KITSAP WEEK CRUZ 2015 takes over downtown.
INSIDE Voters decide on finalists for West Sound Utility District seat. A3
OPINION Addressing homelessness in South Kitsap. A6
INDEPENDENT PORT ORCHARD
FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2015 ✮ VOL. 124, NO. 28 ✮ WWW.PORTORCHARDINDEPENDENT.COM ✮ 50¢
Jamming the night away
Kitsap homeless County housing plan gathering input, awareness in government halls By BOB SMITH
rsmith@portorchardindependent.com
What is the face of homelessness in South Kitsap County? Is it that man dressed in tattered clothes asking for funds at an area intersection? An abandoned woman with a couple of children to feed
and no place to live? Or is it a well-dressed and decidedly middle-class family suddenly hit — like a shot in the dark — by their breadwinner’s unexpected job loss? Kirsten Jewell, a human services coordinator for SEE HOMELESS, A2
SKSD’s financial ‘graph’ is trending upward District fund balance expected to increase again next year By CHRIS CHANCELLOR
cchancellor@soundpublishing.com
Michelle Reid has a simple mantra when it comes to finances: revenues should exceed expenditures. And for a second consecutive year, it appears that will be the case under South Kitsap School District’s superintendent. Annette Baker, the district’s business office director, presented the 2015-16 budget
during an Aug. 5 public hearing. The school board is scheduled to approve the budget during its Aug. 19 meeting. Baker said SKSD’s revenues are expected to increase from $97.6 million in 201415 to $110.7 million during the upcoming school year. Expenditures, which include transfers to pay debt service and capital projects, are expected to total $109.9 million. Much of that revenue comes from the state. Baker said while the state is expected to provide more funding in 2015-16, much SEE SCHOOLS, A19
Photo courtesy Eric Lyons Photography
Northwest Derby Company faced the Oly Rollers — one of several teams they compete against throughout the region — during a bout in May.
South Kitsap women’s roller derby team attracts talent throughout county By CHRIS CHANCELLOR
cchancellor@soundpublishing.com
BREMERTON — Port Orchard’s Aimee Durgan acknowledges it is a unique contrast. Durgan, who coaches and competes
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with the Northwest Derby Company, works as a head server at best-selling author Debbie Macomber’s Victorian Rose Tea Room. “I spend my day in a pink dollhouse waiting on little old ladies, feeding them
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SEE DERBY, A13
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tea and sandwiches,‚“ Durgan said with a laugh. “Then I come here and knock people down at night.” “Here” is Skateland in Bremerton. Northwest Derby Company competed at Sk8town in Port Orchard until that business shuttered earlier this year when a bank evicted the tenants at 1501 Piperberry Way.
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