Kudos to the staff!
Fresh perspectives on local sports, mental health appreciated
I want to let you know how much I enjoyed reading, “Playoff Tennis – Reporter learns rough tennis lesson by Your Average Pro,” by Wesley Remmer (May 21). It’s one of the best pieces of writing, sports or otherwise, that I’ve read recently. Wes has a great sense of humor and is able to convey that in his writing, at his own expense, it must be added. His challenge to others is a unique way to get a different slant on the stories that are out there in the community. Thanks, Wes. Also, I just finished reading Christopher Carter’s piece about mental health in Kitsap on the blog page online (http://blogs.centralkitsapreporter.com/wire/short-resources-kitsaps-mentally-ill/55/). He writes that the article was never published in the print version of the paper so he was posting it on the blog. It too was a good piece of writing, about a very important subject. Should have been front page, as far as I’m concerned. One question that didn’t get answered for me in the article is: why did Harrison Hospital close it’s mental health unit in 2009? I would be interested in reading more about this important issue in the future. It’s easy to spotlight the achievers and those who succeed in our community, as we should, but sometimes a light needs to be shown on those who too often “fall through the cracks”. Thanks, Christopher.
Cathy Palzkill
Brownsville
Note: Harrison Medical Center closed its Behavioral Health Unit May 1, 2009, because it often sat empty. The 12-bed unit operated at an average daily census of three patients, according to a statement from the hospital.
Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club
Check your facts, club supporters
I can’t decide whether Ted Fry’s letter (May 21) is a parody demonstrating “not doing proper research and fact checking,” “spreading half truths and innuendos,” “false accusations, rumors” or if he is serious. On the off chance he was serious, I recommend Mr. Fry, and all other interested citizens, do a little research, fact checking, and verification of their own.
These issues are on-going. Since around 2002, complaints and requests for intervention by elected officials and county departments from ever growing numbers of residents are on record. All are a direct result of illegal range expansion. The number and severity of complaints has reached levels where full investigation of alleged violations can no longer be avoided.
The club did not purchase the property. The land was given to the club at no cost after the county set special assessment requirements guaranteed to arrive at land value of $0.00.
“Good stewardship of the land” does not mean uncontrolled expansion that destroys protected wetlands. Exactly what “significant improvements in environmental protection” has the club accomplished? How much lead has been recovered and recycled? How much further has expansion spread contamination?
None of these issues are even remotely related to guns, or gun rights, or the Second Amendment. These are all land use, public and environmental health and safety, and rule of law issues. Exactly the same concerns apply to every light industry.
The Second Amendment does not convey or confer to anyone the right to pick and choose what laws we will observe and obey. In legal terms, people who think they have that right are known as criminals.
Think about it. Do your own research. Verify your own facts. Documentation for these statements and much, much, more is available in county, state Department of Natural Resources, and/or state Recreation and Conservation Office records, and in many cases, the club’s own newsletters.
Terry Allison
Seabeck
Flaunting rules affects community
We the citizens in Kitsap County believe in community. Community means having common rights and making choices to enhance our lives. The Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club is a part of our community. We have existed over a long period of time with little disagreement. In the last several years choices have been made that are having a huge impact on hundreds of families living near the club, including parts of Seabeck, Bremerton and Silverdale.
The Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club has chosen to become an Automatic and Semi-Automatic Weapons Fire Club that disrupts our lives, hundreds of family’s lives. These choices are intolerable. The club operates from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., 15 hours a day, seven days a week. It can and does have a huge impact on our lives. We never know when the barrages of gunfire will invade our homes and neighborhoods, disrupting our being on our own property and in our own homes. We have made a choice to change this intolerable situation.
Our rights as citizens are being abused. As a broad spectrum of citizens, both military and non-military, knowing and respecting that gun rights are vital to our freedoms, we need the club to make choices that help the entire community.
County laws and codes have been ignored and these need to be enforced. The expansion at the club without all proper authorization and permits is unacceptable. Let us reconnect on community and work to establish an outcome that meets everyone’s rights to live, work and play in this beautiful place we call home.
Peggy Kermath
Bremerton
