Struggling to fill a $1.2 million deficit, Island County commissioners are considering raising the county’s property tax levy by the amount former commissioners “banked” during healthy economic times.
But even then, the extra revenue would fill only a small portion of the budget gap.
Jerry Goen crept ahead of incumbent Larry Morse by just two votes in the race for a seat on the North Whidbey Fire and Rescue commission.
Only 10 ballots are left to count from the Nov. 3 election, according to the Island County Auditor’s Web site.
Six elected Island County officials signed onto a stinging open letter to the county commissioners, demanding that they take certain steps before making cuts in their departments to plug the $1.2 million shortfall in the 2010 general fund budget.
The Island County sheriff is holding a public meeting in Oak Harbor Thursday, Nov. 12 to discuss a low-risk sex offender who is living out of his car.
Jesse Blankenship, 31, was convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense in Colorado last year after he inappropriately touched a 16-year-old girl at a grocery store when he was drunk.
Four Oak Harbor children who were sexually abused by a former youth leader at Living Faith Christian Center won a $150,000 settlement from the church’s insurance company last week.
An 18-year-old Oak Harbor man who got hit over the head with an empty wine bottle while burglarizing a garage Oct. 9 could end up in prison, court documents state.
Prosecutors charged Dakota Simpson in Island County Superior Court Oct. 26 with residential burglary and vehicle prowling in the second degree. If convicted of the charges, he could face up to a year and five months in prison under the standard sentencing range.
Scott Dudley appears to be on his way to winning a seat on the Oak Harbor City Council, while Tom Tack leads in the only contested seat for the Coupeville Town Council.
A 36-year-old Oak Harbor man accused of holding three different knives to his girlfriend’s throat three different times is facing felony charges, court documents indicate.
Oak Harbor resident Bill Robards is making a documentary movie about the tragedy at the small Washington town of Wellington nearly a century ago. An avalanche killed 96 passengers on two trains that were stuck in a snowstorm.
Island County elected officials and department heads decided to declare a financial emergency during a tense roundtable discussion Wednesday afternoon.
The resolution wouldn’t have any legal effect, Budget Director Elaine Marlow explained, but it would convey a message to the community and staff about the seriousness of the projected $1.2 million budget deficit next year.
Should people be able to build mini-storage facilities in the rural zones of Island County?
That’s the question Island County commissioners will have to decide before a new ordinance governing mini-storage can be adopted.
Island County commissioners took a step toward approving a new fee on county property that would fund two conservation districts.
The three commissioners unanimously approved a motion to instruct the county prosecutor to draft the necessary ordinance to implement the special assessment of $5 per parcel plus 5 cents per acre. But the ultimate passage of the ordinance may not be a slam dunk.
Island County Clerk Sharon Franzen has decided to retire from her elected office Dec. 15, a little over a year before her term is over.
“I had made it very clear that I was going to retire next year at the end of my four-year term, but several factors caused me to leave earlier than planned,” she said.
