Shoddy Journalism by North Kitsap Herald Gives Slanted View of Already Slanted and Bumpy Speed Bump Meeting
April 29, 2008 -- An article by Kelly Joines titled "Hansville: No room at the table," April 26th, North Kitsap Herald, angered and frustrated north Kitsap County residents and raises questions on whether the paper is nothing more than a mouth piece for County Commissioner Steve Bauer and his speed bump-advocate campaign contributors.
In one instance, the article says Hansville resident Therese Reilly yells at Bauer to go back to Bellevue.
"I was shocked at the account. I said no such thing," Reilly said. "Some woman in the front row with the pro-bump people shouted at me to 'go back to Kent' at which point someone behind me came to my defense by telling Bauer to go back to Bellevue where he was a failed city manager in the 1990s."
Those coming to Reilly's defense contacted the Herald to seek the retraction, but the Herald refused saying they wanted proof.
In an email to beep4bumps, John Wiegenstein said he has located an audio recording. It makes it clear that a woman yells at Reilly, "go back to Kent" followed by a man's voice saying, "go back to Bellevue" and then "oh, you were run out of town." That's followed by a man saying, "Hey, if someone yells go back to Kent, then I think saying go back to Bellevue is fair play!"
Armed with audio, residents will continue to pursue retractions for this and several other erroneous statements from Joines' article.
"The reporter couldn't even get the number of speed bumps right, it was pathetic," said one resident after reading the account.
[For background, news accounts from 1999 show that Bellevue's city council got rid of Bauer for creating a divisive atmosphere among city staff there. The city was experiencing a city staff exodus, many of whom cited Bauer as their reason for leaving. See Seattle Times article here.]
Wiegenstein and several other area residents have emailed the Herald asking that they publish corrections to the article and start reporting accurately on the speed bump issue.
Among the errors, the article says that www.beep4bumps.com encourages residents to honk their horns while traveling the bumps.
"If the reporter had bothered to read the website, she would have been able to read my position on honking," said John Hostvedt, author of the website. Click here regarding honking.
"But what's more upsetting is that as a former news reporter, this reporting is sickening to read," Hostvedt said. "It's slipshod at best and actually appears to be a bought and paid for advertisement by the tiny Hansville pro-speed bump waterfront residents."
"I think at the very least, the Herald owes the people of Hansville an apology. It's unfortunate. We have such scant local media in our area and now we have a newspaper whose credibility is pretty much finished among anyone who has followed this controversy, even casually from a distance," Hostvedt said. He added that the reporter never made any attempt to contact him.
"Given my website, I'm probably the easiest person to get a hold of in the county," he said.
"In fact," he said, "someone attending the contentious Wednesday meeting complained that the website 'attacks' him but whoever that person was, he never contacted me."
"It's bizarre. It's as if the people making public policy for us [Hansville residents], spending our taxpayer dollars, are somehow suppose to be kept a secret and protected from all criticism while North Kitsap Herald is in collusion with them, defending their desire to be secret. I've never seen anything like it," Hostvedt said.
Hostvedt said that one of the other area papers, the Kingston Community News, also lacks credibility in the community. It's editor, Rebecca Pirttle, is listed on Bauer's campaign website as an endorser.
"Can you believe that? It really makes the local papers a joke," Hostvedt said. "Granted, expectations of journalist competence among these local papers isn't very high in the first place but it really leaves you knowing that you have literally no legitimate source of unbiased community news.
"I wrote for The Milwaukee Journal in the 1980s [now the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel] and back then, even though it was the state's largest newspaper, it would never have tolerated such frequent and flagrant violations of open meetings and open records laws exhibited by the Greater Hansville Area Advisory Council (GHAAC) or its traffic committee responsible for the speed bumps. It's unbelievable. The North Kitsap Herald and the Kingston Community News should try to be the "watch dogs" of local government in our area. Instead, they're the government's lap dogs. It's really, really sad. If I were an advertiser, I'd dump them like a hot rock."
Speed Bump Opponents Begin Fund Raising to Strengthen Political and Potential Legal Fight Ahead
April 29, 2008 -- North Kitsap residents who worked to gather over 600 signatures on a petition to remove the speed bumps concluded from the grossly one-sided and carefully engineered community April 23 meeting on the bumps that continued political and potential legal action will need to be strengthened.
Members of the petition team have contributed their own money and time and are now asking for help from the community.
"I've had dozens of people offer me money to fight these bumps and the folks responsible for them," said John Hostvedt of beep4bumps.com, "Until now, I really have not wanted to get in the fund raising business for this but people are really angry and want to help in the cause any way that they can, especially after last week's lopsided meeting."
The lengthy meeting, moderated by Commissioner Steve Bauer over the objections of many residents, was largely a re-hash of misinformation and misleading traffic studies that lead to the bumps.
Proponents of the bumps once again said there were dozens of public meetings leading up to the installation of the bumps, and while that may be true, few if any notices of these meetings to the public said little more than "traffic calming" meetings.
"I think when Bauer told the over-flow crowd that a petition with 600+ Hansville area residents wouldn't influence him to remove the bumps, it became obvious that he intends to dig in his heels and keep them despite a clear majority demanding their removal," said John Hostvedt, author of beep4bumps.com.
To donate, click on the "Make a Donation" button below. It will take you to a secure site in which you can make a donation, via Paypal or credit card, to Hansville Citizens.
Bump Events Timeline Crafted by Former RSAC Member and Bump Opponent
April 29, 2008 -- John Wiegenstein, a former Road Safety Advisory Committee member and opponent of the speed bumps, crafted a time-line that demonstrates how Hansville came to be such a (speed) bumpy place.
