It was a virtual Who’s Who as well as a tribute to the common people of Kitsap County. “I am humbled by your decision to name this building after me,” said Congressman Norm Dicks, as the newest jewel in Bremerton’s quickly changing skyline, the $25 million, 100,000 square-foot government office complex, sparkled in the crisp, fall sunshine. “It means a lot to me and my family.”

The dedication of the Norm Dicks Government Center drew a crowd of approximately 800 people from all walks of Kitsap life to witness the tribute to the man the new government center honors. That included the congressman’s mother Eileen, who still lives in the same house Dicks grew up in just blocks from the new downtown landmark, as well as his wife Susie and sons David and Ryan.

Dicks, a Bremerton native, whose father and grandfather both retired from Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, thanked the crowd during the opening ceremony and sang along as the Northwest Navy Band played the Husky fight song during his introduction. The congressman played football for the Washington Huskies before going to work for the legendary Senator Warren Magnuson.

As usual, Dicks told a couple of his signature funny stories, including one about former House Speaker Tip O’Neill detailing how as a freshman Democratic congressman, he landed the plum assignment on the appropriations committee. That assignment is what has helped him haul home the bacon to Kitsap County for the past 28 years.

Dicks is the first person from Bremerton to ever serve in Congress, and has earned a reputation with his constituents as a hard worker who gets things done in the other Washington. He is single handedly responsible for funneling billions of federal dollars into the 6th congressional district to fund all sorts of projects, big and small, His effectiveness is evident in the fact that in his 14 terms in Congress, Dicks has never faced anything more than token opposition, and most people can’t even name anyone who has ever run against him.

Dicks is a major champion of Bremerton’s continuing revitalization and said the new government center is one more step in the city’s ongoing process to reinvent itself. “I just want to make one thing clear,” he stated emphatically, “We’re not over yet. We still have a lot of work yet to be done. We are on a roll, and we are not going to stop until we get the job done.”

Bremerton Mayor Cary Bozeman thanked former county commissioner Tim Botkin — who carried the ball to get the project off the ground in the early days, and whom some people believe lost his job over doing so — as well as former mayor Lynn Horton.

Later, during the public tour of the building, the mayor joked that from now on, he’d be able to just stomp his foot on the floor of his new 6th floor office whenever he needed Dicks to “…send up some more money.”

The lobby area, the new sixth floor Bremerton city hall portions of the building, as well as the third floor offices of the Bremerton Kitsap-County Health District were open to be toured by the public — which was suitably impressed.

Former Kitsap County Treasurer Sharon Shrader added an interesting aside to the building’s design and its extensive use of glass, by saying, “All this glass is intentional. It represents the fact that government is meant to be transparent.”

But Bozeman summed it best by saying, “It’s amazing what people can do when there is a commitment.”.