p
A cut above Entertainment Lumbermen will awe and entertain at Old Mill Days Page 2
Community
Sports
Kitsap Week previews Old Mill Days
School district’s bus fleet will need replacing
Wolves look to get back on track tonight
Inside
Page A4
Page A10
INDEPENDENT PORT ORCHARD
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2011 ■ Vol. 120, No. 27 ■ www.portorchardindependent.com ■ 50¢
If voters approve I-1183, chiefs won’t be worried PO police, SKFR honchos don’t see risks to safety if state control of liquor sales ends By TIM KELLY Editor
South Kitsap public safety officials are not siding with the lawmen and firefighters featured in campaign ads against a ballot measure to privatize liquor sales in Washington state.
The first television commercial to air urging voters to reject Initiative 1183 has a sheriff, a police chief and two firefighter/paramedics warning of the potential danger of allowing more stores to sell liquor. But Port Orchard police Chief Al Townsend and South Kitsap Fire &
State funds not out of reach for city’s needs
Rescue Chief Wayne Senter, among others, don’t share the view that I-1183 poses a grave risk. Neither agency has taken an official Senter position for or against the measure, but both leaders expressed their personal views that the idea of shifting liquor sales to the private sector doesn’t worry them.
“From my particular standpoint, I am generally supportive of the initiative,” Senter said. “Although I underTownsend stand firefighters and police officers weighing in, that they think it’s going to cause huge public safety risks; but I don’t see that.”
“I don’t see anything about the initiative that would cause me concern for public safety in my community.” — Port Orchard police Chief Al Townsend
SEE I-1183, A32
KITSAP COMMUNITY RESOURCES EXPANDS IN SK
Council, lobbyist discuss what’s possible in next legislative session By KAITLIN STROHSCHEIN Staff Writer
Port Orchard’s agenda for the 2012 legislative session includes controversial topics including medical marijuana laws, getting money from the state’s already tight budget and changing public records laws. But Briahna Taylor, the city’s lobbyist to the state legislature, thinks the city has a decent chance of getting at least some of what it’s asking for, she said at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. The state’s budget has been stretched, she said, but not in ways that would prohibit Port Orchard from getting funding. SEE LEGISLATIVE, A2
Nonprofit building new service center By TIM KELLY Editor
The project director himself says a new social services center for South Kitsap residents has “been flying a little under the radar,” but construction is under way now on a two-story, 6,800-square-foot building on Jackson
Avenue. Kitsap Community Resources, a Bremerton-based nonprofit that operates a Port Orchard satellite office in rented space at 1211 Bay Street, hopes to move into its South Kitsap Community Center next summer. Plans also include building eight “cottages” on the site to provide long-
Tim Kelly/Staff photo
A worker sets forms Tuesday for the foundation of a building on Jackson Avenue in Port Orchard that will be the South Kitsap center for services provided by Kitsap Community Resources. term affordable rental housing for KCR clients, but that second phase depends on securing additional funding. “This project’s been flying a little under the radar as we put all the pieces of this puzzle together,” KCR’s projects director, Mike Botkin, said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We needed to get started on the center because we had SEE CENTER, A8
South Kitsap’s Source for News & Information Since 1890
Index Opinion Robert Meadows Thinking Allowed Scene & Heard Sports Calendar Obituaries Business
A6 A6 A7 A9 A10-11 A9 A8 A12, 16