Record South Whidbey
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2012 | Vol. 88, No. 27 | www.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.com | 75¢
INSIDE: Doubtful, ISLAND LIFE, A10
Mayor nixes loading zone, storm ensues
Hello, Mom?
By Jim Larsen Record editor
Jim Larsen / The Record
Tom Park tries out the new phone in the historic Whidbey Telecom booth at Classic Road in Greenbank.
Whidbey Telecom converts island pay phones to free for local calls By Jim Larsen Record editor
Tom Park has a use for the historic Whidbey Telecom phone booth along Highway 525 south of Greenbank, but it’s not as intended. He doesn’t punch a quarter into the phone to make a call. “I have a cell phone that’s unlimited so I don’t use it,” he said of his need of the phone booth. But for the three years Park has lived in the Honeymoon Bay area, he’s found the phone booth at Classic Road very useful on dark nights because of its light. “I use it to see where to turn off the highway,” said Park, a retired
longshoreman who spent 35 years in Alaska. The proliferation of cell phones in a world where even grade school kids have them has pretty much left pay phones in the dust of history. So Whidbey Telecom, which got its start in the early 1900s as Whidbey Telephone, had a decision to make: What to do with the antiquated pieces of equipment? Rather than remove the 34 pay phones the company provides, it was decided to make them free to the public for local calls. That may have been a wise decision, as some of the phone booths are beloved.
The one Park tried out Wednesday at Classic Road, for example, has been the subject of innumerable photographs and paintings through the years. It has been a bright sentinel on every pitch black Whidbey night for decades and, more than that, it’s been the unofficial dividing line between South Whidbey and the rest of the island because that’s where Whidbey Telephone service ended. That’s no longer true, but the booth is still the dividing line in the minds of many South Enders. A few other classic telephone booths (the kind used by Superman) still survive on
South Whidbey. For example, the one near the Dog House Tavern in Langley was customized by metal artist Tim Leonard. Other Whidbey Telecom public telephones are located throughout South Whidbey, from the Clinton ferry dock to the fairgrounds, Langley Marina, grocery stores, parks, convenience stores and restaurants. The 35th booth is located on Hat Island at the boat dock. Changing over to free, local phone service did not come without cost to Whidbey Telecom. Chris Michalopolous, See pay phones, A3
A meeting is being held in Langley today to discuss a brouhaha stirred up by the elimination of a commercial truck loading zone that has some Second Street merchants steaming. For years, there was no parking allowed in the mornings in approximately 10 spaces on the north side of Second Street, just east of the Star Store parking lot. Delivery trucks found the loading zone an easy place to park, off-street and close to businesses. The spaces were opened to general parking at 1 p.m. Mary Ann Mansfield, Langley chamber board president, criticized the change at Monday evening’s city council meeting. “We have huge trucks parking on Second Street, blocking it, making Star Store deliveries,” she said. “It’s dicey,” she added, referring to safety issues. With the official loading zone gone since last week, trucks now have to stop in one lane of Second Street to make their deliveries, forcing other traffic to drive around. The Star Store, which offers groceries, wine, beer and clothing, gets the most deliveries, but other stores are also affected. “I’m not the only one,” said co-owner Gene Felton, when asked about the situation Tuesday morning. “A lot of other businesses need a loading zone.” Maureen Cooke, a nearby businesswoman who isn’t directly affected by the change, nevertheless wrote a critical letter of complaint to the city saying she “felt compelled to stand up for my colleagues,” citing the Star Store, Prima Bistro, Café Langley, Langley Village Bakery and Sweet Mona’s. Cooke accused Mayor Larry Kwarsick of having “unilaterally removed the truck parking on Second, replacing it with normal car parking all day long thus causing huge problems for the delivery men for all of Second Street.” At Monday’s meeting, Kwarsick acknowledged it was his decision alone that resulted in the change, although he had discussed it with staff. “I’m going to take responsibility,” he said. “It was not done without a lot of thought … but it’s my issue, not the council’s.” Kwarsick said he was looking ahead to the upcoming redesign of Second Street, a project which is funded and well on its way to approval by the state Department of Transportation. He said removing the loading zone “opens up the street to parking,” See nixes, A3