Record South Whidbey
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2012 | Vol. 88, No. 15 | www.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.com | 75¢
Obama visits Boeing’s 787 factory line President touts Dreamliner as success story
INSIDE: Thirty years, Island Life, A10
Officials will look at fire levy
BY Brian Kelly South Whidbey Record
EVERETT — He touched down with the pride of the past. Then he soared with the Boeing Company’s faith for the future. In the first visit by a president to the Puget Sound in almost two decades, President Barack Obama toured Boeing’s aircraft assembly plant in Everett to push his plan for investments in American manufacturing and jobs and point to the 787 Dreamliner as a symbol of such success. Standing at the end of the assembly line in the 4026 Building, with a Dreamliner built for United Airlines to his right and two more 787s behind him, Obama recalled his trip to Washington state aboard Air Force One, built in Everett 25 years ago. “It’s flying smooth,” Obama said, adding that he met a Boeing worker during an earlier tour who helped build the airplane and thanked him for a job well-done. “But as wonderful as it is to fly Air Force One — and it is wonderful — it’s hard not to be amazed by the Dreamliner,” he said. With a blue banner hanging behind him reading “An America Built To Last,” Obama touted the benefits of the Dreamliner to a crowd of more than 1,000 airplane workers, Democratic Party members and other dignitaries. “This is the first commercial airplane to be made with 50 percent composite materials. It’s lighter, it’s faster, it’s more fuel-efficient than any airplane in its class. And it looks cool,” Obama said. “The Dreamliner is the plane of the future. And by building it here, Boeing is taking advantage of a huge opportunity that exists right now to bring more jobs and manufacturing back to the United States of America,” he said. The president’s praise found an appreciative audience. And as Boeing goes, so goes Island County. With more than 1,000 of its employees calling home on the island side of the water, Boeing is the largest private employer in Island County. The number of Boeing employees in the county rose from 975 to 1,081 in the past year, according to the Island County Economic Development Council, and the airplane manufacturer has a workforce much larger than the county’s second largest private employer, Walmart, which has 210.
Special meeting called to look at options BY Ben watanabe South Whidbey Record
pointed to the jobs that the 787 Dreamliner and the company’s other airplanes would create in Everett and beyond. Albaugh said production will be increased by 40 percent over the next three years. “Every airplane that we sell means jobs here. Here at the Boeing Co. we hired 13,000 new employees just in the last year. And our supply chain supports 250,000 jobs in the United States,” he said. Albaugh also noted that Boeing delivered two brand-new airplanes last year; the 787 Dreamliner and 747-8, the “Queen of the Skies.” “While we were at it, we delivered 477 total airplanes and we
Money and time are running out for South Whidbey Fire/EMS. Fire commissioners will hear their options for a possible property tax levy from Fire Chief Rusty Palmer on Thursday, Feb. 23. “We need to talk about the potential, whether we’re going to go out or not,” Palmer said. “This is just the first step in us getting serious in the discussion.” South Whidbey’s fire district is funded by property taxes. But as property values have sputtered with the economy, the fire department’s Fire officials revenue stream has fallen, too, by about will hear about a levy increase at $200,000. The difference 4:30 p.m. between expense Thursday at the Freeland station, and revenue will tip 5535 Cameron in favor of expenses Road. soon, fire officials said. “Our budget is going to be in serious trouble in 2014,” Palmer said. “We’ve got a healthy capital fund to purchase trucks and apparatus, and that’s good. Where we’re suffering is the operations piece. If we go to $5-a-gallon gas, that’s going to affect us immensely.” The district has considered a levy lift since fall of 2011, when the money problems became apparent. Since then, Palmer has reviewed the options for a levy and hired a public affairs consultant. Costs of the potential levy are still up in the air. The meeting at 4:30 p.m. Thursday will be the first look commissioners have at the choices. “That will be the opportunity to lay out the specific numbers,” Palmer said. “We haven’t decided on a number yet.” The recent success of the levy for Central Whidbey Fire-Rescue did not factor into South Whidbey’s plan, Palmer said, to renew talks about a potential levy.
See obama, A20
See levy, A3
Special meeting
Brian Kelly / The Record
President Barack Obama uses a 787 Dreamliner as a backdrop for a speech on American manufacturing at Boeing’s Everett plant Friday.
Brian Kelly / The Record
Many in the crowd raise cameras as the president walks to the stage during his visit to Everett. During the presidential visit on Friday, Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes,