also a private outside entrance in addition to the main entrance. The building offers good parking, good visibility, with signage available that faces the main thoroughfare through town. Extra storage is also available.
All this for only $695 a month, and NO Triple Net Lease! For more information 360-731-2222
MoonDogs goes on the market Popular restaurant/bar in Port Orchard listed for sale by owner planning for business transition
Baldwin acknowledged that his listing price for MoonDogs is on the high end. Kitsap County records show the 2014 assessed property value is $257,140 for the two-story building with 4,520 square feet of space, and that the property was sold in December 2012 for $417,000. "It’s pricey, but it’s based on an income evaluation," he said. "The business was evaluated at $525,000, and the property was about the same MoonDogs, page 26
Tim Kelly photo
MADMAN
COMMERCIAL LAND RESIDENTIAL
Mad about real estate…
VFW BUILDING for sale. Downtown Port Orchard. All kitchen equipment goes with the building. Own your own Restaurant and Bar. Upstairs 1 bedroom apartment. Disabled access. Excellent potential. $295,000
MYHRE’S Restaurant building. New roof. Earthquake reinforcement has been added to 16,000 sq. ft. structure. Great opportunity to own the best corner in downtown Port Orchard. Owner terms available. $475,000
BAY STREET LOT Beautiful lot with water view between new public market and Myhre’s. Lots of parking around. Purchase individually at $199,000 or with Myhre’s building $674,000.
DEITZ BUILDING Bremerton. 4 commercial spaces, 3 now rented. 33,000 sq. ft., 3 stories with full basement. Ready to be completed upstairs for condo or office space. Owner terms available. $1,595,000
COOKIES CLUBHOUSE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Great opportunity to own a very established well run business of your own with huge potential for growth. $175,000
SEARS BUILDING 32,000 sq. ft. in Bremerton on 4th Street. New electrical, new sprinkler system, separate entrance for upstairs. Permit to make basement into parking. $699,000
VISIBLE FROM HWY. 16 Great level 4.81 acres Property easy to develop. Adjacent to Port Orchard Lowe’s. All utilities are close by. $1,045,524
1.89 ACRES Prime HTC zoned property behind Lowe’s on Sedgwick Rd in the developing Hwy 16/Sedgwick corridor. There is a house on the property. $410,816
WHEATON WAY Land for sale. High-bank waterfront with views of two bridges and the Olympic Mountains. Build condos or offices or mixed use. Close to Harrison Medical Center. Owner terms available. $399,000
PRICE REDUCED TO $200,000 12/27/12
PROPERTY+PETRO=$OL Bryan Petro 360-621-7219 bryanpetro@hotmail.com 360-876-9600 Thank you Lary, Dee & staff for supporting business & community. Best wishes.
April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 25
By Tim Kelly, Editor The transition of MoonDogs, Too isn’t going to work out the way owner Darryl Baldwin had hoped. When Baldwin, who has terminal cancer and is currently in hospice care, was honored at a community tribute in January, he told the large crowd that his popular restaurant and bar in downtown Port Orchard would continue as an employee-owned business after he’s gone. Since then, he’s explored the option of creating an employee stock ownership plan for the staff at MoonDogs, but Baldwin said recently that turned out not to be a viable option because of the high overhead costs of maintaining an ESOP for a business with relatively few employees. "I'm leaving (MoonDogs) to four employees who are trying to run the business, and the last thing they need is to have to focus on managing an employee stock plan," Baldwin said. So while he has set up a profitsharing plan that initially will include the four employees handling management duties, he also decided to put MoonDogs up for sale. The business and the property at 714 Bay St. are listed together for $1.05 million. Baldwin opened the establishment in 2007, and he bought the property over a year ago. In recent months as his prognosis worsened, he's focused on making arrangements for the future of his business and those close to him. His girlfriend, Sheila Cline, who has been working there the past couple years, and longtime kitchen manager Dave Jones will become co-owners of the business — until a potential sale is completed — and Baldwin said ownership of the property will go to his two adult daughters. His decision to put the place up for sale, Baldwin explained, doesn't reflect any lack of confidence in his staff to run the business effectively. Rather, he said a sale could bring in a new owner with the resources to invest in future improvements to keep Moondogs a thriving operation. "What I told the employees is there’s a 90-day (listing) for a sale," he said, and if there are no offers at that point, the management team — which also includes bar manager Tracy Nickerson and Corina Herring, who books entertainment — can evaluate how things are working out and decide what to do. "Darryl has really given us all a really good way of life," Nickerson said. "He’s ensured that we’re well taken care of, and he respects each and every employee that works for him."
MoonDogs, Too has been put up for sale. The popular spot on Bay Street in Port Orchard is owned by Darryl Baldwin, who has terminal cancer and is preparing for the transition of the business that he opened in 2007.
Stop April Fooling yourself By Dan Weedin In Super Bowl XLVIII in February, the Seattle Seahawks led the Denver Broncos 8-0 at the end of the first quarter. They’d managed a safety and two field goals, and although appearing dominant had not separated themselves from their opponent. Two touchdowns in the second quarter catapulted them into halftime with a satisfying lead of 22-0, which turned insurmountable in the third quarter with two more touchdowns. The final result was a dominant 43-8 victory for their first-ever Super Bowl title. The Seahawks unleashed their fury all over the Broncos in the biggest national stage imaginable. Don’t look now, but it’s your second quarter of 2014. What kind of lead do you have? Are you primed to unleash yourself and your business in front of your own stage? It’s hard to believe how fast time flies. It seems like just yesterday we were wishing each other a Happy New Year, kicking off annual strategy sessions, and easing into a new calendar year as the cold weather was around us. Now it’s April and taxes are due, the rain is falling,
and your opportunity to stretch your lead (assuming you have one) is upon you. You’re fooling yourself if you think early success will carry you and your business through the rest of the year in the same glorious style that the Seahawks finished off the Broncos. There are still plenty of obstacles and foes in front of you. It’s time to turn field goals into touchdowns. To that end, allow me to start you off with my own Touchdown Drive to help you accelerate into halftime and beyond. My seven points will detail “foolish thinking” and how to turn those into “unleashed” thinking: 1. “I’m too busy to spend time strategizing.” No, in reality you’re not prioritizing correctly. If you’re the owner or executive of your business, your talent needs to be in setting both short- and long-term strategy. Without it, you become a rudderless ship. Strategy surrounding mission, vision, goals, resiliency and growth are crucial for success. Why wouldn’t you make it your highest priority? 2. “I can afford to reduce costs in marketing.” I don’t care what industry you belong to, you’re in the marketing business. Every business requires sales and the best way to increase sales is through marketing. Most of you don’t do enough of it consistently.
In Remembrance 26 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
Of our friend and colleague
Carrie Brazeau 1985 – 2014 A life so young released to heaven, left on Earth we wonder why but some are sent among us briefly 'Some have Spirits meant to fly.'
created ® Logo by Carrie
3. “I don’t need professional development.” Professional development, trainings and education are often the first to be chopped and the last to be brought back in tough times. It also falls victim to arrogance. Unleashed thinking believes that you must always grow in your skills and knowledge to reach any goal. The consequences include stagnation, decline and boredom. 4. “My employees are happy to just have a job.” The legendary business guru Peter Drucker once quipped, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” While my first point elevates the notion of strategy, there is no doubt that inattention to employee morale has dire ramifications. Don’t take employees for granted. They are the face of your business. 5. “It won’t happen to me.” Famous last words before the calamity hits. Readiness and preparedness for crisis is sorely lacking in business. The reason is that owners and executives don’t take it as seriously as they should by delegating it, forgetting it, having no sense of urgency, and thinking that they can deal with anything that happens. If this resembles you, it’s time to make a change. Crisis happens to everyone at some point. Without a strategic plan, your chance of survival is greatly diminished. The tragic thing is that while many crises can’t be controlled, planning to prevent and respond to them can. 6. “I’ll just do it myself.” Eighty percent of what you do should be what only you can do. Many of you waste an inordinate amount of time on things that can be better and more inexpensively done by someone else. Or, that perhaps shouldn’t be done anymore. Take a pulse
check to what you’re spending time doing. It’s time to start delegating or deleting unnecessary work off your plate so you can maximize your talent for the betterment of the business. 7. “It’s still early in the year.” No it’s not. That ended about January 31. Before you know it, the last quarter of the year will be upon us. If you don’t want to be scrambling then, you need to put in the work now. What you’re doing today is a result of what you accomplished three months ago. Good fortune in the future is predicated on what you do today. Don’t fall into the fool’s trap of thinking you have time. You will regret that thinking in 3 months! Bottom line – Just like a football game has a life cycle, so does any year in your business. In order to achieve the success that you want personally and professionally, you must be able to “unleash” your best talent and skills as a leader. Foolish thinking will defeat you as badly as the Hawks whipped the Broncos. This “game” we play isn’t as much in your work as it is in your mind. It’s that time of year to make up your mind in which direction you’re headed and how to get their quickly. The first step is getting unleashed and letting the big dogs out. It worked well for the Seahawks. It will work well for you!
