RECORD D SOUTH WHIDBEY
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MR. SOUTH WHIDBEY SEE...A12
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013 | VOL. 89, NO. 77 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Building the house of God ‘Unity hasn’t always had it this good.’ — Donna Vanderheiden
Proposed Mukilteo terminal moves forward By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
Justin Burnett / The Record
Freeland resident Frank Mestemacher holds up a plaque recognizing six years of volunteer efforts to build Unity of Whidbey’s new church.
Freeland volunteer/students wrap up six-year project By JUSTIN BURNETT South Whidbey Record Nestled together in a beautiful room of wood and sunlight, a handful of Unity of Whidbey worshipers sat clapping and smiling. They were there to praise God, but at that moment their attention was directed toward Freeland resident Frank Mestemacher. It is, after all, because of him and more than 100 college students that the small congregation has such a lovely place to worship.
“Unity hasn’t always had it this good,” said Donna Vanderheiden, president of the church’s board. “Some half dozen or so years ago, this place was just our dream — our vision. Now it has manifested.” Mestemacher was honored with a plaque this past Sunday, commemorating his involvement in the construction of the church’s new facility on Crawford Road, a few miles east of Bayview on Highway 525. Mestemacher is the instructor at the Seattle
Center Community College’s Wood Technology Center and he, along with his students, spent that past six years building Unity of Whidbey’s new home — for free. While it was “pretty cool ... that someone went through the trouble to do this,” Mestemacher shrugged off much of the credit. “I just like building stuff,” he said. “And I was just the instructor. The students did all the work.” SEE CHURCH, A11
The proposed site of a new Mukilteo Ferry Terminal moved forward Tuesday with the Port of Everett Commission authorizing the acceptance of the fuel tank farm from the U.S. Air Force. The former fuel tank farm, located one-third of a mile east of the current ferry landing, is the proposed site of a new $140 million ferry terminal. Only $102 million is in the state’s budget through 2019, which would cover engineering and early construction. The state Department of Transportation, Ferries Division will need to drum up the other $38 million to fully fund the massive project. In June, Ferries Division and the Federal Transit Administration released the final environmental impact statement for the Mukilteo Multimodal Project. “We feel pretty strongly, especially once the environmental documentation goes through, that we’ll be highly competitive for additional grants to fill that gap,” said Nicole McIntosh, Ferries Division’s terminal design engineering manager. A major impetus for the project is to improve commuter access and ferry loading and unloading. Moving the terminal north will take it closer to the Sound Transit light rail station and will remove the immediate traffic of the SEE TERMINAL, A11