As some Whidbey residents rushed to finish their taxes April 15, others took to the street to protest.
The crowd stood at the intersection of Highway 20 and Pioneer Way with yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and tea bags strung to their hats for a rally against government spending. It was one of many events across the nation to coincide with Tax Day.
The Island County commissioners are moving forward with instituting a clean water utility tax that would replace the unpopular $62 septic fee and fund a series of water-protecting programs.
Many details haven’t been ironed out, but the commissioners are discussing an annual fee in the neighborhood of $32 to $47 per parcel in unincorporated Island County. There are about 40,000 parcels in the county.
Children wiggled in their seats as the adventure-inspiring Indiana Jones theme song played and a posse of tigers leaped onto sturdy metal pedestals during the opening act of the Nile Shrine Circus.
Island County Superior Court Judge Alan Hancock made a rare deviation from a plea-bargained, recommended sentence and sent a child rapist to prison for well over 12 years.
Daniel Doherty, a 53-year-old former Oak Harbor resident, appeared in court March 12 for sentencing. Under a plea agreement, Doherty pleaded guilty Feb. 18 to first-degree child rape and first-degree child molestation.
No one was inside a Greenbank home that was damaged by fire early Saturday morning, April 10.
At approximately 12:30 a.m., firefighters from Central Whidbey Fire and Rescue responded to a fire call at a single-family residence on Four Eagles Way.
A 25-year-old Oak Harbor man who harassed and threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend must go to jail and obtain an evaluation for possible drug abuse, anger management and domestic violence treatment.
Two Whidbey men are accused of burglarizing a vacant Oak Harbor house to steal a dishwasher, a bathroom mirror and a shelf unit, court documents state.
Prosecutor charged 22-year-old Cory Michaud of North Whidbey and 19-year-old Erik Smith of Coupeville in Island County Superior Court March 4 with residential burglary.
The second annual Central Whidbey Hearts & Hammers Workday is fast approaching.
On Saturday, May 1, volunteers will gather in the multipurpose room at the Coupeville Elementary School at 7:45 a.m. for breakfast before beginning a busy day repairing owner-occupied homes for Central Whidbey families who are physically or financially unable to do the work themselves.
Dozens of fast hands were drawing wool during a two-day Whidbey Island “spin-in” last weekend.
The annual event was filled with lectures, spinning workshops and fabric vendors.
The Port of Coupeville won’t become the next owner of an airport. In fact, officials won’t even study the possibility.
The three commissioners for the Port of Coupeville rejected conducting a feasibility study on whether the port should acquire the airport located on Monroe Landing Road, just inside the north boundary of Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve.
Whidbey Island Naval Air Station earned the 2010 Commander in Chief’s Installation Excellence Award this year from the Chief of Naval Operations. The 67-year-old base earned the title “best air station in the Navy.”
Island County commissioners are looking into ways to prevent elected officials, including themselves, from receiving salary increases in 2011.
Under county code, the elected county officials, excluding the judges, receive a 5 percent pay increase each odd-numbered year. But such hefty raises would be difficult to justify in the midst of ongoing budget problems.
The big top is coming to Oak Harbor, along with old-school circus acts. There will be clowns, jugglers, animal acts, at least one elephant, and the death-defying World Famous Wallendas.