MOONDOGS
rewarding, Baldwin said, and he also values the relationships he's developed with longtime customers and his loyal staff. He has been a strong supporter of the community as well, most notably through the free Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners the restaurant hosts. That community is missing his presence at the downtown hangout where he made everyone feel welcome. "I probably get asked on average maybe 15 or 20 times a day, 'How’s Darryl?'" Nickerson said. He and Jones said the staff wants to keep the place going the way their boss would want, whether or not MoonDogs is sold. "I'd like for it to stay the way it is, and for us to continue to grow and be successful," said Jones, who's been with Baldwin since about a month after MoonDogs opened in 2007. And perhaps a new owner might someday add an element to the bar that Baldwin has envisioned. "I still think," he said, "a rooftop bar on that place would be an amazing thing."
from page 25 with the kitchen expansion." The restaurant's kitchen was nearly doubled in size last summer, adding refrigerator space and a walk-in freezer so all food storage is now in the kitchen. Previously some storage units were in the bar's outdoor beer garden where bands play in the summer. According to the online listing with Better Properties Real Estate, the business has annual sales of $1.5 million and nets $134,000. A potential buyer would be getting an established, successful business, Baldwin said, adding that, "In my mind, that's a great opportunity for somebody with the money to invest." The MoonDogs proprietor left a management career in manufacturing to get into the restaurant/bar business, and he said it's been well worth it. "Like any business, it's not necessarily what you pull out each year (in income), but what you eventually sell the business for," he said. MoonDogs has been financially
• Dan Weedin is a strategist, speaker, author and executive coach. He helps business leaders and executives to become stronger leaders, grow their businesses, and enrich their lives. He was inducted into the Million Dollar Consultant™ Hall of Fame in 2012. You can reach him at 360-6971058 or dan@danweedin.com, or visit his website at www.DanWeedin.com.
Focus on applicants’ skills, not employment gaps, when hiring Review your job advertisements to ensure they don’t discriminate. Believe it or not, there are many examples of ads that say the long-term unemployed shouldn’t apply. Remove any language of this sort. You can go one step further and state in your ads that qualified individuals will not be disadvantaged based solely on their employment status. Focus your ads on the essential skills and knowledge and less on the work experience. As you review resumés and job applications, focus on the jobseekers’ skills sets, knowledge and abilities, and less on their employment gaps. And keep in mind that many jobseekers today are looking for an opportunity, so set aside your preconceptions that someone is overqualified for the job, and thus won’t be happy in it. During the job interviews, give jobseekers the opportunity to explain their employment gaps. Lastly, if you’re on the fence about hiring someone, you can minimize some of your risk by payrolling them temporarily through a staffing company until you’re confident it’s a good fit. The CEO of the American Staffing Association, Richard Wahlquist, says “staffing firms are uniquely positioned to help unemployed individuals get back on the ladder of success.” Our company is already committed to this goal. In Japan, recognizing that staffing companies are a great avenue for re-employment, the government has partnered with them. There is a financial subsidy of about $950 given to a staffing company that aids a jobseeker in finding a permanent job. In addition, the government absorbs some expenses for basic training, and the staffing company provides extra support to the jobseekers to ensure their success. This is an innovative public/private partnership for success. Interesting ideas are being floated in the United States as well. One idea is to offer government-subsidized relocation assistance or low-interest loans to long-term unemployed to help them move to an area with better job prospects. Another idea is to offer employers a six-month payroll tax holiday when they hire someone who has been unemployed for a certain period of time. Sometimes, it’s a concern that the jobseekers’ skills are out of date that hold
employers back. Providing a program for skills certifications could allay that fear. Here in Washington state, Employment Security will be giving $4 million in federal funds as grants to organizations that assist these folks in finding work. Funding for this is coming from a user fee employers pay when they bring a foreign worker into the U.S. on a visa. Obviously, though, the best way to get these folks back to work is for so many new jobs to be created that we can’t afford to continue to overlook this talent pool. One of the best hires I’ve ever made was someone who hadn’t worked for many years, but had the essential attributes and skills that I needed. Taking a chance on this person paid off for my business in big ways. As the CEO of the Society of Resource
Management, Hank Jackson, said, “In one of the toughest economies the United States has ever seen, unemployment on a candidate’s resumé is more of a white flag than a red one.” • Julie Tappero is the president and owner of West Sound Workforce, a professional staffing and recruiting company based in Poulsbo and Gig Harbor. She can be reached at julie@westsoundworkforce.com. View her LinkedIn profile at www.linkedin.com/in/jtappero. The recommendations and opinions provided are based on general human resource management fundamentals, practices and principles, and are not legal opinions, advice, or guaranteed outcomes. Consult with your legal counsel when addressing legal concerns related to human resource issues and legal contracts.
Volunteers from Trillium Employment Services making trip to help in Nepal Heidi Scheibner of Port Orchard, a program manager with Trillium Employment Services, is making an educational trip to Nepal with two other company representatives. Trillium consultants work with local businesses in Kitsap, Pierce, King and Clark counties to develop supported employment opportunities for people with disabilities. On their trip to Nepal from March 21 to April 12, Scheibner and the others will be volunteering with the Self Help Group for Cerebral Palsy. The trip was coordinated with Rotary of Nepal and The Rose International Fund for Children; both organizations work to reduce barriers for Nepalese with disabilities. Scheibner, who has worked for Trillium for three years, said she has a personal motivation for going on the trip and volunteering with the Cerebral Palsy group, which provides support for children with CP and their parents and operates a rehabilitation center. “We will have the opportunity to work in the classrooms and assist with setting up accommodations. There is also a meeting planned for us to talk with one of the largest department stores in Kathmandu about employment and hiring people with disabilities,” said Scheibner, who has a brother with CP. “I am looking forward to having the opportunity to talk about how we have been able to assist businesses in America and also experience the Nepali culture.” The three volunteers will write blog posts about their experiences while on the trip that will be published on the Trillium website.
Volunteer Management 101 workshop offered for nonprofits VolunteerKitsap.org will present a daylong workshop April 25 on volunteer management at nonprofits. The free workshop for local nonprofit volunteer managers will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4:05 p.m. at Olympic College in Bremerton. Volunteer Management 101 will be facilitated by Michelle Morris, president of the Volunteer Centers of Washington and senior manager of Community Engagement United Way of Snohomish County. Training will cover topics including trends in volunteerism, recruiting, placing, training and recognizing volunteers, as well as volunteer program evaluation. The seminar is a Leadership Kitsap team-coordinated event, with training sponsored by United Way of Kitsap County, Leadership Kitsap, The Olympic College Foundation and Kitsap Credit Union.
West Sound Workforce
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Celebrating over 5000 successful job placements on the Kitsap Peninsula! 561320 – Temporary Help Services 561312 – Executive Search Services 561311 – Employment Agencies
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(360) 394-1882
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www.westsoundworkforce.com
April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 27
By Julie Tappero Although Employment Security reports that Washington state now has more jobs than before the recession started, we know there are people that this economy has left behind. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 3.8 million people have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more, accounting for 37 percent of the unemployed. That number doesn’t take into account the 755,000 discouraged workers who have stopped looking, believing there are no jobs available to them. Who are these folks? Washington’s Employment Security Department data shows that about 60 percent of these workers had consistent work histories prior to the recession, and in fact, many of them hold college degrees and worked in highly skilled positions. You may very well know someone in this situation, as about 25 percent of Americans lost their jobs at some point during the recession, and 80 percent of us know someone in that boat. Our elected officials, on both sides of the aisle, recognize that this is a real problem for us. When our neighbors and friends can’t find work, it impacts our entire community and economy. Not to mention the fact that talented and experienced workers are sitting on the sidelines now, not contributing to the game. As our own businesses recover financially, and we are able to start hiring again, there are some things we can do to ensure that we’re not overlooking this talent pool. This is not just a feel-good strategy. The reality is that it will only become harder for all of us to find workers as unemployment declines, and businesses continue to complain that they can’t find the workers they need. And, as we all know, if businesses don’t step up to the plate voluntarily, the government will find a way to require us to do so. Legislation has already passed in states like Oregon and New Jersey, and in cities such as New York, about hiring practices and the long-term unemployed. Similar legislation has been introduced on the federal level. It’s best for us to define solutions ourselves, than have the government mandate them to us.
