Here’s what was happening in the news this week:
100 years ago
The Sandy Flats Improvement Club also comprised the New School House faction. The secretary of the club, R.S. Wheeler, wrote a column appealing to voters to recognize that a great deal of misinformation had been spread in regard to the plans for the new school. Wheeler clarified several points, including the fact that there would be an estimated 25 students in attendance at the proposed school, rather than seven; and that many students currently had to travel at least three miles each day to reach their current respective schoolhouses, not a maximum amount of a mile and-a-half or less, as stated by some opponents of the proposal.
75 years ago
Voters of Coupeville, Prairie Center, San de Fuca and Greenbank precincts were to vote on whether the school district should be bonded for $35,000 to defray local costs of a new $90,000 building. Superintendent Magladry said that if the bond issue were approved, the district would receive $55,000 as a gift from the state with no strings attached. This would mean local taxpayers would be paying $35,000 for the $90,000 building, which was to be erected by a private contractor. The three-mill levy necessary to raise the $35,000 would increase the taxes of an average property owner between 60 and 90 cents per year, according to estimates.
50 years ago
Plans involving foreign exchange students at Oak Harbor High School were discussed by the American Field Service Committee in their first meeting of the year. Of major concern on the agenda was the raising of funds to bring a student from another nation to Oak Harbor, and to possibly send an Oak Harbor student abroad. Due to the expenses involved, the group decided to focus its attention first upon bringing a foreign student to Whidbey, in part because the provisions of the Americans Abroad program through which such exchanges occurred specified that a student could only be sent from the United States if that student’s school were hosting a foreign student.
Island County commissioners heard further details on the proposed senior citizen “village.” The commissioners reviewed a series of layouts for homes in villages in towns similar to the one planned for Whidbey. Though Carl Dean, one of the proponents of the project, had initially proposed a 25-unit village in the town of Coupeville, he said the federal agency which was to sponsor the project had informed him that 50 units was the smallest number of houses economically feasible. As residents of Langley had expressed interest in a village, Dean suggested the minimum number of 50 be met with 25 units in Coupeville and 25 in Langley.
25 years ago
An Oak Harbor couple was the victim of a racist attack. Brian and Marina Williams discovered that a burning cross had been planted in their yard, surrounded by red spray-painted swastikas. Authorities believed the attack was directed at the couple due to their interracial marriage. Aside from occasional glances and mutters at the supermarket, the Williamses said they had never had any indication that someone in the community may harbor such hate for their marriage. The attack left many in the community in a state of shock. Brian Williams said he was not frightened by the attack, and thought it to be a “stupid prank.” Marina Williams, however, said she was not as confident, and was afraid it may happen again.
