19th Annual Sinclair Watershed Cleanup

The International COASTWEEKS CLEANUP takes place Sept. 19. Last year, nearly 400,000 volunteers collected more than 6.8 million pounds of trash in 104 countries and 42 US states during the 2008 International Coastal Cleanup — the world’s largest volunteer effort of its kind.

People from every continent celebrate a month of activities in September of each year, from nature walks and coastal cleanups to boating events, offering opportunities for individuals and organizations to explore and help preserve fragile coastal resources. read more »

After years of research, meetings and discussions, several Kitsap County jurisdictions have adopted Low Impact Development (LID) techniques in their development codes, and the rest are expected to do so soon.

LID is an innovative, environmentally friendly approach to stormwater runoff management that has been used on the East Coast for many years and has been slowly becoming more mainstream in the West in the last decade. In Kitsap County, up until now developers and builders were hesitant to use LID, which is not a single method but rather a collection of techniques that can be used separately or collectively. Even those who understood the benefits were not as likely to implement the idea because using LID almost certainly entailed longer permitting processes due to the existing regulations and builders having to prove the concept at every step. read more »

Real estate agents Bonnie Michal and KJ Lange of Windermere West Sound Inc. in Silverdale will be hosting a series of seminars in September for first time homebuyers as the $8,000 tax credit deadline approaches. A person is considered a first time buyer if he/she has not had any ownership interest in a home in the three years previous to the day of purchase.

“The $8,000 tax credit is going away soon and we wanted to offer information for first time buyers so they feel equipped in making the right decisions to take advantage of this rare opportunity,” said Michal. read more »

Each year Habitat for Humanity of Kitsap County (HFHKC) hosts ‘Raise the Roofs’, a gala dinner and live auction. This is its primary fundraising event.

This year HFHKC plans to incorporate an on-line auction component to the event. At the auction website, kitsaphabitat.cmarket.com, auction items can be previewed as they’re added, and select items can be bid on. read more »

While an employee who is an average performer rarely considers leaving his or her job during a difficult economic period, high-potential employees do, according to research by Sirota Survey Intelligence.

The firm has found that the actions taken by employers during a recession can start a process that unintentionally devalues employees — by seeing them as costs to be controlled, rather than assets to be valued. For example, many companies will centralize decision-making, control information, reduce entrepreneurial risk-taking, and reduce discretionary rewards — and this makes it more likely that high performers will defect. read more »