$200 check in mail for some Oak Harbor residents

Some Oak Harbor residents who live in the Swantown area will be getting a $200 check in the mail.

The city of Oak Harbor’s finance director, Patricia Soule, told city council members during a workshop last week that she had discovered funds collected for the construction of a fire station that was never built needed to be returned to those who paid them.

“It goes back to all the citizens so they get an early Christmas present,” she said.

Soule explained that a condition in the Swantown Annexation Agreement between the city and MK Associates in 1993 required each property to pay $200 “for the purchase of land and/or buildings for a fire station located within one mile of the property.”

The agreement also states that if the money isn’t spent it needs to be returned within five years of deposit.

Soule said the allowable retention period has since passed for $71,800 of the deposits and the money needs to be returned immediately.

In fact, the money should have been returned years ago to some of the property owners.

A total of $82,000 will be returned. Soule said it will all come from the “stabilization fund fire fees reserve,” but $200 will come from the general fund.

The finance director explained that there was a misunderstanding about how the money could be used prior to arrival at the city. City officials thought they could use the money for a feasibility study on a second fire station in the city, but the agreement makes it clear that they can’t.

Fire and city officials have been discussing the need for a fire station in the southwest area of town for decades. That’s the area where the city has grown out, which makes response times longer.

The checks will be mailed after city council members formally make the decision during a council meeting to return the money.