It's always nice to see a retired person switch gears and not follow the norm of “being retired.” George Hoover, the subject of our lead story on page 1A this week, had a dream of flying. Children and adults alike have dreamed — at one time or another — of being a firefighter or an astronaut.
I was a volunteer for the citizen’s advisory committee for Pierce County Fire District 16. For four months, we reviewed policies, procedures, operations, budget, organization and leadership in order to suggest recommendations to the board of fire commissioners of any changes we felt would benefit the fire district or the community it serves.
Right now, clothes, books, toiletries, snack foods, electronics and music CDs are strewn all over my bedroom floor and mattress. Things are overflowing from drawers, sticking out of the closet, half-thrown into boxes and smattering the rough, beige carpet with towering obstacles.
Three amendments to the Pierce County charter are proposed this November:
I've been busy this week. Very, very, very busy. Extremely busy, in fact. Why have I been so busy this week, you may be asking yourself? I’ll tell you why. I’ve been busy this week writing my annual Labor Day filler column.
Key Peninsula voters who rejected Fire District 16’s attempt last week at lifting the lid on its current levy are putting the department at serious risk. An already understaffed fire department spread across the entire peninsula will now look at ways it can cut more than $190,000 from its 2010 budget. The trick will be ensuring fire and EMS personnel will be able to arrive at emergency situations with an adequate force to make a difference.
We're proud of Kelsey Osborne for following through on her fundraising goal. The recent Gig Harbor High School graduate started an ambitious project last year to raise $250,000 to name the oncology center at St. Anthony Hospital after her father, David Osborne, who died of colon cancer about a year ago.
When four letters to the editor are published on the same day regarding the same subject, readers should take notice, question the accuracy of the information and demand full disclosure regarding the writers’ conflicts of interest.
When my grandparents were in their 80s, most homes were getting their first personal computers. The family thought my grandparents would like a computer, so we asked if they’d like one.
Yes, it can happen in Gig Harbor. It happened to us, and it can happen to you.
Thousands of parents around the peninsulas are preparing their children for school in a week or so. At the same time, hundreds of teachers and other education workers are preparing themselves to provide an inspiring and motivating environment for their students.
Three Gig Harbor homes were flooded last Friday night when a water main under Harborview Drive burst. City staff have been helpful to the families whose homes have been damaged, and their message about additional water lines should be taken seriously.
The Peninsula School District has been warning those who live within its boundaries for months that the 2009-10 budget was going to take some hits. Last Thursday, its Board of Directors made it official, painfully chopping more than $5 million to balance a shortfall that affects everyone from administrators, to teachers, to our children.
In this time of economic duress it’s important for government to accomplish more with fewer resources. It’s no different than what’s already occurring with family budgets at kitchen tables across our state. That’s why legislators are scouring state government and its programs to ensure efficient and effective use of public resources.
The following are letters to the editor that appeared in the Aug. 19 print edition of The Peninsula Gateway. To submit a letter, e-mail gatewayeditor@gateline.com. Please keep letters submissions to 250 words.
I have to remind myself from time to time that my enthusiasms and my problems are not universally shared. On the other hand, it seems to me that, with an escalating number of emergencies, other people’s stress is actually affecting my comfortable life here in Gig Harbor.
I strongly support a public health care option, the likes of which exists in other industrialized nations. These other nations have come to the conclusion that universal coverage for all is a common good for society. The reasons for having such a system are so many, from purely economic to moral ones, that they should be drowning out the disingenuous rhetoric of those who wish to keep this bankrupt U.S. system in place.
While the national debate over whatever is the polarizing issue of the day rages on, many young couples find themselves eerily disengaged, distracted by the instinctual tug and rational push of their own struggle: whether or not to have children.
There's nothing worse than leaving a long, stressful day at work only to be stuck in traffic because of an accident or construction. The average American traveler spends an entire workweek stuck in traffic annually, according to the 2009 Urban Mobility Report.
Voting to force city employees to take unpaid time off will never be a popular decision, but the Gig Harbor City Council did the right thing when it voted to effectively shut down city operations for eight days during the next four months. The decision will save $116,000 and give us a sneak peak of the city’s 2010 plans.
In his recent letter Fire Commissioner Yanity stated he spoke with a fire department staff member from somewhere 100 miles away. Yet neither were named.
Earmarks and gerrymandering are destroying our democratic republic. Few political schemes are more detrimental to our body politic — locally and nationally.
Isn't is always the way? You’re a columnist slogging through the doldrums of summer, nothing much going on. So you take a couple weeks of vacation and — bam! — all heck breaks loose.
Voters in Pierce County Fire Protection District 16 on the Key Peninsula will have another chance to approve a levy lid lift on Aug. 18. Two attempts since 2006 have failed, but voters should take a good, hard look at Proposition 1 and approve it.
Downtown Gig Harbor businesses are not waiting around for the recession to end. A group of active community members got together to kick-start their own “downtown atmosphere” this month by bringing about a blast from the past.
A group — mainly one person — calling itself “responsibility first” is trying to confuse Key Peninsula voters. Here is the truth:
