Year in Review - 2020

2019

YEAR IN REVIEW

A look back at some of the top stories and events that made headlines in Kitsap County

A SUPPLEMENT OF THE BAINBRIDGE ISLAND REVIEW, NORTH KITSAP HERALD, CENTRAL KITSAP REPORTER & PORT ORCHARD INDEPENDENT

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YEAR IN REVIEW 2019

2019 2019 was a big year for news throughout Kitsap, and the readers of the Bainbridge Island Review, North Kitsap Herald, Central Kitsap Reporter and Port Orchard Independent followed us every step along the way, from sports victories to local tales of tragedy and triumph.

2019 Year in Review, a special retrospective, will look back at some of our most engaging and impactful stories from the last year, as well as a couple

JANUARY 31, 2020

YEAR IN REVIEW

of stories that just stand out as our favorites as well. We hope you enjoy the chance to look back at all we have done together.

From everyone here at Sound Publishing, it has been an honor to serve as your local news source for the past year and we look forward to providing our readers with accurate, timely and entertaining stories in the year ahead.

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Writers: Luciano Marano, Mark Krulish, Tyler Shuey, Ken Park Publication design: Bryon Kempf Creative artists: Bryon Kempf, Raquee Rivera

P.O. Box 278, Poulsbo, WA 98370 | 19351 8th Avenue NE, Ste 135, Poulsbo, WA 98370 Office (360) 779-4464 | www.soundpublishing.com Copyright 2020 Sound Publishing

ON THE COVER A crew member of Hawaiian Chieftain takes command of a mast line.

Bob Smith | Kitsap News Group

Bainbridge Island Harbormaster Tami Allen does her best to clear a path through the record snowfall on the city’s public dock in downtown Winslow in February.

Luciano Marano / Bainbridge Island Review Colton Bower defends a pass away from Sequim receiver Garrett Hoesel. Mark Krulish / Kitsap News Group

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BAINBRIDGE ISLAND REVIEW

Flying solo round the world, again Island pilot recounts latest transglobal trek in single-engine prop plane

By LUCIANO MARANO lmarano@soundpublishing.com ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

W

hy am I here?

It’s a deep philosophical quandary that has plagued mankind since time immemorial. Why am I here — on this planet? At this time? As this person?

Or, in the case of Bainbridge-based aviator Harry R. Anderson, quite literally: Why am I here in this single-engine prop plane above the seemingly endless expanse of empty blue that is the Atlantic Ocean? Gliding above the otherworldly landscape of the North Pole? Here alone on Christmas Island, a world-renowned fishing hot spot, when I don’t even enjoy fishing?

Surely, there are more relaxing ways to spend a retirement?

And the answer, after many thousands of miles flown and his having landed on all seven continents and in more than 50 countries (and counting) is, by his own admission, less than satisfying: Why, for the adventure, of course.

“Well, when I tell people that they nod with approval, pat me on the back, wish me luck and lament that they don’t have the time, money, or mental energy for a similar leap of lifestyle,” Anderson wrote in his 2015 memoir “Flying 7 Continents Solo.”

“Of course, my explanation is mostly a fiction and ‘for the adventure’ sounds like what you put in the blank space on a form where it asks ‘Reason for trip?’ and can’t think of an honest answer, or are unwilling to write one down,” he went on.

“Telling people I’m flying my plane from place to place around the world,

erratically bouncing between earth and sky in some endless pinball purgatory because I had nothing better to do, intrigued in some ways by the thought of crashing into the ocean because the shocking realty of it would be refreshing, fortified knowing that at some point the best anyone could hope for was death with at least some adventurous nobility — that answer would not make anybody happy.”

Except that it kind of does make at least one person happy.

Anderson recently returned to Bainbridge having completed his second, and (he insists) likely last, solo around-the-world flight. He’s been called an “adventure pilot,” and is obviously something of an explorer at heart, but the man himself insists he’s nothing quite so romantic.

“I really look at myself more as a traveler and an airplane happens to be my weapon of choice,” Anderson said.

“People find adventure in a lot of different ways. It’s not an inexpensive way to travel; I could go to all the same places on commercial flights and say, ‘OK, I’ve seen this place, I’ve seen that place.’ But the adventure is really in the challenge of getting there, and people who haven’t done it don’t really appreciate all the problems that need to be solved to get from place to place in small airplanes.”

Photo courtesy of Harry Anderson

Bainbridge Islander Harry R. Anderson, adventure pilot, has landed on all seven continents and in more than 50 countries.

