PATRIOT
KITSAP WEEK: Local water trail is growing in popularity IN THIS EDITION
BREMERTON
FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2014 | Vol. 17, No. 27 | WWW.BREMERTONPATRIOT.COM | 50¢
IN THE PATRIOT
Family forgives and tries to heal Memorial for 6-year-old Jenise Wright draws large crowd BY KEVAN MOORE
BRIEFS Seabeck’s Afton Prater helped Rock the Dock — Page 3
FEATURES Local rocker headed to Iowa Hall of Fame — Page 8
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BY KEVAN MOORE
Family members, various law enforcement and searchers, friends and folks who had never met Jenise Wright, but were touched by her tragic death, turned up at the 6-year-old girl’s memorial service this past Saturday. The service was held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Silverdale and was overseen by Bishop Chris Byron, who has spent a lot of time with Jenise’s parents, James and Denise Wright, over the last couple of weeks. “I sat with James and Denise in those quiet and tearful moments after they discovered how Jenise had died,” Byron said. “And where I expected to hear anguish
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crossing, with the quality of life we have here, we’ve got it made here for a population that can support the city and that the city can support,” she said, later noting that more than $9 million has been invested for fast ferries since 2004. Lent thinks King County, which operates three water taxis, would be the ideal partner for Kitsap Transit to make passenger ferries a reality. In addition, Lent noted that the shipyard is looking to hire more than 3,000 workers in the next three years which could also boost Bremerton’s population. Lent also told chamber members that she will be traveling to Houston in October to meet with
Bremerton City Councilman Dino Davis, who chairs the Public Works Committee, was less than pleased to find out that Port Orchard is getting Bremerton water on the cheap. “I was actually a little shocked to hear about this,” Davis said at last week’s council study session. “Port Orchard purchases water from the city, we know that. What we didn’t know is Port Orchard is paying about 54 cents per 100 cubic feet of water which isn’t even covering our cost.” Councilman Roy Runyon, who also serves on the Public Works Committee, says this issue has come up before, but was never rectified. “We have two contracts with Port Orchard for excess water. One is for 54 cents per 100 cubic feet which is way below our cost to provide it. And we’re selling water to them at 95 percent of the out-of-town rate which is pretty close. We’ve got a commitment from the administration to hopefully address this,” Runyon said. “December is the contract renewal, so we need to get that done.” Bremerton residents pay a rate of $1.93 inside the city limits and $2.90 outside the city limits. Davis said the contract with Port Orchard for cheap water is problematic on many levels. “Not only are we not being fair to our ratepayers by supplying Port Orchard, but are we also funding Port Orchard’s expansion by giving them such cheap water?,” Davis asked rhetorically. Mayor Patty Lent says her
SEE MAYOR, A9
SEE WATER, A9
Contributed Photo
Friends and family said goodbye to Jenise Wright last Saturday at a memorial service in Silverdale. Her body was found Aug. 7 following a five-day search. and anger, I heard compassion for another mother and a family. I went that day to teach and instead was taught.” “How will you honor the memory of this little girl,” Byron later asked those in attendance. “Will you leave today with hate in your heart for the actions of another
person or will you let go of that awful burden and begin to find forgiveness in your heart?” During the service, Denise talked about her daughter one time sneaking six popsicles out of the house. “She found a group of kids and said, ‘Here, you can have one; my mom
said you can have one,’” Denise recalled. Jenise also liked to crash barbecues at neighbors’ homes. “She would say, ‘My mom said I could have that hot dog,” Denise said. Then there was the SEE MEMORIAL, A9
Mayor Lent sings Bremerton’s praises BY KEVAN MOORE KMOORE@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
PROFILE H. Emily Moshay continues to leave her mark — Page 6
OPINION Libraries are special places in communities — Page 4
Council not happy with water contract
Mayor Patty Lent had a chance to be the city’s Booster in Chief during this week’s chamber of commerce monthly luncheon. Lent spoke for about 25 minutes and fielded questions from chamber members. She highlighted a variety of accomplishments across the city in recent years and renewed her campaign pledge from last fall to increase the city’s population from 38,000 residents to 50,000 by the end of her second term. Lent said that three upcoming apartment projects — the Spyglass with 83 units overlooking the Manette Bridge, Evergreen Pointe with more than 100 units and retail space near Evergreen Rotary Park
and 81 apartments above the city’s Park Avenue garage downtown — will help accomplish that goal. She said three other Mayor Patty Lent waterfront towers along Washington Avenue, with more than 400 units and parking, are also still a possibility. Once those first apartments go up, with more affordable rent than Seattle offers and promised parking, Lent said she will begin reaching out to Human Resources staffers at Microsoft, Amazon, Google and other companies in Seattle. “We think if we get that passenger only ferry with a 30-minute
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