SK Helpline nursery offers Mother’s Day hanging baskets
Another day, another market
28 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
Neighboring small business owners create Annapolis Sunday Market By Tim Kelly, Editor Add one more outdoor weekend market to the list of browsing spots around Kitsap. The latest venture is courtesy of Rob McGee and Samantha Thumma-Smith, neighboring business owners who are collaborating on the Annapolis Sunday Market that will have its premiere April 27. McGee and his wife, Kristi, own Whiskey Gulch Coffee Co. and Annapolis Fitness in a two-story waterfront building on Bay Street next to the Annapolis passenger ferry dock in Port Orchard. Thumma-Smith opened Josephine’s Redeemed Boutique — a shop that traffics in idiosyncratic artwork made from repurposed items — last year, and McGee’s gravel parking lot between the two businesses will be the new market site. He said they decided to hold the market on Sunday for a couple reasons. They didn’t want to operate on Saturdays when the Port Orchard Farmers Market is held downtown, plus on Sundays there’s no ferry service to Annapolis, so the Kitsap Transit park-and-ride lot by the dock is available for visitors to their market. “I don't want it to be a farmers market per se,” McGee said. “I want it to be a Sunday market where it really is a little more inviting to all kinds of vendors.” He said their concept is modeled on the Fremont Sunday Market, a thriving scene in a funky Seattle neighborhood. McGee hopes the Annapolis version — which will be pet-friendly and bike-accessible — evolves into a market that’s “really eclectic and kind of quirky and weird.” There will be live music each Sunday, and he is in the process of lining up the right mix of artisans, crafters and food vendors. Interested vendors may sign up for the whole season, which is scheduled to run until October, or for half the season and come every other week, which would allow spots for other vendors on alternating Sundays. “I really would like to see some ethnic food here,” McGee said, and one possibility for that is the locally based Papa’s Place food truck, which offers food with Pacific Islands flavor and also is a vendor at the Port Orchard Farmers Market. McGee said he wants Annapolis to offer a mostly different array of vendors from the
Tim Kelly photo
Rob McGee, owner of Whiskey Gulch Coffee Co., is one of the organizers of the Annapolis Sunday Market. It will make its debut April 27 on the open lot next to his building by the Annapolis passenger ferry dock in Port Orchard. farmers market, though. “You really need to have two unique, individual markets,” he said. “I think they'll complement each other, because people like the Port Orchard market, and I think once they find out there's another market in town on a different day, that's just going to be good for everybody.” For Thumma-Smith and McGee, it’s also about establishing a neighborhood identity for Annapolis. Across from Josephine’s, there’s an active mercantile scene on weekends in front of a row of streetfront storage units, and those tenants will tie in with the Sunday market. “We really had a vision for Annapolis to be kind of a little artisan, Fremont kind of district … because there just hasn't been anything down here in years,” McGee said. “This is really starting to turn into something down here.” Something distinct, he emphasized, from the town center a little over a mile to the west down Bay Street. “I love downtown, but I don't want to be part of downtown; we want to create something here,” he said. “We're creating a destination here, because we're off the beaten track a little bit, and I think (the market) is going to open more eyeballs to Annapolis.
“It’s just this niche little block of the city that's got something going on.” To add to the “wow factor,” McGee asked local artist Anna Douglas to create a mural on his building’s exterior wall that will face the market. The new market will not accept vendors who have an existing retail location, since the co-founders want to promote artisans who don't have their own stores. They want to support locals, but the market won’t be restricted to vendors from Kitsap, to help draw a greater variety. The layout for the market has 23 vendor spaces on the side of the lot next to Whiskey Gulch, with room to expand to the west side of the lot that will accommodate food trucks. McGee said they’ve had enough response from interested vendors that most of the spaces could be filled for the April 27 opening.
The South Kitsap Helpline is selling gorgeous SuperTunia hanging baskets grown in greenhouses at its nursery in Port Orchard as a fundraiser to benefit the nonprofit agency, which operates a food bank and other programs serving those in need. The nursery has baskets with six colorful petunia varieties to choose from for $29.99 each (tax is included). Helpline is taking pre-orders for the baskets, which will be ready for pick-up on Saturday, May 10 just in time for Mother's Day. Call 360-876-4089 to be mailed a preorder form, or visit Helpline’s website at www.skhelpline.org or its Facebook page to print one out. The Helpline nursery, at 1012 Mitchell Ave. in Port Orchard, has a variety of other flowers and veggie starts ready for spring planting. The nursery is open for retail sales from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and will be open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends starting April 12. Proceeds from Helpline's plant and flower sales help to benefit more than 15,000 local families in crisis each year.
Hanging baskets filled with several colorful varieties of petunias are available from the South Kitsap Helpline nursery in Port Orchard.
Local financial advisor releases updated book on retirement planning Jason Parker, owner of Parker Financial LLC in Silverdale, is releasing his updated and re-titled book, Sound Retirement Planning. “Helping educate our community about how to achieve clarity, confidence and freedom in retirement is the top priority of my firm, and, with the financial world changing so quickly, I knew the timing was right to update my book,” Parker said. “We also decided to go with a fresher look at the same time, and even had our clients help pick the cover design featuring two red adirondack chairs overlooking an ocean beach.” Sound Retirement Planning will be available for purchase on Amazon.com starting May 5. Parker, who writes a monthly financial planning column for the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal, is a financial adviser, investment advisor representative, insurance professional and business leader in Kitsap County. He is also a speaker and educator, and the host of the radio program “Sound Retirement Radio” that is broadcast on 1300-AM KKOL on Saturdays at 8 a.m. His office is at 9057 Washington Ave. NW #104 in Silverdale; phone: 360-337-2701.
Things to know before buying a hybrid lead to a fire — such as Tesla has been in the news recently for — as well as a chemical spill or electric shocks. However, in the decade hybrids have been on the market such accidents have simply not been reported. In addition, manufacturers have taken significant steps to educate emergency responders to help accident victims without risking injury. Most full hybrids feature all the luxury high-tech features of their gasoline siblings — such as automatic climate control, navigation back-up cameras, Bluetooth, iPod and USB ports, and remote keyless starting capability. Digital graphic readouts depicting in-depth information about power flow, battery charge status, and fuel economy are quite common. Just like most compact and midsize sedans, hybrids usually have seating for five, and can seat four adults in reasonable comfort — although Honda’s CR-Z sport hybrid seats only two and the Chevy Volt seats four. Some hybrid SUVs can accommodate seven or eight passengers. A conventional sedan, using a hybrid powerplant may give up three to five cubic feet of trunk space to accommodate the battery pack, and a hybrid SUV could lose some storage capacity under the cargo floor for the same reason. Load capacity is also reduced due to the impact of a heavy
2014 Dodge Charger SXT Redline ENGINE: • 3.6-liter V-6, 300 horsepower 264 lb-ft torque TRANSMISSION: • 8-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive EPA RATINGS: • 19-mpg city/ 31-mpg highway BASE PRICE: • $29,295 AS TESTED: • $39,390 PERFORMANCE: • 300 hp V-6 provides V-8 style performance • Great 8-speed automatic maximizes performance/economy • Paddle shifters, sport and econ modes • Stability and traction control • 5-star safety rating • Touring suspension • Responsive, but comfortable handling COMFORT: • Super stretch-out front legroom
battery pack. While dedicated hybrid and all-electric vehicles are packaged to minimize compromises in passenger space and cargo volume, payload capacity can still be an issue. The most important question when buying a hybrid concerns ROI — Return on Investment — the calculation of how much time it will take cheaper operating costs to match the increased purchase price. In terms of warranties, the automakers usually offer longer coverage
for hybrid-specific components in case something goes wrong with the batteries or electric motor. The cost of replacing a battery pack varies, and battery technology has advanced to where individual cells can now be replaced at a much lower cost than the entire battery pack — which is not as expensive as it used to be. And there are also those hybrid buyers who simply don’t care about the ROI, and view the added cost as their personal investment in saving the planet.
• Heated and vented sport perforated leather front seats • Heated rear seats • Heated steering wheel with great auxiliary controls • Power lumbar both front seats • Power tilt/telescopic steering column • High content interior • LED interior lighting • Excellent sound system UTILITY: • Medium size trunk • Split, rear seats have steep slope when folded • Average small item interior storage bins • Big navigation screen
• Option packages boost content to near luxury sedan levels
WOW FACTORS: • Sharp Redline styling, red rimmed 20inch alloy wheels • Heated/cooled cup holders • Strong V-6 power • Excellent 8-speed automatic transmission • Auto dim headlights
BOTTOM LINE: The 2014 Dodge Charger SXT Redline is an impressive, sharp looking, high content mid-size sedan that’s comfortable and fun. The strong V-6/8-speed automatic is a great blend of performance and practicality. — Bruce Caldwell
WHINES: • Roofline slope impacts rear door in/out • Option packages added $10,000 to base price
April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 29
By Lary Coppola Gas/electric hybrid cars have come a long way from the geeky-looking Honda Insight and the original Toyota Prius. Today, there are hybrid choices by almost every manufacturer in almost every market segment from compact two-seaters, to fullsize, nine-passenger SUVs. The greatest number of choices are in the compact or midsize sedan segment, and include hybrid versions of popular gasolinepowered vehicles like the Ford Fusion and Kia Optima for example, while some are stand-alone hybrid designs like the Toyota Prius and Honda CR-Z. As hybrids have come into the mainstream, there is a lot a buyer needs to know before venturing out to a dealer’s showroom determined to do their part to save the planet. It starts with the price. Some hybrids carry as much as a 20 percent premium over their conventionally powered gasoline counterparts. The least expensive hybrid averages a little less than $20,000, while the most expensive luxury models — such as the Lexus LS600h, which stickers at $120,060, to the Rolls Royce Wraith at $284,900. The good news is, some advanced hybrid and electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt and Nissan LEAF are eligible for federal and state tax credits that lower the purchase cost. There are two general types of hybrids: Pure Hybrids deliver gas mileage in the 40-50 mpg range, but have a significantly higher purchase price. Mild Hybrids offer less dramatic fuel economy, but also have a less dramatic cost. In addition, plug-in hybrids like the Chevy Volt and Cadillac ELR are beginning to make inroads into the market. While more expensive, they deliver short-range, all-electric operation combined with long-range capability that depends on a gasoline engine. All-electric vehicles (EV), such as the much-heralded Nissan LEAF trade a higher purchase price for lower operational costs — no $4 a gallon gas to buy, no oil changes, and a charging cost akin to an evening of watching your TV. However, the cruising range of EVs is also an issue. The LEAF and Mitsubishi MiEV for example each have a cruising range of about 100 miles per charge, while the Volt has an EV range of about 40 before the gas engine kicks in. In general, hybrid vehicles are as safe as all-gasoline cars, and because of the battery positioning in the floor under the seats in some, they tend to handle somewhat better because of the weight at a lower center of gravity. Concerns have been raised about accidents that could damage the batteries in a way that might
