PATRIOT BREMERTON
LEGENDARY: ‘Spamalot’ comes to Bainbridge Island IN KITSAP WEEK
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2014 | Vol. 17, No. 42 | WWW.BREMERTONPATRIOT.COM | 50¢
Lease transfer for new Bremerton racetrack approved by port BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
Big time motor sports may just be on its way to Bremerton. Commissioners at the Port of Bremerton agreed last week to transfer the lease on port property for a proposed new racetrack from the nonprofit Bremerton MotorSports park to the for-profit Circuit of the Northwest LLC. The 45-year lease specifies a $5,000 rent for years one to five; $7,000 in the sixth and seventh years, and the reminder of the lease at a $40,000 annual payment or five percent of the company’s “defined gross revenue” – whichever is greater.
The new company has plans to build a $30 million racetrack on about 250 acres along Highway 3, across from Bremerton National Airport, if it can find investors to back the project. Circuit of the Northwest partners Brian Nilsen and Mike Burdick told commissioners about their plans during a regular port meeting Nov. 25. The two, who both have served on the board for Bremerton MotorSports, said the new track will fill a void in the area. “The Northwest is very underserved in motor sports, as anyone who goes to racing will attest,” Nilsen said. The proposed 2.4 mile road course
could accommodate a variety of motorcycle and auto races, he said. In addition to the main track, the facility would include a space for a motor cross track, kart track, a clubhouse, convention center and spectator seating. “We want to make it something really special,” he said. Circuit of the Northwest has hired the German engineering firm of Tilke to design the track. The area, which is narrow, hilly, and has more than 130 feet of elevation change, requires a unique layout, Nilsen said. He added that the close proximity to Seattle is a plus. SEE RACE TRACK, A9
Photo courtesy Tilke Architects
The master layout for the proposed 232-acre race course shows a 2.37-milelong track, clubhouse, garage and two entrances. It would be built near Bremerton National Airport.
Local women become ‘Calendar Girls’ Fundraiser for Women in Trades group BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
At 89, Berniece Blees never thought she’d star on the pages of a popular calendar. But the Bremerton woman is Ms. October. “I thought it was quite an honor,” said Blees. “It’s something I never thought would happen at my age.” Blees and 11 other women from Washington are on the pages of this year’s Washington Women in Trades 2015 calendar. The annual calendar, a fundraiser for the Women in Trades organization, honors “Rosies,” women who worked in the shipyards, ammunitions and airplane factories, and one who worked on the Manhattan Project at Hanford. Of the 12 women, three are from Kitsap County. Blees, who grew up in Crosby near Seabeck, worked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard from 1943 to 1946 as an electrician, reading blueprints and making and pulling metal cable for ships. “I worked the swing shift,” she said. “When I started, I made $4.65 a day.”
Leslie Kelly / staff photos
LEFT: Berniece Blees looks at a scrapbook of her days at the shipyard. ABOVE: Her shipyard ID and lunch pass lay on her calender page.
It was the best job available for young women, many of whom were doing jobs men would be doing, if they weren’t serving in the Armed Forces during World War II. Where Blees grew up, there was no electricity and no indoor plumbing or toilets. It was very rural and she walked
two miles to catch the school bus. She graduated from Silverdale High School (now Central Kitsap High) in 1943, at age 18 and then went to work in the shipyard. “I walked that far to catch the bus to the shipyard, too,” Blees said. “There were only about 10 girls who worked
in the electric shop. We all wore hard hats and hard-toed shoes.” Eventually, she and two other women rented a small house in Bremerton to be closer to work. Blees went from being a mechanic learner to reading blueprints to boarding the ships and pulled wire cables to the guns. “We’d crawl into some very small places and pull heavy cable through the ship to attach it to 40 millimeter guns,” she said. “It was very hard work.” Sometimes Blees said she felt guilty taking a job that society thought belonged to a man. “But there weren’t enough men for all the work,” she
Port to get a review of the open meetings regulations
said. “When we pulled cable, we worked right alongside the men. We had to keep up with them.” The women were respected, she said. “We never had any problems,” she said. “We worked hard and the men knew it and they let us know when we did a good job.” In 1949, Blees met and married a Marine. She worked at a sewing factory making ski pants and then worked at Harrison Hospital in Bremerton for 22 years. She had five children and now has 14 grandchildren and 20 greatgrandchildren. In her early years, she played Slo Pitch softball and she can still fit in to her red letter sweater from Silverdale High. And she’s just marked 10 years working for Walmart, first as a greeter and now as a sales associate. Her husband, John, died nine years ago. What takes up most of her spare time these days is keeping up with her professional sports teams including the Seahawks and the Mariners. Her house is filled with signed baseballs, t-shirts, bobble heads and more. She has kept a scrapbook of items from her days working at the shipyard – her work ID
A day after suggesting his fellow commissioners had violated the Open Public Meetings Act, Bremerton Port Commission President Roger Zabinski apologized to them at a port meeting Nov. 25. “What I did was not appropriate on my part,” Zabinski said after opening the regular meeting Nov. 25. “I want to apologize to my fellow commissioners. How we treat people is important. How we treat people is paramount.” Zabinski said he has another year on his term as a port commissioner and wants to finish it out, hinting that he hopes to improve his relationship with commissioners Axel Strakeljahn and Larry Stokes. Neither commissioner responded to Zabinski’s words and the meeting continued without incident. On Nov. 24, Z abinski accused Strakeljahn and Stokes of violations of the Open Public Meetings Act, citing that it appeared to him they had had conversations about the possibility of a 1
SEE CALENDAR GIRLS, A9
SEE OPEN MEETING, A9
BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
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