RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2011 | Vol. 88, No. 4 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
INSIDE: Take two, Sports, A10
Councilman seeks city’s support for same-sex marriage BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
LANGLEY — State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen isn’t ready to take a stand on same-sex marriage, but Langley Councilman Hal Seligson is. Seligson said this week he would present a resolution to his fellow council members on Jan. 17 to support the passage of a new law that would allow same-sex marriage in Washington state. Last week, Gov. Chris Gregoire said she would present legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage. And at a town hall meeting in Bayview last Saturday, Haugen was confronted by a packed room at the South Whidbey Senior Center filled with residents
who asked her to support the change. Haugen said then she did not yet have a position on the issue. The state Senate was reportedly two votes short of the 25 votes needed to pass the proposal Friday. Haugen, in a statement late this week, said she needed more time to make up her mind. “I’m listening to all sides and keeping an open mind. I feel the best option is to send it to the voters on a referendum, but I’m still hearing from constituents and I want them to have full opportunity to make their views known,” Haugen said. The 10th District Democrat said she would continue listening to her constituents in the coming weeks and would not comment again until she had
reached a final decision. Seligson, the Langley council’s mayor pro tem, said he attended the Bayview town hall and it was clear that the desire for marriage equality is strong on South Whidbey. He said supporting same-sex marriage was an easy position to take. “For my entire adult life I have been a proponent of civil and human rights, and I take it seriously,” he said. Seligson recalled that when he was recently sworn into office, he took an oath to uphold the Constitution. “There is the 14th Amendment,” he said, noting that the Constitution guarantees everyone equal rights under the SEE MARRIAGE, A6
Back in the game
Brian Kelly / The Record
Langley Councilman Hal Seligson will present a resolution to the city council on Tuesday, seeking the support of city leaders for a resolution calling for marriage equality.
Matt Nichols takes over again as shipyard CEO BY BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Tiegan Dussault, 11, checks the position of the ball during a game of foosball with friend Emma Barker, 11, at the HUB on Thursday. The former South Whidbey Youth Connection program reopened this week after a four-month hiatus due to depleted funding.
Kids fill the HUB after four-month hiatus BY BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
LANGLEY — Judging by the 28 kids playing games, chatting and generally teen-aging, it’s hard to imagine the HUB was ever closed. Yet Wednesday marked the first day in four months the South End’s
after-school hangout reopened, and the big crowd used everything the HUB has to offer for a few hours. Groups of 10- to 15-year-olds rotated on the Xbox 360 playing Halo. A pair of sixth-grade girls played a seemingly endless match of foosball, while behind them a couple of seventh-grade boys played three-
puck air hockey. “It’s a place for kids to unwind and hang out with friends,” said HUB program coordinator Frankie Petitclerc. Petitclerc was there when it closed as part of the now-defunct SEE HUB, A6
Matt Nichols, former owner of Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, has been named CEO of the company. Officials at the Freeland shipyard announced the change Friday. The move took effect Wednesday, Jan. 10. “There needed to be a change,” said Lacey Greene, the shipyard’s spokeswoman. “The owners felt it needed to be made right away.” Nichols replaces John Collins, the company’s chief executive who began in October 2009. Collins was the second CEO to lead Nichols Brothers Boat Builders after the company filed for bankruptcy nearly five years ago and was sold to Ice Floe, based in Dallas, Texas. “After Matt had run it for so long, they believed he was fit for the position and that his knowledge should be brought back to practice,” Greene said. No other management changes were made.
Calls to Collins and Nichols were not immediately returned Friday morning. Nichols Brothers B o a t B u i l d e r s Matt Nichols is South Whidbey’s largest private employer, and more work is expected at the shipyard later this year. Company officials announced in December the firm received a $17 million contract to help build Washington state’s next ferry, an agreement that officials said would mean 100 jobs at the shipyard. Collins followed Len York as the company’s CEO roughly two years ago. York replaced Nichols in the shipyard’s top management position in February 2008, and Nichols became the boat builder’s managing director for business development.