Patriot Bremerton
Veterans Life A Sound Publishing Monthly Magazine
May 2013
Military Chow Time
CHOW TIME Look for Veterans Life inside to read about local veterans
www.kitsapveteranslife.com
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2013 | Vol. 16, No. 12 www.bremertonpatriot.com | 50¢
School puts April showers to use
By WES MORROW
wmorrow@soundpublishing.com
West Hills STEM Academy in Bremerton is putting its rain water to use for the environment and for education. Students, teachers and community members gathered on Tuesday to officially open the school’s new rain garden. The rain garden is a small pond-like area filled with mulch and native plants. It collects the water that runs off the nearby building and filters it down into the habitat of the garden. “Instead of running it into the sewers and out into puget sound … it comes in here and it’s designed so that the water will fill the pond up and then it will sink into the ground,” said Terry Cox. “You minimize the amount of runoff going out into the Sound.” Cox and several others from Leadership Kitsap worked on the project with the school to make the garden a reality. Cox’s group secured a grant through Kitsap Conservation District, an organization that works with businesses and property owners to zone rain gardens throughout the county. The school was able to get all the plants and soil donated in addition to the grant, said Elizabeth Hoey from the Holly Ridge Center. While much of the labor was donated or provided through grant funding, the rest was provided by the students of West See SHOWERS, A13
Kevan Moore/Staff Photo
Seventh-month-old Makai Luke enjoys some soup with a little help from his mom, Bernadette, at this past Saturday’s Empty Bowls event in Bremerton.
Empty Bowls fills food bank coffers By KEVAN MOORE kmoore@soundpublishing.com
Wes Morrow/Staff Photo
West Hills teachers Andrea Tee and Hannah Meucci cut the ribbon at the school’s new rain garden along with Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent and two students.
County looking 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. County 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, he said, only changed through attrition. See RESTRUCTURING, A13
Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Bremerton was filled to the gills this past Saturday for the Bremerton Foodline’s annual Empty Bowls event. Bremerton Foodline board member Christine Davis, one of the event’s lead organizers, was pleasantly surprised by Saturday’s large turnout. “Usually we have between 120 to 130 people. Now, we’re over 150 and making room for more,” Davis said an hour or so into the event. One of those attendees was newly installed Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan. “Food Banks have always been something that are important to me and I always think of the families doing the very best that they can,” he said. “The thought of a kid that doesn’t have some soup or cereal should be disturbing to all of us. The group here in Bremerton at the Foodline is outstanding in the service that they provide. It was not only fun to be there Saturday, but a cause I feel strongly about.”
Chief Strachan also said that he was pleased to see several of his officers stop by the event unprompted. The event featured a wide variety of delicious soups and wines, a drawing for a handcrafted bowl, a bake sale, live music, volunteers from Bremerton and beyond and more. Outgoing Bremerton Foodline board member Tyler Baker was on hand Saturday to help out with service. The shipyard engineer plans to attend medical school at Tulane next year, but spoke fondly of his last three years helping at the Foodline and the Empty Bowls event. “It’s been a really fun process,” he said. “I’ve gotten to sit down with the crew from Coffee Oasis and talk with them about how to make bowls.” Other pottery donors for the event included Bremerton High School, Claywerks Ceramics and Pottery Studio, Olympic College Clay Club, the Northwest College of Art and Design and Mistarian Roses. The Bremer ton Foodline was organized See BOWLS, A13