Every once in a while someone asks me, “How do you find out about all of this stuff?”  With all of the newest handheld devices, apps, alerts, instant mail, social networks, this-book and that-space, one would think that we should all know everything about anything.

The truth of the matter is, there is so much information available at any minute of the day that we are saturated. The saturation is so dense that we often control what information gets to us.

I heard someone at a conference in Seattle last year mention that we now live in “communication silos”; we can control what gets in the top and nothing can get to us from the side. Without access to the top of my silo, no one gets in regardless of how important the message is.

In the old days, we would scan a newspaper and something in a headline would catch the eye. Nowadays, we look at a newspaper online and search out articles or specific journalists we want to read and ignore everything else. We record TV shows so we can scroll through the advertisements and public information and service announcements and then watch things when we have time. Local committees spend thousands of dollars a year on fliers and posters trying to get the word out on their events.

Last July when a concert was happening every Saturday down at the port, I was talking to someone up at the grocery store about the week’s event and he asked me, “How do you find out about all this stuff?” I turned him around on the spot and showed him the Concerts on the Cove poster. For the Port of Kingston, these challenges are being felt by our SoundRunner staff.

If you are reading this column, then you are holding in your hands the document that announces and describes much of what goes on in our community.  There are a few other means of becoming an informed citizen of the Greater Kingston community.  Once or twice a month, an hour or two spent at a public meeting or event can be a great and interesting way to be informed. Down at the port, we have a monthly general meeting usually on the fourth Wednesday.

On the first Wednesday of each month, the Kingston Citizens Advisory Council (KCAC) meets at the Miller Bay Road Fire Station near Country Corner. Both of these meetings start at 7 p.m.

The Port meetings deal with planning and policy of how the port district operated. At the KCAC meetings, you will hear an update from many of the other committees and organizations around town.  Some of the groups represented are Friends of the Library, the Ferry Advisory Committee, the Chamber of Commerce, North Kitsap School District, Rotary, Kiwanis, Farmers Market, our North End county commissioner, Village Green, the Port, Carpenter Creek, Stillwaters, tourism, economic development and the Options Program. There is always a keynote presentation by someone working on a major project and for two hours information flows. It’s a great place to get the scoop. It would be great to see more of you at these meetings.

The latest scoop down at the port is that the piling replacement project is done. No, we didn’t replace every piling, just 57 that were identified as worn out.  In about three years, we will tackle four or five dozen more. The green stalks that will be tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are starting to sprout. We are winding up the update on our five-year update to our comprehensive plan and getting ready to replace the gates to the permanent moorage docks.

The youth sailing program has been in a little trouble lately; the port is going to do some repair work on their docks but the boats will be out there again this summer. A couple of young, qualified and energetic instructors would really help out. Call Kori in the port office to get involved.

Nautical word
“Knot” is quite common, but do you know about the “minute of arc?” At sea, distance and speed are measured in knots. A nautical mile is 2,000 yards, or 1.15 miles. The distance of one minute of arc of latitude on the Earth’s surface is a nautical mile, so since there are 90 degrees of arc from the equator to the North Pole and each degree of arc  contains 60 minutes, every degree of that arc is 60 nautical miles. A speed of one nautical mile per hour is called a knot. That’s a little faster than mile-per-hour.

— Pete DeBoer is a Port of Kingston commissioner. Contact him at pete@petedeboer.com.