Those problems run the gamut from difficult weather conditions, obviously, to basic logistics and mechanics, the physical demands of such lengthy flights, and being able to navigate the sometimes Kafkaesque world of international aviation bureaucracy.

Anderson, who is unmarried and has no children, moved to Bainbridge in 2002 after partially retiring from his first career as a wireless engineer in Oregon, where he started software companies that made tools for designing wireless networks.

He said learning to fly was not a longheld childhood dream of his, but a pasSEE HARRY, 5

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BAINBRIDGE ISLAND REVIEW but never felt in danger by the weather,” he said. “I felt uncomfortable, like, ‘Hey, I wish I was somewhere else.’ But I’ve never felt like the plane was going to come apart. I’ve never been in a situation where I really felt that I was at risk; I was just annoyed.”

HARRY CONTINUED FROM 3

sion he came to when he found himself rather suddenly with more free time.

“I got my pilot’s license relatively late in life, in 1998,” he said. “It’s one of those things that was always sort of interesting, but I didn’t feel any compulsion to do it.”

The 2019 westbound flight around the world will likely be his last trans-global trek, Anderson said, though he is far from done flying.

“There are still places I’d like to see,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll do any more flights outside the Americas, North and South America. I’ve pretty much done all the things I’ve wanted to do in terms of flying overseas, certainly more than almost any other pilot I know of in small planes like this.

His plane has a 310-horsepower engine and, technically, four seats, but for longer flights he often removes the backseat and replaces it with an additional fuel tank.

“It’s actually a pretty high-powered single engine airplane for a small airplane, and it’s a fairly modern streamlined design,” Anderson said. “It’s made of all fiberglass and composite materials rather than aluminum so it’s got some design features which make it really efficient for these kinds of flights.”

Anderson’s plane can manage about

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Image courtesy of Harry Anderson

A map depicting Bainbridge Island pilot Harry R. Anderson’s flight paths from his four solo trips around the globe.

1,200 miles in one go even without extra tanks. He first flew around the world going east back in 2011, flew to Antarctica in 2013, flew over the North

E S TA B L I S H E D

1990 30 YEARS

Pole last year, and this year flew back around the world, going west.

The longest single leap he’s made was from Hawaii to California, a little more than 2,000 miles.

Though the autopilot program does the heavy lifting mid-flight, the takeoffs and landings are all Anderson. Still, it often means a lot of time to himself in the air with very little to look at.

“There really isn’t much to do except switch fuel tanks and keep a lookout for bad weather ahead that you want to try and divert yourself around,” Anderson said. “A lot of people ask me, ‘Do you read? Do you sleep? Do you do any of these other things?’ And I say no. Some pilots can, but I’ve never been able to do those things, so I’m just sitting there at peace with my own thoughts, I guess.”

But when there is something to see, all the waiting is worthwhile.

“The flight over the North Pole was interesting; just to be able to look out on the broken up Arctic ice and not really see an ice cap or anything else.”

Weather monitoring programs have greatly improved since Anderson started flying, but despite that and his own meticulous planning he has at times found himself in shaky situations.

“I’ve been in some turbulent situations

“The Americas still includes a lot — Canada, Central and South America — it’s still a lot, and I don’t need to use any extra fuel tanks to visit any of those places. I still have a lot of options and possibilities.”

Via more traditional air travel, too, less adventurous though it may be, Anderson still gets around more than most.

“I did a lot of traveling before I was a pilot and I continue to travel on commercial flights,” he said. “For example, in 2016 I did a trip that was designed to visit the 10 smallest countries in the world.

“Three of them are just little islands out in the Pacific,” he added. “I did that with commercial flights.”

To have flown around the world once, let alone twice, alone and in a single-engine prop plane is an incredibly rare achievement, and one tracked by www. earthrounders.com, a site dedicated to registering pilots who have flown around the world in light aircraft.

According to group officials, “Out of the 7.4 billion people on Earth, 4,000 people have climbed Mount Everest, 500 have been in space, while only around 700 pilots flew around the world in light aircraft and only 300 of them are alive today.”

One of them lives on Bainbridge Island, where he is currently planning his next trip.

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YEAR IN REVIEW 2019

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BAINBRIDGE ISLAND REVIEW

Bainbridge man recalls working in support of Apollo moon landing project

Stellar stories

“I thought there was a lot of pressure, especially on the operating crew, and that’s not considering anything to do with the payload, the spacecraft,” Adams said. “The thing that impressed me the most was how they pulled everybody together in a coordinated operation. It was very good, I thought.”

