The citizens of Island Country are being ripped off horribly by the assessor and commissioners. The housing market crashed three years ago to at least 25 percent of the high water mark, yet our assessments are being maintained at that high level. This causes all homeowners to pay excess property taxes plus we are also required to pay excess homeowners insurance.
A decision to reroute treated effluent to its lagoon facility on the Seaplane Base will solve Oak Harbor’s broken sewer outfall problem but the solution is not without risk, city officials say.
U.S. Senate candidate Dino Rossi picked a strange place to pitch his “small government” philosophy Friday, and the results were mixed.
It’s time to open up your medicine cabinet and sort through all those old prescription bottles. The police want your pills.
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration is teaming up with law enforcement on Whidbey Island as part of a nationwide prescription “Take-Back Day.” Law enforcement officers will be collecting expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs, as well as over-the-counter medication, Saturday, Sept. 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at three locations on Whidbey Island.
Shoppers at Safeway in Oak Harbor got more than they bargained for Friday evening when a vehicle caught fire in the grocery’s parking lot.
At about 7:25 p.m., the store’s internal speaker system announced that a red Pontiac Grand Prix appeared to be on fire in a stall near the front doors. Shoppers rushed out to find smoke pouring from under the hood of the vehicle.
A lightning strike to start the game, domination at the line of scrimmage and a heavy dose of Josiah Miller carried the Oak Harbor High School football team to a 46-7 win over Shorewood at Shoreline Stadium Friday, Sept. 17.
Someone with a shotgun plugged a juvenile bald eagle on or near Whidbey Naval Air Station this week. Sadly, the bird didn’t survive.
Erica Anderson-Syring, a veterinarian at Best Friends Veterinary Center in Oak Harbor, said people who were walking on the beach at Rocky Point — a popular area on the Navy base — reported finding a sick eagle. The raptor was on the beach and didn’t move when dogs or people approached.
Following a whirlwind week of meetings, the Island County commissioners finalized a budget, complete with $2 million in cuts, they will present to the public at an Oct. 4 hearing.
Construction of what’s being hailed as the centerpiece of Oak Harbor’s waterfront trail system may soon begin.
The Seattle Times reported that “whopping rate increases are coming soon for many people with individual health-insurance policies.”
What? How can this be? Didn’t Democrats like Patty Murray and Rick Larsen promise that the Obamacare bill they forced on an unwilling nation would “bend the cost curve?”
In response to Island County Commissioner John Dean’s letter to the editor, yes, I bought vacant land and built a house. To save money, I constructed parts of the house myself and was the general contractor. Upon completion, the house was appraised by the county at considerably more than I spent building it. Then along comes John Dean and my taxable valuation went to over $700,000 with a tax bill of $5,400: More than double the tax for the completed house.
Republican Senate candidate Dino Rossi made two stops in Oak Harbor Thursday as part of his tour of Washington small businesses.
After the first monthly enrollment count, Oak Harbor School District numbers are coming in above budget, a fact that board member Gary Wallin described as “pleasantly surprising.”