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SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 2014 | Vol. 90, No. 4 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Ferry town’s future among top concerns lobbed at lawmaker
Whidbey’s Puget Sound Anglers chapter to throw last cast By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
“That’s where we have most of our misunderstandings,” she said, later adding that she would try to attend a Clinton Community Council meeting to hear their ideas of how to stem the outgoing business tide of Clinton.
Almost a dozen men and women will soon have to fish in fellowship free of the association with the Puget Sound Anglers on Whidbey Island. The Whidbey Island chapter of the Puget Sound Anglers, a regional group that promotes fishing as recreation and favorable fishing policies, will have its final meeting Wednesday, Jan. 15. Declining membership overcame the club’s ability to fulfill its financial obligations, such as paying chapter dues and advertising. It was the only Puget Sound Anglers club on Whidbey Island, with the nearest clubs in Anacortes and Everett. “We were spending more money than we were bringing in,” said Rev Barchenger, the Whidbey Island chapter’s treasurer. For the past decade, Barchenger said she saw the club slowly decline from a peak of about 30 members to just 14 remaining. The drop may have been due in part to the creation of another angling group on South Whidbey, The Fishin’ Club, which does not engage in any political or policy work. It gave anglers another venue for fishing fellowship. Today, there just simply aren’t enough people to keep
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SEE FISHING, A5
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Ollie Fee, an occupational therapist on Whidbey Island, speaks to state Rep. Norma Smith at a Clinton Chamber of Commerce meeting Thursday night. She was concerned with school funding falling short of its needs after hearing Smith discuss the role education has in the state’s economic development.
By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
Ben Watanabe / The Record
State Rep. Norma Smith speaks to about 25 people at a Clinton Chamber of Commerce meeting Thursday night.
Revitalizing Clinton, easing restrictions on small farms and improving education were the top concerns among residents at a meeting with state Rep. Norma Smith this week. At a meeting in Clinton, Smith’s hometown, ahead of the 63rd Washington State Legislature, 26 people let their representative know what mattered to them. Held in the Clinton Community Hall, with empty storefronts across the street and just up Highway 525, stimulating the ferry community was a chief issue. The divide the state route creates and how the South Whidbey area is largely passed by ferry commuters eager to speed up the 30 mph zone, was a big concern of Doug Hofius, a member of the Clinton Community Council. He told Smith the council has made it clear to the Washington State Department of Transportation that more speed limit signs are not the solution. Smith has concerns with the WSDOT and its ferries division, citing the recent added cost of the Highway 520 bridge replacement, which is
estimated at $170 million. One of the issues in the legislature, said Smith, is addressing the differing needs of urban places such as Seattle or Everett and rural areas like Whidbey Island.
“That’s where we have most of our misunderstandings.” Rep. Norma Smith Clinton