Reporter Central Kitsap
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2013 | Vol. 28, No. 32 | www.CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.com | 50¢
Veterans Life Chow Time A Sound Publishing Monthly Magazine
Check out Veterans Life inside to read about local veterans
May 2013
Military Chow Time www.kitsapveteranslife.com
The element of surprise
Stennis dads pop in on children at school By WES MORROW wmorrow@soundpublishing.com
Students sat in the darkened gym at Pinecrest Elementary School on Tuesday when three men walked in shrouded in dark blue camouf lage. One of the second-grade students, Ali Templeton, leapt from the floor and rushed them. She left her feet and f lew into the waiting arms of the first camouflaged figure, her father, who has been deployed aboard the USS John C. Stennis for the last seven months. The Stennis has been deployed to the Middle East since August. It is at this moment making the last leg of the journey toward its home port in Bremerton and is scheduled to return in early May. Family and friends all around Kitsap County are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their loved ones, but for a few families in the Central Kitsap School District the celebration has already begun — three Stennis sailors returned home ahead of the ship on Tuesday and surprised their children at school.
Students at Pinecrest Elementary School gathered in the gym to hear a reading of the book “Double Trouble in Walla Walla.” All the while, the Stennis Sailors and their spouses stood right underneath the childrens’ noses, separated only by a thin partition. See surprise, A13
Wes Morrow/Staff Photos
In the photo above, Jason Turner holds his son Cooper, 6, after he and two other Stennis sailors surprised their kids at school by coming home early. On the right, David Templeton holds onto his daughter, Ali, 8, after she launched herself into his arms at the surprise reunion.
County commissioners look at administrative restructuring By Leslie Kelly lkelly@soundpublishing.com
With several county department heads looking to retire within the next couple of years, Kitsap County commissioners have decided to take a look at reorganizing to become more efficient. Commissioner Josh Brown
said this week that the restructuring move came about after a discussion the commissioners had at a retreat last year. “The retreat was really for us to look at the big strategic items for the county,” he said. “One of those was the possibility of restructuring within the county to make better use of
the resources we have.” Brown said, like many large businesses and organizations such as Boeing, the county knows it is “demographically challenged.” “Some of our best people are nearing retirement,” he said. “We knew we needed to put a plan in place and so we decided
on the leadership continuity plan.” That plan, he said, took the challenges of losing experienced people to retirements, the objective of meeting the needs of the public and the need to be more efficient. It addressed how some positions could be combined and how some could
be separated in order to have each position work. No positions will be cut, only changed through attrition. One example, is the position of county administrator which has been vacant since Nancy Buonanno Grennan left two years ago. Instead of filling See RESTRUCTURING, A13