Our Commute is Getting Very Bumpy!
If you live in North Kitsap County, then you know...
HANSVILLE, WA -- -- Cliffside, Hansville, Driftwood Key, Shorewoods, and Twin Spits are now several annoying road bumps away from the rest of the world thanks to the Kitsap County Commission and their "traffic calming" efforts.
We live in Driftwood Key and the bumps that are particularly upsetting to us are those along Hood Canal Dr. north of Cliffside Road.
I'll bet, if you're like us, your least favorite bumps are the ones you have to drive over everyday, too.
At this point, based on the name of this website, you might be wondering if I'm going to urge you to beep your horn when approaching the bumps. Not at all. I'm going to leave that decision entirely up to you. For more on that, click here.
We hope this website is useful. If you'd like be on our mailing list, please use the form below. We feel the speed bumps were the wrong thing to do. They have harmed our peaceful community. We also feel that the people living along these bumps who dominated local committees that urged their installation must be made accountable for their installation.
Our intent with this website is five-fold:
They have refused all requests by this website to provide information, so we've obtained county records and have enlisted your help in "connecting the dots" -- or bumps as it were.
Ultimately it was the Kitsap County Commission who voted for and provided funding from pedestrian and bicycle safety dollars. They too have been unresponsive and unaccountable to the complaints generated by the speed bumps. We urge you to write to them and tell them how you feel even if they don't respond. They can't ignore you forever.
Commissioner Steve Bauer
Commissioner Charlotte Garrido
Commissioner Josh Brown
If you'd like to contribute your comments to the site, use the Give Us Feedback page or send email to info@beep4bumps.com
Do You Care About the Future of Your Community?
Citizens for Accountable Government Needs Your Support!
March 29, 2009 -- If you care about the future of your community and want to protect it from influences by those who don't even live in Hansville, please support Citizens for Accountable Government in Eglon and Hansville (CAGEH).
The Greater Hansville Area Advisory Council (GHAAC) has proven itself toxic for Kitsap County's north end. Its president, Judith Foritano, doesn't even live in Hansville, yet she conducts meetings and planning sessions as if she knows what's good for all of us.
GHAAC's governance structure is anti-democratic and dangerous to the future of our peaceful little community. Members of CAGEH are volunteering their time and money to protect the area from these influences and to provide representative governance.
Please visit their website today and support them by contributing your time and money! Their website is http://www.cageh.com/ and can be reached by clicking here.
Despite Obvious Bias in Bauer's Process; Community Meetings Result in Bump Removal Vote
July 15, 2008 -- After a series of meetings in which county officials refused to accommodate commuters who could not attend to give input, local residents -- many of whom where instrumental in agitating for the Hansville speed bumps last year -- voted to remove them.
Said one observer: "Anne Blair [County Commissioner Steve Bauer's assistant] set up the meeting tonight like first grade. She listed some choices on a chart on the wall and everyone in the room got three red dots which they could place all on one choice or could put on several choices. The top three were: remove the bumps with 82 dots; cross-connector road with 31 dots; and to widen/enhance the existing bumps with 75 dots."
The observer goes on to report: "The meeting ended with the biggest bait-and-switch we've seen in our lifetimes. After all the goalposts we've had to reach, they moved them again."
"We got hundreds of people to the "final" meeting in April, only to be told we had to participate in the "study groups", which people did."
"Now tonight after all was done, Anne told the audience that the 'remove' option had to pay for (or convince the Commissioners to pay for --- fat chance) far more studies to prove the science for removing the bumps."
Another observer and anti-bumps petitioner had this to say:
"Some of you were unable to attend last night's speed bump meeting [June 11, 2008] at HCC. I want all of you to know that the multiple-meeting format created by our leader Steve Bauer and his lieutenant Ann Blair, with its carefully designed procedures and process that respect and validate all of our feelings and opinions, has resulted in a breakthrough development that will go a LONG way towards bringing the speed bump war to a successful, agreeable end for all concerned.
Anne Blair reportedly told the audience, "I'm the boss. If you'd like to let her know that, in fact, she's not the boss, that you the taxpayers call the shots, you can email her at ASblair@co.kitsap.wa.us.
