REPORTER CENTRAL KITSAP
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2016 | Vol. 32, No. 16 | WWW.CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM | 50¢
Cooperation is key to dealing with disaster, emergency manager says
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IN THIS EDITION
County Department of Emergency Management ready for quake or flood
NEWS Loose water bottle blamed for crash
BY CHRIS TUCKER
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NEWS Bremerton OKs contract with Humane Soc.
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CTUCKER@CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM
spotlight the excellent work being done in the most effective community colleges, those that best help students obtain meaningful, high-quality education and training for competitive-wage jobs after college. We hope it will raise the bar and provide a roadmap to better student outcomes for community colleges nationwide.” Olympic College has been invited to submit an application to the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence containing detailed data on degree and certificate completion (including progress and transfer rates), labor market outcomes (employment and earnings) and student learning outcomes. Ten finalists will be named in fall 2016. The Aspen Institute will then conduct site visits to each of the finalists and collect additional quantitative data. A distinguished Prize Jury will select a grand prize winner and a few finalists with distinction in early 2017. In 2015, Olympic College was named
SILVERDALE – Should a catastrophic earthquake or flood affect Central Kitsap, the key to managing the chaos is to know who your neighbors are. That according to Mike Gordon, director of the Kitsap County Department of Emergency Management. “It’s really about knowing who in your community has first aid training,” Gordon said. “Who are the doctors, who are the nurses? Who’s got the chainsaw in the neighborhood? Who’s got homes with generators on them so we can all get together as neighbors and all respond together as a community and take care of ourselves,” at least until first responders are freed up from dealing with the highest priority problems. Gordon spoke to the Central Kitsap Community Council on Jan. 22. KCDEM’s goals are twofold: The first is to help prepare communities for disasters by helping businesses, residents and schools map their neighborhoods to find out who their neighbors are. The second is to appropriately handle a response, including setting up an emergency management command, communicating with the public and maintaining situational awareness of what is going on and what the priorities are. Being prepared at both work and home was one way to deal with the threat of a major earthquake. “It’s not about that doom and gloom, it’s really about where you are in that event. Make sure your family is taken care of.”
SEE ASPEN, A6
SEE EMERGENCY, A6
Photo courtesy of Silverdale Rotary Club
Silverdale Rotarians Peter Matty and Mary Hoover stand with a group of Emerald Heights third-graders as the children show their new dictionaries. Each year, Silverdale Rotary uses funds generated from the annual Duck Race fundraiser to help the local community, including giving third-graders new dictionaries.
OC again eligible for $1 million Aspen Prize OPINION Vote for safer schools and smart kids
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NEWS Two Marinas get faster Internet
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BREMERTON — The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program named Olympic College as one of the nation’s top 150 community colleges Jan. 25. The designation makes Olympic College eligible to compete for the 2017 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence and $1 million in prize funds, as well as Siemens Technical Scholars Program student scholarships. It’s the second consecutive time OC has been deemed eligible to compete for the Aspen Prize. The first time, the college was named one of the 10 best community colleges in the United States. The prize, awarded every two years, is widely considered the nation’s signature recognition of high achievement and performance among America’s community colleges and recognizes institutions for exceptional student outcomes in four areas: student learning, certificate and degree completion, employment and earnings and access and success for minority and low-in-
Chris Tucker / staff photo
OC’s Bremerton campus.
come students. Nearly half of America’s college students attend community college, with more than seven million students — youth and adult learners — working toward certificates and degrees. “Community colleges have tremendous power to change lives, and their success will increasingly define our nation’s economic strength and the potential for social mobility in our country,” said Josh Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program. “This competition is designed to
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