Kingston • Eglon • Hansville • Indianola • Little Boston • Port Gamble
COMMUNITY NEWS KingstonCommunityNews.com
Vol. 29 No. 5 •
Port does CPR on SoundRunner By MEGAN STEPHENSON
STAFF WRITER
KINGSTON — The Port of Kingston has faith that the community can keep SoundRunner afloat. With a 2-to-1 vote at the Board of Commissioners meeting April
23, SoundRunner has been given a reprieve at least until Sept. 30. “This time yesterday I was still on the fence,” said Commissioner Pete DeBoer, around noon on April 24. He said he knew from his business background that start-ups
need time to work out the kinks. He and Commissioner Walt Elliott voted to continue the service, while Commissioner Marc Bissonnette voted to discontinue as of May 31. The commissioners also voted to use $200,000 of port money, allo-
cated for the passenger ferry service in 2013, to sustain the service for the next five months. DeBoer said the way the ferry runs now, SoundRunner would need about $300,000 to continue service.
Firehouse goes digital Change by studios requires a $134K upgrade for local movie theater
“It’s hard for the port to carry the load for a couple of years until other communities get involved.” — Sonny Woodward, real estate agent and SoundRunner supporter
See FERRY, Page 2
Money’s in , but purchase is on hold Shoreline acquisition awaits appraisal, cleanup agreement
By KIPP ROBERTSON
STAFF WRITER
KINGSTON — A letter from 20th Century Fox recently informed Craig Smith the company will stop making 35mm film reels by the end of the year. He was told Disney is on the same track. What this means for Smith and owners of movie theaters around the country is, the only way to show a movie by those companies is to convert to digital projectors. Smith, the owner of the Firehouse Theater in Kingston, has been told more than 1,000 theaters around the country will close in a year or sooner. He didn’t want to be one of them. “I, of course, didn’t want to close up and go bankrupt because I had nothing to show or I was showing movies that were already out on DVD,” Smith said. So, on the morning of April 25, Kingston’s only theater was getting an upgrade — a $134,000 upgrade, to be exact. The theater, which boasts two screens four blocks from the Kingston ferry terminal, is now using digital Christie projectors. The projectors have the capability of showing 3D
May 2012
Being able to show films with higher frames per second could make a huge impact on the film quality — kind of like the difference between regular TV and HDTV. “The Hobbit,” which will be released in December, can be shown 48 frames per second. Traditionally, film is viewed at 24 frames per second. With more frames comes a more realistic viewing experience. So real, in fact, it can be distracting at first, Smith said. Smith and his employees will no longer have to break down reels of film. Instead, a hard drive is plugged into a server, which downloads the
But an Ecology official said that day the $7 milPORT GAMBLE — lion won’t be spent on Olympic Property Group shoreline acquisition until and the state Department the cleanup agreement of Natural Resources are is signed. The cleanup expected to involves removhave an agreeal of wood waste ment in place and creosoted this summer for pilings. ■ OPG’s Jon the cleanup of “We won’t Rose: ‘We’re the waters adjaexecute the open’ to cent to the Port transaction S’Klallam Gamble mill until we have a acquiring site. mill site cleanmill site. — Gov. Chris up agreement,” Story, page 18 Gregoire on said Tim Nord, April 24 signed Ecology’s mana supplemenager of land and tal capital budget that aquatic lands cleanup. includes $7 million for the Nord and Jon Rose, presacquisition of Port Gamble ident of Olympic Property shoreline targeted for con- Group, the real estate servation, and $2 million arm of Pope Resources, for the abandonment of said they expect cleanup a Port Gamble wastewa- agreement discussions ter treatment plant that to begin in May. Rose threatens a geoduck bed. said the extent of OPG’s
See FIREHOUSE, Page 8
See MILL SITE, Page 3
By RICHARD WALKER
EDITOR
Firehouse Theater owner Craig Smith, right, is introduced to the new digital system by American Cinema Equipment technician Brandon Kumm. “It’s a whole new way of building movies,” Smith said. Kipp Robertson / Community News movies at an extra expense to the theater. They also have the built-in capability to show films at a higher frames per second than traditional movie reels and older projectors. Smith is holding off on showing 3D versions of movies, for now; he said 3D does not add much to the story. However, movies such as “Hugo” and “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” are examples of reasons to purchase 3D capabilities. “When that becomes a regular thing, I will be open to it, but I don’t want to have it as a gimmick,” Smith said. “I want it to be part of the enjoyment and the art.”
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