RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2011 | Vol. 87, No. 104 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
LANGLEY GIRL DIES IN TRAGIC ACCIDENT Community mourns loss of 9-year-old in Christmas windstorm BY PATRICIA DUFF, BEN WATANABE AND BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
South Whidbey is beset with immeasurable shock and sadness over the tragic Christmas Day death of a precious 9-yearold girl in a freak accident Sunday. Tobiah Zippy Leonard, a fourth-grader at South Whidbey Elementary School, died Sunday afternoon when a tree fell on her family’s Ford Explorer as the Langley family was on its way to a holiday gathering. The loss has devastated many across the island. “Zippy was a beautiful, creative and smart little girl who was so very full of life and fun,” said Pam Muncey, her teacher at South Whidbey Elementary School. “We will miss her deeply. I am so very sad for all of us who knew her, and am devastated for her family.” “There is a pall in town,” said Gretchen Cole of Langley. “Not a day goes by when I don’t see Tim and those girls,” Cole said Monday. “Zippy always had a remarkable quality. She’s like an angel on earth. Whenever I saw that girl I could not take my eyes off her. She has just such a spirit — it was tangible.” Zippy’s father, metal artist Tim Leonard, was also injured in the accident and underwent surgery at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He was airlifted to the hospital with possible head and neck injuries late Sunday. A spokeswoman at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle said Leonard was out of the ICU and in satisfactory condition Tuesday. Officials with the South Whidbey School District contacted the families of Zippy’s classmates Monday. Teachers and other school staff were also told of the death in phone calls that started Sunday night.
INSIDE: Retrospective, Island Life, A10
Langley’s new mayor outlines his top priorities BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
Facebook photo
Zippy Leonard was killed in a tragic accident Sunday when a tree fell on her family’s Ford Explorer SUV on Bailey Road near Clinton. “It’s a tragic loss,” said Superintendent Jo Moccia. “We are all mourning at this point.” “There are no words to express how horrific it is,” she said. Zippy was a student in Muncey’s fourth-grade class at South Whidbey Elementary School. A special gathering for students and their parents of her classmates was scheduled for Tuesday night at the school. A separate meeting for Zippy’s former classmates in Susan Milan’s kindergarten/ first-grade class and Kathy Stanley’s second-/third-grade class was scheduled for Tuesday evening, as well. A pair of counselors will be there for support as students grieved, wrote letters to the family and shared memories. “There are children at all levels that are impacted,” Moccia said. Students from SWES are on winter break — classes resume Jan. 2 — but the school will be open so counselors can be available to students and their families.
A link has been set up on the district’s website, at www. sw.wednet.edu/sw/site/default. asp, for resources about coping with grief and counseling referrals, including ways to contact the district’s six counselors. Dayle Gray, one of the district’s counselors, is also offering individual and family support. She can be reached at 360-730-8158 and dgray@ sw.wednet.edu. News of the horrible accident spread late Sunday across the South End. Facebook quickly filled with messages of grief and condolences for Zippy and concerns for Tim Leonard. Clyde Theatre owners Lynn and Blake Willeford reached out to the family, as many community members did, on Facebook: “When something this horrific happens, your friends and “family” in the community can be a great solace. Please ask any of us for anything you think you need. So many are waiting to help when you are ready. If we SEE TRAGIC, A3
It’s time to get to work. That’s the promise, the focus and the charge of Larry Kwarsick, who was set to be sworn in this week as Langley’s 26th mayor. “I’m not just a person coming in that’s a chief executive officer. I’m a worker person,” he said. “I’ve produced things. I help other people produce things,” Kwarsick said. “At a time like this, I think I’m the right person at the right time to help Langley.” Kwarsick, who takes office Jan. 1, recently sat down with the Record to talk about what Langley — and the greater community — can expect once he becomes the next mayor in the South End’s only incorporated city. Having a city that invests in itself and encourages private investment, creating an atmosphere of trust and confidence in city hall, and empowering city employees top the list. “I look at the council, the mayor and the staff as a team. We all have talents and we all have ambitions and our own initiatives, and that’s the way I want to operate: as a team,” he explained. “We are a little community and everybody there has a lot to offer,” he added. “Not every council member will want to do that. But those that want to … they can stand with me and we can work together.” Kwarsick, 64, is no stranger to the city. He has lived in Island County and has called Langley home since 1987. He’s not an outsider at city hall, either. Kwarsick became the city’s planning director after the departure of Larry Cort at the end of 2010. The changeover was quick. “Larry Cort left me a little note that said, ‘Good luck.’ That was the extent of that transition,” Kwarsick laughed. Kwarsick, however, has lived a life of public service, starting as an Army infantry officer in 1969, after he graduated from Michigan State University. He landed a job in the Island County Public Works Department the year after he got out of the Army, and was
a development coordinator until he was named assistant county engineer in 1984. He also served as the county’s solid waste d i r e c t o r Larry Kwarsick and led the county planning department before becoming Island County’s first public works director in 1994. Kwarsick announced his candidacy for Langley mayor in early June, and said he gave an early head’sup to Mayor Paul Samuelson, who Kwarsick said was surprised by the news but immediately added that he wouldn’t seek a second term. (Samuelson announced a few days later that after “much soul searching and with enormous sadness,” he had reached a crossroad and was taking a hiatus from public service.) One of the inspirations for running for the mayor’s post, Kwarsick said, was Proposition 1, the proposal that would have eliminated the position of an elected mayor in the Village by the Sea. Prop. 1 landed on the August primary ballot by a citizens’ petition drive, largely pushed by residents who were upset over the city council’s approval of the controversial Langley Passage housing project. The initiative almost left Kwarsick without a job before the vote for mayor ever made it to the November ballot. Kwarsick said the initiative came at a time of discord at city hall, with tension between the mayor and the council rising amid criticism over the city’s handling of the controversial Langley Passage subdivision. “There was just some people who thought the best way to relieve
SEE MAYOR, A6