If there's anything useful you get in respond and would like to share with readers here, let us know at info@beep4bumps.com.
Hood Canal Drive Bump Advocates Create 'Tattle-Tale' Honk Squad; One County Resident Calls It A Hate Crime
"While the honking may be slightly inconvenient for residents there, it's a very small price to pay for providing adequate warning that vehicles are present on the road way." -- Beep4bumps Author
July 15, 2008 -- The Kitsap County Sheriff's Department must be getting an ear full these days.
Sources tell beep4bumps (they've asked not to be identified for obvious reasons) that residents on the speed bumps of Hood Canal Dr. have formed a vigilante group that's taken the Remove The Bumps petition and gone to signers' homes to copy down car license plate numbers. Then they're calling those numbers in to the Sheriff's Department to report them for beeping their car horns at or around the speed bumps.
Beep4bumps could not confirm whether the sheriff's department has received such calls but asks readers to make inquiries and report back. Write with information to info@beep4bumps.com. We'd especially like to hear from you if you've been the victim of this harassment.
"As if they haven't already made themselves the county's most hated residents, now this," said one petitioner. "This is sick. This is really sick."
NOTE: The Beep4bumps website does not advocate whether or not people honk their car horns at the bumps.
"That's a personal decision. And it's a safety issue," said website author, John Hostvedt.
"I feel very strongly that if these residents [Hood Canal Dr., Bridgeview Dr, and Twin Spits Road] are telling their neighbors that these otherwise ordinary county roads in front of their homes are so uniquely populated with pedestrians, unleashed pets, and wildlife as to necessitate the need to treat our roads, yes, OUR roads, as though they are nursing home parking lots, then I most certainly will honk rigorously to ensure public safety."
"And while the honking may be slightly inconvenient for residents there," he continued, "it's a very small price to pay for providing adequate warning that vehicles are present on the road way. It's profoundly hypocritical for any of them to complain about honking. Any reasonable person can realize that honking assures increased pedestrian, pet, and wildlife safety. Isn't that what they are demanding in the first place?"
Bump Controversy: It's Not First Time Bauer Has Manipulated Democracy for His Own Gain; He's Had Practice in Bellevue
July 15, 2008 -- No matter how you look at the controversy surrounding the Bauer speed bumps in Hansville, all roads lead to Bruce Lane, Bauer's residence easily identifiable by his campaign lawn signs. (You won't find many elsewhere)
And while he's tried to distance himself by claiming to be a neutral party trying to help Hansville workout the bumpy details, the speed bumps are covered with his finger prints.
Bauer was a founding member of the Greater Hansville Advisory Council responsible for badgering the county to vote to install the bumps. Now he claims GHAAC is a scapegoat.
And when he created a committee meeting with last-minute public notice at county expense, he engineered it so that the pro-bump people had the floor most of the night while one advocate to remove the bumps, John Wiegenstein, was given an opportunity to speak.
When the pro-bump forces gave a re-hash of false data to justify the bumps, who's laptop computer did they use to make their pro-bump presentation? Witnesses at the meeting say it was Steve Bauer's computer. After repeated request of Bauer to say whether it was his computer or not, Bauer refuses to respond.
A reader of this website shared the following link with beep4bumps.com to give readers a little insight into Bauer's past. Have a look at "Protect the next generation from diversity do-goodism," by Michelle Malkin.
In this 1999 article, Ms. Malkin writes, "In Washington state, Bellevue City Manager and self-appointed diversity czar Steve Bauer executed his noble social vision by sacking three of six high-school students who won positions on a city youth board in a free and fair election. Bauer could care less about the students' character or competence. One arbitrary, noxious factor made the difference: They were white. Bauer replaced the elected trio with one Asian, one Hispanic and one black student."
Oh, but there's more. Be sure to read the article to see what one of his appointees has to say. Then ask yourself, is this what we want running Kitsap County?
May 5th Marks 432 Days Since the Kitsap County Board of Commissioners Received a 632-Signature Petition to Remove the Speed Bumps. What Are They Waiting For? Ask Them When They'll Act!
