Divers have successfully plugged the hole in the fuel tank of a 128-foot crab boat that caught fire and sank in Penn Cove this past weekend, but enough diesel leaked out that the state has closed the bay to shellfish harvesting.
According to Mark Toy, an environmental engineer with the state Department of Health, more diesel was in the boat than earlier thought and photos from the air have shown just how far the resulting sheen has spread.
No matter the cost, the 128-foot crab boat that caught fire and then sank in Penn Cove this weekend will be raised and removed, according to officials with the state Department of Natural Resources.
Toni Droscher, spokeswoman for the agency, confirmed that the huge steel fishing vessel is not too big to pluck from the bottom, but it will be expensive and it’s a cost that will be borne by taxpayers.
The Oak Harbor School Board unanimously approved asking voters to support a levy to collect $7.35 million at a meeting Monday evening. This proposal will be presented to voters in February 2013.
As the board members supported the larger of two levy rates they discussed at the meeting, the audience gave them a standing ovation.
Detectives investigating a former church youth ministry leader accused of child molestation have found that he’s been in close contact with children through a number of entities in Oak Harbor over the years.
Ronald Asplund, a 57-year-old Oak Harbor resident, was accused of molesting and raping two teenage boys. He met one of the boys through Oak Harbor Lutheran Church, where he had been the middle school ministry coordinator until a couple of months ago.
A 128-foot crab boat that started on fire and then sank to the bottom of Penn Cove over the weekend is leaking one to two gallons of diesel fuel per minute, according to a press release from the Coast Guard.