Reporter Central Kitsap
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FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2014 | Vol. 29, No. 38 | WWW.CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM | 50¢
Harrison expansion will bring big changes to Silverdale area BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
Within five years, Harrison Medical Center’s campus in Silverdale will fill 32 acres near where Highway 303 and Ridgetop Boulevard meet. That was the message Jim Alvarez, executive director of support services for Harrison Medical Center, brought to the Central Kitsap Community Council last week. “We call it our Vision 2020,” said Alvarez. “It’s the next evolution of Harrison.” With a 20-minute PowerPoint in hand, Alvarez took the council through the steps Harrison had taken to get to the decision to place all their acute care in Silverdale. He said the hospital has always had a strategic plan and generally updates it every five years. He said hospital leaders looked at combining acute care in Silverdale in 2010, but didn’t think the time was right. However, most recently, when the strategic plan was updated, and Vision 2020 was
Courtesy photo
Harrison Medical Center’s Silverdale campus as it currently looks. created, the time seemed to be right to make the move. “In 2010, the Silverdale campus wasn’t large enough,” he said. “It was deemed too expensive. But now, we have the land, and with the resources of Franciscan Health System, we have the financial ability to do this.” Harrison completed an affiliation with the Franciscan Health System several months
ago. Alvarez said in a questionand-answer session following his report that Franciscan has told Harrison that it will provide the capital for the expansion in Silverdale which is expected to be about $210 to $230 million. “Health care in 2020 will be radically different,” he said. “We’re seeing changes every day. It just makes sense for all SEE HARRISON, A9
CKFR weighs comment policy BY LESLIE KELLY
Leslie Kelly/staff photo
Ron Gillespie and Joyce Merkel stand in the garden with the giant lily.
A lily worth gilding BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
It’s not Jack’s bean stock. But it’s close. Instead, it’s Ron’s lily stock, and dayby-day Ron Gillespie and his friend, Joyce Merkel, watch as it grows taller. “For the last four years, it’s just grown leaves,” said Gillespie. “Then this year, it just started to grow up and up.” As of last Friday, it
was about 13 feet tall and boasted a bunch of white blooms. Gillespie, who is an avid gardener, said he bought the Himalayan lily, which goes by the scientific name of Cardiocrinums giganteum, at a plant sale at the Bloedel Reserve, on Bainbridge Island. “I think it was one of Dan Hinkley’s plants. I think
it was started at Heronswood,” he said of the gardens near Port Gamble. He’s had it in the eastern portion of his garden and has been watching every year for it to bloom. But until this year, he’s only seen leaves. “Just look at this thing,” he said, pointing to the sky, “It’s more than twice of SEE LILY, A9
LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
Citing a concern that the district has been “inconsistent” in handling public comments during meetings of the board of commissioners, Commission Chairman Dave Fergus asked fellow commissioners to begin a review of how to handle public comments. “Over the last several years, we have been inconsistent at how we take public comments, both in terms of items on the agenda and otherwise,” Fergus said at a board meeting Monday. “Because we have been inconsistent, we need to look at setting a policy and procedures for how we handle this.” Fergus said in the past, comments had been taken at the start of the meeting, dur-
ing the meeting, and prior to adjourning. Members of the public have had the option of speaking before the commission addressed an issue, or while they addressed an issue. But at times, comments haven’t been taken prior to a vote on something on the agenda. Fire Chief Scott Weninger said he had spoken with the district’s legal advisor, Ken Bagwell, and with the staff regarding the matter and that a policy needed to be set by the board. He said it needs to address employee comments, too. “It is felt that employee comments should be vetted through the union and not be made at public meetings,” Weninger said. “In other words, there should be a spokesperson for the union making public comment.”
He said if the board was to allow multiple comments by employees, it would prolong the meetings. “You have to set some limits,” he said. Weninger suggested that for the general public and union reps there should be a three-minute limit per person for comments and that individuals wanting to speak should sign up prior to the beginning of the meeting and indicate whether they wanted to make a general comment, or speak about a specific item on the agenda. “Comments should also be SEE CKFR, A9