SOU
both women t County Court straining orde Shelia Cron straining ord after returnin Aug. 17 and di Printed with recycled paper and environmentally friendly soybean oil-based ink.
INDEPENDENT PORT ORCHARD
125 YEA
RS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2016 ✮ VOL. 124, NO. 51 ✮ WWW.PORTORCHARDINDEPENDENT.COM ✮ 50¢
‘Our beautiful borrowed angel’ Fatal flu ends Piper’s life, but her spirit can’t be dampened
City Council not buying county’s comp-plan change
By BOB SMITH
By BOB SMITH
rsmith@portorchardindependent.com
In the end, 12-year-old Piper Lowrey really didn’t get a fair chance at life. She didn’t have a chance to discover boys, attend and graduate from high school, or start her own family. Piper also didn’t stand a chance against a virulent, fast-engulfing H1N1 strain of influenza, which weakened her body and brought on renal failure. Like a freight train rounding the bend, the flu attacked and killed Piper in just four days, silently and quickly. Piper was a sixth-grader at Manchester Elementary, bright-eyed, freckle-faced and always with a smile, said her mother Pegy Lowery. The Port Orchard girl was her mom’s “shadow” and always by her side. Her brother Noah, 9, and Piper were like two peas in a pod. This close-knit family, with father Brian often at the wheel of the car, were always off on some adventure, which often included rides on dirt bikes. That’s why this tragedy is so shocking, so unsettling. Piper was a cheery, buoyant and caring girl who shared her happiness and joy with others around her, in the way only a sixth-grade girl could. This normal, loving family bound by faith would forever be altered when, on Tuesday, Jan. 19, Piper awoke with a 102-degree fever. It wasn’t a huge surprise since mom Pegy had been sick and was planning that morning to visit the urgent care clinic after making a school run. But Noah also was showing signs of a respiratory illness and complained about an earache.
rsmith@portorchardindependent.com
Kitsap County is moving forward with developing a land-use alternative for its 2016 comprehensive plan. The Port Orchard City Council, however, wants county planners to tap on the brakes a bit. At the Jan. 26 City Council meeting, council member Shawn Cucciardi said he was bothered that the city wasn’t given notice about the alternative offered by the county. “Our citizens need to be aware of this process,” Cucciardi said. “I hate to see us concede to the county some elements affecting our city.” County public-hearing meetings are to begin next Monday in Poulsbo and Tuesday in COUNCIL, SEE A3
Kitsap seeking input on comp plan land-use alternative
“She was always smiling and she always brought us comfort. That was my girl.”
Courtesy of the Lowery family
The Lowery family gathered for a portrait that was posted last week on Facebook. Clockwise, from top left: Pegy, Brian, Piper and Noah. Instead of dropping off the kids to Manchester Elementary, Pegy and her two children drove to the urgent care clinic. Clinic health care providers did a flu test on Pegy, who tested positive. Her son thankfully tested negative. But Piper, who had an extreme fear of hypodermic needles, begged
off the test. Despite pleas from her mother, she’d have none of it. The attending doctor, however, diagnosed that Piper, based on her symptoms and their similarities to Pegy’s, also had the flu. PIPER, SEE A4
Marina now offering wi-fi Internet service Boaters at Port Orchard Marina can now access the Internet through new wi-fi technology provided by the Port of Bremerton. Tenants and visiting boaters will now free access with improved coverage and capacity, courtesy of the new network connection that
IN THE INDEPENDENT
provides a 125Mb/per-second access link shared by the marina and Bremerton Marina, according to the port spokeswoman Lisa Samuelson. She said the Internet service can be easily scaled up to 1 Gigabit as demand increases.
KITSAP WEEKLY
Healthy You section.
Kitsap County is seeking public comments about its draft land-use alternatives for the county’s comprehensive plan update. The county Board of Commissioners will hold three public hearings, one in each commissioner district, to accept public input on the draft land-use alternative the comprehensive-plan staff has recommended. A public hearing has been scheduled in Port Orchard Feb. 8 at the Kitsap County Administration Building. Map viewing is from 4:30-5:30 p.m., followed by the hearing during the county commissioners’ regular business meeting that evening.
The new network allows up to 1,000 devices to be connected at one time. “Studies have shown and our customers have repeatedly told us that the number-one MARINA, SEE A2
OPINION
Kicking the can forward. A4
COMP PLAN, SEE A3
ALSO IN KITSAP WEEKLY SLAUGHTER COUNTY BREWING CO.
INSIDE
Engineering Night. A9
The Independent: 2015 General Excellence award winner, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Contest