For Minnesota native Chad Solvie, figuring out what to do when he grew up wasn’t too hard a task. An idea seeded in high school sprouted in college, directing him on a path many choose only as a second career. But he knew early on assisted-living facility administration could be his niche, and worked hard to make it so, earning a bachelor’s degree in long-term care administration and psychology from Concordia College and a master’s in organization and management from Capella University. Now, at 34, he’s preparing to take the chief executive officer reigns of a long standing Poulsbo institution founded more than a century ago.
Administrator Chad Solvie to take CEO seat in September.
City’s 2009
Two years ago, when Poulsbo’s Tracy Zeringer heard 4,000 books in the North Kitsap School District were about to be recycled due to a change in curriculum, she immediately came up with another plan.
Instead of sending the text and literature books the way of the three-arrowed triangle, why not pass them on to readers in need of their own inked and bound essentials?
There’s no mistaking it once through the doors.
Greeted with a friendly smile right off the bat, it’s the swirling scent of Italian tastiness that hits it home: Stella’s Pizza & Pasta is more than just a nearby eatery. It’s a place where anyone could easily become a regular.
The neighborhood restaurant, opened in 2006 by Spiro’s co-founder Susan Baker, is tucked onto 10th Avenue near Central Market.
POULSBO — Little Norway is taking its aging sewer system to task.
The Port of Poulsbo had a cleanly helping hand from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) this week. For three days beginning Wednesday a DNR crew removed creosote pilings from the bay. The lower portion of the waterfront parking lot near the Marine Science Center was blocked off for the project, where 40 contaminated pilings were floated to a boat ramp and lifted by crane onto the tarp-covered ground.
Poulsbo’s Annexation Task Force checked off a hearty list of to-do’s for a group formed just four months ago. The force, comprised of nine Urban Growth Area citizens, one planning commissioner and two council members, has been meeting since April to discuss and determine what Little Norway’s annexation process needs to change and incorporate.
With a potential $16.9 million civic structure project moving forward in Poulsbo, the North Kitsap Herald decided to take the issue to the citizens and find out what their views on the tax expenditure are.
Plans are marching forward on Poulsbo’s new city hall project despite its undetermined budget. The council voted unanimously Wednesday night to go ahead with bid acceptance for the project’s first phase and to initiate the bonding process. Costs are shaking out to an estimated $16.9 million for the project — a number the full council has yet to agree on.
Poulsbo’s Third
The looming three-word catch phrase is one many small towns have come to dread: big box store.
Corporate chains are often seen as threats to local businesses and the small-scale feel of a town. Poulsbo has been no exception to that matter, facing in the decade past the budding College Marketplace development where Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Office Max, among others, currently sit. But Poulsbo Council Member Ed Stern said now, more than a decade after discussion regarding Olhava first began, a new perspective can be taken on the big box effect — one that encompasses a more positive outlook on the aftermath of chain store presence.
Miss Poulsbo Amy Stadshaug is already one leg up on the Miss Washington competition next week in Tacoma. Or make that foot.
The returning royal attended the contest in 2004 during her Miss Kitsap reign with a fracture in her right foot. Despite it, she competed. And now, four years later and with a new title to her name, she says she’s taking what she’s learned from the experience, as well as from the Miss Poulsbo program, and steering her confident energy toward “a whole new playing field.”
Centennial
Liberty Bay has received its fair share of attention recently — in a positive way.
The Department of Ecology will focus some of its resources on the bay this summer. The DOE will conduct research designed to span more than a year. It plans to assess the types of pollution found in the bay and track where it’s coming from.
Rosario’s Salon nail technician Sue Keefe knows just what she wants when it comes to downtown Poulsbo.
“Parking, parking, parking,” she said. “That’s the biggest thing ever.”
And Keefe isn’t alone.
Noon tomorrow will signal the start once again of a uniquely Poulsbo celebration: the Third of July.
Fate takes aim
North Kitsap High alum Jesse Matthews doesn’t have much extra time on his hands. Having just graduated from the St. Louis University School of Medicine, Matthews is clocking nearly 100 hours a week as a University of New Mexico Hospital resident specializing in internal medicine. He’s simultaneously working toward a master’s in public health.
But when the scrubs are off and the scalpel’s down, Matthews, 28, is weilding tools of a much different kind. Partnered with medical school classmate Andrew Sherman, Matthews is operating Netlife, a no-overhead, nonprofit organization that plugs each of its donated dollars into purchasing mosquito nets to help stop the spread of malaria. The disease fighting duo have been working for the cause since 2005.
The city of Poulsbo is optimistically crunching the numbers on a new city hall at Third Avenue and Moe Street, even as the project’s price tag nears $17 million.