Check out our News Archive , News Archive 2, and News Archive 3 pages for more previous articles.
Kitsap County Seeks Your Input on Road Improvement Project Ideas Through April 20 -- Tell Them to Listen to the Citizens of Hansville and Remove the Speed Bumps!
April 6, 2009 -- Commentary -- For many, many months, Hansville citizens have been asking county officials to remove the Hansville Speed Bumps. Just browse this site or do a public records search yourself at the county and the reasons to remove them are endless.
County Commissioner Steve Bauer has responded to the handful of emails he's received in support of the bumps (mostly from residents living at the bumps who agitated to have them installed) and Bauer has absolutely ignored the countless mountain of emails he's received from the rest of use who use those roads demanding their immediate removal. This is not opinion -- county records show this vividly.
If the county continues to ignore our letters and petitions, then tell them in this new "call for ideas" website they posted at: http://www.kitsapgov.com/press/2009/NR0915.htm
At that site, Kitsap County public works is asking for your opinion. Here's what they write:
Projects are scored and ranked using objective
criteria. The criteria include safety and/or capacity needs, structural
condition, environmental retrofits, and non-motorized needs.
Projects are selected based on the availability and timing of
funding, especially for State and Federally funded programs.
The
project selection process and TIP update happens only once each year.
If you have a suggestion for a road project, now is the time to speak
up. Suggestions for this year’s TIP update are accepted through April 20th.
Make sure that the county hears from you. If you need help in articulating reasons for the removal of the bumps, spend a few minutes browsing this site or go right to our petition to see what we told the county last year.
Make your voices heard!
Official Website for North Kitsap Community Communications Formed
March 29, 2009 -- For news about happenings in North Kitsap County, visit www.nkpcc.com. The site has information about ongoing meetings on the Hansville speed bumps.
Lawsuit Filed Against Speed Bump Advocacy Group, the Greater Hansville Area Advisory Council (GHAAC)
Citizens for Accountable Government in Eglon and Hansville Ask Courts to Force Kitsap County to 'Cease Representing that GHAAC Is Officially Recognized by the County'
October 1, 2008 -- North Kitsap County residents, fed up with a self-appointed neighborhood group claiming to be the voice of the "greater Hansville area" to Kitsap County, filed a lawsuit in Pierce County Superior Court Wednesday demanding that the group be stripped of its official status by Kitsap County.
GHAAC, a group largely engineered by County Commissioner Steve Bauer in 2003, is made up of non-elected individuals apparently representing area social and civic clubs or neighborhoods. It was given official status by the Kitsap County Board of Commissioners in 2007 as the official voice for the area, prompting Bauer to ignore Hansville area citizen concerns unless filtered through GHAAC.
An example of this, in Bauer' own words, is his approach to the speed bump issue. Bauer said in an email, referring to the speed bump topic, " I am happy to work with any of my neighbors and constituents. However, on this topic, I will confine myself to working with folks who: 1) acknowledge that speeding is a problem, 2) are committed to seeking cost effective solutions to the problem (even if they are different than the speed tables), and 3) are willing to work through the Traffic Safety Committee and GHAAC." [Click here for Bauer's full email.]
The group used its voice to demand that speed bumps be placed on Twin Spits Rd., Hood Canal Dr., and Bridgeview Dr. GHAAC told the county that the "traffic calming" devices had broad community support, but after their October, 2007, installation, they have generated a storm of community anger and frustration.
Bauer and his two fellow County Commissioners Jan Angel and Josh Brown continue to ignore a 600+ signature petition to remove the speed bumps which was presented to them more than seven months ago.
Click here to read the full complaint. The suit names Judith Foritano, the self-appointed president of GHAAC, and 40 other GHAAC members as defendants. The plaintiffs are represented by local attorneys John Wiegenstein and Gerald A. Kearney. Several of the defendants, Judith and Lou Foritano of Hood Canal Dr. live at properties fronting the contentious speed bumps.
While the suit doesn't focus specifically on the speed bumps, it takes aim at GHAAC for violating fundamental principals of fairness and democracy.
