Reporter Central Kitsap
New post Silverdale’s
American Legion Post 109 is new and growing Page 5
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2012 | Vol. 28, No. 2 www.CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.com | 50¢
Gold Mountain contract gets bumped two weeks By KEVAN MOORE kmoore@soundpublishing.com
Bremerton City Council President Jim McDonald says he stopped a contract vote with Columbia Hospitality to take over Gold Mountain Golf Course operations to allow more time to negotiate the terms of the deal.
“They’re getting close on the numbers,” McDonald said. “I think the terms of who’s responsible for ensuring what and things like the relationship between the contractor and the city are still to be fully defined.” For example, McDonald cited the possibility of an earthquake
that would leave the golf course without water. “How does that play?” he asked. “Is that something we should pay for if the golf course is closed because of an act of God. I think that’s one of the issues.” McDonald expects a council vote at the board’s next busi-
ness meeting October 2. One area where the city will cede control is in the establishment of green fees at the courses, an issue that many local golf enthusiasts are concerned about. “I don’t see us dictating what rate they charge,” McDonald said. “If it’s the nicest course
in the county, should you be paying more to play it? It’s an interesting question, anyhow, but that would be up to them.” McDonald noted that the city council currently sets the fees for playing the courses, but allowing Columbia to set rates could be more efficient. See CONTRACT, A11
Autumnal equinox Greg Skinner/staff photo
Haze from wild fires filters the sun as it rises from due east over Central Kitsap and Dyes Inlet Tuesday morning. Wildfires burning in the Cascades west of Wenatchee filled the atmosphere with haze and low-level easterly winds pushed the smoke over the Cascades through Snoqualmie Pass. The National Weather Service expected smoke to reach down into the Western Washington foothills by Tuesday afternoon.
Some information requests not worth the TP they’re asking about By GREG SKINNER gskinner@soundpublishing.com
Some of the 4,500 requests for public records received by the Kitsap County Sheriff ’s Office this year are not worth the toilet paper there’re asking about. That point was made by Kitsap County Commissioner Josh Brown Monday during a briefing for the proposed 2013 Kitsap County Sheriff ’s Office budget, which sought an increase of $900,000 in funding over last year.
Part of defending the sought increase fell on Undersheriff Dennis Bonneville who used a 33 percent increase in public records requests as one supportive basis, among others, to justify his department’s need to keep all of its remaining but shrunken force of 139. Bonneville told commissioners he expected information requests to increase to an average rate of 27 each workday in 2013. He told the Board of Kitsap County Commissioners that the sheriff ’s office had to triple its manpow-
er assigned to public records in order to deal with the “problem” as its grown in recent years. By “problem” Bonneville meant the costs associated with filling the public records requests made by the thousands annually. The money spent to employ people to collect those records for the public could be spent elsewhere, such as on staff for the filing department or to convert records into an electronic form or crime prevention, he said. Bonneville could not say specifically
what public records requests were costing the county in actual dollar terms, but said the cost could be considered “significant.” During budget presentations Monday in the BOCC chambers, Brown asked Bonneville to draw a distinction between the frivolous records requests made to the sheriff ’s office and those that a “reasonable” person would find “legitimate.” See REQUESTS, A11