By LUCIANO MARANO lmarano@soundpublishing.com

C

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUGUST 1, 2019

Of course, Adams had a very different idea of pressure than many of his colleagues — and he’d already seen enough history close up to suit him.

ountless small steps went into mankind’s most famous giant leap.

Before going to work for Boeing he served two years during World War II, completing 35 missions in Europe as a radioman with an Eighth Army Air Force bomb group.

And while it was Neil Armstrong’s boots doing the first real moonwalk, and he and his fellow astronauts became international celebrities, their achievement was the product of thousands of people putting in too many man hours to count for nearly a decade.

“I thought I was living through history when I went through the war,” Adams said. “I landed in Europe in June [1944] and our first mission was two weeks after D-Day.

By Christmas, I was on my way home. Then they gave you R&R at home for a while and then they sent me to school [training] on the ordinance system on B-29s. I was a flight instructor at Alamogordo [New Mexico].”

People like Bainbridge Island’s John Q. Adams.

Adams, 95, began work for the Boeing Company in 1949, where he started out in various phases of design, installation and analysis of airplane power plants before being transferred to missile programs in 1957. He worked as manager in field installation design for many programs, including the iconic Saturn V rocket, which propelled both NASA’s Apollo and Skylab programs into space.

Basically, he was the pioneer on the ground who got things ready for the interstellar pioneers’ big push.

Technically speaking, Adams acted as operations analyst and design liaison support for launch complex installations for nearly 20 years, supporting such famous programs as Bomarc (the world’s first long-range surfaceto-air missile, used during the Cold War; also the first missiles that Boeing mass-produced); Minuteman (landbased intercontinental ballistic missiles, a later model of which is now the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States); Dyna-Soar (a never-realized, but totally awesome sounding, spaceplane slated to be used for aerial reconnaissance, bombing, space rescue, satellite maintenance, and as an interceptor to sabotage enemy satellites, but was cancelled in 1963, just after construction had begun); and, of course, Saturn V. Boeing constructed the first of rocket’s three stages, and was responsible for integrating all three components together.

“To me the most amazing thing was what they did in 10 years,” Adams said.

And there was plenty to do even before getting to the glamorous work of space travel. The Saturn V was designed, under the direction of Wernher von Braun, at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Different contractors had to work cooperatively and everyone was feeling the pressure of time whizzing by.

There again Adams found himself near the center of the action — although very much inadvertently this time.

Photo courtesy of John Adams

John Q. Adams, seen here in a photo taken during his time working as part of the Boeing Company’s Saturn V rocket project, which propelled both NASA’s Apollo and Skylab programs into space.

But there was no space center there when Adams and company first made the trek. In fact, there was practically nothing.

“I was part of the first team that went down,” Adams recalled. “For the office building, they took an old cotton warehouse and converted it into a pretty nice facility for the Boeing team.

“There were so many people; we’re talking about massive [numbers] of people,” he added. “Not only for work, but where do they live and all that sort of thing?”

At Cape Kennedy, too, Adams and the advance team found slim pickings on which to build initially.

“I spent a lot of time at the cape,” he said. “At the cape there was nothing relative to this program. It was a swamp.”

Ultimately, Adams worked in logistics for the ground complex, managing a myriad of practical concerns like spare parts requirements, assembly procedure, inventory control and even compiling maintenance manuals.

Collaboration was the order of the day, Adams said.

“I was in Alamogordo when the test bomb when off,” he recalled. “I was 80 miles south, driving across the runway in a Jeep, and all of a sudden the whole sky lit up just like noon. A while later we heard the boom.

“We knew they were testing [atomic bombs]; we knew something about it and the race between Germany and us over who was going to get the bomb first.”

Originally from Wisconsin, Adams moved to Bainbridge in 1977, the year he retired from Boeing, and still lives in the same house today. He is an avid gardener and father of seven who has lived through war, seeing man first walk on the moon, the advent of computers and cell phones, the eradication (and inexplicable return) of measles, the changing of the century — and the passing of two children and his wife.

In the recent commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, Adams said he was not particularly interested.

“I’d been through it,” he said. “I know it’s nice landing on the moon and stuff like that, but the accomplishments of getting there was the thing that impressed me more than anything.

“I thought it was very interesting, but I was glad when it was over.”

Adams said the lessons learned and advances made in SEE STELLAR, 6

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but vocal portion of the population believe the moon landing never happened at all, and was in fact the product of a massive conspiracy, Adams simply shrugged.

STELLAR CONTINUED FROM 5

the process of getting to the moon were, to him, more important than all the flag waving.

“I think there’s a lot of people like that,” he said.