Early this year, the Washington Attorney General's office issued an opinion that GHAAC, by virtue of its special government status granted by the Kitsap County Board of Commissioners, is obligated to comply with Washington's open meetings law. The lawsuit contends that GHAAC violated that law.
The suit also contends that GHAAC has violated the free speech rights of north Kitsap County residents as well as their right to petition their government for redress.
Bauer, who was appointed to the post of county commissioner to replace Chris Endresen, is running for election against Republican Sandra LaCelle for his Commissioner Position 1 seat.
Because of Bauer's support for the speed bumps and his unwillingness to address citizen concerns in the north end of Kitsap County unless those citizens filter their concerns through GHAAC, many area residents, including life-long Democrats, are enthusiastically supporting LaCelle. See related story.
Some area residents have told www.beep4bumps.com that they honk their car horns as a sign of protest when they see a Bauer campaign sign.
The Hansville Community Center is sponsoring a candidate forum Friday with LaCelle and Bauer where the lawsuit promises to lead the list of candidate topics.
For more information about the forum, see www.hansville.org and click on "Events."
Remove Bauer
Democrats and Republicans Unite Behind Campaign of Republican Sandra LaCelle for County Commissioner; Cite Bauer as Obstacle to Responsive County Government
July 15, 2008 -- Appointed Kitsap County Commissioner and County Chairman Steve Bauer is, by almost every measure, bad for Kitsap County, say north Kitsap County residents.
Bauer's campaign to get elected to the seat he captured by being former County Commissioner Chris Endresen's hand-picked successor lists supporters that read like a whose who of the speed bump residents.
Meanwhile, momentum is growing for his opponent Sandra LaCelle. Click here for LaCelle's website and contact information.
On Bauer, said one speed bump opponent: "He's their speed bump poster boy for sure and to bring some civility back to the north end, he must be defeated in this election."
Bauer has never served an elected office prior to his being appointed to county commissioner. He resigned or was removed as city manager of Bellevue. Click here for more info.
In an analysis of Bauer supporters, 40 Bauer-backers in Hansville concentrate on the bumps, on Skunk Bay, and in the Point No Point area. Only nine households in Driftwood Key, and all of those are age 62 or over (ages 62, 68, 71, 71, 83, 83, 74, 78 and 79) indicating that most/all don't go over the bumps as often as the commuters have to.
Interestingly, none of the addresses are identified with the Cliffside neighborhood, the other bumpy location.
This list of Bauer supporters complied by a beep4bumps reader may be of interest:
- Tony & Mary Atkinson, 7609 Bruce
- Bob & Marlene Bock, 37756 Buck
- Bob & Dot Bogash, 6368 Twin Spits
- George & Diana Briese, 5394 Admiralty
- Al & Karen Gurgan, 35685 Hood Canal
- Terry Campbell, 38310 Champion
- Maury & Sue Claeys, 40542 Skunk Bay
- L V Denson, 37981 Fawn
- Gary & Lila Morris, 5828 Twin Spits
- Doug & Karen Miller, 37373 Beaver
- Marian Malonson, 38006 Vista Key
- Roland & Shelley Malan, 37730 Olympic Vw (Speed Bump Committee Member)
- Gretchen Lee, corner of Vista Key & Buck
- Sid & Jeanne Knutson, 5100 Admiralty (Sid just resigned from GHAAC, saying he didn't want to be burdened with the task of informing those he's tasked with representing about the activities of GHAAC, click here.)
