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Yahoo
15 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Threat to close beloved Pierce Co. Facebook group of 10K had a surprise ending
It's weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, intense political divisions and community drama. It's where you go when you've lost your dog, need a helping hand or need a laugh. It makes a peninsula spanning 65 square miles, much of which only has one dwelling per ten acres, feel a little less like an island. It's the Key Peninsula, Washington Facebook group. 'We had some marriages out of it,' Susan Freiler Mendenhall said, recalling when the group hosted a meet-up at a local restaurant, and a couple left together and later tied the knot. (She attended their wedding.) The Key Peninsula resident, age 70, has lived in the community for 38 years. After 14 years of administering the Facebook group with a small team of other admins, keeping it 'family-friendly' and prohibiting profanity or discussions of partisan politics or religion, she finally believed it was time to bring it to an end. She posted in the group on July 7, announcing her intent to close the group of nearly 10,000 members by the end of the year. She explained that an accident in April left her hospitalized and dealing with some serious health issues. She figured participants could just switch over to other existing Facebook groups for Key Peninsula residents. Her announcement sparked a flood of messages from people reaching out to tell her how much the group meant to them, she told The News Tribune. Several offered to become admins themselves. 'That surprised me,' she said. It also got her thinking. Maybe she didn't need to close the group down. On July 23, she made another post in the group, announcing her intent to let it continue, with two new admins. One of the new admins is Thomas Lancaster, a 25-year-old Key Peninsula resident who said he's been part of the group for going on a decade. His memory of the group goes back even farther, when his dad was part of the group, he said. One day, his dad lost a uniquely-designed cane that he used regularly to walk around and had owned for 30 years. The cane was special because it had grown directly off of a tree and wasn't 'something anyone carved or made,' Lancaster recalled. 'He put out posters and stuff and posted on the local Facebook page, and eventually somebody actually got back to him because they saw one of the posts,' he said. There are many other stories about how the page has helped build community. In 2023, Key Peninsula resident Connor Wiley posted a fake message for an April Fools' Day prank saying that a stalled restaurant project, 2 Margaritas, had finally opened, The News Tribune reported. After the post gained traction, Richard and Cheryl Miller added to the conversation and announced they'd be making tacos for the community in the 2 Margaritas parking lot. They served nearly 150 tacos in the first 90 minutes. 'And did I mention how many lost dogs we've reunited with owners? Often it's one a week!' Freiler Mendenhall wrote in a follow-up message to The News Tribune. She added that neighbors have helped one another through power outages, getting stuck in snow and running out of gas. Some time ago, Freiler Mendenhall started the 'Blue Tarp Awards' as a way to recognize those who did 'something outstanding in the group.' The name came after someone left the Facebook group in a fury, posting that they would 'rather not be associated with you kp elitist trash,' and members started joking about 'how the KP had a lot of blue tarps, or how you had to own a blue tarp to live in the KP,' Freiler Mendenhall wrote. They later adopted a blue tarp as the group's flag, and would put one up during meet-ups, she said. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the group started a new tradition: Meme Mondays, to give people something to do, she said. And they've always had Traffic Tuesdays, a designated day to share traffic-related concerns and prevent traffic from dominating the discussion every day. A particular guardrail has become a running joke on the page. The barrier is on the right side of state Route 302, a mile or so coming off of the Purdy Bridge toward Key Center. 'Someone always hits it,' Freiler Mendenhall wrote. 'We ran a contest once to guess what date it would get destroyed again.' Other community groups spawned from the Key Peninsula, Washington group, including Key Pen It Clean, a group that gathers volunteers to clean up local roads. Volunteers recently collected 50 trash bags across 3 miles on Lackey Road and the Key Peninsula Highway, the group posted on July 13. Key Pen It Flavorful was another subgroup that exchanged meal photos and recipes. Another group, KP Cares, came together after Key Peninsula resident Mindy Taylor had the idea of raising money for victims of the Oso landslide in 2014.A bake sale raised over $3,700 in two days, and additional donations through Facebook brought the total to $4,000, according to The News Tribune's archives. Taylor joined forces with Freiler Mendenhall, Sylvia Wilson and Marilyn Hartley, and they started the KP Cares group to raise funds for other residents in crisis on the Key Peninsula. KP Cares became a 501(c)(3) organization, stating that its purpose or mission was to 'help people in crisis with resources and financial assistance, primarily on the Key Peninsula,' and that funds 'will be raised primarily through bake sales, car washes, and donations from local businesses.' Taylor posted in the Key Peninsula, Washington group in 2021 that she was closing down KP Cares in September of 2021. By then, the group had raised $55,000 for residents in crisis, she wrote. 