“I wish they would have had a more concentrated effort as to what to do after you got to the moon,” he said. “I think they lost a lot of emphasis in the next steps and so forth. Where do we go from there?”

Asked how he feels knowing that a small

“I remember during the program I had a vacation and I went back [to] Wisconsin, and I drove back to visit my folks. There are a lot of farming communities up there and they didn’t believe that we even went to the moon. They didn’t even know the program was going on.”

During the era of the Space Race, Adams said people seemed to trust the government more — but then again, the government also seemed more trustworthy.

“The government was more unified,” he said. “We still had the aftereffects of the

JANUARY 31, 2020

war, plus the controversy after the war.”

Of course that may be the rosy glow of retrospect talking, because, as Adams himself is quick to caution: “When you get to my age there’s two things: One is you forget a lot, and the other is you exaggerate a lot.”

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Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review

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NORTH KITSAP HERALD

Carrying on the legacy of the Poulsbo Boat

By NICK TWIETMEYER ntwietmeyer@soundpublishing.com ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

W

hen it comes to legacies, a few topics arise when considering Poulsbo’s history.

Certainly the indigenous people who first called this area home and then the Scandinavian settlers who arrived in the late 19th century, come to mind — as does the more-than-a-century old lutefisk dinner hosted at Poulsbo’s First Lutheran Church each year. But perhaps less well-known in the collective minds of Poulsbo’s citizenry — especially the recent arrivals — is the work of Ronald Young and the Poulsbo Boat.

From 1933 through 1965 Young constructed his wooden boats in the basement of Ole Berg’s garage in downtown Poulsbo. Those familiar with Young’s workshop often note that during extremely high tides on Liberty Bay, the basement was prone to significant flooding and as such, it wasn’t unheard of for the constituent parts of a Youngbuilt boat to have been anointed in saltwater prior to assembly. Young’s creations became colloquially known as the “Poulsbo Boat” and they earned a good reputation among local mariners for their reliability and the ease with which they handled the waters surrounding the Kitsap Peninsula.

In fact, it is for this characteristic reliability on the water that Young’s boats

were favored by the nearby salmon fishing resorts, which often rented the boats out to guests. Hansville’s Erickson Fishing Resort, operated by Ed and Svea Erickson from 1939 to 1966, was one such establishment. Ed and Svea’s son, Gary Erickson, recalled in a 2018 interview with the North Kitsap Herald, “They were really seaworthy, especially the inboards. They kind of float in the water like a duck.”

In the heyday of Hansville’s Chinook salmon fishing resorts, the Erickson’s owned 30 of Young’s boats, which they launched into the water for renters using a railway system at the resort’s pier.

FOUR GENERATIONS RUNNING Even with more than a half-century passed since the last Poulsbo Boat’s planks were made malleable with steam, bent to shape and then caulked watertight with oakum, there still exists a strong following for the care, attention to detail and craftsmanship that Young gave to each of his boats — in fact, for some, the love of Young’s Poulsbo Boats has become a family affair.

Paul Diehl, Eric Diehl and Matt Diehl all stand in Paul’s garage in Kingston, three generations of Diehl’s are flanked on either side by two of Young’s wooden boats. One boat sits on a trailer, ready to be launched at a moment’s notice and the other atop blocks, undergoing a careful restoration in the garage.

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THE YEAR IN PICTURES Nick Twietmeyer | Kitsap News Group

The Diehl family enjoys a leisurely cruise along Liberty Bay in their Poulsbo Boat

Tyler Shuey | Kitsap News Group

103-year-old World War II veteran Lt. Col. Vern Frykolm (right) presents a wreath to the Tombs of the Unknown at a Wreaths Across America ceremony in December at Ivy Green Cemetery.

Nick Twietmeyer | Kitsap News Group

Poulsbo Public Works Superintendent Mike Lund surveys the scene where a trailer came free from a vehicle and crashed into a crosswalk pedestal.

Nick Twietmeyer | Kitsap News Group

Graduates of Kingston High School’s Class of 2019 toss their caps in the air.

Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review

Bainbridge Island’s annual “impromptu” Scotch Broom Parade again took the streets of downtown Winslow in May, presided over by a new randomly chosen queen.

Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review

The first day of the 2019 Bainbridge Island Farmers Market was rainy and cold, but that didn’t stop eager attendees from turning out.

YEAR IN REVIEW 2019

JANUARY 31, 2020

Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review

Bicyclists ride through downtown Winslow during the Cascade Bicycle Club’s annual Chilly Hilly on Bainbridge Island. Hundreds of riders rode in the event, the annual start of the bicycling season in Puget Sound.

