Gig Harbor’s top stories of 2021: New mayor, a barge run amok, and TikTok gains a star

It’s been another of those years we’re not too sorry to see go. The pandemic that refused to end, the heat wave that curdled summer, a runaway barge that attacked Sunrise Beach. But there were also kids smiling — behind their masks — to be back in class again, a shiny new grocery emporium, and a local boy who made it big on TikTok.

Here are some of The Gateway’s top stories of 2021, chosen by online readership and those we found most significant.

1. Mayor Kit Kuhn decides not to run again

Mayor Kit Kuhn announced in March that he would not run for a second term.

In November, voters elected Councilmember Tracie Markley, who was running unopposed, as the new mayor.

Kuhn, a former jeweler, was elected as mayor in 2017 when he defeated incumbent Jill Guernsey. Running on a platform of restricting residential development, Kuhn won by more than 71 percent, or 2,366 votes.

He had a rocky relationship with some of the city’s 100-some employees.

More than 20 employees, including department heads and longtime supervisors, quit or retired since Kuhn became mayor in 2017, the Gateway reported.

A consulting company that conducted the survey of 98 city employees, InsightLink, reported a year ago that “the City of Gig Harbor has a ‘troubled workplace environment.’” It noted that fully a third of the city’s employees were looking for other jobs.

“The mayor has micromanaged and belittled his management and frontline staff to the point of destroying, what was once, a pretty healthy working environment,” read one comment from the employee survey. ”Employees are treated as if they are worthless and incompetent.”

The City Council briefly considered jettisoning the strong-mayor form of government. The idea never gained majority support.

2. Peninsula High sports star dies in truck crash; three other teens hospitalized

A summer evening ended in tragedy on June 28, when a vehicle of teenagers hit a tree on the Key Peninsula, killing one and injuring three others

Caleb Wanaka, a 17-year-old athlete and junior at Peninsula High School, died from his injuries.

Wanaka was a rising sports star, playing both basketball and baseball for Peninsula High School. He was named a first-team infielder to the Class 4A South Puget Sound League all-league team during the 2021 spring season and was also named to The News Tribune’s 2021 All-Area second team.

“Five kids were in the truck, only the driver was seatbelted in,” recounted Sgt. Darren Moss of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. “The other four kids were riding in the bed of the truck.”

All four teens riding in the bed were thrown out on impact with the tree in the 11500 block of Bliss Cochrane Road Northwest.

Earlier the same day, a 17-year-old Port Orchard youth, Will Huck, drowned in Horseshoe Lake in Kitsap County, about a mile west of Burley. Huck was a recent high school graduate who was preparing to go to college while working at a family coffee shop in Port Orchard.

3. Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One says firefighter died unexpectedly at home

Firefighters and other first responders suffer risks beyond smoke and flames, Gig Harbor learned to its sorrow in July, when a 47-year-old firefighter died suddenly in her home of a drug overdose.

The fire district said Eliza Hoover, 47, of Gig Harbor, had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“First responders regularly are exposed to both short-term and long-term cumulative stressors. Whether it is a single event or a career of chronic stress, mental injury can damage or lead to biological deficiencies within the brain,” the district said in a statement. “Those suffering from PTSI (post-traumatic stress injury) often struggle with substance abuse, major depression, and anxiety.”

Hoover had been Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One’s first woman firefighter. Her colleagues were among the emergency workers who responded to the 911 call from her home.

She died July 25 of acute fentanyl, cocaine, alprazolam and diazepam intoxication, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Firefighters later organized a procession for Hoover to take her to her final resting place in Gig Harbor.

4. Cole Rushforth’s TikTok account started with a bet. Now he has 2.1 million followers

When a Gig Harbor High School classmate challenged Cole Rushforth to get 15,000 video views on TikTok, he took him up on it. Today, he has 2.1 million followers of his quirky posts about odd or intriguing things in history.