'We have been able to assist with rent, mortgage payments, power bills, funeral expenses, and Christmas gifts,' Taylor wrote in the post. 'During the heat wave we provided 25 fans for our vulnerable residents.' Freiler Mendenhall said that the community is grieving Taylor's passing from cancer this month. Hartley, one of the other founders of KP Cares, died in June 2022, according to her obituary in the Key Peninsula News. Lancaster, the 25-year-old Key Peninsula resident who offered to be a new admin, said he wants the Key Peninsula, Washington Facebook group to remain 'a good community resource.' The page has always been family-friendly, hasn't allowed profanity and asks users to steer clear of partisan politics or religion as topics of discussion, Freiler Mendenhall said. Lancaster said he believes a good admin is one who's impartial and keeps personal opinions or feelings from affecting how one monitors the page. 'I'm not too worried about it,' Lancaster said. 'You just got to police it a little bit.' Freiler Mendenhall has had to do a fair share of that. She recalled the admins years ago spending 'a lot of time personally asking people to tone it down' or trying to get them to understand the group's purpose and parameters for appropriate participation. 'We've gone through a couple of periods where people chose a subject and then hung on to it to the point where we needed to intervene and so some people were removed,' Freiler Mendenhall said. She had an experience recently where someone whom she described as 'a very decent person' took over the page and began posting in the group 'as if it was their own personal profile.' She tried talking to the person in private, but the person's constant messages took up a lot of her time. And it gets old when upset users talk badly about you in other groups, she continued. ' ... it's probably what contributed to me thinking I got to stop doing this,' she said. Asked if a recent dispute that played out on the Facebook page about flags on Purdy Bridge affected her decision, she said 'no, not at all.' The News Tribune reported that some two dozen rainbow Pride flags appeared on the Purdy Bridge in mid-June and were taken down shortly after, leading to speculation on social media about who might have removed them. The Washington State Department of Transportation confirmed that state employees took down Pride flags on the bridge between June 10 and June 11 because it is illegal to attach flags or banners to state-owned bridge structures. Most of the time the members of the Key Peninsula, Washington Facebook group know what to do, Freiler Mendenhall said. 'That's probably one of the biggest reasons I'm not as active is that the members self-regulate,' she said. 'They know the rules and they tell each other what the rules are.' The News Tribune's archives contributed to this report. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pierce County fire agency with ‘brownouts,' firefighter vacancies seeks funding
After months of temporary station closures, staff vacancies and contentious Q&As, the Key Peninsula Fire Department is again asking voters to pass a ballot measure that would reverse the effects of a failed levy last year. The measure on the Aug. 5 ballot would raise property taxes for residents back up to 50 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value in 2026, per the Pierce County Voters' Pamphlet. Voters approved that rate in 2019, but property tax laws have caused that rate to drop to 32 cents per $1,000 in assessed value, Fire Chief Nick Swinhart said in a video about the measure posted on the fire district's website. The measure is called a 'levy lid lift' because it allows jurisdictions to lift the 1% cap on how much more property tax revenue they can collect each year. The 1% cap, mandated by the state, automatically drives down the levy rate each year as property values increase, to ensure that the jurisdiction doesn't collect over 1% more than it collected in the previous year. It requires a simple majority to pass. If it does, a home valued at $500,000 will pay $250 for the year — an increase of $87.50 from the current rate — or a total of $20.83 per month, per month, according to a chart released by the fire department on social media. Swinhart said in the video that Key Peninsula Fire crews responded to 2,864 calls last year, over 70% of which 'were medical emergencies, heart attacks, strokes, accidents or serious falls.' EMS levy funding goes toward these calls, he said. The levy 'supports the paramedics and EMTs who respond to your calls, the ambulances that they drive to the calls, and the equipment that they use,' he explained. In November 2024, voters turned down a maintenance