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Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review

Whitney, the Bainbridge Police Department’s new K9 officer, trains with her human partner, Officer Kurt Enget.

Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review

A fatal condo fire claimed the life of a Bainbridge Island man in April 2019.

The oldest in-service boat in the Washington State Ferries fleet, the M/V Tillikum, was recognized at a special historic ceremony Feb. 27 at Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility on Bainbridge Island.

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YEAR IN REVIEW 2019

JANUARY 31, 2020

NORTH KITSAP HERALD BOAT CONTINUED FROM 7

“I bought it from the original owner, Anton Holm, he was 84 years old and he told me, ‘I’m just getting too old to go out on it.’” Paul Diehl said, recalling the story of how one of the boats came to be his own, and later his grandson’s. “Now I’m 85 and I was way too old to go out on it a long time ago.”

Paul’s son, Eric, and grandson, Matt, take turns occasionally injecting small details as the eldest Diehl shares his experiences and appreciation of the boat. Despite joking at the expense of his own age, Paul Diehl shares his stories with the clarity of a man sixty years his junior.

It was in 1973 that Diehl acquired his boat, after a coworker suggested he inquire about a boat listed for sale in Hansville.

“He came to work one day and he was brandishing the Bainbridge Review

and in it was an ad for a Poulsbo Boat.

He said, ‘Paul, you’ve got to go buy this boat, they’re just the greatest boats.’ I had never seen one, I didn’t know what any of this was about,” Diehl said.

The seller of the boat, Anton “Tony” Holm, had purchased it new in 1949 from Young and as coincidence would have it, he had been using the Erickson Resort’s boathouse to store his boat over the years.

“He wanted $230 for it,” Diehl said. “I said, ‘all I can give you is $200’ and he said, ‘oh, okay.’ So, I bought it for $200 at the time,” Paul Diehl said, recalling the transaction that, even in 1973, would make any collector green with envy.

“It was a very safe boat. If you watch them in the waves, they’re just like a seagull,” Paul Diehl said. “It’s a very comfortable, very safe boat. I would carry a two-gallon gas tank for extra fuel and you hardly ever had to put any in.”

With a professional history as a marine engineer and ship designer, Paul Diehl has a unique perspective on what

makes the Poulsbo Boat a uniquely brilliant design.

“To me, it’s perfect,” Diehl said. “I don’t know where [Young] got the lines to do this or if he invented it himself, but it’s almost a perfect-looking boat.”

“These types of hulls are displacement hulls, versus a planing hull,” added Eric Diehl. “The displacement hulls, as far as going through the water, they have to have a very smooth entry and a smooth exit, and this boat just has a very nice design for that.”

The distinct look of the Poulsbo Boat is not only for aesthetic reasons, with its characteristic sheer line which sweeps the bow up, reminiscent of Norse longships, the boat maintains a smooth entry into larger waves. The distinct “tumblehome” and its upswept stern, smooth the boat’s exit as well.

The Poulsbo Boat’s reliability and seaworthiness made it a prime first vessel for young Matt Diehl, who first began to pilot his grandfather’s boat around the age of five years old.

“The first time he let me solo in it, I ran it into the dock and knocked the eye off the front,” Matt Diehl laughed. “You see, you had to shut it off just at the right time to coast in because there was no neutral and no reverse.”

As the three generations of Diehl’s stand in the garage, talking shop and sharing the memories they made together — all with a boat built some 70 years ago serving as the focal point — a fourth generation, 7-year-old Shelby Diehl, quietly approaches her father, Matt, and shyly hides behind his legs. When asked if she likes her father’s boat, Shelby leans out from behind her dad and nods.

A TRIUMPHANT RETURN On Sept. 13, 14 and 15 the Poulsbo Boat Rendezvous sailed into the Viking City. A gathering of enthusiasts and collectors of Ronald Young’s infamous wooden boats showed off their vessels along the Poulsbo Waterfront through the weekend.

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11

NORTH KITSAP HERALD

Shock, outrage and questions remain following fatal police shooting

By KEN PARK AND NICK TWIETMEYER kpark@soundpublishing.com & ntwietmeyer@soundpublishing.com

T

he fatal July 3 police shooting of Stonechild Chiefstick at a crowded firework show in downtown Poulsbo sent shockwaves throughout the community. The impact was far reaching and stoked longstanding questions of equality and policing as it relates to indigenous communities. Immediately following the shooting, Poulsbo City Council meetings began to fill as residents across Kitsap County and the surrounding communities used the public comment portion of the meetings as a platform to air their questions, concerns and grievances for how the incident was handled by the Poulsbo Police Department and the subsequent investigators through the Kitsap Critical Incident Response Team.

