Whale Report #1. Yesterday morning, while some of us were at a county meeting, a single whale came through Illahee. According to Don Deitch, the whale came through around 11:30, surfacing about every quarter mile, and was heading north toward Brownsville. Don said he didn't see any white on it as it was out a ways in the channel, which would have identified it as an orca, so he just called it was a smaller sized whale.
Whale Report #2. The second whale report came via an email and is quoted below:
We spotted a single Orca at 11:48 AM today, 11/19 just outside the entrance to the Brownsville Marina. It was spouting.
Chris Dunagan Email. We passed on whale report #2 to Chris Dunagan and he had an interesting response which is also quoted below. (We hadn't yet talked with Don Deitch, so we didn't pass Don's sighting information.)
Can you give me a description of exactly what she saw or maybe a phone number. I'm always interested and willing to make a phone call or more, but I've heard too many reports about single orcas to assume that's what we have here.
STILL, I ALWAYS LISTEN TO REPORTS AND CHECK THINGS OUT, BECAUSE I WOULD HATE TO MISS SOMETHING. chris.
Report on Ron Ross's CKCC Presentation. Ron Ross had asked the Central Kitsap Community Counsel (CKCC) for time to discuss the Illahee Community Plan. There were a good number of people there from Illahee who attended. Ron did not like the boundaries that had been established. He lived in Illahee as a young person, and developed a number of the Illahee areas, including University Point and Illahee North. He felt the community should have followed the CK School District boundaries. He thought the southern boundary should have stopped at Illahee State Park. And he didn't think the western boundary should have been Highway 303. He had made copies of the existing zoning map that showed the boundaries and distributed them to all in attendance. He also made copies of the view protection section and distributed them to the CKCC board, but not to the rest of us. He didn't expand on what he didn't like about the view protection section. Ron said he was going to present this information to the County Commissioners at the Public Hearing on Monday (11/24/08) evening.
Response to Ron's Comments. Jim Aho was added to the agenda at the beginning of the meeting in case he wanted to respond to Ron's comments. Jim did respond and said the process began in early 2006, continued into 2007, and was taken over by the county in 2008, and information on the Plan has been in the news and available to everyone. He said the goal of the facilitators was to let the community decide what it wanted and the community established the boundaries. He went on to say the boundaries were discussed and established early on using primarily the Port of Illahee's boundaries. In the nearly three years of deliberations the boundaries have not since been an issue, except in 2008 when several residents wanted to include some more Illahee Creek watershed areas, which would have been an expansion of the boundaries, which was subsequently voted down.
Other Comments. At the end of the meeting public comments were taken, and Tom Brittell talked about how this country was founded on communities and communities are the building blocks of society, and that there should be more community plans, not less. He essentially said the Plan has been a very positive thing for the Illahee community. Also, Jim Sommerhauser commented on other positive aspects of the Plan.
Response To Realtor Letter? We have been asked if there was a response to the Realtor's letter that questioned aspects of the Illahee Plan. The community was waiting for the county to respond, since the letter was addressed to the County Commissioners and DCD. When it looked like the county was not going to respond, a response was prepared, which was sent to the Commissioners on Monday. We will see if we can send it out on Friday.
Important Monday Evening Meeting. Remember the County Commissioner's meeting on Monday (11/24/08) evening at 7pm, where there will be public testimony on the Illahee Community Plan. It should prove to be enlightening and entertaining with the Illahee Plan on the agenda, and some other public meetings on issues from Kingston and Manchester.
Wildlife Information. We are constantly reminded that it is the wildlife information that people enjoy most about these updates, so thank you to those who gave us the whale information, and keep passing information on.
CKCC Members. Since Illahee is within the Central Kitsap Community Council's geographical boundary we have added the members to community's email list. If you would like to be removed or are receiving duplicate copies, please send us an email.
Jim Aho
