PATRIOT BREMERTON
KITSAP WEEKLY INSIDE: Celebrating the dream
FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016 | Vol. 18, No. 44 | WWW.BREMERTONPATRIOT.COM | 50¢
IN THIS EDITION
Charges pending in Motel 6 explosion case BY MICHELLE BEAHM MBEAHM@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
NEWS 4-H told to leave fairgrounds
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NEWS Murder charge in missing man case
BREMERTON — Third-degree assault charges against a 32-year-old man are pending in connection with the Motel 6 explosion Aug. 18, 2015. That day around 7:54 p.m., Cencom, the emergency dispatch services, received a call advising of a gas leak at the motel. “The manager of the motel, Tonya Hinds, reported there was a broken main outside and gas was blowing everywhere,” wrote Officer Jordan Ejde in the report. “Another caller advised someone had busted it and was leaving in an old white GMC pickup truck.” Ejde said that he arrived on the
scene and did not see a pickup truck, but blocked off the roadway near 11th Street and Adele Avenue, then contacted the firefighters already on the scene. The firefighters informed him that there was a serious leak on the main gas line, and that the motel was being evacuated. “I was approximately 50 feet away from the leak when I observed the easternmost end of Motel 6 ignite into a fiery explosion,” Ejde wrote. “I can’t remember if I was pushed or dived to the ground. I remember feeling small pieces of debris hitting me in the back as I went to the ground. “I scrambled along the ground into SEE EXPLOSION, A6
Chris Tucker / staff photo
Clean up begins the day after the Motel 6 explosion on Aug. 18, 2015, the result of a major gas leak.
Woman seriously Bookstore stays in Bremerton injured in crash
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Bremerton Police Department
Rescuers work at the scene of a single-vehicle crash near the 3500 block of Tracyton Beach Road Jan. 1.
NEWS Cars left idling can attract thieves
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OPINION Sarah Smiley: Why we love snow
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TRACYTON — A female motorist sustained life-threatening injuries after the car she was driving crashed into the Port Washington Narrows waters Jan. 1. According to Bremerton Police Department, the car went off the road near the 3500 block of Tracyton Beach Road NW, just north of NW Carter Farms Court. Bremerton police were dispatched to the crash at 11:41 a.m. Officers and Bremerton Fire Department personnel arrived at the crash at 11:43 a.m. and found the vehicle had landed on its roof and that the occupant compartment of the vehicle was completely submerged. Firefighter/paramedic Joel Wulf and firefighter/EMT Craig Patti entered the water and were able to get the woman out of the car. Firefighters immediately began efforts to resuscitate the driver and were able to detect a heartbeat. The woman was transported to Harrison Medical Center for treatment of life-threatening injuries. BPD’s traffic unit is investigating the crash. The road was slippery in that area. BPD said that drugs or alcohol do not appear to be a factor in the crash. BPD is requesting that anyone with information about the crash contact officer Miller at 360-473-5496. — Edited by Chris Tucker
Michelle Beahm / staff photo
Kate Daniels, Liberty Bay Books employee, picks out one of her favorite books from the fantasy section. BY MICHELLE BEAHM MBEAHM@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
BREMERTON — Suzanne Droppert, owner of Liberty Bay Books, is responding to customer feedback in a great way: the pop-up location of her bookstore is sticking around in Bremerton. Droppert said she got the idea first from Bremerton business approaching her about expanding in order to fill a void in Bremerton, and recently from an employee who had thought about opening her own bookstore in Bremerton before changing her mind. The employee told Droppert to check the area out.
“The goal was to see if it could do good business in November and December,” Droppert said of the pop-up location. But then customers started pouring in. “We kept hearing the feedback of all the customers,” Droppert said. “Everyone asked us to stay, everyone that came in said, ‘Please stay.’ ” Kate Daniels, an employee of Liberty Bay Books, said, “A lot of people come in just to say that they’re glad to have us here, and that they’re spreading the word.” Bruce Rogers, a longtime Bremerton resident, SEE BOOKSTORE, A6
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