and operations (M&O) levy that had been approved in each four-year cycle since 2012, The News Tribune reported. In public meetings and town halls following the vote, some residents said they had concerns about the fire department's fiscal management and transparency after the purchase of three parcels in Key Center in 2021. The fire department bought the properties with a low-interest loan rather than drawing on funds from their budget, according to The News Tribune's reporting. The resulting loss of $800,000 from the failed M&O levy required the department to 'tighten (their) belts,' department spokesperson Anne Nesbit told The News Tribune. Following the levy failure, a January update from Swinhart posted on the agency's website noted that they left a vacant firefighter position open and reduced their daily minimum staffing from seven to five personnel, which allowed them to save on overtime costs but forced them to occasionally close one of their three staffed stations on days when they didn't have enough firefighters to work shifts. The Key Peninsula Firefighters Facebook account posted announcements of these temporary closures, or 'brownouts,' of the Longbranch station in January, February, April and May. If the EMS levy passes, the department will be able to eliminate those brownouts because they'll be able to restore their minimum daily staffing to seven, Nesbit said. They'll also be able to fill four vacant firefighter positions, which she wrote in a text message will bring their total number of firefighters to 33. At their next meeting on July 22, the Board of Fire Commissioners will consider a resolution to run the EMS levy on the November ballot, in case it doesn't pass in the August primary. If it passes in August, the fire district will 'pull it from the Pierce County docket to run in November,' she said. Five candidates for the district's Board of Fire Commissioners are also running in the Aug. 5 primary. The top two candidates will advance to the Nov. 4 general election. Whoever wins the general election will replace Cambria Queen, who was selected by the board in 2024 to fill a vacancy following a commissioner's resignation, according to the fire district website. Several candidates referenced fire district staffing, budgeting or transparency with taxpayer funds in their statements submitted for the Pierce County Voters' Pamphlet. One candidate, Jennifer Dow, did not submit any information for the voters' pamphlet. 'I will maintain the highest level of integrity the public deserves and open up transparency to what our tax dollars are being used for,' Gretchen Schneider, who has served 10 years as a paramedic, wrote. She also believes that commissioners need to 'work alongside the fire department's senior staff, and union to make significant reductions in fire/medical response times while still maintaining the safety and wellness of our first responders.' Colleen Marie Mullen, a former fire captain serving 22 years in the Minneapolis Fire Department and a U.S. Navy veteran medic, wrote she is 'committed to reducing response times and ensuring our fire stations are adequately staffed to protect and serve effectively.' She also hopes 'to introduce innovative water rescue and high-angle rescue programs, enhancing the safety and preparedness of our department,' she wrote. 'This vital role demands difficult financial decisions regarding staffing, equipment, facilities, and growth – a tall task with limited revenue,' Ed Bressette, Jr., wrote. After 30 years of working for the YMCA, including seven as association facility director, he would draw on 'extensive experience overseeing maintenance, capital projects, budgets, and strategic long-term planning,' he continued. The News Tribune also reached out to all five candidates for further comment. Only one candidate, Josh Johnson, responded in an email by Friday evening. He wrote that he is 'running to restore public trust in (the) fire district,' and anticipated the need to manage funds from the EMS levy if passed, which he believed likely. His priorities include rebuilding the fire district's volunteer program, increasing transparency around budget decisions, better planning ahead for funding shortfalls and looking for ways to 'reduce costs without compromising core services.' Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pierce County fire agency with ‘brownouts,' firefighter vacancies seeks funding
After months of temporary station closures, staff vacancies and contentious Q&As, the Key Peninsula Fire Department is again asking voters to pass a ballot measure that would reverse the effects of a failed levy last year. The measure on the Aug. 5 ballot would raise property taxes for residents back up to 50 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value in 2026, per the Pierce County Voters' Pamphlet. Voters approved that rate in 2019, but property tax laws have caused that rate to drop to 32 cents per $1,000 in assessed value, Fire Chief Nick Swinhart said in a video about the measure posted on the fire district's website. The measure is called a 'levy lid lift' because it allows jurisdictions to lift the 1% cap on how much more property tax revenue they can collect each year. The 