News-Times Whidbey
ISLAND LIVING Book highlights Oak Harbor history A10
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2014 | Vol. 115, No. 13 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢
LOVE LETTERS
Jessie Stensland/Whidbey News-Times
Dylan Jefferies of Freeland appears in Island County Superior Court with attorney Jennifer Bouwens Monday.
Polygraph picks up on child porn By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
A man applying to be a reserve police officer in Langley allegedly lied on a polygraph exam and later admitted to having child pornography on his home computer, according to court records. Dylan G. Jefferies, the 27-year-old applicant, pleaded not guilty in Island County
Superior Court Monday to 17 counts of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Three counts were firstdegree charges, the most serious, and the rest were second-degree. Jefferies, a Freeland resident and former firefighter, submitted to a polygraph exam in 2011 after he applied SEE POLYGRAPH, A12
Oak Harbor raises rates to cover bones mishap By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
Oak Harbor ratepayers will start paying more for one utility to cover a portion of the cost of unearthing a Native American burial ground under Pioneer Way in 2011. The city council adopted a temporary increase in storm drain rates last week. Finance Director Doug Merriman said ratepayers will see a $2.20 increase in
the monthly storm drain fees in their March bill. The increase will last for three years and then sunset. So far, it has cost the city $3.4 million to deal with the mistake. The archaeological work is completed; the city hired experts to sift through 6,500 yards of dirt in piles throughout the city to find human remains and artifacts. SEE RATE, A12
Photo by Ron Newberry/Whidbey News-Times
Gloria and Bruce Hartley look over the script for the play, ‘Love Letters,’ from the living room of their Oak Harbor home Tuesday. The couple, which will celebrate 50 years of marriage in August, will act for first time at the Whidbey Playhouse.
Couple takes center stage By RON NEWBERRY
I
Staff reporter
t might go down as one of the oddest first dates on record. They sat in two cars side by side, facing in opposite directions, with engines idling. Through open driver’s side windows, they chatted into the night in a police department parking lot in the city of Chicago Heights. Bruce and Gloria Hartley had only met a couple hours earlier at a Parents Without Partners meeting. “I was taking attendance the night he came in,” Gloria said. “He came up to the table and I looked at him and said,
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‘Oh my,’ and something clicked.” As they talked from their cars after the meeting, they just couldn’t drive away. Both were divorced with two children, but would soon find they had much more in common. “We must have talked about five-tosix hours,” Bruce said. “We were just chatting about, ‘What do you think about this? What do you think about that?’ Our thinking was in full agreement on a lot of things.” “We talked about anything and everything,” Gloria said. “Then we decided maybe we should stop this and go home, which we did, but then we got on the phone.”
That May evening in 1964 led to marriage a few months later. This August, they’ll celebrate 50 years together. “That’s pretty good for second timers,” Bruce said. The couple, which has called Oak Harbor home for 18 years, has decided to do something unique together this year. They will take part in a nontraditional play that is being performed at the Whidbey Playhouse in Oak Harbor this month and opens Thursday night. The play, “Love Letters,” involves mostly real-life couples sitting side by side and reading aloud love letters. SEE LOVE, A9
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