HERALD NORTH K ITSAP
INSIDE Singer takes his songs, and his heart, on the road
The house nobody wants
Cancelling county contract; savings will help pay for school resource officer
Lots of savings in Kitsap’s largest Classified section. With legal notices.
Staying young with a song Pages 12-19
Bainbridge man tours his folkguitar stylings at island locales — page 3
Stars Above Kitsap horoscopes with Suzanne O’Clair — pages 4
Crossword and Sudoku games — pages 6-7
By RICHARD D. OXLEY
roxley@northkitsapherald.com
POULSBO — Viking Avenue had been a relatively quiet thoroughfare, with struggling businesses, for a few years when
— pages 11
65,000 circulation every Friday in the Bainbridge Island Review | Bremerton Patriot | Central Kitsap Reporter | North Kitsap Herald | Port Orchard Independent
New plans for old city hall site roxley@northkitsapherald.com
A creek runs through it: Sandbags line the banks of the south fork of Dogfish Creek as it flows across 19159 8th Ave., Poulsbo, Feb. 10. The property is in foreclosure. Mayor Becky Erickson wants to acquire it through the condemnation process so the house can be removed, this portion of the creek restored, and a troublesome culvert replaced. The house is vacant and showing signs of disrepair. Richard Walker / Herald
Mayor hopes to acquire property for creek restoration; exploring use of condemnation process By RICHARD WALKER
rwalker@northkitsapherald.com
P
OULSBO — Here’s the vision: The old house would be removed and the land made part of Centennial Park. Dogfish Creek would be allowed to delta here just like it did historically
(recent residents have probably called it “flooding”). A culvert, listed on a city survey as the most problematic in all of Poulsbo, would be replaced to ease the streamflow. Here’s the reality of the moment: Mayor Becky Erickson, a chief proponent
of acquiring the property for restoration of that portion of the salmon-bearing stream, has got some advance work to do. And she doesn’t expect to introduce the proposed acquisition to the City Council until 2016. Here’s the issue: The old See CREEK, Page A6
POULSBO — When Poulsbo’s former city hall property was sold in June 2014, the buyer expected to build a hotel on the site. Those plans have changed. Poulsbo can expect to see apartments added to the downtown landscape. “The plan right now is to build apartments, which I think is really cool,” Mayor Becky Erickson said. “The idea of having an apartment downtown is pretty alluring.” “There’s a market there, where people want to live in a downtown area but they can’t afford to go and buy a house,” she said. “They want to live close to the downtown core and this will give them See DOWNTOWN, Page A6
NEW DEPUTY CHIEF ■ Sgt. John Halsted saved two lives, has 20 years of law enforcement experience. — Page A3
Hudson expanding onto former Ford site Will add service, bring RVs back to Viking Ave.
Kitsap gets its first ciderhouse with Bushel & Barrel
By RICHARD D. OXLEY
roxley@northkitsapherald.com
See PROSECUTE, Page A8
LIFE AND CULTURE
Apartments and retail, but no hotel
By RICHARD D. OXLEY
POULSBO — The City of Poulsbo will end its contract with the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office for prosecution services in Municipal Court, in favor of bringing the job closer to home. The City Council voted unanimously on Feb. 11 to allow Mayor Becky Erickson to sign a letter notifying the county that the city will cancel its contract. “There are a couple reasons why this is occurring,” Erickson said at the council’s meeting. “There has been a view for some time that we have been overpaying for prosecution services. We have been subsidizing other jurisdictions by paying $97,000 a year for prosecution services.
F e b r u a r y 13 - 19, 2 015
— Kitsap Week
Friday, February 13, 2015 | Vol. 114, No. 7 | NORTHKITSAPHERALD.COM | 50¢
City will prosecute minor offenses
KITSAPweek
Darrin Hudson moved his used car dealership there in April 2014. Hudson Auto Center has been operating on a lot formerly occupied by a Ford dealership. The small lot held Ford’s used cars and neighbored the larger dealership, Courtesy Ford. Recently, however, Hudson noticed the area wasn’t as quiet, and it piqued his interest.
“We heard some leaf blowers going on next door,” Hudson said of the former Courtesy Ford See HUDSON, Page A9
Nick Wall of Hudson Auto Center cleans the showroom floor in the former Courtesy Ford building on Viking Avenue, Feb. 11. Darrin Hudson
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