Ford claims bigger share of police vehicle market
In just two years, Ford has revolutionized the police vehicle market by equipping many of its Police Interceptor lineup with standard all-wheel drive, which works full-time for greater mobility and security; adding more fuel-efficient EcoBoost® engines; and introducing two new body styles — including a popular utility vehicle. Ford police vehicle sales grew 48 percent in 2013 — 9 points of market share — while industry police sales rose 22 percent, according to Polk registration data. Ford Police Interceptor utility was the bestselling police vehicle in the United States in
2013, outpacing overall industry sales. “We revolutionized our police vehicle lineup with three key changes that differentiate us from the competition,” said Jonathan Honeycutt, police marketing manager at Ford. “The new utility vehicle body style meets officers’ growing storage needs; standard all-wheel drive for most models is an industry-first that provides greater mobility and security; plus, expanding the range of EcoBoost engines gives law enforcement agencies more options to suit their needs.” After decades of success with its reliable Crown Victoria — a, large, V8-powered,
ENGINE: • 2.5-liter I-4, 179-horsepower 172 lb-ft torque
ENGINE: • 3.7-liter V-6, 273 horsepower, 270 lb-ft torque
TRANSMISSION: • 6-speed automatic, wheel-drive
TRANSMISSION: • 6-speed automatic, all-wheel-drive
30 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
PERFORMANCE: • Good power and torque • Excellent 6-speed automatic transmission • Sporty acceleration for a 7-passenger SUV • So-so fuel economy, especially compared to CX-5 • Very good all-weather traction and safety COMFORT: • Ample legroom in first and second rows • Adjustable second row seat tracks • Third row snug for adults • Excellent headroom • Flat floor middle row • Adults fit fine in middle position of second row • Quality interior materials/textures/ colors UTILITY: • Flat cargo floor • Power tailgate
front-
EPA RATINGS: • 23-mpg city/31-mpg highway
EPA RATINGS: • 16-mpg city/ 22-mpg highway
AS TESTED: • $40,005
Ford Police Interceptor sedan and utility vehicle were fastest in both 0-100 mph acceleration runs and average lap times for a third consecutive year. In addition the 3.5-liter and 3.7-liter non-turbo offerings — provide increased fuel economy ratings over outgoing models, helping municipalities with potential savings on fleet fuel costs. The 2.0-liter EcoBoost Special Service Police Sedan offers an impressive EPA-estimated rating of 20 mpg city, 30 mpg highway and 24 mpg combined. This Special Service vehicle combines the durability of Police Interceptor sedan with the efficiency of a 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine, which can help save fuel even while delivering 240 horsepower and 270 lb.-ft. of torque. The 2.0-liter Special Service vehicle comes with many of the same features and technologies as Police Interceptor sedan, such as a 75-mph rear crash test rating, two times durability testing, police-tuned suspension, police brakes, steel wheels, police interior and upfit options. For more information, visit www.FordPoliceInterceptor.com.
2014 SCION tC
2014 Mazda CX-9 Grand Touring
BASE PRICE: • $36,625
body-on-frame sedan — Ford made a strategic decision to modernize its Police Interceptor with not one, but two distinct body styles: a traditional, pursuit-rated large sedan and a new, pursuit-rated utility vehicle. In 2013, Ford’s police utility vehicle represented 60 percent of all Ford Police Interceptor sales, and was the best-selling police vehicle in the country. The new norm: Standard all-wheel drive Another decision also has paid dividends — both for Ford as well as the safety of its agency partners: In an industryfirst, the company now offers standard allwheel drive for Police Interceptor utility and sedan models, on vehicles equipped with a 3.7-liter or 3.5-liter EcoBoost. Police agencies have taken notice, and approximately 90 percent of all Police Interceptors sold come equipped with standard all-wheel drive. The final piece of the company’s reinvention of the police vehicle market is its introduction of fuel-efficient, yet powerful EcoBoost engines. In recent Los Angeles County Sheriff Department testing at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.,
BASE PRICE: • $20,210 • • • • • • •
Excellent cargo capacity Extra storage under cargo deck Wide hatch opening Third row seat folds flat Second row folds almost flat Good grocery bags space behind third row Big glovebox
WOW FACTORS: • Blind spot warning system in side mirrors • Spacious interior for people and cargo • Handsome styling • Sharp 20-inch alloy wheels • Rain sensing wipers WHINES: • Rear hatch doesn’t open high enough for tall people BOTTOM LINE: The 2014 Mazda CX-9 is one of the least cumbersome 7-passenger crossover SUVs. It’s spacious inside, but relatively compact outside. It’s pleasant to drive and sporty for its class. — Bruce Caldwell
AS TESTED: • $20,965 PERFORMANCE: • Fun to drive • Good front-wheel-drive dynamics • Nimble • Tight turning radius • Easy u-turns • Sporty, but not as much as the Scion FR-S • Quick shifting sequential automatic • 18-inch alloy wheels • Four-wheel disc brakes COMFORT: • Stretch out front legroom • Supportive cloth seats with deep side bolsters • Seat height pump • Soft headrests • Super thick contoured steering wheel with flat bottom • Good back seat access with far sliding front seat
• Shade strips on rear glass to help keep passengers cool UTILITY: • Huge rear hatch, easy cargo loading • Flat cargo area • Rear seats fold almost flat • Small under floor storage area • Cargo loops WOW FACTORS: • Three stereo speakers in each front door • Pioneer stereo system • Sunroof plus moon roof over rear seat • Surprisingly good rear seat headroom • Sporty styling • Attractive pricing WHINES: • Small front door bins due to huge speakers BOTTOM LINE: The 2014 Scion tC hatchback is a fun little car with a surprisingly roomy interior including an adult size rear seat. — Bruce Caldwell
April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 31
32 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
2014 BMW 4 Series replaces 3 Series coupes By Lary Coppola Without going into detail, I’ll openly confess to not being a big BMW fan after being treated very shabbily by BMW Northwest when my wife’s 5-Series needed repairs. Because of that, I rarely write about BMW’s because I’m not always as objective I should be. That said, it’s seemingly a new day at BMW, as they retire the compact sports coupe from the 3-Series lineup, spinning it off as the 4-Series — an all-new, two door, 4seater, with a lower, wider stance, ample power, and an abundance of the overengineered technology BMW is known for. Model Lineup: The 4-Series comes in two configurations — the 428i (our test vehicle, to which this review will be confined) and the more powerful 435i. Both are available with either rear-wheel drive or allwheel drive, and a choice of a 6-speed manual or 8-speed automatic transmission. Standard features on the 428i include BMW’s iDrive interface with 6.5-inch display screen, audio system with CD player, HD radio, Bluetooth, and USB port, automatic climate control, SensaTec vinyl upholstery, eight-way power front seats with driver memory, pushbutton start, a leather-wrapped tilt-and-telescopic wheel with controls, cruise control, onboard computer, universal garage door opener, split folding rear seat, power moonroof, foglights, rain-sensing automatic wipers, xenon adaptive headlights with autoleveling, power folding exterior mirrors with automatic dimming, and 17-inch alloy wheels with run-flat, all-season tires. An automatic stop/start feature is also included. Three trim packages are available: Luxury, Sport and M Sport. Each has unique wheels, exterior trim, interior styling, wheels and suspension tuning. Other options include the Cold Weather Package, which adds heated front and rear seats, and steering wheel; The Dynamic Handling Package includes adaptive M suspension and variable sport steering; The Premium Package adds leather upholstery, keyless access, lumbar support and satellite radio. The Technology Package offers navigation with real-time traffic information and touchpad control, head-up display, the BMW Apps interface and enhanced Bluetooth and smartphone integration. Standalone options include leather upholstery, heated front seats, navigation, Harman Kardon surround sound, and a bevy of optional wheels. Walkaround: The 4-Series is built on the same architecture as the 3 Series sedan, riding on the same 110.6-inch wheelbase. However, it sits nearly two inches lower, and is slightly wider than the 3 Series sedans, giving it a more aggressive-looking, aerodynamic stance. The styling is clearly recognizable as a BMW, and to us at least, appears simply evolutionary, with nothing really new to offer. While not identical, the front fascia closely resembles the latest 3-Series, with BMW’s signature twin kidney grille slightly lower and
wider. The double-bezel headlamp housings flow from the grille, wrapping around into the front fender. The side view is lower and sleeker, with a sharply sloping roofline. Short front overhangs compliment a distinctive body crease running from behind the front wheel, through the door handle, and over the rear wheel. Side windows are a shorter, sharper version of BMW’s signature curve, known as the Hofmeister kink. In the rear, the back window is short, with taillights slightly flattened versions of those on the 3-Series, and double exhaust tips on the left side. Interior: The interior design of the 4Series is more driver-focused than the 3Series. The center stack has a slight left cant, with a high, tapered dividing line just right of the gearshift, cocooning the driver. Just below the center stack is an odd, lift-out storage tray hiding two standard-sized cupholders. On top of the center stack is the iDrive screen, which comes standard on all models. It’s large and easy to read, but without navigation, it’s pretty useless for anything except for getting annoyed trying to tune the radio — which is a challenge in itself. The spendy Technology package adds a whole suite of features, including navigation with real-time traffic, and BMW Connected, an app that allows users to sync their smartphones with their cars to use Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, a vehicle finder, and more. Instrumentation is the standard BMW
analog set — four circular dials, speedometer, tachometer, fuel and oil temperature gauges, in a black panel display. Standard upholstery is a man-made material BMW calls SensaTec. Leather is optional. Under The Hood: The 2014 BMW 4 Series coupe features the same engines as the 3 Series and comes in two variations. The 428i uses the turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-4 that delivers 241 horses and 258 pound-feet of torque — slightly more than the 3-Series. Transmission choices on both are a 6-speed manual or an 8-speed automatic; all-wheel-drive 428i xDrive models come with the automatic only. Not only is BMW’s 8-speed automatic more efficient; it’s also quicker. The BMW 435i comes with a turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-6 that offers 302 horses and 295 pound-feet of torque. Behind The Wheel: The 2014 BMW 4 Series coupe is fun to drive in almost any situation. There are four modes — Comfort, Sport, Sport plus, and Eco Pro. Each adjusts throttle response, steering and handling for distinctly different rides. With the lowest center of gravity of all BMW models, body roll is non-existent.