1% cap, mandated by the state, automatically drives down the levy rate each year as property values increase, to ensure that the jurisdiction doesn't collect over 1% more than it collected in the previous year. It requires a simple majority to pass. If it does, a home valued at $500,000 will pay $250 for the year — an increase of $87.50 from the current rate — or a total of $20.83 per month, per month, according to a chart released by the fire department on social media. Swinhart said in the video that Key Peninsula Fire crews responded to 2,864 calls last year, over 70% of which 'were medical emergencies, heart attacks, strokes, accidents or serious falls.' EMS levy funding goes toward these calls, he said. The levy 'supports the paramedics and EMTs who respond to your calls, the ambulances that they drive to the calls, and the equipment that they use,' he explained. In November 2024, voters turned down a maintenance and operations (M&O) levy that had been approved in each four-year cycle since 2012, The News Tribune reported. In public meetings and town halls following the vote, some residents said they had concerns about the fire department's fiscal management and transparency after the purchase of three parcels in Key Center in 2021. The fire department bought the properties with a low-interest loan rather than drawing on funds from their budget, according to The News Tribune's reporting. The resulting loss of $800,000 from the failed M&O levy required the department to 'tighten (their) belts,' department spokesperson Anne Nesbit told The News Tribune. Following the levy failure, a January update from Swinhart posted on the agency's website noted that they left a vacant firefighter position open and reduced their daily minimum staffing from seven to five personnel, which allowed them to save on overtime costs but forced them to occasionally close one of their three staffed stations on days when they didn't have enough firefighters to work shifts. The Key Peninsula Firefighters Facebook account posted announcements of these temporary closures, or 'brownouts,' of the Longbranch station in January, February, April and May. If the EMS levy passes, the department will be able to eliminate those brownouts because they'll be able to restore their minimum daily staffing to seven, Nesbit said. They'll also be able to fill four vacant firefighter positions, which she wrote in a text message will bring their total number of firefighters to 33. At their next meeting on July 22, the Board of Fire Commissioners will consider a resolution to run the EMS levy on the November ballot, in case it doesn't pass in the August primary. If it passes in August, the fire district will 'pull it from the Pierce County docket to run in November,' she said. Five candidates for the district's Board of Fire Commissioners are also running in the Aug. 5 primary. The top two candidates will advance to the Nov. 4 general election. Whoever wins the general election will replace Cambria Queen, who was selected by the board in 2024 to fill a vacancy following a commissioner's resignation, according to the fire district website. Several candidates referenced fire district staffing, budgeting or transparency with taxpayer funds in their statements submitted for the Pierce County Voters' Pamphlet. One candidate, Jennifer Dow, did not submit any information for the voters' pamphlet. 'I will maintain the highest level of integrity the public deserves and open up transparency to what our tax dollars are being used for,' Gretchen Schneider, who has served 10 years as a paramedic, wrote. She also believes that commissioners need to 'work alongside the fire department's senior staff, and union to make significant reductions in fire/medical response times while still maintaining the safety and wellness of our first responders.' Colleen Marie Mullen, a former fire captain serving 22 years in the Minneapolis Fire Department and a U.S. Navy veteran medic, wrote she is 'committed to reducing response times and ensuring our fire stations are adequately staffed to protect and serve effectively.' She also hopes 'to introduce innovative water rescue and high-angle rescue programs, enhancing the safety and preparedness of our department,' she wrote. 'This vital role demands difficult financial decisions regarding staffing, equipment, facilities, and growth – a tall task with limited revenue,' Ed Bressette, Jr., wrote. After 30 years of working for the YMCA, including seven as association facility director, he would draw on 'extensive experience overseeing maintenance, capital projects, budgets, and strategic long-term planning,' he continued. The News Tribune also reached out to all five candidates for further comment. Only one candidate, Josh Johnson, responded in an email by Friday evening. He wrote that he is 'running to restore public trust in (the) fire district,' and anticipated the need to manage funds from the EMS levy if passed, which he believed likely. His priorities include rebuilding the fire district's volunteer program, increasing transparency around budget decisions, better planning ahead for funding shortfalls and looking for ways to 'reduce costs without compromising core services.'
