REPORTER CENTRAL KITSAP
KITSAP WEEK: The art of ink: Tattoo artists serious about their body of work
FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2015 | Vol. 30, No. 33 | WWW.CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM | 50¢
NBK is a ‘growth industry,’ Zwolfer says
GETTING READY TO PLAY BALL
IN THIS EDITION
NEWS OHS grad serving aboard USS Texas
BY CHRIS TUCKER CTUCKER@CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM
A8
Stella Kim / staff photo
Blue Jackets manager Matt Acker, Turf International consultant Matt Johns, and Olympic College coach Jarrod Munson, from left, work on the pitcher’s mound at field no. 1 at Gene Lobe Field at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds on May 18.
NEWS Armed Forces Day photo gallery
A6
OPINION Help kids with ‘Purchase a Miracle’
A4
SPORTS Cougars capture district title
A10
New infield meant to boost safety BY CHRIS TUCKER CTUCKER@CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM
CENTRAL KITSAP – Unpredictable infield ball hops will be less of a problem after volunteers and county workers replaced the infield mix on field No. 1 at the Gene Lobe Fields at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds this week. Billie Schmidt, superintendent of opersations for Kitsap County Parks Department, said the previous infield material
“Hopefully it’ll be a safer surface to play on,” – Billie Schmidt, Kitsap Parks was too sandy. “It (the sand) causes inconsisent hardness-softness of the soil so it makes the ball bounce weird. It’s unpredictable,”
Schmidt said. The new infield mix – 30 percent clay, 30 percent sand, 30 percent silt and 10 percent “Turface” – is being installed to address safety concerns for players so they can field the balls properly. The infield dirt layer is 4-6 inches deep. Baseball players ages 14 and up play on the field including teams from Central Kitsap High School, Olympic High SEE NEW INFIELD, A9
Silverdale salon mixes friendship and business BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
SILVERDALE – Who said friends can’t be business partners? Certainly not Michelle Townsend, Kellie Culbertson and April McClure. After years of working for others, the three experienced hair stylists have opened up their own shop, Three Arrows Salon, in Old Town Silverdale. “Every one told us that it wasn’t a good idea to go into business with friends,” said
Townsend. “But all three of us had a similar vision of what we wanted this salon to be and we knew it would work.” The trio opened Three Arrows Salon on Jan. 2 after several months of renovations to the building where they are located. The name they chose for their business has very special meaning. “We were trying to come up with a good name that represented all of us,” Townsend said. “I started doing some research online and found out that crossed arrows are a symbol of friendship.”
CENTRAL KITSAP –In an era of shrinking military budgets, Naval Base Kitsap is a growth area. That’s what Capt. Thomas Zwolfer, commanding officer for NBK, told attendees at a Bremerton Chamber of Commerce meeting May 19. Zwolfer said one of the questions people often asked him was about the “B-word.” That’s B for “BRAC,” an acronym for “Base Realignment and Closure.” “Is Naval Base Kitsap going to be BRAC-ed? To my knowledge, no,” Zwolfer said. “Defense (overall) has been shrinking over the last 10 years. You can look at the defense budgets. You can look at the number of ships,” Zwolfer said. Zwolfer showed a slide detailing increased activity and growth at NBK. “You can see that Naval Base Kitsap has been growing over the last 10 years. And we have the largest military construction project going on in the Navy right now – that’s the SEE NAVAL BASE, A2
So Three Arrows it was, denoting the three women who are business partners. Townsend said they all knew each other and had worked together at various salons throughout Kitsap County. As is the case for some professional stylists, they all were thinking about how they would run a salon if they owned one. “We needed to take this on,” Townsend said. “We needed to do things our own way.” SEE THREE ARROWS, A9
Capt. Thomas Zwolfer
The Central Kitsap Reporter: Top local stories, every Friday in print. Breaking news daily on CentralKitsapReporter.com and on Facebook