As of Jan. 20, 2020, Kitsap County Prosecutor Chad Enright had yet to arrive at a determination on whether to press criminal charges against the Poulsbo officer who shot and killed Chiefstick. Enright initially had set a 60-day timeline after receiving the investigation materials from KCIRT back in October, but later called for additional interviews and investigation materials.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JULY 9, 2019 The individual killed by Police during a crowded July 3 fireworks show in downtown Poulsbo has been identified by family members as Stonechild “Stoney” Chiefstick of the Chippewa Cree Tribe based in Montana. The 39-year-old lived in Kingston, with his wife and five children.

Family and friends described

Chiefstick as a gentle soul and always smiling; a hard worker but a family man who planned his schedule around his children.

Poulsbo Police Chiefstick Chief Dan Schoonmaker said shortly after 9 p.m. on Wednesday, officers responded to reports of a man threatening people in the park.

“Several officers contacted the subject, and shortly thereafter, a struggle ensued,” reads a press release from the department.

“During the struggle one officer fired his handgun, striking the subject.”

Tony Williams, an eyewitness to the scene, said he noticed officers moving towards an individual at the park.

“I saw officers headed towards the area, the guy was hopping around in the woods and then took a fighting stance, he reached for his waist band and that’s when the officer shot him three times,” Williams said.

Williams was unclear where the individual was shot, but noted he saw blood coming from the individuals face.

Another witness, Michelle Welch, said she had been sitting nearby with her family — which included small children — when the incident occurred and contested Williams’ recollection of the incident.

“There were two shots and he wasn’t apprehended in the woods,” Welch said. “He was in a crowd of people right behind my family and myself. Police came at him from multiple directions and he had a long object in his hands.”

Welch said in an interview on

Thursday that she believed the man had been shot in the chest twice by the officers at the scene.

“He was bleeding around his face but I believe it was due to internal bleeding as you can see two holes in his chest as they had his shirt up after he was on the ground.”

According to a press release, issued Tuesday, July 9, the county’s forensic pathologist had conducted an autopsy on Chiefsitck the day prior. The official cause of death, according to the coroner’s office, were two penetrating gunshot wounds to the torso and head.

Other witnesses stated that Chiefstick had been threatening people in the park with a screwdriver. Investigators later stated that a screwdriver had been recovered from the scene.

According to a press release from the Poulsbo Police Department, following the shooting, “the subject was handcuffed and officers on scene rendered aid while they were waiting for paramedics to arrive.”

ongoing investigation into the shooting.

“Tribal Leadership continues to monitor the aftermath of the tragic shooting in Poulsbo on Wednesday night, and will be reviewing the outcome of the independent investigation,”the July 5 post read.

Chiefstick’s sister, Vincea Hibbets created a Gofundme page for her brother.

“We did not add a goal because we value any support through this difficult time,” Hibbets said in the information portion of the page, which has raised over $5,000.

Hibbets also notes that her brother had been “battling through a lot,” at the time of his death and that he “has now found peace.”

Family and friends as well as many people on social media are questioning the use of deadly force, especially in such a crowded area.

According to Deputy Scott Wilson, a public information officer with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, no officers were injured in the shooting and the suspect was transported via medic unit to Raab Park for an airlift to Harborview Medical Center.

“Even if he was lunging at someone with a screwdriver, they do not deserve to be shot, that’s why there’s tasers, that’s why there’s bean bags,” said Trishanda Pickup, the mother of four of Chiefstick’s children in an interview with KOMO News.

Lifesaving efforts on Chiefstick, Schoonmaker said in a press release, were ultimately unsuccessful.

“Using deadly force is our last resort,” Lt. Kevin Crane of KCIRT told reporters.

Schoonmaker also said the officer who fired at Chiefstick had served Poulsbo for five years and that Wednesday’s incident was the first time he had been involved in a shooting.

“We don’t want to get hurt, we don’t want anybody to get hurt. We don’t want the subject to get hurt.

But the subject’s actions dictate what we do.”

Officials with the Suquamish Tribe also stated in a Facebook post that the tribe would be monitoring the

Hours after his death the family of Chiefstick returned to the waterfront park to set up a memorial.

12

YEAR IN REVIEW 2019

JANUARY 31, 2020

CENTRAL KITSAP REPORTER

Doomed aircraft visits bremerton shortly before fatal crash

Tyler Shuey | Kitsap News Group

The doomed aircraft “Nine O Nine” visited Bremerton last summer, shortly before a fatal crash in Connecticut.

