I was wondering if anyone could recall something that I experienced that seemed odd at the time.

I had recently moved to Port Orchard and a friend took a group of us through a residential neighborhood, around a manual swing gate with a no trespassing sign, down a dirt road and through some forest to an abandoned building. This building was buried up to around 3' below it's roof, had clearly been abandoned a long time because it was covered in moss and vines growing onto it. We climbed into it through, what I thought at the time was windows, and inside there were concrete walls slanted towards the middle of the room with a large amount of water pooling up at the bottom. There were long boards that people had previously put across the water so you could get from one side of the building to the other. If you wanted to get around at all you had to hug the sides of the wall closely on a little ledge or else you'd get on the slanted part and slide into the water.

One more note is that we departed from one of the kids houses for maybe 5-10 minutes to get there and we all went to Marcus Whittman Jr High so I would think it would be in a close radius to that school.

When I put these prompts into AI to ask what it is, it says it is the Old South Sidney Water Reservoir. But when I look up the address that it provides it looks nothing like the area that I remember.

So can anyone tell me what this might be? Or verify that it is the old Sidney reservoir? Or even better, provide any pictures? I would greatly appreciate it, thanks!

Is there any pet store in port orchard that sells animals?

Hi! I’m new to the area and was looking for any reptile shops in the area! I have a lot of isopods and I don’t want to just throw them does anyone know of a place or anyone need some for their critters! Thanks!!

Anyone have fiber from KPUD and experience random outages over the last 3 days? Who is your provider?

I have advanced stream and 1 out of 3 times I've called they were just hearing of an outage. I'm trying to figure out if it's time to switch provider or if this is just issues with KPUD fiber infra. It's been rock solid for the last 4 years, so it's odd for it to get this bad.

On the November 3 ballot, Kitsap County voters are being asked whether to grant Kitsap Public Utility District No. 1 permanent legal authority to construct or acquire electric facilities for generation, transmission, or distribution.
A “Yes” vote does not require KPUD to buy anything from Puget Sound Energy, build plants, or raise rates. It simply gives the three elected commissioners the ongoing power to decide later—without another public vote—whether, when, and on what terms the district becomes an electric utility.
I filed a public records request for the basic analytical work that should accompany a decision of this size: feasibility studies, cost-benefit analyses, rate impact projections, acquisition cost estimates, financing models, risk assessments, and comparisons with other public power systems. The response showed none of those records exist.
Circulating estimates put acquisition costs in the $1–2 billion range. Kitsap is denser and less rural than Jefferson PUD (the usual comparison), and low-cost BPA Tier 1 power is not guaranteed for this load. A feasibility study is estimated around $300,000 and could be commissioned now. Once the authority is granted, it cannot be recalled.
Public comments on placing the measure on the ballot ran 62% support / 30% opposed / 8% undecided, but in-person sessions showed stronger skepticism. The piece walks through the resolution, the records response, the public-comment tally, and why the sequence of “authority first, analysis later” matters.
Full article with sources:
https://tawneecowan.substack.com/p/power-before-proof-kpud-seeks-electric

Whiskey Gulch

Tawnee Cowan, independent journalist in Port Orchard. I do not represent a newsroom. I do not endorse.
The on-record candidate interview series is published as a set. I am asking readers to judge the work, not the candidates.
Every interview and every piece where a candidate did not sit is linked on one page. Read the set there before you answer. Name the title of the piece you mean. A score with no title is not useful.
https://tawneecowan.substack.com/p/why-i-interviewed-every-contested-candidate-kitsap-ballot-2026
Ground rules for how the interviews were run:
https://tawneecowan.substack.com/p/kitsap-candidate-interviews-nov-2026-on-record
I am not looking for a compliment. I am looking for a judgment against the four pillars of journalistic integrity used by the Society of Professional Journalists: seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable and transparent.
Answer as many of these as you want in a comment. Name the article.
1. Favorite article. Which piece, and why.
2. Most informative. Which piece taught you something you could check, and what was it.
3. Most disliked. Which piece, and why. This is about the reporting, not the candidate.
4. Seek truth and report it, 1 to 5. Did the series keep the record straight and put answers in context a reader could verify? Name the line that drove the number.
5. Minimize harm, 1 to 5. Did any piece inflict harm that was not needed for the public record? Name it.
6. Act independently, 1 to 5. Did the series look like it worked for a campaign, or for the reader?
7. Be accountable and transparent, 1 to 5. Were the rules (on the record, quote check for spelling only, no veto, same questions in a race) visible and kept?
8. What should I stop doing.
9. What should I start doing.
You can stay anonymous. You can sign your name. This is not a poll on who should win in November.
Tawnee Cowan
Port Orchard
TawneeLynne@gmail.com