Hear me out: A piece of playground equipment shaped like the shipyard's hammerhead crane is the most appropriate way to memorialize the doomed icon of the waterfront. 

Kids climbing all over a miniature green crane in one of the renovated parks dotting Bremerton, where grandpa or grandma can explain what it did back in the good old days. Generations of PSNS workers taking family Christmas card photos next to a scale model. You having a coronary when your kid jumps off the top for the first time.  (I suppose this is where I slip in “Happy Father’s Day!” to the dads who spend as much time at playgrounds as my daughter and I do…) 

I cast my suggestion into the ring because I've enjoyed the handful of letters we've published on the Sun's opinion page asking the Navy to do some historical preservation in wake of news that the 90-year-old piece of machinery must make way for a new dry dock. Whether a giant bureaucracy is moved at all by a few 250-word missives published by a newspaper is doubtful, but to me it remains important. I believe those letters offer a reflection of community opinion in a way the social media echo chamber does not, and in ways that can stir interest or change — just look at the conversation that developed over the future of a planned route through North Kitsap Heritage Park in our pages over the past month. The debate was spurred by a single news story about some small amphibians and has since been infused with several different perspectives that can come to a head at a community meeting on the topic this Tuesday, June 21, at 6 p.m. at the Kingston Community Center. 

Close readers know that the Sun downsized the number of print pages of opinion content this month. An opinion page is now only in the Sunday, Wednesday and Friday editions. It's a move that, like several other recent changes I've written about, is part of our ongoing evolution and influenced by factors like a growing digital readership and search for sustainability on the print side.

But this one, and I admit it may sound like I’m spinning the company line a bit, isn’t just about cost savings. 

A decade ago the whole set up was fairly straightforward, and had been for some time. You rolled out two regular syndicated columnists each day, one from the left side and one from the right, a cartoon that alternated between poking the Dems or Repubs, alongside some letters, three or four community columnists and once a week an “Our View” editorial, which was a column written by myself or former Opinion editor Jim Campbell taking a side on a news issue on behalf of our community editorial board. 

That’s all changed, and I imagine any newspaper with that staid routine is now rare. Some of that shifted internally, like when the community editorial board went on hiatus as the pandemic hit or out cutback on national columnists due to fee increases. Then there’s external factors, like a national political climate when simply running the “liberal” and “conservative” side of an issue isn’t adequate to explain some of the culture wars. And of course there’s the incredible abundance (over-abundance?) of punditry and commentary online that makes a print-centered debate on national topics feel a bit limited. 

So the task, and the value, of presenting that daily page has been slowly shifting, and we’re at the stage of making a change by reducing the opinion page's presence. With fewer days in print, I intend for the opinion page to feel more local. That hope has certainly been the case over the past two weeks, so thank you to everyone who’s contributed by writing a letter or consulting with me about a guest column. I’ve written before about my desire to keep the focus of our opinion offerings on local issues and local voices, and that’s only more true now. Keep writing to me, and to your fellow readers. This platform remains something I believe it as valuable to our community's conversation and our future — even if I don't get my wish for unique playground equipment. 

A reader emailed me about the change this week and wrapped up by commenting that running a newspaper in today’s environment requires effort, imagination and a bit of luck. He's right on all three counts, and just neglects one other factor — your support and engagement. Thanks for sticking with us as we continue to evolve and navigate, and keep sending those letters. It means more than you think. 

David Nelson has been editor of the Kitsap Sun since 2009. Contact him at david.nelson@kitsapsun.com.