Handling and braking are simply excellent, with a good balance of ride quality and response, although road and tire noise are evident at all speeds. The electric steering is light at low speeds, with more feedback at higher speeds. We found the power of the 428i great for everyday driving. It has plenty of pep, climbs hilly terrain at freeway speeds, and we found keeping it under 80 on the freeway to be a challenge. Whines: BMW technology is way overengineered, non-intuitive, and not at all userfriendly. Bottom Line: The all-new 2014 BMW 4 Series is a great sports coupe offering a terrific driving experience. But in my view, at $47,125 as tested — without amenities standard in many lower priced cars — overpriced.
New Models and New Leadership Fuel Major Award Wins for General Motors By Dave Barthmuss, Group Manager Policy and Product, General Motors Innovations poured into the latest vehicles from Cadillac, Buick, GMC and Chevrolet are paying off big for General Motors and its customers this year. Already, eight GM cars and trucks have won major industry honors in 2014, including the industry’s most coveted awards. Both the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and Silverado were named the North American Car and Truck of the Year in January, the first time Chevy has swept the two top honors. The winners were chosen by a jury of 49 automotive journalists from the United States and Canada. The new Corvette Stingray is the most powerful standard model ever, with 455 horsepower and 460 lb-feet of torque from a 6.2 liter V-8 engine – and 460 horsepower /465 lb-ft with the available performance exhaust system. Models with the available Z51 Performance Package can sprint from 0-60 in 3.8 seconds. Silverado’s available 5.3 liter EcoTec3 V8 generates 355 horsepower for confident towing and hauling, yet seamlessly switches to four cylinders to save fuel during lightload driving. With an EPA estimated highway fuel economy of up to 23 m.p.g.,
Silverado offers the best fuel economy of any V-8 pickup. U.S. News & World Reports in February also named six GM vehicles for its 2014 Best Cars for Families award — the most of any automakers. Winners have the best combination of quality, safety, features and space for families. They included the Chevy Impala and Tahoe, the Buick Enclave and Verano, and the Cadillac CTS and ATS. Not content to rest on its laurels, GM is continuing to develop new models for 2014 under new leadership from CEO Mary Bara. The all-new 2015 ATS Coupe, Cadillac’s first-ever compact luxury coupe, is designed to be lighter, more agile and more engaging than its competitors. Launching this summer, it offers drivers the choice of rearwheel drive or all-wheel drive, and the power from a 2.0 liter turbocharged fourcylinder or a 3.6 liter six-cylinder. In all combinations, ATS Coupe takes advantage of its lightweight and strong structure to deliver exhilarating performance with a segment-leading powerto-weight ratio. The greater torque means greater pulling power, for a greater feeling of responsiveness at low speeds. It helps the ATS Coupe achieve an estimated 0-60 time of 5.6 seconds. The 2014 ELR luxury coupe blends
dramatic design and industry-leading extended-range technology to deliver a driving experience that is sporty and environmentally friendly. It represents the first application of Extended Range Electric Vehicle technology by a full-line luxury automotive brand. The changes at Cadillac seen with the arrival of new cars such as the ATS and ELR are significant enough that the line is changing up its iconic logo. The new Cadillac crest, launched on the ATS Coupe matches the lower, longer, leaner mantra of our current car designs. For those looking to a pick-up truck to navigate Washington’s rugged terrain, GMC is introducing the all-new, midsize 2015 Canyon. It is expected to deliver classleading capabilities with the brand’s signature refinement. It offers a maneuverable package for customers who want the cargo-hauling and trailering versatility in smaller vehicle than a full-size pick-up. The GMC Canyon will offer the most horsepower in its segment with estimated 193 horsepower from a standard 2.5 liter V4 and an estimated 302 horsepower from an available 3.6 liter V-6. It will also feature the New Models, page 33
2014 Dodge Durango: Muscular, but refined SUV between them. The captain’s chairs fold almost flat and the split third row seats fold completely flat for excellent cargo capacity. There is additional storage under the rear cargo deck. The level of interior refinement and material choices is quite luxurious. Upscale features included a great, thick heated leather steering wheel, power tilt/telescopic column, huge navigation/information screen, driver and passenger power lumbar, and a rear DVD entertainment center. Front legroom is beyond stretch-out and second row room is fine as long as the front seats are up a little. Even the third row is relatively adult-friendly as long as your stay isn’t overly long. Space behind the third row is adequate for groceries or small packages. The liftgate is power operated. Under The Hood: Dodges have long been renown for their powerful engines and strong transmissions. The new Durango excels in both areas. There are two engine choices for 2014: the 3.6-liter V-6, which is rated at 290 horsepower and 260 lb=ft of torque and the 5.7-liter V-8, which produces 360 horsepower and 390 lb-ft of torque. The V-6 is a strong engine and a fine choice, but we drove the might Hemi V-8. The engine easily lives up to its reputation. The Hemi was mated to an impressive new 8-speed automatic transmission. The new transmission is responsible for almost a ten percent fuel economy improvement. There is an Eco Mode that adjusts engine/transmission performance mapping. The transmission uses a selector dial on the center console instead of a traditional lever. It’s a good-sized knob and it becomes very natural after a few uses. The transmission does fine by itself, but there are paddle shifters for people who want to make their own gear choices. The console also houses a selector for AWD Auto and Low Ranges. The Dodge Durango is available in rearwheel-drive and all-wheel-drive configurations. V-8 models can tow up to 7,400 pounds. Behind The Wheel: Even though the Dodge Durango has chassis architecture
NEW MODELS
entire industry. The cars and trucks coming off the line at our plants have never been better and are paving the way for a big year here at GM and for our customers.
from page 34 segment’s best payload of at least 1,450 pounds and the segment’s best trailer tow rating of at least 6,700 pounds. The interior is designed to be comfortable, heavily equipped and well connected. The Canyon’s cabin boasts exceptional attention to detail and premium appointments. It includes a sculpted headliner that enhances headroom, halo lighting on key controls for easier viewing and an open area at the front of the center console for easier phone charging. Our commitment to automotive innovation combined with our refusal to settle for the status quo raises the bar for the
• Dave Barthmuss is the Group Manager, Policy and Product, for General Motors’ West Coast Region Communications team which includes all 24 states west of the Mississippi. He is a frequent speaker on the topics of alternative fuels, communication best practices, and various GM business topics. He spends a large part of his time on the road addressing audiences at community and business events, universities, and major environmental conferences. For more information, visit www.DriveTheDistrict.com, or reach him on Twitter - @DistrictDrive.
based on the Mercedes GL and ML series SUVs it feels most at home on the highway. The Durango is definitely tough enough for offroad travel, but its drives more like a big nearluxury sedan. That’s a good thing given the ratio of paved to dirt road travel seen by most owners. Steering and handling is very good, especially for a vehicle this size. The ride is moderately firm, but not harsh. The Durango isn’t a sports car, but it handles much better than most truck-based SUVs. The Hemi exhaust note is loud enough to be noticed (a positive for us), but not raucous. Whines: Aggressively checking option boxes can easily add ten thousand dollars to the attractive base price. Our tester started at $38,395 and topped out at $49,960 after options and a thousand dollar delivery charge. The Durango is well built and has a high content level, but 50K for a Dodge strains our traditional perception of Dodges as Chrysler’s entry-level nameplate. The strong performance comes with a
fuel economy penalty. Our Durango had the powerful 5.7-liter Hemi V-8, which was EPA rated at 14-city and 22-highway with a combined rating of 16-mpg. We beat the combo number on more highway than city driving, but never got to 18-mpg. Getting in and out of the third row seats isn’t difficult, but a well-placed grab handle would improve access. Bottom Line: The 2014 Dodge Durango Limited AWD is a very impressive multi-purpose SUV. We thoroughly enjoyed driving and using it. The high content interior and excellent drivetrain are two giant pluses along with the handsome styling.