Rushford lost that $20 bet when those initial videos didn’t reach 15,000 views, but had stumbled upon a new hobby. When the pandemic shut down schools last year, Cole combined his love for history — what he considers his favorite subject in school — with his videos, and began sharing interesting information with the world.

Today, Rushforth still uploads daily and goes by the name of @colewiththefacts. Typically in a minute or less, Cole narrates information that piques the interest of now over 2.1 million followers.

“Educational, informative, factual, just entertainment videos,” Rushforth told The Gateway. “I love weird stories, like strange, unusual stories. … I just started posting what I thought was cool, and what I thought other people would like.

“I was fortunate that it kind of took off.”

In one video, Cole describes “strange jobs that could make you rich,” such as that of a professional ice cream taster. In others, he tells stories of “crazy coincidences,” or tells viewers “insane facts about the Earth that you won’t believe.”

Rushforth made his first videos in the family bathroom, because the lighting was good. But when he reached 1 million followers, his parents bought him a green screen and professional lighting.

During the week, he’s also Gig Harbor’s senior class president, and was recently named to the 3A SSC’s first team as a wide receiver on the Tides’ football team. But video is what he wants to do with his life.

“It’s kind of unfathomable, sometimes,” Rushforth said. “To think that millions of people have seen my videos. To me, it’s just a number on my phone. But when you really sit down and think about it, it’s, ‘wow, that’s a million people around the world.’”

5. Employees walk out over working conditions at Burger King in Key Peninsula mall

Workers at the Burger King in the Lake Kathryn Village Mall walked out Aug. 2, echoing other walkouts by fast-food workers across the country.

Unlike the workers in Nebraska, who changed their readerboard to say “We All Quit,” the Key Peninsula workers simply closed the restaurant and went home. A napkin hung on a window read: “Closed due to staffing issues.”

Two employees, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, told The Gateway the Aug. 2 walkout occurred because the staff was “fed up” after a general manager failed to show up for work.

“It was just a really bad day,” one employee said. “Our crew just kinda got fed up and they walked out.”

The employees said they frequently suffer from under-staffing and supply shortages that cause delays, leaving them to deal with frustrated customers.

“We get treated like garbage by customers. Sometimes they’ll cuss us out and it’s not our fault,” the employee said. “We get these huge orders and we can’t keep up with all of it.”

The restaurant opened normally the next day. Neither Burger King management nor the franchise owner would talk about the walkout.

6. Need a job? The City of Gig Harbor is hiring for more than a dozen positions

This routine story about city hiring caught fire on the internet, attracting thousands of views across the country. It appeared the coincidence of the words “gig” and “job” in the headline may have triggered Google’s search algorithms at a time when there was much discussion of the “gig economy.”

Over 10,000 people read the story in October about the city of Gig Harbor hanging out a “we’re hiring” sign.

The city was short about 13 positions, ranging from the judge of the Municipal Court to a maintenance technician, according to Kameil Borders, the city’s human resources director.

The HR department itself was also short of staff, acting City Administrator Tony Piasecki told the City Council on Sept. 27, after an assistant quit after a few months on the job.

Since then, the city has filled several of the open positions, but is still hiring.

7. Barge strikes three houses in Gig Harbor’s Sunrise Beach after tug captain falls asleep

A large barge ran ashore March 15 after the captain of the tug pushing it fell asleep, causing the barge to strike three homes off Sunrise Beach Drive in Gig Harbor.

There were no reported injuries afloat or ashore, although a woman having her morning coffee on the deck of one home was badly scared when the barge, looming out of the predawn gloom, sheered off the deck.

Homeowner Chris Smith said he was in bed and his wife, Rhonda Schwab, was on their deck when the barge veered toward their house in the 9500 block of Sunrise Beach Drive Northwest about 7:30 a.m.

“She started screaming, so I jumped up real quick and ran to the front window. I witnessed the tugboat coming from just out beyond those buoys at an angle,” Smith said. “You can see the line that sheared off on that piece of plywood that used to be decking.”

