Plan comments
The city of Bainbridge Island is taking public comments on the Winslow Subarea and Comprehensive plans Oct. 26 from 4-6 p.m.
The event at City Hall is environmental impact statement scoping. Coffee and cake will be served.
Enrollment up
Enrollment is up at Olympic College as students returned to campus this fall.
With 5,864 students enrolled, fall quarter headcount is up 11.2% – an increase of 589 students.
“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome students back to campus,” OC president Marty Cavalluzzi said.
Running Start has seen a 12.2% increase with 1,159 students. Military & Veteran Programs has also grown, now boasting 1,289 students – a 12% increase. At the Poulsbo Campus, enrollment has risen by 84.21%, with a headcount of 525 students. In Shelton, enrollment has surged 150%, now totaling 240 students.
During the pandemic, OC transitioned many of its academic programs to online or hybrid formats, which it continues to offer students more flexibility.
This winter, the college will unveil a fully renovated Shop Building, with state-of-the-art facilities for manufacturing, precision machining, technical design, and welding. Additionally, OC is introducing a new four-year degree in Behavioral Health, which launches in fall 2024.
Free concert
Composer-pianist Dan Kennedy will be playing a free concert at Marketplace at Pleasant Beach Village Oct. 13 from 7-9 p.m. at 4738 Lynwood Center Road NE.
Since his debut EP LANTERN was released in 2007, Kennedy has received play on 250 radio stations, and over 650,000 internet plays. Winner of a 2022 Global Music Award, a 2022 Native American Music Award and the 2019 Enlightened Piano Radio Album of the Year, his recordings have spent as many as seven consecutive months on the ZMR Top 100.
Kennedy approaches his compositions with a conservatory-trained formal sensibility, and overlays sparkling melodies and flashes of unexpected improvisation, a news release says.
For details go to www.dankennedy.us
Ex-mayor dies
Former Port Orchard Mayor Lary Coppola died Sept. 30.
The news was broken by his wife, Dee, who said he had died that morning at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma. It was just four weeks earlier that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. “Husband, father, grandfather, businessman, car enthusiast, fisherman, referee, mentor or friend, he had an amazing passion for life. In the arms of the Lord,” she said.
Coppola was elected mayor in 2007, a position that he had later said when running for reelection should be phased out; he supported a city management arrangement, believing Port Orchard’s evolution would outdate his office. A weak economy during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 limited what he was able to do in office. But he successfully lobbied the City Council to extend the position of mayor to a full-time job with pay to reflect. He would serve just one term before losing by a mere five votes, effectively ending his political career.
Coppola held a number of roles during his stay on the Kitsap Peninsula: founding Wet Apple Media after moving to Manchester in the 1980s, serving as executive director for the Port of Allyn since 2015; reviewing cars for the Northwest Automotive Press Association; and serving as a longtime director for the Building Industry Association of Washington.
Foot ferry
A permanent foot ferry connection between Bremerton and Silverdale is still up in the air, but organizers of the pop-up route for this year’s Blackberry Festival say their success is something to be considered by Kitsap Transit.
It was admittedly a gamble—the cost around $25,000 to use the Port of Silverdale, reserve the historic mosquito fleet ferry Carlisle II for the route and security costs, among others.
“Anecdotally, we weren’t sure if there were going to be twenty people that would show up that first day,” said Joshua Johnson, “and like Steve said, an hour and 45 minutes before our first sailing out of Silverdale, we had a couple sitting there waiting.”
Johnson and Steve Sego, two of the minds behind the free Catch the Carlisle II pop-up service, said the success grew from there throughout the Labor Day weekend. The following 9 a.m. sailing was completely booked out, and by the time the festival ended, roughly 2,300 passengers had been transported between the two destinations.
Panhandle law
The city of Poulsbo will be putting up signs around town advising the community not to give cash to panhandlers in response to concerns about homeless people buying and using drugs from the money they are given, Mayor Becky Erickson said at the Oct. 4 City Council meeting.
On the sign will be a QR code that will direct people to a website about the North Kitsap Recovery Resource Center.
“One of the problems we’ve had is when people give cash to people, they’re taking the cash and buying drugs. We have a homeless encampment down by Taco Time in the bushes by the creek,” Erickson said, adding there have been two overdoses there in the span of a week. “Now with fentanyl, you’re playing Russian Roulette with people’s lives.”
While panhandling is not illegal, Erickson is hoping the community will refrain from giving cash. “It’s a protected form of communication, and we can’t ban it,” she said.
Hughes picked
Mark Hughes is the newest member to join the Olympic College Board of Trustees.
Hughes is a Kitsap native and an OC alumnus. He is director of marketing for Kitsap Mental Health Services and has more than 25 years of marketing and communications experience, primarily with regional nonprofits. A strong supporter of community initiatives, Hughes has helped start, direct and support several organizations that have raised funds for education, health and safety.
Hughes graduated from Western Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1996, and from OC in Business Administration & Management in 1994.
Pull weeds
Weed Warriors will be actively pulling invasive species at Strawberry Plant Park from 1-3 p.m. Oct. 17.
Volunteers can help. The park entrance is at Weaver and Shepard NW.
If anyone has starts of native flowers the group would love to play them there.
For details email jfranks1@comcast.net.
Fly fishing
Greg Shimek, executive director of the Coastal Cutthroat Coalition, will be the guest speaker at the Bainbridge Island Fly Fishers meeting open to the public at 7 p.m. Oct. 24 at Seabold Hall, 14450 Komedal Road NE on BI.
Shimek will present results of research, projects and regulations.
For details email Eric Matthews at eric@ericematthews.com.
