HERALD NORTH K ITSAP
INSIDE “Tis the Season,” our holiday magazine — In this edition
Friday, November 28, 2014 | Vol. 113, No. 48 | WWW.NORTHKITSAPHERALD.COM | 50¢ Poulsbo Lions / Raab Foundation Bellringer Fund
UPDATE ■ Donations to the Poulsbo Lions/Raab Foundation Bellringer Fund make a big difference in local lives. — Editorial, page A4. ■ Helene and Bill Schmidt were the first contributors to this year’s campaign, donating $250 in memory of Inge Berge. ■ Donations to the Poulsbo Lions/Raab Foundation Bellringer Fund can be mailed to P.O. Box 1244, Poulsbo, WA. 98370. Donations are also being accepted at the Herald, 19351 8th Ave.; and Union Bank, 19950 7th Ave. NE. ■ Look for updated list of donors in the Dec. 5 North Kitsap Herald. (Complete list was not available this week because of Thanksgiving)
Poulsbo utility rates poised to climb City Council will find revenue or cut costs to plug $300,000 gap By RICHARD D. OXLEY
roxley@northkitsapherald.com
POULSBO — The Poulsbo City Council will discuss, modify
and possibly approve the 2015 budget when it meets again in December. Perhaps the most significant part of the budget, according to Mayor Becky Erickson, is the council’s pursuit of additional revenue for utilities and roads. The council may form a Transportation Benefit District in order to implement a $20 vehicle
license fee. It is also considering raising stormwater and water utility rates, and imposing a cable TV tax. In short: ■ The fee to connect to the water utility would be raised $1,750, bringing it to $4,227. ■ A 13 percent, or $1.63, increase in base water rates is proposed, bringing that rate to
Neighbors Helping Neighbors: A Four-Part Series
By RICHARD D. OXLEY and KIPP ROBERTSON North Kitsap Herald
POULSBO — Carol Tong has had a difficult year. Her friends are now asking the community to help. The Nov. 21 burglary of her Poulsbo home occurred just under a year after her son Evan Tong committed suicide. She didn’t work for a period of months and has since lived paycheck to paycheck. That has put a financial strain on her family and she has struggled to keep her home. See BURGLARY, Page A3
See COST, Page A3
For those building new lives Poulsbo duplexes will be ‘home’ for those transitioning from DV to bright futures
Grieving mom’s home burglarized Late son’s baby teeth in box that was stolen
$14.13. ■ Monthly stormwater rates are planned to increase to $16.43 from $10.72. The council meets next on Dec. 3, 7 p.m., at City Hall. The meetings are open to the public. “What we have now is a basic shell of where we are going finan-
By RICHARD WALKER
rwalker@northkitsapherald.com
Blue Sky Gunhammer is building a new life at Compass House on Central Valley Road. After completing a 20-year prison sentence, he said the farm-like atmosphere “is therapeutic.” Kipp Robertson / Herald
Where second chances are born Compass House By RICHARD WALKER
rwalker@northktisapherald.com
Editor’s note: This is the first of four stories in a North Kitsap Herald special holiday series, Neighbors Helping Neighbors. The series calls attention to littleknown causes that change lives in our community — and how you can help.
C
ENTRAL VALLEY — The world is a lot faster to Blue Sky Gunhammer, Oglala, since he got out of prison this fall after 20 years. He expresses amazement at the cellphone pictures someone is taking of his beaded artwork. People were shooting photos with film when he went in back in ’94. At this one-acre goat and chicken farm on rural Central
Valley Road, Gunhammer is building a new life. He does his part in helping to take care of the place, which he shares with eight others. The farm is bucolic and far from urban temptations; the nearest bus stop is a mile away. “It’s far enough out of town that you’ve really got to think about getting into trouble,” he said. See COMPASS, Page A8
POULSBO — The setting will be a nurturing and healing one: A forest of alders, cedars and firs. A 1.3-acre park with playground. A walking trail. And neighbors with a shared experience: They’ve escaped domestic violence. And they’re rebuilding their lives. This is the setting of what will be Morrow Manor, a neighborhood of four duplexes in northeast Poulsbo that will be home for women and children who have survived domestic violence and are transitioning into mainstream life. Morrow Manor is transitional, meaning women and their children can stay there for up to See YWCA, Page A7
“Earning my degree took the power away from him. I could stand on my own two feet.” — Amy Sanford,
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