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INDEPENDENT PORT ORCHARD
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2012 ■Vol. 121, No. 6 ■www.portorchardindependent.com ■50¢
Humane Society silent on shakeup
KITSAP COUNTY UGA REVISIONS
Living on a rural-urban fault line
By BRETT CIHON Staff writer
Kitsap Humane Society’s board of directors remained quiet this week after allegations of mismanagement mounted against the nonprofit. An online petition started last week on the website www.change.org demanded that the Humane Society’s nine-member board of directors be elected positions, voted on by donors and volunteers. The online petition raises more questions about an organization still reeling after the sudden departure of executive director Sean Compton. The petition purports to represent “The Donors, Tax Payers and Citizens of Kitsap County on Behalf of Organizing Senior Staff, Teamsters and Volunteers at the Humane Society,� and it alleges a variety of abuses perpetrated by the board, including: t NJTVTF PG UBY BOE EPOPS EPMMBST t DSPOZJTN JO DIPPTJOH DPOUSBDUPST for construction projects t JHOPSJOH PS TUJGMJOH TUBGG DPN plaints about financial management t UBNQFSJOH XJUI CPBSE NFFUJOH minutes
By TIM KELLY Editor
Bill Simmons has lived on his 6.5-acre South Kitsap property for 35 years and wants the area to retain its rural character.
Scaling back the Urban Growth Areas within Kitsap County is a complicated task, but for a group of neighbors in a rural spot south of Port Orchard, it’s a simple issue. “We don’t want a city built around us out here,� says Bill Simmons, who lives on 6.5 acres off SE Baker Road. Regardless of shifting UGAs and future expansion of city limits, some change is probably inevitable in the woodsy enclave where Simmons and his neighbors live near Emelia Lake, west of Phillips Road. The area has been a fault line for years in the wrangling over UGA boundaries and development in general in South Kitsap, but an 18-acre site adjacent to Simmons’ property and Phillips Road has been approved for building 125 homes. The investor who owns the land, Fred Depee, said the outcome of the county’s revision of UGAs won’t affect his planned Ridgeline development. But until the housing market improves, there won’t be any construction. A ruling in September by the Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board directed the county to reduce the size of Urban Growth Areas, because they encompassed more land than necessary to accommodate future population growth. At a hearing the county commissioners held Monday night, about 50 people turned out and many of them spoke about the four resizing alternatives presented for each UGA.
Tim Kelly/Staff photo
SEE UGA REVISION, A5
SEE HUMANE SOCIETY, A2
Index Opinion Robert Meadows Scene & Heard Sports Thinking Allowed Calendar Obituaries
A6 A6 A9 A10-11 A7 A9 A14
Woman who hit FedEx van rescued by driver Baby, 8-year-old also pulled from car that caught fire after crash By BRETT CIHON Staff writer
Irene San Nicolas saw the fire. She tried to stand up, but her legs didn’t move.
“I didn’t know how bad I was hurt until I realized my legs weren’t working,� she said. The 28-year-old Bremerton woman was traveling south on State Route 3 in Gorst with her one-month old infant
girl and 8-year-old daughter when she lost control of her car Monday morning, causing a multi-vehicle crash that temporarily closed the highway near Division Avenue, the Washington State Patrol reported.
South Kitsap’s Source for News & Information Since 1890
“It happened so fast,� she said Tuesday by phone from her hospital room in Tacoma. “All I could think about was I’m going to die. I was just hoping the skidding would stop somehow.� SEE CRASH, A4