Kingston • Eglon • Hansville • Indianola • Little Boston • Port Gamble
COMMUNITY NEWS KingstonCommunityNews.com
Vol. 29 No. 11 • November
2012
SoundRunner’s net loss: $900,000 By MEGAN STEPHENSON
STAFF WRITER
Neighbor Aid helped hundreds in 2011-12
KINGSTON — Mike Schabron first tried SoundRunner on a free ride pass and discovered that although the price was a bit higher than taking the Bainbridge ferry, it offered better benefits.
He didn’t have to travel as far and could spend more time with his wife in the morning. He called the Bainbridge ferry a “cattle call,” while the 50-minute ride on SoundRunner was relaxing. However, he said he was reading and hearing different accounts
of how much the port was spending on the service. The port is too small to pay for a service like this, he said, and there was no way it could have eventually relied on ridership to pay for the service. “We’re powerful people in Kingston, but we’re not strong
Also robbed bank in Allyn, several espresso stands
By RICHARD WALKER
Editor
See SHARENET, Page 7
See ferry, Page 3
13 years for Kingston bank robber
Fall/winter campaign begins KINGSTON — More than 300 donors — churches, companies, households, individuals and organizations — donated $73,846 to Neighbor Aid during the 2011-12 campaign. That amount, a ShareNet record, helped put 280,691 pounds of food on local residents’ tables and keep people from being evicted or having their utilities turned off. The money ensured 80 children got proper nutrition during weekends. It provided holiday meals for 695 individuals, provided Christmas gifts for 121 children, and provided necessary school supplies for 165 students. “It’s just amazing,” ShareNet board secretary Barbara Brumagin said at the end of the last campaign. “I think everyone doing what they can makes a difference.” ShareNet’s 2012-13 Neighbor Aid campaign has begun, to meet the continued need in the
enough,” said his wife, Donna. The Schabrons were right. The last run of the SoundRunner passenger ferry service ended when the boat pulled into the Port of Kingston’s dock Sept. 28.
From left, interns Rico LeMay, Duke Keltner, Robert LaPointe and Brian Sallay and instructor Guillermo Canate Jr. discuss tactics after a round of firefighter training, Oct. 8, at the training center in North Bend. Megan Stephenson / Staff
Interns train for opportunity to risk their lives for others By MEGAN STEPHENSON
STAFF WRITER
N
ORTH BEND — Firefighters say it’s easier to get into Harvard or Yale than it is to become a career firefighter. Who would have thought that risking your life could be so desirable, in a field in
which it’s difficult to find work? Tax dollars pay for fire stations and their crews. Locally, about 90 percent of revenue comes from property taxes, which have decreased as new construction slows and property values decline. Yet there are more men and
women who want to be trained as firefighters than fire districts are able to hire. But no fire district would have any qualified firefighters these days without volunteer training programs. North Kitsap Fire & Rescue See fire service, Page 16
in this edition n Possible WSF changes: Reasons to attend ferry meeting. Page 13. n Kingston High School Homecoming highlights. Photos, page 15. n Community Calendar. Page 24.
A Kitsap County man who committed four bank robberies and multiple espresso stand robberies was sentenced mid-October in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 13 years in prison. Michael Wandke, 48, of Seabeck, pleaded guilty in June to two counts of armed bank robbery and two counts of bank robbery for a series of crimes in Kingston and Allyn. Wandke robbed the Bank of America in Kingston on Dec. 21, 2009, and robbed the Kitsap Bank in Allyn on Feb. 1, 2010, again three weeks later, and a third time in July of that year. The federal prison term imposed by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan will run concurrent with Wandke’s expected state sentence for a series of espresso stand robberies. In imposing the See SENTENCED, Page 7
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