RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011 | Vol. 87, No. 101 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Board votes to keep LMS open
7.25 YEARS
BY BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
LANGLEY — Langley Middle School is staying open next year. The South Whidbey School Board voted 4-1 Wednesday to rescind a three-year-old decision to close the iconic campus at the board’s meeting Wednesday, Dec. 14. The decision to close the historic school has been controversial since it was suggested as a prudent response to declining enrollment and shrinking revenue. Teachers, students and parents protested the July 2009 closure decision and raised concerns about middle schoolers sharing a campus with students at South Whidbey High School. A proposed $25 million bond measure to expand the high school for the consolidation effort fell to defeat a year ago, and many blamed voters’ rejection of the
“We have to open the discussion and look at things in a new way.”
INSIDE: Stingy Sultan, Sports, A14
Jessie Stensland / Whidbey News-Times
“Barefoot Bandit” Colton Harris-Moore awaits sentencing for his crime spree Friday in Island County Superior Court.
BAREFOOT BANDIT SENTENCED
Damian Greene South Whidbey School Board
bond on the school board’s vote to close LMS. “We have to open the discussion and look at things in a new way,” said newly-elected Board Member Damian Greene. The about-face on mothballing LMS came at the new board’s first opportunity for the change. Two new members joined the school board following November’s election as two of the staunchest supporters of closing LMS — and consolidating the district’s schools on SEE LMS, A11
Freeland shipyard gets $17 million contract for Judge finds mercy for work on 144-car ferry accused criminal ‘survivor’ Mob missing on
Justin Burnett / Whidbey News-Times
Langley resident Annie Cain snaps a photo of herself outside the Island County Courthouse shortly before Colton Harris-Moore’s sentencing hearing Friday morning.
BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
Shipbuilders in Freeland are anxious to get to work now that agreements are in place for Nichols Brothers Boat Builders to play a major role in constructing Washington state’s next ferry. US Fab officials announced this week that final agreements had been reached with the subcontractors who will help build the new 144-car ferry. More than two dozen subcontractors will take part in the project, led by prime contractor US Fab, a subsidiary of Vigor Industrial. Nichols Brothers has agreed to a $17 million contract to build the ferry’s superstruc-
ture, which is the part of the vessel from the car-deck level up. “Everybody’s excited,” said Nichols Brothers CEO John Collins. “We’re looking forward to working with Vigor,” he said, noting the companies had shared work on the recent projects to build three 64-car ferries for the state. “We’ve been a good partner with them in the past, as they have (with us),” he said. Collins said the contract would mean plenty of jobs at the Freeland shipyard. “I can tell you the job itself will involve at least roughly 100 SEE NICHOLS, A23
BY JESSIE STENSLAND Whidbey News-Times
COUPEVILLE — The real Colton Harris-Moore bears little resemblance to the image of the brazen Barefoot Bandit who captured worldwide headlines with his exploits during a two-year crime spree. Instead, his defense attorneys, a forensic psychiatrist and even prosecutors described him as a painfully shy young man who survived a horrendous childhood and is embarrassed by media attention. Harris-Moore stared at his feet during most of his sentencing hearing that spanned Friday morning and most of the afternoon in Island County Superior Court. The stories of Harris-Moore’s trials and tribulations apparently swayed Judge Vickie Churchill, who pointed out that she had sentenced him in a different case four
Bandit’s big day BY JUSTIN BURNETT Whidbey News-Times
COUPEVILLE — Colton Harris-Moore appeared in Island County Superior Court for sentencing Friday but the Barefoot Bandit’s entourage, expected to number in the hundreds or more, never showed. Although dozens of journalists, many from mainstream broadcast and print media organizations such as Fox News and the New York Times, did line up at the courthouse door for the 9 a.m. hearing, the turnout was a far cry from the mob scene anticipated by local law enforcement. SEE MOB, A6
SEE JUDGE, A24