There was no food fight or salad tossing, but the Whidbey Island League of Women Voters hosted a lively discussion among commissioners about the state of Island County Wednesday night.
The League of Women Voters event was sold out more than a week ahead of time, partly due to a tongue-in-cheek editorial by the Whidbey News-Time predicting food-related fisticuffs between commissioners with dueling philosophies. The board is made up of two Democratic commissioners and a Tea Party Republican.
The high price of metals, specifically copper and gold, has caused some problems on Whidbey Island.
On Sept. 5, a North Whidbey resident noticed that six-foot sections of “ground wires” were missing from seven power poles on Van Dam Road.
A 41-year-old Oak Harbor man is facing a felony charge for continually violating a judge’s order, according to court documents.
The Island County commissioners don’t have any extra money to spend next year, but they were able to restore modest amounts of funding to a few offices by moving money around.
An Oak Harbor woman is under investigation for leaving a dog to starve while her husband was on a military deployment, according to the Oak Harbor Police Department.
Police Chief Rick Wallace said a Navy man reported that he returned from a three-month deployment Sept. 16 to find that his estranged wife had left their dog, a lab mix named Mariel, alone in the apartment without food or water.
A total of 546 Island County residents within the Penn Cove precinct will be moved to another commissioner district under a redistricting proposal.
Island County Auditor Sheilah Crider said the county’s redistricting committee as well as the county commissioners have decided on a redistricting option that is the simplest, least expensive and creates the straightest boundaries.
Whidbey General Hospital commissioners indicated that they were satisfied with a decision to outsource 10 transcriptionist positions.
During the regular meeting Monday night, the commissioners briefly discussed the hospital administrator’s decision to contract with a national medical transcription company, Wedmedx, to take over transcription for the hospital. Hospital CFO Joe Vessey said the savings will be “closer to $2 million over five years.”
Whidbey General Hospital officials have decided to hold off on sending another bond proposal to voters.
At a Monday night meeting, hospital commissioners unanimously reversed their previous decision to place a $50-million proposal to expand the hospital on the ballot next February. It would have been a redo of the bond that failed to reach the 60 percent supermajority in a May 17 special election this year.
After at least 10 years of effort, officials from the Washington State Department of Transportation and Island County have finally found the money to put in a turn lane and widen shoulders on Highway 20 near the Island County solid waste transfer station.
Todd Carlson, a planning and engineering manager with the state, said the final piece of the puzzle was a $1 million “scenic byway” grant from the Federal Highway Administration. The federal government only had about $20 million in the grant fund for the entire country, so he was excited that Whidbey Island got such a large share. He credits the Whidbey Scenic Isle Way Corridor Management Plan for boosting the grant application.
A 12-year-old Oak Harbor boy is in trouble for starting a fire that spread from a port-a-potty to a former concession stand at a 4-H facility on North Whidbey.
Ray Merrill, the training officer for North Whidbey Fire and Rescue, said the blaze occurred at the Island County WSU Extension horse arena on Green Valley Road Tuesday evening, Sept. 6.
Fireman Ray Merrill hopes that a five-acre brush fire on North Whidbey will remind people that there’s a burn ban in the county, even if it has been a cold and wet summer until recently.
Merrill, the training officer for North Whidbey Fire and Rescue, said the fire was reported at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in brush and grass near the intersection of Hastie Lake and Zylstra roads.
A jury in a civil trial found that a state senator’s husband battered his wife’s former campaign manager and he should pay her $50,000 in damages.
Whidbey Island residents will get the chance to commemorate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and show their support for local firefighters at a ceremony in Oak Harbor Sunday.
North Whidbey Fire and Rescue, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island Fire Department and the Oak Harbor Fire Department will co-host a memorial service for the 10-year anniversary of the 2001 attacks. It will begin at 1 p.m. at Windjammer Park in Oak Harbor.
