NEWS-TIMES WHIDBEY
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 | Vol. 120, No. 76 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢
Living: Watoto makes third stop in Oak Harbor. A12
Levy failure in November may close Oak Harbor pool By NATHAN WHALEN Staff reporter
Should a renewal levy that funds more than half of the operations of the North Whidbey Park and Recreation District fail, commissioners may close the John Vanderzicht Memorial Pool in Oak Harbor. The five-member board of commissioners held a meeting last Thursday to weigh their options should the district lose taxpayer support. A renewal levy that needs
a 60 percent supermajority will be on the ballot in the general election, having failed in the primary election. A team of volunteers is working on a campaign to support the pool levy. Six people attended the meeting at the pool while dozens of children were in the pool learning to swim. “Despite all of the contributions the pool makes to individual and community life, without that income, I am compelled to vote to close the
pool on Jan. 1, 2012 if the levy does not pass,” Commissioner Allan McDougall said Thursday night. He suggested any reserves held by the park district should be used to limit the deterioration of the pool should it close. The North Whidbey Parks and Recreation District is asking voters to renew a tax levy that brings in approximately $550,000 a year, which accounts for more than half of its revenues. The renewal levy
maintains the rate taxpayers currently pay. If approved, property owners will pay 17 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The levy went before voters in August. Despite garnering 56.7 percent of the vote, it still failed. While the district operates such programs as Babe Ruth baseball, running clubs and an off-leash dog park, approximately 80 percent of the district’s expenses are devoted to pool operations. Should the
renewal levy fail, then it would be at least a year before such funding could be restored, regardless of the results of any special election in 2012. The pool has been a popular attraction in Oak Harbor. Usage has increased in recent years and draws swimmers from outside the park and recreation district’s boundaries, which are the same as the Oak SEE POOL, A8
Ditched dog prompts cop investigation By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
An Oak Harbor woman is under investigation for leaving a dog to starve while her husband was on a military deployment, according to the Oak Harbor Police Department. Police Chief Rick Wallace said a Navy man reported that he returned from a three-month deployment Sept. 16 to find that his estranged wife had left their dog, a lab mix named Mariel, alone in the apartment without food or water. The dog was extremely emaciated and dehydrated; the chief speculated that the pooch may have been abandoned for a month or longer. “Our animal control officer said it was the worst case of starvation he’s ever seen,” Wallace said. The dog is currently being cared for at a veterinarian’s office and is expected to survive. The couple was in the middle of a divorce when the woman left the apartment, apparently moving to another state. Wallace said the woman’s mother told the animal control officer that her daughter had made arrangements for someone else to care for the dog, but she didn’t know why that didn’t happen. Wallace said all the water was gone from the toilets in the apartment and that a bag of dog food was on top of the refrigerator. Terry Sampson, the animal control officer for Oak Harbor, is investigating the woman on suspicion of animal cruelty.
Justin Burnett / Whidbey News-Times
Laborers from Anacortes-based Lakeside Industries smooth out fresh asphalt on Dock Street in downtown Oak Harbor Monday night.
Pioneer Way road project hits home stretch By JUSTIN BURNETT Staff reporter
For downtown merchants who have suffered months of dirt, dust and the drone of heavy machinery, nothing is as sweet as the smell of fresh blacktop in the morning. And that’s exactly what they were greeted with when they arrived at work early Tuesday. Fresh and black as midnight asphalt, stretching from Dock to SE Ireland streets and from Ilwaco Alley to SE Midway Boulevard. While it’s not perfect, as a final finishing layer has yet to come, it was a welcome sight nonethe-
less, said Ron Apgar, a shop owner and the president of the Downtown Merchants Association. “It’s beautiful but a little rough,” he said. Crews from Anacortes-based Lakeside Industries, a subcontractor for Oak Harbor’s primary project contractor, Strider Construction, spent Monday night and early Tuesday morning paving the roadway. The $7.7-million city road project began in March, and was originally expected to wrap up in September. However, the discovery of Native American remains resulted in a project-wide shutdown that lasted
longer than a month and pushed back completion. All but one block of the project should be done in October. The delay affected businesses in different ways, as the project has been worked on in phases with construction moving in an easterly direction. Owners of shops located west of Dock Street were the first to feel the impacts of construction, but they were fortunate in that the shutdown occurred after the street in front of their stores was paved in June. Merchants located in phase two of the project area, from Dock Street east, had the rotten luck of
having the shutdown occur shortly after the street in front of their shops was torn up in May. To have fresh blacktop after so long is a welcome sight. “No more dirt and no more dust,” said Rick Rennebohm, a Pioneer Way property owner. He and his wife, Cheryl, came SEE PAVING, A8