The Oak Harbor school officials are taking action this week that will save North Whidbey taxpayers more than $1 million.

The school district is going through a process to basically refinance approximately $23 million in bonds that were originally approved in 2006.

Oak Harbor School District superintendent Rick Schulte said during Monday’s school board meeting that the refunding will save the school district taxpayers approximately $1.1 million in interest.

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About a dozen or so neighbors living near Island Transit in Central Whidbey came to a meeting with questions about an antenna officials want to install as part of its new headquarters.

Island Transit officials want to install a 40-foot antenna behind the agency’s new maintenance facility. The new antenna will help improve communications with the transit system’s buses and improve communications between emergency services.

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Months after a popular swimming hole in Deception Pass State Park was shut down due to contamination, park officials are trying out creative solutions to the problem.

Officials had to close the Cranberry Lake swimming area in July 2012 because of persistently high levels of E. coli bacteria in the water. Those levels were caused by copious amounts of droppings from the 60 to 80 geese that often congregate in the area.

Jack Hartt, manager of Deception Pass State Park, highlighted several things staff will do to discourage the honkers from congregating near the popular swimming hole.

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Residents near Island Transit’s main campus will have a chance to comment on the agency’s plans for a 40-foot-tall addition to its new headquarters that is under construction.

Transit officials want to place an antenna behind the new maintenance building, which will be 30 feet tall.

The meeting takes place at 5:30 p.m., Monday, Jan. 21 at Island Transit’s headquarters near the intersection of Highway 20 and Parker Road.

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Oak Harbor school officials are waiting for the outcomes of two decisions that will affect special education dollars. They want to know whether “sequestration” will happen at the federal level and they want to know the results of a levy election that takes place next month.

The Oak Harbor School District could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars if the next “sequestration” deadline of March 31 is reached. That deadline would mean across-the-board cuts at the federal level which could cost the school district an estimated $220,000 in special education dollars and at least $500,000 in federal Impact Aid dollars.

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A discrepancy with two different contracts could extend the Greenbank Farm Management Group’s agreement with the Port of Coupeville to oversee the publicly owned farm by more than one year.

At issue is the management group’s lease with the port — which expires March 31, 2014 — and the management group’s contract with the then-known state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development — which is fulfilled at the earliest June 2015.

The state agency, which eventually became the state Department of Commerce, gave the management group a $1.5 million grant in 2003 that funded construction of a new building at the Greenbank Farm. One of the contract clauses states that any buildings constructed using state funds have to be “held and used” by the Greenbank Farm Management Group for a period of at least 10 years from the date the building is occupied, which took place in June 2005.

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Several weeks after Port of Coupeville officials sent one of its fuel floats away to be repaired, the last remaining one at the wharf was damaged and is threatening to drift away.

Port officials discovered a bracket on the remaining, 40-foot concrete float that boaters use to refuel their vessels, had broke away. The other fuel float is off-island being repaired.

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