REPORTER CENTRAL KITSAP
‘TIS THE SEASON Lightwire Theater coming to Kitsap IN KITSAP WEEK
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2014 | Vol. 30, No. 8 | WWW.CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM | 50¢
Harrison Medical Center board officially approves single-hospital campus The Harrison Medical Center Board of Directors has given their final approval to a plan that will consolidate acute hospital care services at their Silverdale Campus, according to a press release from CHI Franciscan and Harrison Medical Center. As part of the board’s “Vision 2020: Building Exceptional Heath Care” planning process they are also working with community leaders to deter-
mine the outpatient services that will continue to be offered in Bremerton. The Bremerton Community Health Care Advisory Group plans to present their recommendations to the board in the spring of 2015. “For more than a decade, the Harrison board has been exploring the best way to care for the residents of Kitsap County by providing first-class acute care services,” said Jim Civilla,
chairman of the Harrison Board of Directors. “Merging our hospital services at Silverdale as well as providing needed health care to the Bremerton community will enable us to build a regional hub that will serve the health care needs of Kitsap, Mason and Jefferson counties for generations to come.” The Harrison Medical Center Board has also selected award-win-
450 bags of Thanksgiving food prepped
become a long-lasting resource and source of pride for our community,” said NBBJ partner Richard Dallam. The Vision 2020 expansion project will take up to four years to complete. The expansion will include additional hospital space, a new parking structure, a medical office building, and greater accessibility to the campus as well as enhancements to the Clear Creek trail.
Community Campus advocate questions library’s location Attorney asks for independent assessment of Bucklin Hill Road and Campus locations
BY CHRIS TUCKER CTUCKER@CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM
There was no dawdling at the Central Kitsap Food bank on Friday as about two dozen volunteers hustled to fill 450 grocery bags with Thanksgiving goodies. They formed assembly lines to complete the work over the course of about four hours. “I just wanted to help the community,” said Marilynn Chong, one of the volunteers. She said she’s donated her time at the food bank several times over the years. “It gives you a good feeling to help out,” she said. Dozens of bags covered the floor at any given time. Volunteers walked past the bags and dropped green beans, broth, gravy, Jell-O, pudding, yams, stuffing and cranberries into them as they walked along. Turkey, ham or chicken would also be given out. The full bags were rolled shut and placed into a large container. Then dozens more empty bags were placed onto the floor for the next round. “The amount of food over here is overwhelming,” said Randy Schroeder, one of eight volunteers with Navy Recruiting Station Bremerton who showed up to help. According to food bank Executive Director Chris Benson, there is indeed a tremendous amount of food flowing through the facility. In October, Benson said, 72,000 pounds of food was handed out to 2,516 people in 802 households. “And that’s just Silverdale,” Benson said. Numbers were similar at other area food banks. Food bank clients were to pick up their bags on Nov. 22.
ning design and architecture firm NBBJ in Seattle to lead the expansion project. NBBJ has worked with clients that include Amazon, Boeing, Microsoft and Virginia Mason. “As a company based in the Puget Sound area, NBBJ is excited to partner with CHI Franciscan Health and Harrison Medical Center to design a hospital that addresses the rapidly changing health care system and will
BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
Chris Tucker / staff photos
ABOVE: Ryoko Mosley, left, and volunteer Marilynn Chong fill grocery bags with Thanksgiving goodies at the Central Kitsap Food Bank on Friday. BELOW: About two dozen volunteers helped fill 450 grocery bags with food.
A longtime Silverdale resident who helped formulate the original plans for the Central Kitsap Community Campus is asking the Kitsap Regional Library board of trustees to reconsider where to build the new Silverdale Library. Attorney Robert MacDermid has sent a seven-page letter to members of the KRL Board of Trustees letting them know that he thinks the decision to site the library off Bucklin Hill Road was flawed. In the letter, MacDermid, said he thinks the board ignored the desires of a majority of library patrons who wanted the library to be built on the Central Kitsap Community Campus, and chose the Bucklin Hill Road site because it was what the library staff wanted. MacDermid pointed to an online survey KRL did last spring in which 477 voted for the community campus. At that time, the sites being considered were the community campus, property behind the Silverdale United Methodist Church, and a spot in Old Town. The community campus received the most votes in that survey. But when owners of the location in Old Town decided to withdraw it, KRL began the process again. The second survey also had three locations: the community campus, an existing building on Randall Road and the site off Bucklin Hill Road. In that survey the Bucklin Hill site received the most votes – 136 – while the campus received 49. “The suggestion that these numbers accurately reflect the desire and
will of the community is simply not correct,” MacDermid wrote of the second survey. “The entire process conducted by KRL to determine the will of the community was fatally flawed.” Jeff Brody, community relations spokesman for KRL, said the board had received the letter and planned to give MacDermid time to speak at its meeting Tuesday. Brody said, however, the board wasn’t commenting on the letter ahead of the meeting. In the letter, MacDermid also wrote that because the entire process was conducted by KRL, it was manipulated to “achieve their desired objective.” MacDermid said it was apparent that the staff wanted the new library built on the Old Town site near Dyes Inlet and a park, and when that location was no longer available, the staff went looking for another site near water, ultimately coming up with the Bucklin Hill site which is off of Clear Creek and Old Mill Park. He cited a Facebook post from Silverdale Library branch manager Melody Sky Eisler posted the day after the decision was made to build the library off Bucklin Hill Road, in which she wrote of her desire to have a library “located in a natural setting to truly inspire a community.” He also said because the second voting was located on a table near Eisler’s desk at the Silverdale Library, “raises questions about the fairness and the integrity of the process.” MacDermid has been involved in the planning of the community campus for more than 15 years and that SEE LIBRARY, A9
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