By TYLER SHUEY tshuey@soundpublishing.com

I

n June, the Central Kitsap Reporter went out to the Bremerton National Airport to cover the Wings of Freedom Tour, showcasing rare war aircraft, including the B-17 Flying Fortress “Nine-O-Nine”. The heavy bomber completed 140 combat missions during W WII. The tour is run by the

Collings Foundation, a nonprofit entity that preserves and exhibits rare historical aircraft.

Tragedy stuck in October, when “Nine-O-Nine” crashed at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut during a flight tour, killing seven people and injuring six. Following the crash, the Collings Foundation suspended its flight operations for the remainder of the season.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JUNE 25, 2019 The Collings Foundation’s Wings of Freedom Tour returned to Bremerton June 17-19 to showcase some of their rare war aircraft, including the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24, B-25, P-40 and P-51.

The three-day display included ground tours of the interior and exterior of the aircraft, as well as the chance to take a 30-minute flight

aboard one of them for a cost ranging from $400 to $450. Ground tours were $15 for adults and $5 for children under 12.

“They’re keeping the history alive,” said volunteer pilot Robert Norman Jr., who is also a Boeing first officer on the 777. “We’ll never be able to thank those people enough. We’re losing them at an astonishing rate.

We’re just making sure people don’t forget what that generation did.”

YEAR IN REVIEW 2019

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CENTRAL KITSAP REPORTER The tour itself lasts 10 months out of the year, starting at the southern tier of the U.S. during the winter months, then coming up the west coast during the spring before heading to the northern tier in the late summer and early fall. The tour is celebrating its 30th year in existence.

“Each plane has its own unique story, as they’ve survived 75 years,” Norman said. “The walking tours are most popular. The rides are a little bit more expensive but it is a true lifetime experience.”

The Collings Foundation is a nonprofit founded in 1979 with the purpose of preserving and exhibiting rare historical artifacts and organizing and supporting living history events that enable Americans to learn more about their heritage through direct participation, according to the foundation’s website.

“The Collings Foundation is military transportation, not just aviation,” Norman said. “They have these five airplanes and maybe 50 others and they are all in some state of flying condition or being restored.”

“I tell people [to] close your eyes and imagine a World War II bomber,” Norman Jr. said. “That airplane you’re thinking of is a B17. It’s iconic.”

The B-24 Liberator “Witchcraft” is the sole remaining aircraft of its type flying in the world, according to the Port of Bremerton. Norman said there were more B-24s built than any other airplane in history — approximately 18,000 were manufactured.

The B-25 Mitchell “Tondelayo” bomber is best known for being used in the U.S. Army Air Force’s Doolittle air raid on Tokyo during World War II. Also on display were the P-40 Warhawk “Jaws” and the P-51 Mustang “Betty Jane” fighters. The p-51 Mustang was recently awarded the Grand Champion award for restoration while the P-40 Warhawk is known as the front-line fighter for the Flying Tigers, the first American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force in 1941-1942.

Norman talked about the appeal

Tyler Shuey | Kitsap News Group

A view from the interior of “Nine O Nine” during its stop in Bremerton last summer.

that Bremerton has and why the tour chooses to come back every year.

“I live in Atlanta and I make a point to come out here every year. This is one of the most beautiful areas to fly in. The green, the trees and the water — it is such a gorgeous area to fly in. The people out here are great.

They take good care of us.”

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YEAR IN REVIEW 2019

JANUARY 31, 2020

PORT ORCHARD INDEPENDENT

New top cop sees collaboration as an essential department asset

By BOB SMITH rsmith@soundpublishing.com

S

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUGUST 29, 2019

ervant leadership: A philosophy in which an individual interacts with others — either in a management or fellow employee capacity — with the aim of achieving authority rather than power. The authority figure intends to promote the well-being of those around him or her. Characteristics: empathy, listening, stewardship and commitment to personal growth toward others.

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E S TA BL I S H E D

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Chief Matt Brown considers himself a servant leader — which is shorthand for being of service to his law enforcement department and community, not expecting others to serve him.

Brown, who joined the Port Orchard Police Department July 8 to replace retiring Chief Geoffrey Marti, had that philosophy ingrained into him early. The 44-year-old law enforcement veteran comes from a family of public servants — his father was an emergency room physician, his mother, a special education teacher, and his sister, a victims’ advocate within the judicial court system.

Brown But before Port Orchard’s new police chief took over from Marti — prior to his career as a deputy chief in Poulsbo, a chief criminal deputy with the Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office, a patrol sergeant with the City of Lakewood, Washington, and a deputy sheriff with Pierce County — the affable Brown got his first taste of law enforcement from a fellow with the same last name: Encyclopedia Brown.