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Yahoo
One dead in Pierce County house fire on July 4. Cause under investigation
One person was killed in a house fire early on the Fourth of July in the Wauna area, the Key Peninsula Fire Department reports. The blaze broke out at 2:17 a.m. in the 7500 block of 144th Street Court Northwest, Key Peninsula Fire Department spokesperson Anne Nesbit wrote in an email and text exchange. Key Peninsula Fire and Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One units were dispatched to the scene. As of Tuesday afternoon, she wrote that the cause remains under investigation. A second house fire broke out at 7:35 a.m. that morning in the 16800 block of 154th Street Northwest, on the northern part of the Key Peninsula. Officials believe the cause was electrical but are still investigating, Nesbit told The News Tribune. Key Peninsula Fire relied on support from Gig Harbor, South Kitsap and Mason County firefighters to fight the flames until crews could 'break from the first fire,' she wrote. She added that neither fire was linked to fireworks, though the fire department received eight other calls that day that were related to fireworks. No firefighters were injured, Nesbit wrote. The American Red Cross is providing support for the two families who were 'devastated' by the two structure fires, the fire department wrote in a Facebook post. Nesbit wrote that the Pierce County Fire Marshal will determine the causes of the fires. The Medical Examiner's Office has not yet released the name of the person who died, and Nesbit said she was not able to confirm the person's age or gender.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
New turf football field with lights coming to Pierce County school district
Soon, Roy Anderson Field won't be the Peninsula School District's only high school turf football field. The Gig Harbor Tides will get their own lit turf field if all goes according to schedule next year, helping plug another hole in the supply of athletic fields playable in fair and rainy weather in the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula areas. The district also plans to address several other needs at its facilities and campuses, according to a presentation from Director of Facilities Patrick Gillespie at the school board meeting on May 20. Those issues include poor drainage at the district's two high school baseball fields and an outdated auditorium lighting system at Peninsula High School. ' ... we're really excited about this project and what it would bring,' Gillespie said about Gig Harbor's future turf field at the meeting. 'We hear all the time that we need more fields for our student athletes.' The district plans to install field lighting, re-spray the track surfacing, add a scoreboard and flag pole, install 8-foot fencing and convert the grass field to synthetic turf at Gig Harbor High School's lower field, Gillespie said at the meeting. The field will accommodate football and soccer and have reference marks for boys and girls lacrosse, discus and javelin, he said. The district is working with consultant D.A. Hogan. The company has worked on turf fields throughout the Puget Sound area, including at Mount Tahoma High School and Stadium High School, and Gig Harbor High School's upper field, according to the D.A. Hogan website. The district is working on design concepts for Gig Harbor's turf football field and plans to put the project out to bid in the spring of next year. If all goes well, construction should begin around April or May 2026 and run through the end of September that year, Gillespie told the board. Since the project is still in its early stages, there isn't an official timeline or cost estimate yet, according to district spokesperson Danielle Chastaine. The district will first gather input from its athletic teams and coaches about the field's condition and specific needs, then will begin requesting proposals from contractors and determining cost projections, she wrote in an email. She added that funding for the project will come from the district's capital projects budget, which draws from multiple sources including levies, bonds, impact fees and state match funding grants. The money in this fund also collects interest over time. No additional levy or bond dollars will be necessary to fund the field project, she wrote. The district will be working with a consultant to assess the infield dirt at both the Gig Harbor High School and Peninsula High School baseball fields, and the fastpitch softball field at Peninsula, Gillespie said at the meeting. The assessment 'could lead to removing existing infield dirt and replacing (it) with new,' he said. It's a step toward addressing long-term drainage issues at the baseball fields, but the announcement didn't completely satisfy the Gig Harbor Peninsula Youth Sports Coalition, which posted a response to the meeting on Facebook on May 22. 