South Kitsap soccer
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Both sides report feeling harassed in rift over home business.
Neighbor denies pellet gun shooting
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By JUSTINE FREDERIKSEN
Staff Writer
Independent
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
Port Orchard
FRIDAY, August 31, 2012 n Vol. 121, No. 34 n www.portorchardindependent.com n 50¢
Love of animals leads to top awards at fair
Jesse Beals/Staff Photo
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-
Patrick McDonough Reporter
awards Aug. 25 in the registered sheep competition. The 4-H club is a youth development organization designed to build leadership and other life skills through activities such as raising animals and participating in competitions with the animals. Randall said she enjoyed raising the sheep and said that competing and winning will help with her college education. “I like doing this because it helps gain money for my col-
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TIM MATTHES
JEANETTE DALTON
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
Ryleigh Randall loves animals, and her fondness showed at the Kitsap County Fair. Randall, 12, of Port Orchard won nine awards at the fair this year, including a Champion Market Animal prize and a Reserve Champion award for her 5-month-old Suffolk sheep given the auspicious moniker of Macaroni and Cheese. A 4-H Club member for four years, Randall won the
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▼ Matthes, Garrido advance in SK commissioner race; Dalton, Danielson in judicial contest.
By CHARLIE BERMANT
Greg Skinner/staff photos
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
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PO girl takes top prizes with 4-H sheep named Macaroni and Cheese
South Kitsap High School football players gear up for the season under Eric Canton, left, who is just the third new coach in the program’s last 39 seasons. Canton is making adjustments on both sides of the ball.
SEE SCHOOL, PAGE A2
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
Custodians won’t be replaced, $1.72 million will be taken from reserve fund.
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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
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
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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.
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Senior Reporter
It is election season and the discussion often fell along partisan lines. Except the top issue was not healthcare or the federal deficit, but South Kitsap football. When Eric Canton was named as D.J. Sigurdson’s successor in May, supporters lauded the stay-the-course decision. Canton will be only the school’s third coach in 39 seasons when he takes his position on the sideline during tonight’s opener against Kentridge. A 1986 graduate who was an All-American defensive back at South for coach Ed Fisher and also served as an assistant for a decade under Sigurdson, many viewed Canton’s selection as a continuation of the principles and traditions that have guided the program. That is where the detractors come in. While the Wolves set a state record with 23 consecu-
tive state-playoff appearances beginning in 1980, some felt the I-formation scheme that has been a South staple for decades had grown stagnant. The Wolves only advanced to the state playoffs twice in the last nine seasons and some expressed a desire to see an outsider’s perspective. But senior fullback Bryce Broome cautions that both sides might be surprised. “It will be a big change,” he said. “The film we’re giving out is not us at all.” Canton, 45, said following his hire that he has matured since he was Bremerton’s coach from 1996-98. He had a 3-24 record with the Knights. “I was a lot more high-strung and not as wise,” he said following his hire. “When you’re communicating with your players, you don’t have to rant and rave.” But Canton was mum on what changes he would make with the exception of “terminology” adjustments and forgoing the
annual summer camp at Eastern Washington University. Canton even dons a straw hat during practices just as Sigurdson did. That is where many of the similarities ended, though. Senior inside linebacker Michael Beard said both coaches have “father figure” and lovable, but firm personas. One look at the depth chart hanging from the coaches’ office, Beard noted, is where the differences are detailed. Canton eliminated the tight end in his offense in lieu of going with a three-receiver set. That does not mean South will transition from “Ground D.J.” to “Air Eric,” though. Canton hinted that it might be more of the same when he said he was hopeful that running backs Kelikuewa Kalima and Adam Gascoyne each could run for 1,000 yards. Broome sees a different scenario unfolding. “I think we’re going to throw the ball more,” he said. “I think it fits the team more.”
Canton said he is keeping an open mind. “It’s going to depend on what teams give us,” he said. Or what his roster provides. Even in the college ranks, coaches struggle to find talented interior defensive linemen. The University of Washington and Washington State both are switching from 4-3 to 3-4 schemes this season for that reason. For Canton, who cannot recruit his own talent, the switch makes even more sense. Theoretically, the change should require the larger defensive linemen — Canton said each of the three starters are at least 6 foot 3 — to take on blockers while the smaller linebackers are freed up to rush the passer. Beard likes the new scheme. “It’s more of an attacking defense,” he said. The changes mark a stark contrast to Sigurdson, who took over a program in 1997 just SeeCanton, A9
CHARLOTTE GARRIDO
By CHRIS CHANCELLOR
BRUCE DANIELSON
Canton puts his own stamp on Wolves’ football team Cheney feeling South Kitsap has made dramatic changes on both sides of the ball ‘more like home’ in return to SKSD See Top Awards, A9
Interim super hopes to continue — and build — on initiatives By CHRIS CHANCELLOR Senior Reporter
She has been away for four years, but interim South Kitsap School District superintendent Beverly Cheney said it feels familiar. “It’s really good to be back,” she said. “Each day seems more and more like home.” Cheney, 63, came out of retirement Aug. 15 to assume the role, which has been vacant since Dave LaRose left to become superintendent of California’s Culver City Unified School District last month. This is Cheney’s second stint
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in SKSD. In 2001, the Seattle native was hired as superintendent from the Washoe County School District in Nevada. It was the first time Cheney had served as a superintendent. For Cheney, the tenants will be similar to those as her last tenure in the district, which ended when she retired in 2008. Her objective was to engage more community involvement with SKSD and she set out to do that by soliciting opinions from local families through evaluations on her on the district website See Cheney, A9