- Tom & Shirlee Jelcick, 39017 Sherlind
- Lynn Hix, 8029 Hunt Club
- Marilyn Hepworth, 38616 Hansville Rd
- Linda Henderson 5372 Admiralty
- Jack & Susan Harrington, 38150 Fawn
- Wayne Haegele, 40336 Skunk Bay
- Heather Gudmundson, 38564 Hansville Rd
- Richard Grout, 8604 Point No Point
- Karen & Gordon Fountain, 39127 Bearberry
- Glen & June Forbes, 4236 Twin Spits
- Bill & Jane Fite, 6752 Twin Spits
- Art & Becky Ellison, 6744 Admiralty
- Martha Pendergast, 38310 Champion
- Tom & Jane Ritley, 35551 Hood Canal
- Bob & Nancy Rummel, 37855 Hillview
- Cheryl Sachs, 37644 Teel
- Ken Shawcroft, 5758 Ponderosa
- Bill Sims, 39290 Kincaid
- Hugh & Dody Solaas, 7302 Twin Spits (Speed Bump Committee Member)
- Jim & Cathy Stemen, 7734 Point No Point
- Norm & Dottie Sunde, 38185 Vista Key
- Allan & Sandra Voves, 40510 Skunk Bay
- Mike Walker, 37395 Hansville Rd
- Milton & Doreen Wolf, 7620 Bruce
- And 3 households that are unlisted.
Bikers Blog the Bumps in Heated Debate; One Clever Cyclist Discovers Beep4Bumps Opposes Hansville Speed Bumps (Imagine That!)
July 9, 2008 -- Are speed bumps "cyclist friendly?" Most cyclist organizations say No!
As readership grows for beep4bumps, it's attracting the attention of the bike groups like the Cascade Bicycle Club. See their blog here.
It's interesting to read opinions by folks who haven't visited the Hansville bumps. But some websites and cyclist observers note that it might be a normal reaction to be "anti-car" when you rely on or simply enjoy cycling. It's worth asking these folks, "Have you hugged your speed bump today?"
Steve Stivers, who apparently started the blog discussion at the Cascade Bicycle Club is against our local bumps. Click here for an email Stivers sent to beep4bumps.com.
While the Cascade cyclists blog on, we hope they will also have a look at:
- Bumps: Britain Gets the Hump
- Bicycle Transportation: A Handbook for Cycling Traffic Engineers
- The Danger to Cycling of Anti-Car Advocacy
Bauer's Assistant Blair Tells Community: "I'm the Boss" and Contradicts Atty. Gen. Opinion on Compliance to Open Government
July 15, 2008 -- Anne Blair, who served as Steve Bauer's point person in the community committee bump meetings in June, said in an email to community members, that meetings on the speed bumps aren't subject to laws protecting openness in government.
Her comments contradict an opinion issued earlier by Assistant Atty. General Timothy Ford. Click here for an article about Ford's findings on GHAAC and community meetings endorsed by county government.
Click here for an email exchange between beep4bumps.com website creator John Hostvedt and Bauer assistant Anne Blair.
Personal Note from Beep4Bumps Author
July 15, 2008 -- My apologies for the long delay in getting this website updated. As we approach some 10,000 visitors to the site, I remain frustrated at the poor job our county commissioners are doing to address this speed bump issue. Over six hundred people in a town that barely has 600 people signed a petition to remove them and the bumps are still with us? It's difficult for any reasonable person to believe.
I and many others predicted that if onkingCommissioner Steve Bauer was involved in a "community meeting" process to belabor these bumps, it would lack credibility and, in a word, be a farce. It certainly appears we were dead right. The process has been manipulative at best and insulting at worst to the citizens of Hansville.
After the string of orchestrated community meetings in May and June that, most likely by design, excluded folks like me and others who are weekenders or cross-sound commuters, no resolution has been reached on the bumps. Yet the votes from the most recent June meeting concluded that the bumps are to be removed. Is the county taking action to do so? No.
So it's time we work hard to remove our current county leadership. Steve Bauer has proven his unbending loyalty to a handful of self-absorbed waterfront residents who want speed bumps in front of their personal driveways. It's time to remove Bauer and then there might be some hope of removing the bumps. Until then, we're stuck with them.
I hear tell that every time a horn honks, another voter swings to candidate Sandra LaCelle for commissioner position one. Happy honking!
--John Hostvedt
BEEPNOTE: this site is a work in progress. We welcome your contributions and ideas. If you are an advocate of the speed bumps, that's fine. You can fire up your own website. And you should! This website is specifically designed for people who are unhappy with the privatization of public roads that these speed bumps represent. And like us, it's for people who are unhappy that they weren't asked to weigh in on whether they favored them or not prior to their installation.
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