t “Traffic Talk” gets personal.

HANSVILLE — More than 150 people showed up to participate in what became a verbal war over Hansville’s speed tables Wednesday night.

Come 7 p.m., not one parking spot or chair was left empty in the Greater Hansville Community Center, as people crowded around windows and jammed doorways.

The North End’s Kitsap County Commissioner Steve Bauer took heat from many of those who oppose the speed tables.

The tables, which are three inches taller than the existing road with a six-foot ramp on either side of a 10-foot flat center, have been a controversial issue since their installation in late 2007.

There are four total, located on Hood Canal Drive NE, Hood Canal Drive north of Bridgeview Road, Twin Spits Road and Hansville Road, near downtown.

The issue has divided Hansville and efforts of the opposing sides have turned the community into a place of fear, said Bauer, who facilitated the meeting.

“My goal is to come out of this with a solution for everybody,” he said. “We need to rebuild this community. … There is a solution here if we work at it.”

In the short history of the speed tables, people have been victims of hate crimes such as painting arrows on driveways to show who is in favor of the bumps, said Jo Nelson, member of the Greater Hansville Area Road Safety Advisory Committee, which is now a part of the Planning Committee.

A Web site, www.beep4bumps.com, copyrighted by John Hostvedt who was also in attendance, encourages people to show their opposition by honking while driving over the bumps.

The Web site posts the names and addresses of the Road Safety Advisory Committee members.

“People around the committee are scared to speak up out of fear of retaliation,” Bauer said after the meeting.

The presence of Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer served a dual purpose at the meeting.

“I was here for the original meeting and have been involved since,” he said. “We are doing enforcement in this area so we have a role in this but I am sure we have a calming effect on people by being here tonight under the circumstances.”

Boyer said he hoped people wouldn’t get caught up in who was for or against, rather focus on traffic safety and the well-being of the neighborhood.

“We would prefer not to have the need for these speed tables and we would also prefer not to have to write speeding tickets,” he said to the group. “Bottom line is we (Kitsap County Sheriff deputies) are spread thin — the lowest staffed in Washington. We wrote 20,000 tickets last year because people are not driving responsibly. You people need to set an example.”

Between May 2006 and May 2007, Kitsap County deputies wrote 300 citations to speeders in Hansville.

Now, because of the speed tables, “We get less speeding complaints,” said Deputy Mike Merrill. “But we still see people taking them at speeds up to 70 miles per hour.”

Research provided by the Greater Hansville Area Road Safety Advisory Committee showed that the majority of the speeding occurs during morning and evening commute hours, “when kids are out,” said Gary Paulson, GHAAC member.

People of all ages attended the meeting, including 14-year-old Shane Anderson, who said he likes the speed tables because he can ride his bike without having to worry about cars speeding past him.

Hansville bicyclist Steve Stivers, however, stood up in opposition to the tables.

“They were supposed to make it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists but they are making my commute more dangerous every morning,” he said.

Rick Raber, owner of Rick’s Trucking and Excavating said he can’t drive his “Class A” 100,000 pound trucks over the speed tables at the posted 20 or 30 mph speed limit.

“They are 10 mile-an-hour bumps with a loaded truck,” he said. “There is no way you can go over them at the posted speed limit.”

Things got personal when Hansville resident Therese Reilly stood up and told Bauer to go back to Bellevue, where he worked as city manager before becoming a commissioner for Kitsap County.

This was followed by numerous residents yelling at Reilly to “go back to Kent.”

Fingers pointed and temperatures flared as professional mediators sought for calm and quiet.

Former Kitsap County Commissioner Chris Endresen was among those in the crowd that night.

“This meeting isn’t representative of the Hansville I know. It saddens me,” Endresen said. “I came out to support Steve (Bauer) because I’m the one who voted to put them in. We tried everything we could and speed tables were the last resort but Steve is the one taking lots of heat for it and that’s not fair.”

The professional mediators aim to start a work group meeting to disperse opposition and start working on resolutions.

“We installed the speed tables with the understanding they could be modified if needed,” Bauer said.

Future workshop meeting dates will be set by facilitators Hidde VanDuym and Molly Gordon.

“They will take the results and comments of this meeting to analyze to set up the process,” Bauer said.