INDEPENDENT PORT ORCHARD
FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015 ✮ VOL. 124, NO. 14 ✮ WWW.PORTORCHARDINDEPENDENT.COM ✮ 50¢
‘This is not about me. This is for them — the veterans.’
— Dale Nitz, Veterans Living History Museum in Port Orchard
SKFR tax levy renewed By CHRIS CHANCELLOR
cchancellor@portorchardindependent.com
PORT ORCHARD — Voters resoundingly approved South Kitsap Fire and Rescue Proposition No. 1 on April 28 to renew a property tax levy for emergency medical services for another six years. More than 76 percent of the 12,678 voters that cast ballots voted in favor of the resolution. “We’re very pleased with the support of the citizens,” SKFR Fire Chief Steve Wright said. “I’m glad they were willing to continue to fund us at the existing rate.” The current levy, which expires Dec. 31, is 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation annually for South Kitsap property owners. The EMS levy pays
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Coast Guard veteran Dale Nitz began collecting military memorabilia in 2001. His extensive, and still-growing, collection is now housed in his Veterans Living History Museum in downtown Port Orchard. Leslie Kelly / Sound Publishing
Veterans Living History Museum in downtown Port Orchard is a labor of love Fire scare at restaurant Page A18 No-hitter for Knowles Page A28
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By LESLIE KELLY
lkelly@soundpublishing.com
ust about 10 a.m. every morning, Dale Nitz can be seen opening the door of his museum and placing a few military artifacts on the sidewalk near the entrance. He then places a giant, 19-footlong flag between two poles outside the museum. Recently, he has been placing a storyboard near the front window, dedicated to his border collie Waya, who recently passed. The Veterans Living History Museum — at 825 Bay St. in downtown Port Orchard —- is his life now that she’s gone.
And the museum, which recently was in the news because of a controversy about whether he could display his large flag, is his “home away from home.” “This is not about me,” he said of the museum. “This is for them — the veterans. I do it for them.” Nitz, a retired propane delivery driver and Coast Guard veteran, said he bought his first piece of military memorabilia in 2001. He intended to resell the cadet gray parade uniform he had purchased on the Internet auction store eBay, but the uniform didn’t receive a single bid. “I didn’t get one bid for it,” he said. “I thought, ‘Something is wrong
Tuition-free kindergarten added at all SK schools
here.’ ” Nitz slowly learned more about the uniform and the man who wore it. He discovered the gray helmet, trousers, sword and belt were worn by World War II Army Col. J.W. Lockett, who died in 1990. He learned the colonel spent time in a POW camp in Schubin, Poland. He uncovered more about the man’s family history, a trip to China and his experience in the prison camp. Along with information about the soldier from the Greatest Generation, Nitz also acquired more of the colonel’s belongings. Before
PORT ORCHARD — South Kitsap School District officials have changed course. Superintendent Michelle Reid announced April 28 that tuition-free, all-day kindergarten would be offered throughout the district during the 2015-16 school year. That comes one year earlier than district officials previously expected. In early April, interim assistant superintendent Bev Cheney expected tuition-free, all-day kindergarten to be
SEE MUSEUM, A5
SEE FREE K, A4
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By CHRIS CHANCELLOR
cchancellor@portorchardindependent.com