NEWS-TIMES WHIDBEY
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011 | Vol. 120, No. 100 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢
Gifts made right on Whidbey. A11
Media circus follows Barefoot Bandit to Whidbey By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
People who are curious about the Barefoot Bandit should stay away from Coupeville Friday and instead go online to catch live action from the courtroom, law enforcement officials are begging. Colton Harris-Moore, the worldfamous burglar and airplane thief, will be in Island County Superior Court Friday to enter 30 guilty pleas for crimes he allegedly committed
in three counties. A media circus is coming to town. Detective Ed Wallace with the Island County Sheriff’s Office is coordinating the expected onslaught of TV cameras and reporters. He said the major TV networks will all be at the hearing, including NBC’s Dateline and possibly CBS’s 48 Hours. The print media will also be storming Coupeville. Reporters from the New York Times, Reuters, the Associated Press, the Seattle
Times and other local newspapers will be covering the story. Wallace said journalists from a German news magazine have contacted him, but didn’t confirm whether they will be at the hearing. In addition to the courtroom, a live stream of the hearing will play in the commissioners’ hearing room. Wallace said there’s only a total of 145 seats in both rooms and they will probably all be taken up by reporters, victims and lawyers.
“The odds of getting in to see something is very slim,” he warned, noting that Harris-Moore will be brought to the courtroom through an enclosed area. But since there’s a huge interest in the case, Wallace has worked to get the hearing streamed live on the internet at the county’s website, www.islandcounty.net. It’s the same technology that the county commissioners use to broadcast their meetings, only it will be in real time.
SEE MEDIA, A8
One votes nay on property tax hike
Students turn to News-Times for math project By REBECCA OLSON Staff reporter
Tape, laughter and a massive amount of newspaper surrounded Harry Toulgoat’s class of fifthgrade students at Hillcrest Elementary School Wednesday. The class has been working on a math unit about area, perimeter and volume and Toulgoat decided to give his students some hands-on engineering experience to make the lesson memorable. “We’re learning how to do area and perimeter and trying to make a 3-D object,” said student Kailye Collier. Approximately 2,300 sheets of newspaper, feet and feet of tape and plenty of teamwork later, the class erected a structure consisting of hundreds of joined newspaper tubes made out of the Whidbey News-Times. Students stood on chairs to hold up walls taller than themselves as other students climbed inside the structure with tape. Laughter and excitement were everywhere as the students enjoyed the hands-on work. “We got math going on even through we’re building things,” Toulgoat said. He got the idea for the project from a Seattle school that did it last year. He divided the class into teams, each of which created more than 300 newspaper tubes using nearly a mile of the local newspaper. Then the groups got to work following blueprints, figuring out how to tape tubes together and learning how to measure the diagonals of triangles, Toulgoat said. Students learned about math, as well as using time efficiently, writing and reasoning. “Teamwork, the geometry of engineering, area, perimeter and volume are most important, even if it collapses,” Toulgoat said. Although the structure didn’t stand on its own, that didn’t dampen the students’ enthusiasm or
Nevertheless, the cops are preparing for a crowd. “We expect a very large turnout of people trying to attend the hearing, or catch a glimpse of HarrisMoore. The turnout could be in the hundreds or more,” Coupeville Town Marshal Dave Penrod wrote in a letter to merchants. To prevent parking problems, Penrod is closing streets in a two-
By JUSTIN BURNETT Staff reporter
Rebecca Olson/Whidbey News-Times
Fifth-grade student Bridget Barkley tapes newspaper tubes together to create a structure that taught students about area, perimeter and teamwork. education. After discussing what worked and what didn’t, the class constructed two-person tents that are still standing, Toulgoat said. The students invited their second-grade reading partners to sit in them during reading time. About their first structure, student Ceirra Dean said she learned, “Newspaper doesn’t work very well to make a 3-D object.”
Student Piper Fisher learned that, “When you work on a project like this, you should have more tape.” “And harder newspaper,” Dean added. “But we used teamwork and that’s all that matters,” Collier said. “We learned, and that was the whole point,” Toulgoat said.
To battle the effects of a sluggish economy and keep pace with inflation, a 1 percent property tax hike has been approved in Oak Harbor for 2012. The city council levied the increase, which would garner about $37,500, in a 4-1 decision at its regular Tuesday meeting last week. Council members Bob Severns, Rick Almberg, Jim Palmer and Beth Munns voted for the proposal while Jim Campbell was opposed. Councilmen Scott Dudley and Danny Paggao did not vote as they were away on previously excused absences. “I am going to support this again,” Councilman Jim Palmer said. “I don’t like it, I wish we didn’t have to do it but I think we need to continue to ensure the basic services for the city.” Every year, state law allows SEE TAX, A8