INSIDE: Excuse me while I kiss the seal ... Island Life, A12
Record South Whidbey
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 | Vol. 89, No. 21 | www.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.com | 75¢
Nichols lacked permit to move ferry By JIM LARSEN Record editor
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Gary Boyer flattens dugup dirt and pavement on Langley’s First Street. Work to replace the waterline is on track to finish by April.
Langley waterline work on schedule By BEN WATANABE Staff reporter Digging starts early on Langley’s First Street. It has to if a major waterline replacement is to finish on time. Krieg Construction workers are on schedule to wrap replacing the waterline by April, barring any setbacks. Work on the waterline from Wharf Street to DeBruyn Avenue had yet to hit any major delays, and the main waterline was replaced by March 11. All that remains are the business and residential tie-ins and resurfacing the torn-up road. Residents’ and businesses’ concerns of water loss were assuaged by Langley’s public works office. Before any work began, city employees distributed pamphlets about the $307,662 project to First Street doors. Krieg Construction attempts to notify businesses 24 hours in See Waterline, A6
Nichols Brothers Boat Builders launched the superstructure of the new state ferry Tokitae into the cold waters of Holmes Harbor, and now find themselves in hot water with the Army Corps of Engineers. The Freeland boat building company didn’t have a permit to build the long structure to launch the 2.5 million pound Tokitae, and now must answer to the Corps. In a letter dated March 5 addressed to Matt Nichols, company CEO, Bruce Estok, a colonel for the Corps and the district engineer, advised that “installation of structures, including temporary structures, within navigable waters of the U.S. requires a Department of the Army permit.” The superstructure was placed on top of a device that slowly crawled along roughly 600 feet of ramp built on top of temporary I-beams to a waiting barge. An independent moving company oversaw the process, but Nichols Brothers as the property owner is responsible, according to the Corps. “I consider this work to be in violation of federal law,” wrote Estok, in a letter obtained by the Record. At first access to the letter was denied, but the Corps relented when public records issues were raised. The launch happened Saturday, March 2, but apparently didn’t catch the Corps entirely by surprise. Estok alluded to a staff investigation of worked planned, and pictures provided by Nichols Brothers on Feb. 25 of the I-beams seated on stanchions on the existing Nichols ramp. It’s just that Nichols never obtained the necessary permit. Another Corps official, Patricia Graesser, claims Nichols never asked for a permit.
Jim Larsen / The Record
The Army Corps of Engineers alleges Nichols Brothers never applied for, nor received the necessary permit to build the long loading ramp used to place the superstructure of a new state ferry onto a barge. This picture, taken March 2, shows the structure before it left on that evening’s high tide to be towed to Vigor Shipyard in Seattle. “We still need information about how they came to be doing the work,” she said. “They had not applied; it was just reported to us.” The Corps was notified of the work by Jay and Bernie Hale, Holmes Harbor residents and longtime critics of how Nichols Brothers conducts its boat building business. In a March 4 letter to the Corps, Jay Hale alleged, “Nichols has been
expanding and operating in the shoreline/marine area by taking actions that require permits without getting one, getting caught and then receiving an after-the-fact permit as part of the corrective action for not getting the permit in the first place.” Hale sent the Corps several pictures of the superstructure loading process.
Prior to receiving the letter from the Corps, Nichols Brothers executive Bob French said the Corps was communicating with the company for a couple of weeks prior to launch. “They were asking about the procedure; we just answered,” French said. “We informed the Corps what See Nichols, A6
Three die as Navy Prowler crashes in Lincoln County By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter The Navy confirmed Monday afternoon that all three crew members aboard a Whidbey Island Naval Air Station EA-6B Prowler were killed when the aircraft crashed that morning in Eastern Washington. The names of the Navy personnel killed will
not be released until 24 hours after family members have been informed. The Prowler crashed during routine training 50 miles west of Spokane. The aircraft was assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 129. “I understand they were training out there,” said Mike Welding, public affairs officer at NAS Whidbey. “We have training routes in Eastern
Washington and Oregon.” Navy personnel from Whidbey were en route to the scene, according to Welding. The Associated Press reported that the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office responded to the crash west of Spokane. The EA-6B Prowler is a twin-engine, mid-wing electronic warfare aircraft. The aging aircraft is being replaced by the EA-18G Growler.