Record South Whidbey
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2012 | Vol. 88, No. 17 | www.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.com | 75¢
ALREADY? AGAIN?
Gas breaks $4 per gallon on South End BY Ben watanabe South Whidbey Record
LANGLEY — Residents on South Whidbey were disappointed but begrudgingly dug deep as gas prices broke $4 per gallon this week. Fuel prices on South Whidbey were well above the state average Tuesday. The average price of a gallon of regular gas was $3.87, according to the AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report. That was a 22-cent increase from the statewide average from just a week earlier, and 40 cents higher than a year ago. Such a spike will affect the way at least a few commuters on the South End get around. On Tuesday, gas at the Valero on Highway 525 and Langley Road cost $4.05 for a gallon of regular unleaded. Bill Tulloch, a driver for Good Cheer Food Bank, watched as the price gauge on the pump ticked ever higher while filling the delivery truck. He stopped at $109. “I understand there’s a refinery down, this and that,” Tulloch said. “It affects everything. It certainly makes it more difficult to get around. You don’t want to drive very far.” Tulloch said he drives about 70 miles each day for work, and expects the fuel costs will take a toll on the nonprofit’s budget.
INSIDE: Fab four, Island Life, A8
Water rates cut for residents of mobile home park BY Ben watanabe South Whidbey Record
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Bill Tulloch watches the meter tick toward $100 as he fills the Good Cheer delivery truck on Tuesday. Below, the sign at the Clinton Chevron station shows the prices for unleaded gas that jumped higher than $4 per gallon for the first time this year. “I don’t know how to cure it,” Tulloch said. Down toward the Clinton Ferry Terminal, gas costs were highest at the Chevron station. Regular unleaded cost $4.09 a gallon Tuesday morning, with premium unleaded at $4.29. Higher costs and proximity to his home led Don Rodriques to use the Valero station in Langley. Rodriques, a Langley resident, filled up the tank in his small pickup truck and was
full of questions about why prices were so high. “There’s no rhyme or reason,” he said. “It probably has to do with the refineries. It seems like it’s an excuse to raise prices.” Gas prices last peaked near the $4 mark for regular on South Whidbey in September 2011. Prices also went above $4 in June 2011, and the previous high above $4 was in summer 2008. See gas, A6
School district reviewing safety policies after threat BY Ben watanabe South Whidbey Record
A former Langley Middle School student is in police custody after he made online threats about a staff member. The student, identified only as a male who was last enrolled in November 2011, threatened a staff member on the online social networking site Facebook. The threat prompted a two-day lockout of South Whidbey School District campuses late last week. District Superintendent Jo Moccia said she was notified by law enforcement
about comments the former student made about a staff member on Facebook. “It was a reiteration of a threat made back in the fall,” Moccia said. The school district’s five campuses were put on perimeter lockout — less urgent than a lockdown — Thursday and Friday. All doors were locked at the school buildings, except the front main doors closest to the main office. Locking all the doors was a challenge for the middle school, which has seven separate buildings that students use throughout the day. “In the middle school, it becomes
more difficult because there are more buildings,” Moccia said. The South Whidbey School District has been reviewing its safety policies and procedures this year. After a few parent notification errors last week, Moccia and administrators will take a closer look at its notification system. During emergencies, parents are alerted by phone and email. An all-call system dials emergency phone numbers parents and guardians provide at the start of the school year until someone answers. See threat, A3
Finally, a little relief. More than 20 residents of the Holmes Harbor Mobile Home Park will pay lower water rates. For years, residents of the Freeland neighborhood were paying rates based on non-residential uses. And that’s the problem. “This is not a commercial property. It’s a trailer park,” said 65-year-old resident Gwen Harrell. “Most of the people that live here are retired and live on fixed incomes. We use less water on average.” Freeland Water and Sewer District commissioners recently approved a resolution to reclassify mobile home parks as residential multi-family properties. Now, base rates and bi-monthly consumption costs will decrease for the 19-unit mobile home park. The Holmes Harbor Mobile Home Park had been categorized as a commercial property. As such, it was charged one base rate of $62.50. Now, residents will pay a $25 per unit base rate. Officials said it was a simple fix that was long overdue. “It only needed that one change,” said District M. Abrahamson Commissioner Marilynn Abrahamson. Another change followed the reclassification. Consumption rates will decrease for the mobile home residents, too. Rather than the total usage being charged under one meter, each of the 19 units will be charged based on separate meters. Previously, the entire mobile park property was assessed as a single unit, and under that category, its consumption exceeded a 1,000-cubic-foot limit. Now that each mobile home will be charged separately, it will likely be well under what is called an equivalent residential unit threshold, and pay a lower consumption rate of $1.35 per 100 cubic feet. Abrahamson estimated the bi-monthly bill will be about $37, a decrease of about $5. “That is a significant cost-saving to the ratepayer,” Abrahamson said. Residents’ complaints went nowhere until the water and sewer board changed hands in the November election. After more than two years of complaints, they found a willing listener in the recently-elected Abrahamson. “We couldn’t get anyone to listen to us before,” Harrell said. “It was very nice. It was one of those things that she promised.” Base rates fluctuated across the district. A seven-unit complex paid $62.50 in base rates, while an eight-unit complex paid $125. The reclassification of those properties and See RATES, A3