Record South Whidbey
SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012 | Vol. 88, No. 34 | www.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.com | 75¢
INSIDE: Filmmakers seek help, Island Life, A7
Welcome to the new Whidbey Island Fair County fair restructured BY JIM LARSEN Record editor
What’s the Whidbey Island Fair? That will be the question on many people’s minds Saturday when the Whidbey Island Fair float makes its debut in the Holland Happening Parade in Oak Harbor. The answer is that it’s the same old Island County Fair, the annual agricultural fair in Langley, but with a new form of management and different relationship with the state and county. Sandey Brandon has been the hands-on fair manager for several years but now has the title of treasurer of the Whidbey Island Fair Association as well as fair administrator.
As the 2012 bumper sticker shows, the Island County Fair is now known as the Whidbey Island Area Fair. The change is meant to streamline operations and allow participation from outside the county. The traditional Fair Board, which governed the fair for many years dissolved itself March 12, leaving operations entirely to a newly reconstituted Fair Association with four officers and four directors. Meanwhile, Island County will
still own the fair property, but will no longer be involved in day-to-day fair finances. “Autonomy,” Brandon said when asked what’s the main benefit of the change. “We can pay our own bills, and on time. Who wants to wait
45 days to be paid?” Previously, vouchers had to be submitted to the county and approved by the commissioners, a process Brandon said was time consuming, making contractors unhappy. Now, as treasurer, she can
pay the bills once approved by the executive committee and contracts can be signed. The last Fair Board chairperson See Fair, A6
Whidbey Telecom’s email nightmare finally resolved By JUSTIN BURNETT Staff reporter
A Whidbey Telecom technician works on computer equipment Thursday to help fix an email problem that affected thousands of customers for nearly a week.
An email nightmare that lasted nearly a week and affected up to 7,000 customers has finally come to an end, according to Whidbey Telecom officials. On Friday, the South Whidbey-based telephone, internet and email provider announced that people may still be receiving a few old emails but that the new system is operating as designed and that customers should have full access to their accounts. “I deeply, deeply regret the terrible effect this has had on our customers,” said co-CEO George Henny, who on Thursday returned from a trip to South Korea. “We’re just sick about it,” he said. Late last Friday, April 20, the company launched a planned update to its old email system. Officials had been working with the service provider’s Philadelphiabased vendor for months in preparation for the changeover and had been banking on a quick two-day transition. However, minor glitches identified over the weekend snowballed into four days of major service interruptions and pulling-your-hair-out frustration for thousands of customers as they struggled with slow or no connection to their email accounts. It was particularly hard on merchants and business owners. Dan Vorhis, owner of Muscle and Arm Farm
in Freeland, relies on email to make a living. From receiving days-old orders to the uncertainty of what never came in, the situation was not only frustrating but downright bad for business. “If people can’t communicate with me, that’s a problem,” said Vorhis, in an interview Wednesday. “One day is bad, two days is terrible, three days is unheard of, and here we are in day four and five.” Drew Kampion, the distributor of an email list with about 3,350 South Whidbey subscribers, 1,200 of whom are Whidbey Telecom users, also saw severe service disruptions. While he was able to publish several email batches over the weekend, he had to cancel all those scheduled for Tuesday and some for Wednesday morning. Email service was down for much of Thursday as well. “It’s really slowed me down,” Kampion said. However, for a man who’s personal motto is, “Life is a wave. Your attitude is your surfboard,” Kampion took the problems in stride. “I got a day off so there was a silver lining to this,” Kampion said. In a Friday morning interview, Whidbey Telecom COO Bruce Russell sat down with the Record to See email, A9