The timeline helps to sort out the facts from the often fictional tales told by supporters of the bumps who say they gained broad community support of the traffic devices.
Click here to download a copy of the timeline in pdf format.
Commissioner Josh Brown Breaks Speed Bump Silence; Thinks They Should Stay a Year
April 29, 2008 -- The long silent Commissioner Josh Brown wants the Hansville bumps to stay for year to test them, citing Tracyton as his model.
In an emal to north Kitsap County resident Gerry Kearney, Brown writes, "I believe we need to wait until the end of this year to fully gauge the effectiveness of these tables in Hansville."
For the complete email text, click here.
Check out our News Archive and News Archive 2 pages for past articles.
Car Flips 2 ½ Times in Roll-Over Accident on Hood Canal Dr at Third Southbound Speed Bump; Victims' Condition Unknown, Eyewitness Willing to Testify
May 3, 2008 -- At about 5 p.m., Saturday, a red compact car being driven by a young woman, approximately 17, with a male passenger, 18 or 19, flipped 2 ½ times at the third Hood Canal Dr. speed bump going southbound in the community of Cliffside, according to eyewitness Kathy Rohr of Driftwood Key.
Rohr told the beep4bumps website that she was traveling southbound at 30 mph Saturday evening in Cliffside on Hood Canal Drive. The red compact car was traveling behind her and the driver may have tried to pass her but instead, the driver lost control and the car rolled 2 ½ times.
"I've never seen anything like it before in my life," Rohr said. She said she was worried that the car was going to hit her vehicle but it didn't. Passengers in Rohr's car included her 12-year-old daughter and two of her daughter's friends.
Rohr said she saw the young man thrown from the vehicle on the second flip. "It [the car] looked like it hit rocks and dirt," Rohr said, "It just flew over a mailbox."
The identity of the victims is unknown. An information request will be filed with the Sheriff's Department.
An ambulance a fire truck and two police cars arrived about three minutes after the accident, Rohr said.
Rohr described the car as badly damaged after the accident, although, "I really wasn't paying very much attention to the car," she said, "I was focused on whether anyone was hurt."
Rohr was on the scene for about 20 minutes. She said that some of the victim's friends were in an other car and also witnessed the accident.
She said that the young woman appeared to in shock and unaware of events that had occurred. The woman, Rohr said, mentioned that she had just gotten her car out of the shop and commented that it was operating strangely.
The male victim, she said, passed out but later regained consciousness. He appeared to be sick like he was going to throw up, she said. He was also complaining about back pain, she said. She did not know if the victims were taken to the hospital, but one of the victim's parents arrived at the scene. Their condition is unknown.
"Neither of them could even believe me when I told them that the car had rolled. They were both pretty much in shock," she said.
Rohr said that several Cliffside residents came from their homes and told police officers that the accident victims "must have been going 70 miles per hour."
"That's just absolutely false," Rohr said. "I was going 30 and they were behind me. I will definitely testify in court as to what happened because I think the neighbors were trying to blow it all out of proportion," she said.
Rohr also said that one of the officers on the scene told her that it was impossible for a car to roll going only 30 miles per hour. "I told him what I saw. They might have started to go a little bit faster if they were trying to pass me but I was going 30 and they were behind me. It was freaky," Rohr said.
Residents along Hood Canal Dr. insisted the county install the speed bumps to increase road safety despite no significant history of accidents related to speeding. Opponents of the bumps and traffic safety experts across the country argue that the devices actually decrease road safety and create a serious liability risk.
In describing the accident, Rohr said she thought the driver of the car might have only attempted to accelerate when attempting to pass, if, in fact, she was trying to pass. But that remains unclear. She said the roll-over did occur at a speed bump, suggesting that the device most likely played a significant role.
If you'd like to contact Kathy Rohr, she can be reached at email: rohr_kathy@yahoo.com
Anyone with additional information about this accident is urged to contact info@beep4bumps.com.
Note: We at this website sincerely hope that the victims were thoroughly evaluated by medical personnel and are unharmed.
Learning the GHAAC Salute, Mastering the GHAAC Slogan
May 1, 2008 -- No matter what comes of all the community strife over the Hansville speed bumps, one thing remains clear. The Greater Hansville Area Advisory Council (GHAAC) gave them to you. And Hansville resident, Therese Reilly, got some "schooling" in the GHAAC ways last Thursday night that she shares here.
County Commissioner Steve Bauer has said that GHAAC, the group he helped to form, is a "scapegoat" for the bumps, but the public record is irrefutable. A traffic committee of the GHAAC made up primarily of residents whose homes sit in front of the speed bumps told GHAAC to insist upon them and our three county commissioners complied. Period.
Is there a speeding problem? If you track cars anywhere -- on any road in America -- you can find speeders. Guaranteed. Is there a "unique" problem with speeders at the location of the Hansville bumps that's so severe that no other solution could possibly be found but to install road obstructions? Obstructions that put a whole community at risk? Obstructions that represent a legal liability for Kitsap County?
No. There's zero evidence of such a speeding problem. In fact, there isn't even any evidence of traffic accidents at these locations. But GHAAC and Bauer are able to, as they did last week, trot out the waterfront residents who will post photos of dead dear and trump up traffic studies for their own gain.
Hansville resident Therese Reilly has a few thoughts on the meeting Bauer engineered for his speed bump buddies. If you have thoughts on the bumps, send them to info@beep4bumps.com.
Click here for Reilly's commentary.
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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