Department of Ecology Grant Report - We are starting to distribute information we received this week. The attached link is for an Executive Summary that was an attachment to a Port of Illahee letter that we will send out with the next Update.
Jim Aho
Update Frequency. It has been awhile since the last update and the inquiries as to why are continuing. We have been busy with other things and also there has not been any email inputs received that could be passed on, except for some photos and a verbal report on some owl activity. That situation is changing as you will note below.
Grant Report Distributed. The Port of Illahee has distributed the "Illahee Creek Watershed Surface Water Management Plan" that was prepared by Parametrix and funded primarily by the Department of Ecology. We have received a copy of Port distribution letter, and the report itself, and will try to get them to you and on the website soon.
Illahee Outfall Settlement. We also found out the Illahee Community Club has completed a "Settlement Support Statement" letter that describes the benefits of the outfall settlement to the community and to the developer. Once it is signed we will obtain a copy and send it out to all our our email list, which was one of the stipulations of the settlement.
Puget Sound Partnership Reps in Illahee. We have received information that several representatives from the Puget Sound Partnership will be looking at various sites in Kitsap County on Sunday (3/1/09) and one of those sites will be Illahee. They will be meeting at the Illahee Preserve for a quick tour of Illahee and are evidently interested in what is happening with Illahee Creek and the impact of the creek on the Sound.
Missed Meeting Reports. We have been asked to keep up with reporting on recent Illahee meetings as many have advised us they have other obligations and can't make all the meetings. We understand and will try to get reports out on the January and February meetings.
Short Update. Look for more information on each of these items soon. We will likely send a separate Update out on each one with a link to the actual document so you can comment on them if you want.
Illahee Information. Please send us any information you think the community should be aware of and we will pass it on.
Jim Aho
ps The photos are of the new Preserve parking lot being installed and are from John Lind.
Illahee Road Break-in Solved. Awhile ago we reported about a house break-in along Illahee Road. Last week there was an article in the Kitsap Sun about a person admitting to breaking into 80 homes which is available by clicking on the following link:
http://kitsapsun.com/news/2009/feb/06/kitsap-detectives-solve-80-cases-8212-with-help/
We just got notice that this was the person responsible for the break-in on Illahee Road. The person had about 75 jewelry items stolen and was able to recover 13 of them.
Boat Stolen. We also got notice of a boat being stolen this weekend. Below is the email we received. If you know of this stolen boat, please call the sheriff, or if you want we will pass any information on to the boat owner.
I have once again had a theft at my house. This time a boat taken off the beach sometime over the weekend. (I noticed it was gone on Sunday morning.)
It is an aluminum rowboat - a 14 foot Klamoth WN8479LD. Since there were no oars or motor with it, I don't think it got far, but who knows. I think it would have taken a couple of people to turn it over and carry it to the water. I am passing this on for two reasons. First, it may show up on someone's beach, and I can get it back, and also, because a lot of our neighbors have boats on their beach and they may want to check that nothing of theirs is missing. I have reported this to the police. At this rate, I am going to be on a first-name bases with all the deputies!
Community Meeting on Saturday. The Illahee Community Club will hold its first quarterly meeting of 2009 on Valentines Day, February 14, 2009 from 1:30 - 3 pm, at the Sylvan Way library. This is an important meeting as they discuss an Illahee Community Advisory Council that would report to the Kitsap County Commissioners, the status of the Replacement Illahee Outfall, whether to appeal the anticipated appeal rejection by the Hearing Examiner of the Timbers Edge project, and the status of the Illahee Creek culvert that continues to fill with sediment, and possibly other issues.
Jim Aho
Illahee Website. The Illahee website was established for the Illahee community to have ready access to local issues and events, and to be able to communicate with each other.
Blog Site Established. The communication vehical is via a blog site, which is something the younger generation is more familar. We have had the blog site up for some time but the useage has been limited.
Website Advisory Committee Decision. There is an Illahee Community Website Advisory Committee that met last fall and suggested the Community Updates be linked to the blog site.
Why Do This? That was the question and the answer is that it allows others to quickly respond to any of the Updates and everyone can see the responses.
How Does It Work? The other day we put out an Update mentioning owls, and we ended up getting two great responses back. We haven't gotten them back out in an Update, but if they had sent them in as comments to the Update, they would have been available to anyone who wanted to look at them right away.
Illahee Community Club Meeting on Valentines Day. The Illahee Community Club will hold its first quarterly meeting of 2009 on Valentines Day, February 14, 2009 from 1:30 - 3 pm, at the Sylvan Way library. This is an important meeting as they discuss an Illahee Community Advisory Council that would report to the Kitsap County Commissioners, the status of the Replacement Illahee Outfall, whether to appeal the anticipated appeal rejection by the Hearing Examiner of the Timbers Edge project, and the status of the Illahee Creek culvert that continues to fill with sediment, and possibly other issues.
Illahee Owls. We received the following report of Illahee owls a few weeks ago:
Last night around 6:15, during our weekly pickle ball match, we heard this continuous very loud high pitched hooting to the Southwest near Sunset Ave or Hicks Street. Then we all noticed the back and forth series of hooting coming closer and to our amazement two Barred Owls flew right over the house and pickle ball court, 20-25 feet off the ground, hooting at each other as they flew. One was trailing the other by about 12 feet. At first, I thought there may have been more than just the two, but this is all we clearly viewed. The two owls flew toward the east and perched in some trees near East Blvd. They continued their hooting for another 45 minutes. Last year a barred owl perched in an alder tree watching our pickle ball match for nearly three hours in the bright court light. The owls seemed to be curious of the fast moving pickle ball.
March 12th Owl Presentation. Kitsap Audubon speaker for March 12th was covered in the following Seattle Time's article on Jan 29, 2009:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2008682771_nwwowls290.html
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