2014 Nissan Quest 3.5 LE Engine: • 3.5 Liter, DOHC 6-Cylinder Transmission: • Xtronic CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) EPA Ratings: • 19/City - 25/Highway – 21/Combined Base Price: • $42,640 As Tested: • $45,060 Performance: • Surprisingly strong acceleration • Excellent passing abilities • Smooth CVT Comfort: • Seating is spacious and luxurious • Second row Captain’s Chairs • Third row seat is mounted low — excellent for kids Utility: • LE Model has a convenient power liftgate • Dual power sliding doors are a blessing with kids and dogs • Third row seats fold forward, giving up storage, but load floor is flat WOW Factors: • Quiet ride for a minivan
• Cockpit is roomy and well laid out • All the bells and whistles of a luxury sedan in a minivan • We experienced better than rated gas mileage • Rear entertainment system is independent of cockpit audio Whines: • Steering is a little heavy • Backup camera (test vehicle had one) is a definite must Bottom Line: The Quest is a pleasure to drive, with a very smooth, serene ride. The V6 makes passing easy. Perhaps not the best for hauling cargo or big groups of people, but its cabin is quiet, and comfortable. The rear entertainment system is great for keeping kids occupied — especially on a trip. — Lary Coppola
April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 33
By Bruce Caldwell The 2014 Dodge Durango Limited AWD is a great SUV that manages to be both muscular and refined. The model has been around since 1998 and gone through a couple iterations. The present version debuted in 2011 and has been refreshed for 2014. The 2014 Durango shares much with its corporate sibling, the Jeep Grand Cherokee (a better relative would be hard to find). It also has engineering influences from Chrysler’s former Daimler-Benz alliance. The Durango DNA is excellent. The 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 and 8-speed automatic transmission are key components of the muscular, but refined nature of the 2014 Durango. Walkaround: Chrysler Corp. including their Dodge Division has been hitting home runs in the styling department lately. Dodges have a strong high performance heritage and the current lineup plays to that strength. The 2014 Durango Limited is a great cross between truck, station wagon, and SUV. It doesn’t look as bulky/boxy as many competitors, but it’s far more masculine looking than crossover SUVs. The grille and front-end treatment have distinct family ties (cross bar four quadrant grille) and the lower valence/front spoiler helps give the Durango a low, sporty look. Out back there are modern LED (192 individual lamps) taillights that Dodge calls “Racetrack” style. They look sharp and positively let tailgaters know you’re applying the brakes. Handsome alloy wheels do a good job of properly filling the wheelwells. Sharp five-spoke 20-inch diameter alloy wheels were part of the Premium Group option on our loaded Durango Limited. The Durango is longer than sibling Jeeps to accommodate the third row seating, but its proportions are excellent. The roof treatment reminds us of one of our favorite Dodge bodies, the recently dropped Magnum. Interior: Excellent passenger room and comfort are big Durango selling points. Depending on the model, either six or seven people can be accommodated. Our Limited tester had the spacious second row captain’s chairs with a huge console
2014 Ford Fusion Energi Titanium ENGINE: • 2.0-liter I-4 plus electric motor 188 horsepower TRANSMISSION: • Electronic CVT automatic, frontwheel-drive EPA RATINGS: • gasoline only 43 mpg, electric + gas 100 mpg BASE PRICE: • $40,500 AS TESTED: • $42,685
34 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
PERFORMANCE: • We averaged low to upper 40s mixed driving fuel economy • Twenty-one mile range for all electric power • Smooth transitions between gas and electric power • Regenerative braking • 3.3-kilowatt charger fully recharges in 3-4 hours • Steering feel below average
COMFORT: • Mid-size sedan interior room • Quiet interior • Stretch-out front legroom • Very warm heated front seats • Quality leather seating surfaces • Backseat legroom snug unless front seats are moved up • Medium height rear floor hump UTILITY: • Large battery pack greatly squeezes trunk space • Rear seat doesn’t fold down • Good size interior storage bins WOW FACTORS: • Active noise cancellation for quiet interior • Handsome Aston-Martin styling cues • Excellent safety features, highly rated by test agencies WHINES: • Super small trunk, even for a plug-in hybrid • $40,000 plus price tag • Rear seat headroom less than previous Fusion design BOTTOM LINE: The 2014 Ford Fusion Energi is a strong competitor in the plug-in hybrid mid-size sedan market. Everything works as designed, but buyers should also consider the less expensive Fusion Hybrid.
2014 HONDA CR-V AWD EX-L ENGINE: • 2.4-liter I-4, 185 hp, 163 lb-ft torque TRANSMISSION: • 5-speed automatic, all-wheel-drive EPA RATINGS: • 22-mpg city/30-mpg highway BASE PRICE: • $30,445 AS TESTED: • $31,275 PERFORMANCE: • Solid, reliable engine • Decent acceleration, but not a performance car • Only minor economy difference for AWD vs. FWD • Pleasant, car-like highway ride • Capable in snow and not-too-tough off-road conditions • Nimble, easy to park
COMFORT: • Very roomy interior • Excellent front legroom • Great second row legroom even with front seats all back • Two-temp heated front seats • Driver’s power lumbar support • Flat rear floor for middle passenger UTILITY: • Very slick fold-down rear seats, easy to use • Big rear hatch • Flat cargo floor • Split second row seats fold almost flat • Excellent cargo capacity for compact SUV • Oversize center console storage bin • Ample small item storage areas WOW FACTORS: • Handsome styling • Solid Honda engineering • Strong value, good resale • Very spacious, comfortable interior WHINES: • Tiny sunroof • Electric power steering feel could be improved
$39,995
360-876-4428 888-600-4428 514 Bay Street Port Orchard www.dickvlistmotors.com
2011 911 Porsche Carrera 4 Less than 29,000 miles, perfect carfax
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Business valuation scorecard: 7 key components By Kelly Deis, Accelerate Kitsap Whether consciously or not, many business owners and leaders have their eye on the end game, more commonly known as an exit strategy. Whether you are an owner, manager or stockholder, presumably your interests are aligned to maximize the value of the company. The more valuable the company, the more you will get out of it — either in compensation, severance, profitsharing or proceeds from a sale. Increasing the value of a company requires years of planning and execution. Most valuators look at the last five years of operating results to substantiate their conclusions. So, let's look at maximizing the value of your business today for a potential sale or transfer tomorrow. Below are seven factors to consider, which can impact the value of your business:
team that can weather the transition and continue to forge the business ahead can be invaluable to a potential suitor and will increase the valuation of your company. 6. Financial Risk / Contingent Liabilities Not surprisingly, buyers are looking for a reasonably strong balance sheet with good liquidity and working capital. Contingent liabilities — such as outstanding litigation or an environmental issue — would be assessed and a discount taken for a presumed outcome of the pending issue.
7. Size Yes, size matters. The larger the company, the less perceived risk and the higher the market valuation multiple. It is a straightforward and time-tested correlation. As you are developing your 2014 operating plan, consider the factors outlined above. Paying time and attention to these areas will not only build a stronger company today, but will also enhance the likelihood of a graceful exit tomorrow with a nice nest egg for all of your efforts.
• Kelly Deis is the president and founder of Soundpoint Consulting, a business consulting and valuation firm. She is also a volunteer mentor for Accelerate Kitsap, a nonprofit business mentoring organization that helps local business owners grow their companies. Accelerate Kitsap mentors are experienced business and professional people who volunteer their time to help entrepreneurs solve problems and find ways to take advantage of new opportunities. You can learn more about Accelerate Kitsap at Acceleratekitsap.org or Deis at soundpointbusinessconsulting.com.
1. Operating History, Earnings Growth The ability to grow and generate profit is one of the driving factors for an increased valuation. Nothing is more valuable than a well-conceived and executed operating plan with demonstrated results. 2. Reliance on Key Personnel The overall valuation of a business will decrease if the business is overly reliant on the owner, founder or any other individual. If the future viability of the business can potentially walk out the door, buyers will be less willing to pay a premium for the company.
4. Competitive Position Financial buyers want a return on their investment and will pay more for companies with a strong competitive advantage (and attractive future growth opportunities). On the other hand, strategic buyers may be interested in companies with weak competitive positions if they believe they can enhance the market position of the company — and hence the value, once purchased. But, they won't necessary be willing to pay for it! 5. Workforce It is generally presumed that the workforce will stay on with the company. There is great value to a potential buyer if employees are well tenured, experienced and reliable. A strong middle management
April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 35
3. Diversification A healthy business is not overly reliant on any one customer, supplier, product, or geographic area. If the revenue or earnings of the company are dependent upon the relationship of a few customers or suppliers, then a potential buyer will perceive this as increased risk and will not be willing to pay a premium. Same is true for a single product line company or one operating in a limited geographic area.
Publisher Lary Coppola Editor Tim Kelly Advertising Sales Dee Coppola Pre-Press Operations Steve Horn Webmaster/IT Greg Piper Graphic Design Kris Lively Office Administration Jennifer Christine Web Host PCS Web Hosting LLC Contributing Writers Rodika Tollefson Don Brunell Dan Weedin Julie Tappero Jason Parker Press Releases
36 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
Email to pressreleases@KPBJ.com The Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal is a special interest publication dedicated exclusively to providing news, information and opinions to the business communities of the Kitsap and Key Peninsulas, and North Mason County. It is published monthly by Wet Apple Media. Copyright, 2014, with all rights reserved. Postage is paid at Tacoma, WA. The Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal is read by more than 26,000 business, professional, political and military leaders in Kitsap, Pierce, and Mason counties. Additional copies are available for $1.50 each. Annual subscriptions are available for $25. Reproduction or use of any editorial or graphic content contained herein in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written consent of the Publisher is strictly prohibited. The Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal is proudly composed using Apple Macintosh® computers and printed by The Kitsap Sun, Bremerton, WA. Views expressed herein are strictly the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the advertisers or ownership of The Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal.
