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Thursday, January 31, 2013
VOL. 18, NO. 26
County to take new look at recycling By Justin Burnett Staff Reporter
Curbside recycling on Whidbey Island may get scrapped before getting started. On Monday, the Island County commissioners agreed to revisit last month’s landmark decision to require Island Disposal, the county’s licensed garbage hauler, to roll out a curbside program for customers in Langley and rural parts of Whidbey Island sometime this year. After more than five years of study and discussion, the decision was made in late December, during the last days of former Commissioner Angie Homola’s term. She and fellow Democrat, Commissioner Helen Price Johnson, approved the program in a 2-0 vote. Republican Commissioner Kelly Emerson abstained at the time, but apparently wasn’t done with the issue. She brought it up again Monday, saying the matter may have been settled by a former majority, but that she is still getting public comment from people who are against the program. “There is a lot of concern out there,” she said, citing the cost of the program. Her suggestion to revisit the issue at one of the board’s upcoming work sessions was quickly supported by Republican Commissioner Jill Johnson, who unseated Homola in the 2012 November election. Johnson didn’t explain her reasoning at the time but said in a later interview that the “mandatory” aspects of the program are a major hiccup for her, especially when there is a “looming law and justice need.” She made it clear that she isn’t against curbside recycling, but that times are tough and if people have to pay more for something it should be for more cops, not recycled milk jugs and pop cans. “I’m not sure I’m willing to prioritize recycling over law enforcement,” Johnson said. “At the very minimum, I want to have this conversation,” she added. The approved curbside program is nearly identical to one pitched in 2007 and just as controversial. The major hurdles were that See RECYCLING, page 12
Justin Burnett photo
Gordon Grant, a master woodcarver with a background in Native American Art, works on one of the oldest known canoes in Washington. Estimated to be about 170 years old, it was once owned by renowned Central Whidbey tribal leader Chief Snakelum and is in the process of being restored by the Island County Historical Society.
Giving an old canoe new life By Justin Burnett Staff Reporter
Restoration of one of the oldest known Native American canoes in Washington is nearing completion and Island County Historical Society officials have high hopes the artifact will soon be on display inside the Coupeville museum. Believed to be about 170 years old, the canoe once belonged to Central Whidbey tribal leader Chief Snakelum, and later his equally famous son Charlie Snakelum. Now under the stewardship of the historical society, the famous craft has been undergoing a long needed overhaul in a barn south of Coupeville since February of last year. If all goes well, and the weather warms soon, the work is expected to wrap up this spring. And museum officials are hoping to make the finished canoe a centerpiece in a Native American and natural history exhibit in the museum’s basement. But to do it, the museum is putting a call out to the community for help. The basement
is currently used for storage and much of it will need to be moved to another location to make room for the new exhibit. The museum is searching for at least 600 square feet of climate-controlled storage space at a very affordable rate. “It would be a huge thing for us,” said Rick Castellano, executive director for the historical society and the museum. “The museum was designed to have that floor open to the public when it was built in 1991.” But equally important, it would help preserve Snakelum’s old canoe, which is one of the museum’s, Central Whidbey’s, and indeed the state’s, great Native American treasures. “We want the restoration work to last an-
other 170 years,” he said. Believed to have been built from a single piece of red cedar sometime in the 1840s, the 27-foot craft is not only one of the oldest known canoes in the state but it appears to be continually teaching historians about Native American art. During the restoration, panels of vertical, light blue paint were found on the craft’s inside walls. The discovery is still pending verification by state experts, but if true, it would be no small thing. “Light blue is just a color that doesn’t appear in Native American art,” Castellano said. See CANOE, page 12