The company that operates the tug Island Chief said the skipper fell asleep and allowed the tug and barge to drift off course.

“It just is an unfortunate incident that is very rare,” said Erik Ellefsen, general manager at Island Tug and Barge Co. which owns the tug. “It has never happened to us for the 40-plus years we’ve been in business. Policies are in place for rest periods and then those are followed. They were followed on this incident as well.”

8. Attention shoppers: Met Market opens long-awaited Gig Harbor store

Build it, and they will come, the saying goes. And so they did.

Metropolitan Market opened the doors of its long-awaited Gig Harbor store Oct. 7 to a crowd that snaked across the adjoining plaza and down the sidewalk, past the beauty salon and the Greek restaurant.

Inside, there was a crush of carts from the bakery to the butcher shop.

“It’s beautiful,” said Catherine Tackes, who said she waited about 40 minutes to be among the first through the doors. “Everything is so shiny and well-lighted. I’m so excited to have them here.”

When the doors opened at 9 a.m., it marked the end of a years-long tease for impatient shoppers. The store at 5010 Point Fosdick Dr. has been under renovation for almost a year. The building in the Harbor Plaza shopping center was formerly home to Main & Vine, a grocery store operated by Kroger that closed in 2018.

“We’ve been waiting a long time,” said Lana Solnick, another early shopper. “It’s absolutely gorgeous.”

After only a few minutes inside, she already had a basket full of groceries, including some pricey steaks. “I’m afraid this is going to turn out to be a $100-a-trip store,” she said, laughing.

Metropolitan Market, formerly known as Queen Anne Thriftway, is a high-end grocery chain based in Seattle, with a popular store in Tacoma’s Proctor District. The Gig Harbor store is the ninth location for the company, which has stores concentrated in affluent communities from West Seattle to Sammamish.

Mayor Kit Kuhn, who presided at the ceremonial ribbon-cutting, called the opening “a positive sign of economic development as our community grows and changes.”

9. Classes resume in most Peninsula schools after COVID-19 shutdown

Reopening cautiously grade by grade, the Peninsula School District returned most students back to live classroom teaching, starting with kindergartners and first-graders in October of 2020, then third through fifth-graders in early February, middle-schools later that same month and high school students in March.

“We have been looking forward to this for so long,” said Principal Joe Potts of Peninsula High on March 11. “We’re so excited to have our students and our staff back in our building today.”

Students and staff were required to wear masks and desks were rearranged to provide social distancing, but they were back in person, and for real. No more Zoom. The halls at PHS were full of confusion and energy, as masked freshmen, clutching school maps and class lists, sought out their assigned classrooms.

“I really feel for the freshmen,” said Tyson Brent, the ASB president. “I had to help a lot of people out today, because they’d never been in the school, they’d never been inside it, and all of a sudden you have to follow all these new procedures, and arrows on the floor.”

Drama teacher Kara Belote said she teared up when she turned around and found one of her returning seniors standing in the classroom door. “I got teary-eyed, I really did,” she said. “It’s really exciting to come back.”

10. Shoplifters swarm Gig Harbor shoe store, snatch 11 pairs of trendy sneakers

Police say four shoplifters worked together to steal 11 pairs of Nike and Converse shoes from Famous Footwear, 5151 Borgen Blvd. NW. According to employees, three men and a woman swept into the store on Aug. 3, quickly picked out the shoes and “just walked out of the store.” One of the men complained loudly about being watched, employees told police, then stuffed a pair of shoes in his pants and walked out.

Police obtained the license number of a black GMC Yukon in which the suspects left, and learned it had been used in a similar shoplift at a Famous Footwear store in Lakewood. The car was traced to a 37-year-old Tacoma woman.

Officers believe the same car and the same suspects were involved in a similar incident at a Ross Dress for Less store in Gig Harbor, but employees of the store told police they would get in trouble for reporting the theft.