Community Tides

This week, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker and co-host Siobhan Canty, President  & CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, speak with Ellen Menshaw and Lori Bernstein, activists and organizers from Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action (PSARA). The passage of Medicare in 1965 was historic for covering the medical needs of seniors, but it also created conditions highly attractive for the providers of health care, who the government desperately wanted to accommodate. The arrangement resulted in the federal government surrendering the terms of the program and its costs to private health insurance companies, hospitals, and doctors, who would shape Medicare to maximize their profits at the expense of taxpayers – from 1965 until today. If the trajectory continues, Medicare faces an increasing likelihood of becoming insolvent in the next decade, and barring the passage of Universal Healthcare, privatization will be the result. Ellen and Lori provide us with background and more resources for education, a list of informative events coming up, and ways to get involved.

This summer Wilderbee Farm is hosting Poetry on the Salish Sea, monthly poetry readings in its Meadery Garden by sixteen poets from around the Olympic Peninsula and beyond. The series is free to the public, from May through October. The readings are sponsored by Wilderbee Farm, Imprint Book Store, the Port Townsend Arts Commission, and The Production Alliance. Kathryn Hunt is the series curator. She’s a writer and teacher, and makes her home on the Salish Coast.  She has three well received books of poetry and two chap books to her credit. Kathryn is joined by Alice Derry, author of six volumes of poetry, three chap books, and has thirty years of experience teaching at at Peninsula College where she curated the Foothills Poetry Series. She’s currently working with local tribal members on the Peninsula who are writing poetry.  Kathryn and Alice join us to tell us about poetry, the event, and its participants.

As a resident or visitor to our beautiful region, you may have witnessed offshore sea life in distress, and you may have had occasion to see some very capable individuals assisting these animals from entanglement in debris or from ship strikes, as well as assisting injured animals on or near the shore. Who are these folks? KPTZ’s Chris Bricker and co-host Siobhan Canty, President & CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, speak with Casey Mclean, Veterinary Nurse and Executive Director of SR3, which stands for Sealife Response, Rehabilitation, and Research. If you believe a marine animal is in distress or injured, contact the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network at 1-866-767-6114.

North of the Chimacum crossroads you can find a beautifully designed multi-use park conceived for our Jefferson County Communities.  It’s called H.J. Carroll Park, and it’s just nine miles south of central Port Townsend, off of Rhody Drive (or State Route 19). A short road from the turn-off opens onto soccer fields, basketball courts, a pavilion, the amazing and innovative JUMP Playground, walking paths, and more…
But also within the bounds of the park, lies the Kul Kai Han Native Plant Demonstration Garden. It’s extensive, beautifully laid out, meditative, educational, and most of all, inspiring. It’s next to the Salmon Shelter where Chimacum Creek flows at the garden’s edge. Here to tell us all about it are Linda Landkammner, the the garden’s original designer and project coordinator, the Garden’s former Co-Director, Robin Nye.

The transportation beliefs we have, and the resulting policies, funding and ultimately, infrastructure, affect all aspects of civic life, including human and climate health, housing costs and availability, economic vitality, recreational opportunities, and community equity. Jefferson County and the City of Port Townsend are at a crossroad. The Transportation Lab, with Local 20/20, has planned a one-day conference, Moving in the Right Direction, to be held in Port Townsend on Friday, April 14.  Participants will explore best practices in transportation and hear about research-based policies that make it easier and safer for people to walk, bike and use transit.  Joining KPTZ’s Chris Bricker and co-host Siobhan Canty, President and CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, are Dave Thielk, a life long advocate for active transportation modalities, and Scott Walker, a Port Townsend Resident for over four decades and founding member of the Transportation Lab.

The time around pregnancy and birth can be a mysterious and joyful time in a person’s life. Whether you are freshly pregnant, approaching the birth of your baby, or planning your future pregnancy – it’s always the right time to find the right care provider who can facilitate the process into parenthood in a respectful and supportive way. This week, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker and co-host Siobhan Canty, President & CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, speak with Maya Horrocks, Licensed Midwife of Peninsula Midwives, about the skills, experience, knowledge and heart involved in Midwifery.

On today’s edition of Community Tides, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker and Co-Host Siobhan Canty, President & CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, speak with Kim Herman, who has worked in affordable housing since 1969.  He was the Executive Director of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission for over 35 years, and retired in 2019.  He’s now providing his expertise and sharing his vast experience here in Jefferson County. Today he helps explain what the city is working on and the implications involved for middle-income workers here. We discuss projects underway in Port Townsend as well as successful models for affordable housing in other communities. Kim reinforces the importance of residents here to be engaged in the process toward sustainable affordable housing solutions, and to continue to put pressure on our political decision makers.

(Airdate: February 2, 2023) In this edition of Community Tides, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker, and co-host Siobhan Canty, President & CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, join Jacob Perritt-Cravey, Founder of Tree Ring Consulting, to talk about his relationship with the Economic Development Council as he works to develop its Creative Entrepreneurship Network on our Peninsula. With creative outreach, he’s working with rural and indigenous communities to explore unique opportunities that can resource community effort and build a resilient, interconnected network,  Led by creative entrepreneurs, or “makers,” our communities can articulate an emerging, robust, and visible Jefferson County economic identity.

On this week’s edition of Community Tides, co-hosts Chris Bricker and Siobhan Canty, President & CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, have a frank and meaningful conversation about the affordable housing dilemma that not only affects our own community, but also countless others across the country. It’s the elephant in the room that we can no longer ignore when we live in a market-based economy guided by supply and demand. What’s affordable to an average buyer wanting to pursue the “American Dream”?  What are the factors that prevent some from participating and others not?  How can we think creatively to solve the problem of inequality in opportunity?  And how do we make it possible for young families and those employed here with jobs that provide infrastructure for our of life to be counted as a real part of this vibrant community?  In short, how do we reconcile “market rate” with the Common Good, and how are doing here with regard to solutions?

On alternate Fridays during the Noon Hour, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker joins co-host Siobhan Canty, President & CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, to explore new developments, new paradigms, and the panorama of Good Work our vibrant community continues to do day in, and day out. Dr. Linda Rosenbury was appointed superintendent of the Port Townsend School District on July 1, 2021. She came to Washington State as a Doctoral Resident in Highline Public Schools. Previously, she worked in New York City as a teacher and middle school principal. Linda got together with Siobhan and Chris back in August of 2021, and we thought it would be a great conversation to reflect on what she and her colleagues have accomplished over these past months, as well as what she herself has learned from this unique community, along with her thoughts on wellness, equity, voice, and connection.