As a youngster growing up in Walla Walla, Brown voraciously read the

Bob Smith | Independent

Police Chief Matt Brown (left) has been on the job in Port Orchard since July 8. He works alongside Deputy Chief Dale Schuster at police department headquarters on the bottom floor of City Hall.

29-book series chronicling the adventures of a boy detective named Leroy

“Encyclopedia” Brown, a boy detective who solved crime mysteries from his own agency run out of his garage.

“Encyclopedia Brown” helped spur the future chief’s interest in law enforcement. “I’d read those books and I’d go, ‘Oh, I want to do that’ and solve crimes,” he said.

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But while the fantasy world’s Brown was a one-boy crime-solving machine, the real world’s Brown knows that a police officer, department and command staff can’t do it alone. It takes a collaborative effort on the part of everyone to effectively operate the police department of a growing community. And that collab-

YEAR IN REVIEW 2019

JANUARY 31, 2020

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PORT ORCHARD INDEPENDENT orative philosophy through servant leadership is promulgated at the top

SERVANT LEADER “I’m a big believer in servant leadership. I would hope that if you talked to the guys and gals here, they would say that,” Brown said during an interview earlier this week.

“I don’t have all the answers and I don’t have all the institutional knowledge here. But I can certainly bring in some ideas and I’m hoping that people will share the vision that I have. Realistically, I work for them.”

Although he’s been on the job here for a little less than two months, Brown and his wife, Darcy, have been Port Orchard residents for a year and a half. After returning to the west side of the state from his stint in Walla Walla, the couple decided to settle in South Kitsap, which is equidistant between his Poulsbo work location and that of his wife, who took a job in the Tacoma area. “[Port Orchard] was kind of a good middle ground for us,” he said. “We always wanted to live on this side of the bridge, anyway, and it was a good opportunity to do that.”

But after Marti indicated his desire to retire and Mayor Rob Putaansuu began recruiting to replace him, Brown nearly passed on the opportunity in Port Orchard. While the position was attractive — and, if chosen, it would have eliminated his long Poulsbo commute — Brown’s career path there had been set in motion with a goal of taking over as police

chief in that city.

His wife Darcy, however, reminded Brown to consider taking his own advice: “My wife told me, ‘You tell everybody that ‘opportunities aren’t convenient,’ and yet you’re not taking this opportunity right in front of you, right where you live.’”

That was advice — and a timely reminder — that he took to heart. He applied for the position, interviewed before three boards, then participated in a community “meet-and-greet” session after becoming a finalist.

And after an extensive interview with the mayor, Brown was selected May 6 to become Port Orchard’s new police chief. He was unanimously approved by the City Council later that month.

Brown said he believes Putaansuu chose him for the post because the two share a common vision of the police department’s role in the community — and of what direction the city is to follow in the coming decades. Port Orchard is expected to triple in size by 2050, necessitating a large growth in infrastructure and city government services, including policing.

“I think I bring a lot of energy. I’m really passionate about law enforcement, compassionate about the people who are in it and want them to be as successful as possible,” Brown said.

PROCESSES “If you were to ask me 15 years ago when I was a young cop or on SWAT working graveyard, what would I believe in most, I certainly wouldn’t have said, ‘process and systems.’ But that’s really how command staff can support the officers on the street. It’s not just expectations. It’s not, ‘when you go out, here’s what you should do,’ because they already know that.

“But it’s [officers understanding

Although Brown’s commute to work has been greatly reduced by his venue change, working in the city you live in presents its own set of challenges. He admitted it can sometimes be difficult.

“You always have to be ‘on’ when you live and work in the same community,” he said. “It’s a little bit different because I wear a uniform.

Oftentimes people don’t recognize my face when I’m in civilian clothes.

But that’s happened in other areas I’ve worked in where people recognize me in the grocery store.

“That means you’ve always got to be ‘on,’ always aware. Sometimes that can add to your stress. But I don’t get that sense here. It’s just a great place, period.”

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To respond to changing community needs, the new police chief said that as a servant leader, it’s critical that he be flexible and open to change and constructive criticism.

that] if they get into a pursuit, they know the process to follow after that.

If there’s a use of force, they know the process following that.”

He said he’s appreciative the city’s leadership recognizes, like it or not, that the Port Orchard of today will look much different in 30 years.

Market forces beyond the community’s control will dictate much of its growth.

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behind the eight-ball and have paid the price,” Brown said.

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