Patriot Bremerton
Funny guy Student draws on his humor Page 12
FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2014 | Vol. 17, No. 15 WWW.BREMERTONPATRIOT.COM | 50¢
Bremerton’s ADA work will be costly
BREMERTON SALUTES THOSE WHO SERVE
BY KEVAN MOORE KMOORE@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
Kevan Moore/staff photos
The 66th Annual Armed Forces Day Parade drew thousands of spectators to downtown Bremerton this past Saturday.
Plenty of events on tap this weekend BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
It’s the signal that summer is coming. Although there’s still a few weeks of spring left and the local schools are still in session, Memorial Day weekend means that summer’s on its way. And here in Kitsap County, there’s plenty to do this weekend including the Kitsap Harbor Festival, celebrated in both Bremerton and Port Orchard. Additionally, there’s a number of events planned to honor the real reason for Memorial Day — remembering those who have lost their lives in service to the county.
The Kitsap Harbor Festival will offer lots of family fun on both Saturday and Sunday. In its sixth year, the festival is a combination of events that prior to 2011 happened separately. It was that year that the festivities on Memorial Day weekend in Port Orchard and Bremerton came together, according to organizers. On Saturday at the Bremerton Boardwalk, beginning at 10 a.m. there will be more than 50 vendors, including great things to eat and drink and local artists selling their wares. There will be entertainment on the boardwalk from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with Carrie Kay singing the National Anthem
at 10:30 a.m. Following that, there will be activities for the kids including story time by the Kitsap Regional Library at 11 a.m. and the Venture Crew 1517 and Sound Dive Divers who will bring sea creatures for the kids to touch. At 1 p.m. Synergy Dance company will perform and patriotic music will follow. Throughout the day, the public can check out the Kids Zone with the Lost Boys Pirates and Pirate Ship, the historic military vehicles on display and for the adults, a beer garden sponsored by the Bremerton Bar and Grill on top of the Pump House. Arts and crafts booths and
food vendors will be on hand again on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Many of the Saturday events will be repeated at the same time on Sunday and Navy Band Northwest “Deception Brass” will play from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. Also on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. on the Bremerton waterfront, players from the Kitsap Pumas, Bremerton’s professional soccer team, will demonstrate their soccer skills. Kids who visit the players will get free tickets to upcoming Pumas games. To view a complete listing SEE WEEKEND EVENTS, A9
Bremerton City Council members recently learned that it could cost as much as $200,000 to put together an inventory of Americans with Disabilities Act issues affecting the entire city. That $200,000 price tag only covers what is called a self evaluation and doesn’t include what it would cost to implement a transition plan to gain ADA access and compliance at every level of the city. “The purpose of the self evaluation is to identify barriers that prevent people with disabilities from access,” said Bremerton Managing Engineer Gunnar Fridriksson. “And that’s not only buildings and right-of-ways and sidewalks and parks, but also policies and procedures and what we have in place for it. Once we’ve done a self evaluation and looked at all of these, we’re supposed to have a transition plan to be able to show how we’re going to come into compliance with this.” Fridriksson said the stakes are very high. “I can’t stress the importance of us getting ahead of the eight ball on this,” Fridrikkson said. “We’ve already had several folks warn us about going to the DOJ (Department of Justice) on some of our issues here. The DOJ takes this stuff pretty seriously. A few years back, the City of Sacramento cried poverty as to why they weren’t complying with (ADA) and they got saddled with a settlement agreement for 30 years that takes 20 percent of their transportation funding, just for sidewalks.” Fridrikkson also noted that the DOJ doesn’t necessarily need a complaint to do an ADA audit. “They’re actually supposed to start looking at doing spot audits at different cities and if they get a couple of complaints from one city or another they SEE BREMERTON ADA, A9