Last week when the North Kitsap Herald Advisory Board met with Proposition 1 supporters Dick Hayes and Sonny Woodward, the latter made a comment that raised eyebrows. It was something to the effect that even since the days of the Mosquito Fleet, North Kitsap has had issues of “territoriality.” A problem, he said, must be resolved.

A few days passed and the group met again, this time with prospective candidates volunteering to fill a vacancy on the board, and the matter was brought up again. Is the North End wrought with residents who don’t really care what’s going on a few communities away? It is an interesting question to examine, especially as far as this paper is concerned.

Keeping tabs on towns as diverse as Kingston, Poulsbo and Port Gamble, two tribes, and communities as varied as Hansville, Indianola, Eglon and Keyport is so immersing that the question is rarely raised. But territoriality?

That was a new one. Certainly the Herald’s varied readership subscribes to the theory to one degree or another. After all, it is ludicrous to think that a 350,000 gallon sewage spill in Liberty Bay has the same degree of newsworthiness to a Hansville resident as it would to someone in Lemolo.

So, should the Herald cater to one community or another? Maybe omit sports and schools, maybe leave out the Port Gamble S’Klallam and Suquamish tribes?

Of course not. There is a sign above the Herald editor’s desk that puts the mission of this paper in basic terms: Intensely local. To the North Kitsap Herald, this means cover the community, not just a town or two, but the whole community.

That’s what “local” is — North Kitsap. And that’s why while territoriality here does exist, the only boundaries this paper pays much attention to are the ones that separate this region and the stories that impact it from everywhere else in Kitsap, from everywhere else in the world.