Patriot Bremerton
Snooze you lose Don’t forget to ‘spring forward’ this weekend for daylight saving time
FRIDAY, march 8, 2013 | Vol. 16, No. 5 www.bremertonpatriot.com | 50¢
Healthful lunches take shape at Bremerton schools By WES MORROW wmorrow@soundpublishing.com
Hamburgers or fish nuggets with cornbread — that’s what students at Crownhill Elementary School in west Bremerton had for lunch on Friday. Hamburgers and fish nuggets might not sound like the most healthful lunch, but it’s the subtle changes that make the difference. The hamburger lunch Crownhill students eat today is vastly different from the hamburger lunch students ate in the past. Today it comes on a whole wheat bun, instead of the enriched white flour bun of the past. Today the fish nuggets are no longer fried — they’re baked instead. Four schools along with Crownhill have been recognized by the Healthier US School Challenge. Armin Jahr, Crownhill, Kitsap Lake, View Ridge and West Hills STEM Academy all received commendation for their work to improve student health. A total of 74 schools in 10 districts throughout the state received awards
from the challenge. To win schools must demonstrate improvements in nutritional quality of the food they serve, educate students on nutrition and provide students with physical education and opportunities for physical activity. The challenge gives out four levels of awards: bronze, silver, gold and gold of distinction. Armin Jahr, View Ridge and West Hills received bronze level awards, and Crownhill and Kitsap Lake received Silver. To be eligible schools must participate in the National School Lunch Program, a federal program where schools receive subsidies by meeting nutrition standards and providing free or reduced price lunches to children from low-income families. According to Lisa Johnson, the district’s child nutrition service director, all of Bremerton’s schools could have received awards, but her staff only had time to apply for the four elementary schools and STEM Academy this year. “Everyone is gold in my eyes,” Johnson said.
See LUNCHES, A17
Wes Morrow/ Staff Photo
First-grader Kaylea Matthews chooses her vegetables from the salad bar at Crownhill Elementary School on Friday. Crownhill was one of five Bremerton schools to receive an award for lunch healthfulness.
New Bremerton chief sees himself as a CEO, coach and cheerleader By KEVAN MOORE
By KEVAN MOORE kmoore@soundpublishing.com
kmoore@soundpublishing.com
Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan has been staying busy and well caffeinated since taking over the department a few weeks ago. “There’s kind of this period, this window right now, when people say, ‘Oh, there’s a new chief. Who is this guy? Where does he come from? What does he look like? How do I get a hold of him?’ So, I’ve been drinking an amazing amount of coffee,” Strachan said. Strachan says that getting the lay of the land as a new chief requires a lot of listening and being careful not to make changes simply for the sake of making changes. “Having been a chief before and having come
Kilmer greets shipyard workers facing furlough
Courtesy Photo
Chief Steve Strachan, only on the job for a few weeks now, is still settling into his new role. into a department as a new chief before, there’s sometimes a bias to say, ‘Okay, well I need to change something or we need to change something just to change
it.’ I wouldn’t say I’ve been resisting that, but I’d say that I’ve been very conscious about trying to get around and talk to people and spend some time lis-
tening.” Strachan said former Chief Craig Rogers, who retired in February after See CHIEF, A17
Congressman Derek Kilmer stood outside the main gate of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility last Friday morning, offering up a simple greeting to hundreds of workers streaming past him: “Hey, I’m your representative. Let me know if I can help.” While Kilmer stood in Bremerton, President Obama and senior congressional leaders huddled at the White House. The government’s deadline for across-theboard spending cuts known as sequestration had passed, triggering $4 billion in Navy cuts over the next seven months that will likely lead to furloughs for the 11,000 civilian workers at PSNS-IMF. Kilmer said the passing of the sequestration deadline
has been his biggest surprise since deciding to run for Congress. “I’ve said for the last month when people ask me about sequestration, you’d like to think that rational actors, when pointing the gun at their own head would choose not to pull the trigger,” he said. “And, yet, Congress is letting this happen. I think this is a real mistake and I’m dead-set against it. I think it has huge impacts not just on our federal workforce, but on our entire economy.” Several workers told Kilmer they knew who he was Friday morning and shuffled past; one patted Kilmer’s back, offering a simple salutation of his own, “Get ‘er done.” Roy Wildes, a shipyard worker for the past eight years, stopped to speak briefly with Kilmer before headSee KILMER, A17