Independent Jesse Beals/Staff Photo
Where in South Kitsap?
Southworth Drive bridge opens
Page A10
Page A3
SK soccer teams will have same coach
Inside
A Section Editorial Robert Meadows Scene & Heard Sports Legal Notices Mary Colborn Obituaries A4 A4 A5 A6 A7 A7 A8
Inserts: Fred Meyer, RiteAid, Office Depot, Best Buy, Staples, Wal-Mart, Valassis
6QTFUT UIF PSEFS PG UIF EBZ EVSJOH QSJNBSZ FMFDUJPO
▼ Matthes, Garrido advance in SK commissioner race; Dalton, Danielson in judicial contest.
By CHARLIE BERMANT
Both sides report feeling harassed in rift over home business. chasing it last spring. City Development Director James Weaver confirmed that Keehn received a conditional-use permit to operate a onechair hair salon out of her home, which he described as “pretty innocuous” and something that doesn’t typically reach “the level of intensive use,” as far as impacts on the neighborhood are concerned. However, since November of 2007, Cronan has filed multiple complaints with the city regarding traffic, noise and other
%&$*4*0/
TIM MATTHES
JEANETTE DALTON
CHARLOTTE GARRIDO
BRUCE DANIELSON
activities she reported as stemming from Keehn’s attempts to operate a business out of her home. Weaver said following an April 11 hearing with the city’s Hearing Examiner, certain conditions were placed on Keehn’s permit to mitigate Cronan’s concerns before she would be allowed to operate her business. “(Keehn) has addressed all but one of those conditions, with the last being the letter from the (Kitsap County) Health Department,” Weaver said, explaining that Keehn’s current sewer facilities are
SEE NEIGHBORS, PAGE A2
South Kitsap’s Source for News & Information Since 1890
Staff Writer
Expectations were turned on their head in two Kitsap County political contests during Tuesday night’s primary election, as the perceived front-runners came in third and were disqualified in their respective races. Republican Tim Matthes drew the most votes in the South Kitsap commissioner’s race, followed by Democrat Charlotte Garrido. Monty Mahan, who was the first to declare for the seat and earned the endorsement of local mayors, came in third (See related story, page A3). SEE UPSETS, PAGE A2
SEE SCHOOL, PAGE A2
and pension rates along with inflation as issues. In addition to the money saved on custodians, Patton said the district will dip into its reserve fund for $1.72 million. She said that’s not all bad because the district saved more than it anticipated in its last fiscal year, which ends Aug. 31. Patton said they also will save through not filling other vacant positions in the district, and through cutting expenses on supplies. The board unanimously adopted the budget. Patton warned in previous meetings that the “hard decisions” likely won’t end
Custodians won’t be replaced, $1.72 million will be taken from reserve fund.
▼
By CHRIS CHANCELLOR Staff Writer
The South Kitsap School District is a little closer to closing its $2.9 million deficit for the upcoming school year. Terri Patton, assistant superintendent for business and support services, said at Wednesday’s school board meeting that the district won’t replace five full-time custodians who left the district after the last school year. She said that will save the district $250,000. Patton said the deficit stems from unforeseen circumstances when the district presented its last levy to voters in 2004. She cited escalating teacher salaries
Neighbor denies pellet gun shooting
▼
By JUSTINE FREDERIKSEN
Staff Writer
shot in three of her home’s windows. Cronan, who lives on the 200 block of Flower Meadows Street in Port Orchard, said she believed the attack was part of an ongoing dispute with Keehn, whom she alleges has been running a hair salon out of her home without a business license and in defiance of a city “stop-work” order. Keehn, 30, said she filed for permission from the city of Port Orchard to operate a hair salon out of her home on the 2300 block of Flower Avenue soon after pur-
Brett Cihon/Staff photos
When she was a fifth-grader, Megan Mollet listened to police officers talk to her class at Sunnyslope Elementary School about how drinking alcohol affects young people’s developing brains. According to a May 5, 2004 article in the Port Orchard Independent about the presentation, at its conclusion students were asked what might happen if they were to drink: Megan Mollet said it would change your whole life. “You wouldn’t turn into the person you wanted to be,” she said. Now 18, Mollet is in jail, and the only surviving witness to a cop killing. She is one of six people charged with first-degree rendering criminal assistance to Joshua Blake, a 28-yearold ex-con who shot State Trooper Tony Radulescu last week as Mollet was sitting in Blake’s pickup. On the night of Feb. 22, she was drinking and using meth with Blake
See suspects, A2
Index
A6 A6 A8 A9 A7 A12
Opinion Robert Meadows Scene & Heard Sports Best of the Blogs Obituaries
Right photo: Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer (right) and Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste join other mourners in singing “Amazing Grace” at Monday night’s vigil for Trooper Tony Radulescu. Left photo: Gina Miller (right), Radulescu’s girlfriend, and other family members and friends hold candles at the service.
Editor
4DIPPM EJTUSJDU MPPLT UP CBMBODF JUT CPPLT
A tragic loss
By TIM KELLY
A motorcade streamed up Interstate 5 on Thursday, with hundreds of police officers, sheriff’s deputies and Washington State Patrol staff headed to Trooper Tony Radulescu’s memorial service in Kent. The memory of Radulescu’s smile weighed dearly on the minds of the more than 1,000 law enforcement officers making the trip. And it also weighed lightly on breast pockets. Many officers wore buttons emblazoned with Radulescu’s visage, complete with the toothy, happy-go-lucky smile the slain trooper was known for. “You never saw Tony without his smile,” Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer said at a candlelight vigil Monday night for Radulescu at the Christian Life Center in Port Orchard.
Sports Cody Wright from Milford, Utah, got a mouth full of mud and a zero score after falling off Strawberry Delight in the Saddle Bronc Riding competition Wednesday night at the Kitsap County Stampede. The fair runs through Sunday.
FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 n Vol. 121, No. 9 n www.portorchardindependent.com n 50¢
Tensions between two Port Orchard neighbors that erupted after one attempted to open a home business last year led both women to head down to the Kitsap County Courthouse Monday and file restraining orders against each other. Shelia Cronan, 49, said she filed a restraining order against Amber Keehn after returning home from a camping trip Aug. 17 and discovering pellets had been
Staff Writer
Community Printed with recycled paper and environmentally friendly soybean oil-based ink.
trooper tony radulescu 1967-2012
Page A9
Port Orchard
SOUTH KITSAP’S SOURCE FOR LOCAL NEWS AND INFORMATION SINCE 1890
By Brett Cihon
See trooper, A5
Suspects face felony charges of rendering criminal assistance
Boyer was Radulescu’s commanding officer at the Washington State Patrol when he started in 1995. “When I talk about smiles, Tony couldn’t help himself,” Boyer said. “He couldn’t not smile.” And Gina Miller, Radulescu’s girlfriend, said no matter what the situation, he always treated people with respect. “And for those of you who have been pulled over by Tony or been in the back of his car, he treated everybody with dignity and respect, and he treated people how he would want to be treated,” Miller said at Monday’s vigil that drew hundreds of people wanting to pay their respects. Born in Romania in 1967, Radulescu immigrated to the United States with his father when he was 14. He grew up in New York, on Brooklyn’s Bushwick Avenue, with two brothers and a younger sister. Even from a young age he was somebody to look up to, his younger brother Mario said at the vigil Monday night. “He was my best friend,” he said. “I
Six people involved with killer land in jail Mourners in Kitsap and beyond grieve over fatal shooting of beloved trooper
Community