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Member Kitsap Economic Development Alliance Kitsap Visitors and Convention Bureau Homebuilders Association of Kitsap County Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce North Mason Chamber of Commerce Poulsbo Chamber of Commerce Silverdale Chamber of Commerce
Recognizing and thanking two good people in the local news business By Bill Hoke This is not a goodbye, but it is a transition, and after 26 years of doing business, writing articles, discussions over hundreds of advertisements and news releases, change is coming to a very good friend, the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal. Our association with Lary and Dee began 26 years ago when our Seattle advertising agency began to place advertisements in the new-at-the-time Business Journal. It was the only source of business news, commentary, editorial — business news in-depth and nearly all of it local. The Business Journal was the one local media where we could place a business-tobusiness advertisement to know it was hitting our intended targets and we saw them hit their targets over and over. Plus, there was a monthly cover story, a close-up look at a business person who was making a difference. But the story of this Business Journal goes way beyond news stories and advertisements. For nearly half of those 26 years, I was working as a volunteer in the Washington CASH (Community Alliance for Self-Help) micro-enterprise program, where we had a standing offer to any entrepreneur who was ready to open their doors. I would help them prepare a news release announcing their new start-up and we would send it off to the Business Journal knowing this was pretty
small news. Lary and Dee ran these stories, and all the praise and respect I can pile on them here pales when I recite just a very few of the dozens and dozens of these new business owners who saw their names — now as company presidents and owners — in print for the first time. We can put a face on these local small business owners who have been helped. • The woman handyman in Seabeck, right on the edge of financial disaster, called three days after her start-up story appeared in the Business Journal to say this one three-inch story resulted in three new clients, enough to launch her business. She was in tears of joy when she called me. I suggested she call Lary and Dee. • A woman who all but invented local 'green cleaning' saw her short news release in the Business Journal turn into a frontpage cover story and led to her making a keynote speech to 500 business leaders in downtown Seattle. • A now thriving local heating company, jumpstarted by a news release. • A booming roofing company, assisted by two or three news stories, each announcing a new service. • A security company announced its grand opening in the Business Journal three years ago and now sold to a national company. • A single mother who continues to expand her condiment business, helped along by a news release. How many times I went to a Washington CASH meeting to hear an entrepreneur stand and proudly announce they had an article in the Business Journal, beaming with
a pride you had to see for yourself. It's not just small business owners who owe the Coppolas and their staff this moment of thanks. Many others have been touched by their commitment to small business and to their community. How many times did you see Lary and Dee manning a booth at an event, supporting a community activity, unselfishly giving back, publicizing an event, a good cause? How many 40 under 40 recipients stood a little taller and how many were honored for the first time for contributions to the community? Hundreds. This is always a fun event, full of hope and promise and reward. And how many nonprofit organizations — charity auctions to art shows to golf tournaments — owe the success of their events to the publicity and free 'media sponsors' Lary and Dee so generously contributed? Hundreds, I bet. You know who you are. How many established business owners were able to make connections and build their businesses because they had an advertising medium to promote and maintain their businesses? How many times have you clicked on their 'News Digests' to find a breaking local news story, an update on a meeting, news that affected our local economy? And, roughly calculating, there have been more than 300 cover stories that were a positive hit for some local business (including ours), and there have been hundreds, thousands, of feature stories (thanks, Rodika!) that gave someone a Thanks, page 37
Here’s to our champions… Here’s to them all! By John Powers, Kitsap Economic Development Alliance Over 100 partners of Kitsap’s Economic Development Alliance gathered for our Annual Meeting on March 20 to review 2013 results, approve a 2014 Work Plan, and elect board members and officers for the coming year. Outgoing board chair Julie Tappero, president of West Sound Workforce, briefed community and business leaders on work performed by KEDA’s team of economic developers in 2013. Last year our alliance provided business retention, expansion and attraction services to 180 businesses, spurring $6 million in local investment, $34 million in contract work, and positively impacting over 250 jobs in Kitsap. More performance details can be found at www.kitsapeda.org. The incoming chair, Kitsap Bank CEO Steve Politakis, looked ahead by encouraging KEDA’s partners to continue to support the momentum achieved over the past several years. Steve talked in terms
of “One Kitsap” and the synergistic benefits of collaborating to tell Kitsap’s story. And, Steve identified the market value of leveraging Kitsap’s role in the regional economy to grow opportunities for employers and employees throughout Kitsap. These strategic objectives are detailed in KEDA’s 2014 Work Plan, also found at www.kitsapeda.org. Ben Anderson, CEO of Art Anderson & Associates, was elected vice chair; and Bob Guyt, a principal at Rice Fergus Miller, was elected treasurer. Two new private-sector board members were elected to our 36member board: Erin Leedham, general manager of the Kitsap Mall, and Brent Morris, publisher of the Kitsap Sun. County Commissioner Linda Streissguth was honored for her recent private-sector board service, and also welcomed to a new role as a public sector alternate board member for Commissioner Charlotte Garrido. KEDA also recognized two Economic Development Champions for outstanding contributions to community economic development efforts — Jon Rose and Tim Thomson. Rose, president of Poulsbo-based Olympic Property Group, has led a real estate development team, known for their
innovation, on a variety of projects throughout the West Sound: from mixed use commercial and residential in Gig Harbor, to industrial business parks in Bremerton, to transforming a 19th-century timber town into a modern-day community gem and tourism magnet — Port Gamble. In presenting the award, Kitsap County Commissioner Rob Gelder stated: “Jon’s leadership has strengthened our regional economy, created jobs, and enhanced our communities’ quality of life.” He further noted that: “perhaps no single endeavor has demonstrated Rose’s commitment to leaving his community a better place than he found it than his leadership in championing the development and recent expansion of the Kitsap Forest & Bay Project (a community-based, collaborative effort to conserve more than 6,000 acres of forest land and miles of shoreline while providing a critical link to the regional trail system known as the String of Pearls) aimed at developing our eco-tourism industry, and preserving our community’s environment, culture, commerce, and promise for generations to come.” Tim Thomson, a retired Navy captain and aviator, and former CEO of the Port of Bremerton who currently serves as co-chair
Monday," company officials announced that smelter operations were suspended and the smelter would be demolished. Some 1,200 smelter workers woke up without jobs. While government officials acted appropriately to reduce pollution and clean up the mining mess, the Anaconda smelter closed largely because it was bleeding red ink. It couldn’t compete with foreign companies who didn’t have the same rigid environmental standards and production costs. The world needs copper and nickel, and customers will buy them wherever they’re available. In this case, Norilsk metals are still on the market. Anaconda metals are not. In trying to have pollution-free metals production, we inadvertently drove that industry and those jobs to nations with few environmental protections. Ironically, our efforts to eliminate pollution in the U.S. have ended up benefitting the world’s worst polluters. We need to ask ourselves: Is it better to produce metals here as cleanly as possible with the best technology available, or close plants and lose family-wage jobs while the world buys metals from the worst polluters on the planet? • Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. He recently retired as president of the Association of Washington Business, and now lives in Vancouver. He can be contacted at theBrunells@msn.com.
from page 36 boost, promoted an event, explained a new business service, brought high tech to many lives and was always on-time. That's quite a legacy and I am sure I have overlooked many other acts of kindness and giving from Lary and Dee to our community. A special shout-out to Kris, Tim, Steve, Greg, Amy, Jennifer and everyone else who has been invariably friendly and responsive. And professional. May I please speak for every local small business owner when we say, "Thank you for all you have done, all you have given to so many of us." The Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal has been good for all our businesses. Godspeed! • Bill Hoke, local sales and marketing consultant, has contributed many articles to the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal and is a long-time supporter of local businesses.
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April 2014 Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com 37
grandfather worked in the underground copper mines in the early 1900s. Mine head frames dotted Butte Hill, once known as the “Richest Hill on Earth,” and black smoke belched from smelter stacks. In 1919, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company (ACM) consolidated its ore smelting operations in Anaconda, 25 miles west of Butte, and constructed the world’s largest smokestack. In fact, the stack is so tall the 555-foot tall Washington Monument would fit inside it. In those days, tall smokestacks dispersed the pollutants away from cities, but in the process, the toxic emissions killed surrounding forest and croplands, as they do today around Norilsk. ACM bought a half-million acres southwest of Anaconda because the vegetation was dying from the smoke. Today, that land has recovered, and is part of the Mount Haggin Wildlife Management unit, with clear mountain streams and verdant forest. Over the years, Americans realized that higher smokestacks only polluted a broader area. With stronger air pollution laws in the 1970s, power plant owners installed stack scrubbers and many switched to low-sulfur coal from Montana and Wyoming. ACM installed scrubbers in its massive Anaconda smelter stack and built an $88 million higher-efficiency ore furnace. The improvements were costly at a time when copper prices dipped because of the nation’s prolonged recession. The investments were for naught because on Sept. 29, 1980, known as "Black
• John Powers is the executive director of the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance.