'Unfortunately, and surprisingly, there was no mention of converting any of the dirt infields to artificial turf, which could significantly improve year-round usability and safety,' the post said. Michael Perrow, a founding member of the coalition, told The News Tribune in a phone call that he would like to see more opportunities for public input in the district's decision-making process related to its athletic fields, such as via questionnaires and public open houses. Kevin Owens, a former coach for the Peninsula High School baseball team from 2016 to 2018, told The News Tribune in a phone call that he does remember the field at Peninsula getting 'mushy.' He sees drainage as a problem across the state because of the rainy weather, he said. 'Other than getting turf, what other solution do you have?' Owens said. Drainage issues at the two fields go back decades, former players and a former coach told The News Tribune. Gig Harbor High School's field has had particular issues because of its proximity to wetlands. A few days of rain can make the field unplayable, causing players to miss out on outdoor playing time, The News Tribune reported. Other school and parks districts in the Pacific Northwest have converted their baseball fields to artificial turf in recent years, including at PenMet Parks' Sehmel Homestead Park and schools in Skagit and Clark counties. School board member David Olson asked Gillespie at the board meeting if it might be possible to raise the Gig Harbor High School baseball field, which he described as 'the swamp,' so that the players aren't 'running around in a bunch of mud during the games.' That option 'would be a pretty massive undertaking,' Gillespie said. '... there would be a lot of work and costs associated with that.' Gillespie added in response to a question about the purpose of replacing the dirt that the typical options for dirt are sand, clay, or a combination, and certain soil types are better-suited to certain kinds of weather. Sand is better to help the field drain in the winter months, but turns the field into a 'sand pit' in the summer, he said. Clay is better for the summer but worse in the winter, 'so you tend to go with something in between,' he continued. He said that he's talked to people involved in working on other fields including at Seattle's T-Mobile Park — a grass field with a specially designed drainage system including 'layers of drainage pipe, pea gravel, sand, and grass,' according to the Major League Baseball website — and has gotten conflicting opinions on what works best. The consultant will be able to share insights into how the district can address its issues with the water-logged fields, according to Gillespie. District spokesperson Danielle Chastaine did not immediately respond when asked by The News Tribune about the cost of working with the consultant. The district also plans to replace the aging outfield fence at Gig Harbor High School's baseball field and look into adding more storage space there this summer, he said. Another aging system will also get an upgrade: Peninsula High School's electrical/dimmer panel system and associated lighting for the auditorium. The estimated cost is $150,000, according to Director of Career and Technical Education Kelsey Parke. The school's electrical/dimmer panel system, which controls lighting in the auditorium and is also known as the 'matrix,' is over 50 years old, Parke wrote in an email Wednesday. It's used by students in the school's drama program to control lighting during theater productions. 'While it was well known that our auditorium lighting was outdated, stepping into my role as the new director provided a fresh perspective on our fiscal responsibility,' Parke wrote. 'We realized that the amount being spent on ASB lighting rentals was nearly equal to the ticket revenue brought in from each production.' A student representative at the board meeting who has participated in school drama productions expressed enthusiasm for the new system, saying that the company that made the old system doesn't exist anymore and that there aren't any manuals available online. The district will begin the process of replacing the panel system in July, and will upgrade the lighting systems before September, according to Parke. The district will provide training to students and staff to use the new equipment, and students will also be able to access it through courses like 'Theater Tech: Lights and Sound' as they 'gain hands-on experience designing lighting sequences for upcoming productions,' she wrote.