THANKS
What we didn’t see at Sochi By Don C. Brunell During the Winter Olympics, viewers around the world marveled at the pristine snow-capped mountains surrounding Sochi, Russia’s Black Sea resort city. One American camera crew even took a ride on the Siberian railroad filming the picturesque countryside. Too bad they didn’t go all the way to Norilsk, some 1,800 miles from Moscow in the middle of Siberia. Norilsk is Russia’s most polluted city. It reminds you of an America mining town a century ago. It is pockmarked with tall smokestacks belching out nearly 500 tons each of copper and nickel oxides a year, along with 2 million tons of sulfur dioxide, a key ingredient in acid rain. In this city of 175,000, the snow is black, the air tastes of sulfur and the life expectancy for factory workers is 10 years below the Russian average. Its foul air accounts for almost 16 percent of all deaths among children. Norilsk was founded in 1935 as a USSR slave-labor mining camp. Today, its nickel mines and associated smelters produce one-third of the world’s nickel and a substantial portion of Russia’s copper, cobalt, platinum and palladium. Looking at a photo of Norilsk reminds me of photos of Butte when my great
of the Kitsap Aerospace and Defense Alliance, was also honored. KEDA board member and Bremerton City Council president Greg Wheeler presented the award, calling Thomson “a true servant leader who has provided quiet leadership in many areas of our community, having served as president of the Port Orchard Rotary Club, Kitsap Peninsula Visitor and Convention Bureau, and Puget Sound Naval Base Association. For 15 years, Tim Thomson played an integral role in the development of the port’s facilities and in advancing its economic development mission. And, Tim has been a driving force behind the Kitsap Aerospace and Defense Alliance championing aerospace and defense opportunities in Kitsap and across the region.” Kitsap has been incredibly well served by the contributions of these champions. I invite you to join me in thanking these champions, and all the leaders in our alliance — Salute! On Kitsap!
A heartfelt thank-you… after 26 years It is with mixed emotions that I write what may be my last column for the Business Journal, for what is our 26th anniversary edition. As you probably know by now, we have sold this paper to the E. W. Scripps Company, which also publishes the Kitsap Sun. We were approached last September by Brent Morris, publisher of The Sun, about our interest in selling. While The Sun has been our printer for more than a decade, this wasn't their first overture. Our original conversation about selling to Scripps actually happened about nine years ago, and another about three years ago. Like any prudent businessperson, I listened to what they had to say, but our interest in selling at those times was minimal. Ironically, we had been approached just prior to Brent’s contact by two other publishers interested in acquiring the Business Journal, and entered into some semi-serious discussions with both of them. All these inquiries came at a critical time in our business. My wife Dee and I were doing our strategic planning for 2014, and evaluating our options. With the successful WestSound Home & Garden Magazine entering its eighth year of publication, we had decided to expand the high-quality magazine side of our business — which is where our publishing industry roots lie, and is actually how Dee and I met. Just last month we published a new, highquality, twice-yearly magazine for the Kitsap County Homebuilders Association — Build & Remodel of the Kitsap Peninsula. When
Brent contacted us, that was already in the pipeline, and we were exploring other possibilities as well — a couple of which are currently under development. So the question became, "What about the Business Journal?" It’s no secret that the newspaper industry has undergone massive changes in the digital age — and we’ve kept pace with those, and remained profitable. However, taking the Business Journal to the next level would be a challenge that LARY COPPOLA would tax the resources of our The Last Word small company, minimizing what we could do to move the rest of it forward. Brent is dedicated to taking the Business Journal to the next level, and Scripps has committed the resources to make that leap — which made the decision to sell much easier. Of the three possibilities for new ownership, we felt very strongly that Scripps offered the best opportunity to vastly improve what we had spent 26 years building. Ultimately, that’s why we chose them as our buyer. Although we have been leaders in the digital publishing space from early on — ours was the first newspaper in the state to launch a Website, back in 1998 — I feel very strongly Wet Apple needs to continue moving aggressively in the digital direction. After leaving the Port Orchard
Mayor’s office at the beginning of 2012, I returned to lead that evolution. However, after stepping away from the paper as Mayor, I decided I didn't want to return to actively editing, and hired Tim Kelly, who has done a great job. In addition to recent upgrades of the Business Journal Web site, we also added the daily emailer, and smartphone capability. In the near future, you will see a much more robust and interactive Web site for WestSound Home & Garden, with extensive use of video, smartphone accessibility, blogs, and other major improvements. Running this paper for the past 26 years has been an absolutely amazing experience. I’ve learned so much about our community — and its movers and shakers — both in business and politically. It has afforded me a forum for my own views, many of which have been influenced by the actions of those movers and shakers, as well as extraordinary access to congressional representatives, state legislators, local government and public agency officials. That access has also shaped my personal views on how our governments and public agencies function — both good and bad. I’ve learned firsthand why the best and brightest people often refuse to run for elective office, and how vicious the political process can be. There’s no privacy, and politicians — and their partisan supporters — often go to extreme lengths to hold on to — or seize — power without regard to the personal, financial, or long-term career
damage their sleazy tactics cause their opponents. The end justifies the means. As a community, we all suffer for that, and it often results in our being governed by egotistical inferiors with personal agendas, who are totally clueless about the concept of “Servant Leadership.” However, since we allow it to happen by not stepping up, we get the quality of government we deserve. So what now? I have absolutely no intention of just fading away, and will continue writing car reviews, which may not appear here but in The Sun, and on my Web site (www.autoreviewers.com) as well as expressing my personal political views on the West Sound Politics blog (www.westsoundpolitics.blogspot.com). I’m ready — personally and professionally — to take on a new challenge that’s a good fit for my news, communications, economic development, private sector and/or government management experience, and actively seek the “right” opportunity. Finally, I want to express a humble “Thank You,” to our readers, writers, and our staff — Steve Horn, Kris Lively, Greg Piper, Rodika Tollefson, and Tim Kelly — but more importantly, to our advertisers. They believed in our mission of being a vocal advocate for the local business community and its views, and have supported this paper with their advertising dollars for the past 26 years. Without them, none of this would have ever been possible. Please accept my heartfelt and respectful gratitude.
38 • Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal • KPBJ.com April 2014
Did Angel show real leadership, and find a ‘solution’? In her first legislative session since switching from the House to the Senate, Jan Angel sure captured her share of attention. Wasn’t the good kind, though, despite the self-congratulatory press release she sent out when the Legislature adjourned. The Port Orchard Republican found herself in a harsh media spotlight for her handling of a bill to extend a funding source for homeless assistance programs. That source is a $40 recording fee on real estate transactions, and it had a 2017 sunset but was extended to 2019 in the bill's final version — which Angel claimed credit for getting passed on the session's last day. Did she show real leadership by first blocking the bill in committee — to the surprise and consternation of committee members of both parties — then working to add provisions she felt the legislation needed before it finally passed? Or was she taking marching orders from the head of her caucus when she stalled the bill, and would it likely have died in committee if those machinations had not been reported and criticized? It seems a fair question to ask: If Angel was so determined all along, as she claims, “to find a good solution that would promote oversight and accountability,” then what had
she done to achieve that before she blocked her committee from considering the bill as scheduled on Feb. 27? Legislators from both parties in the House and Senate crafted a compromise to the original bill, and had an amended version they were TIM KELLY expecting to forward to the Editor’s View Ways and Means Committee and then a full Senate vote. While Angel may have offered some input during that process, she did not enlighten her committee colleagues on Feb. 27 about the flaws she perceived in HB 2368 that were her reason for blocking it. Angel now claims that a few days before that hearing of the Senate Financial Institutions, Housing, and Insurance Committee, she had told her Democratic co-chair, Sen. Steve Hobbs, and Republican member Don Benton that she was going to hold the bill. That claim seems at odds with the reaction that day when Angel, as presiding co-chair, abruptly adjourned the hearing before the bill came up as the last item on
the agenda. Benton, Hobbs and others voiced their disappointment and dismay over the bill being derailed. Audio recording captured this perplexed response from Benton: “Whoa whoa whoa. Madam chair, what about 2368?” When Angel reiterated that the meeting was adjourned, Benton told her: “That is abrupt and very disappointing. We worked very hard on this affordable housing bill. And we had an agreed-to amendment.” Her action was denounced in newspaper editorials, and a week later — the day before the Legislature’s March 7 cut-off for any pending non-budget legislation — Angel sent out a press release saying she had sent Gov. Jay Inslee a letter asking for his “leadership” on finding a more stable and permanent source of funding for homeless programs. She claimed the state Commerce Department has not complied with reporting requirements on how it spends money collected from the $40 real estate fee. It seemed like a ploy to deflect attention from her actions and pin some responsibility on the Democratic governor. Unsurprisingly, he wouldn’t bail her out. “The contention that the Department of Commerce has failed to properly manage or communicate implementation of the law is
patently false," Inslee wrote in a letter to Sen. Rodney Tom (the Democrat who joined Republicans to become majority caucus leader.) Inslee also said Angel had received “voluminous documentation regarding Commerce’s compliance with the law.” Angel wanted an audit, and a task force to study other options for funding homeless assistance. Mind you, she has not suggested any alternatives for the funding she says she wants the state to provide. But it's pretty clear she and other Republicans want to get rid of the $40 fee, which is opposed by the real estate industry. The bill got a special exemption from the March 7 cutoff, and the final approved version mandates the audit and creation of a task force, allowing Angel to take a virtual victory lap with her press release headlined "True to her word, Jan Angel supports solution to fund homeless housing." But what is her “solution,” really? Is a task force a solution? And if an audit next year finds the funding was properly spent and reported, will we hear from Jan then? Maybe the audit will uncover the sketchy reporting, or worse, that Angel asserts. But for now, it seems that the solution for Angel, after getting bashed in the media, is just to call herself a leader.
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