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Thursday, October 17, 2013
VOL. 19, NO. 11
Board looks Whidbey General at renewing two levies By Nathan Whalen Staff Reporter
The Coupeville School Board is looking to ask voters early next year to re-approve two levies that brings in millions of dollars a year into the district. Board members met Monday to consider options for the operations levy that expires next year. That four-year levy accounts for $2.2 million of the school districts approximately $10 million budget. They didn’t make any vote Monday. Coupeville School District Business Manager Denise Mehal presented several scenarios on the next four-year levy. School districts generally ask for a set amount for a particular year. If that amount generally exceeds 28 percent of revenues, then the extra amount is “rolled back” and not collected from taxpayers. If the school district runs a levy that maintains the same $2.2 million a year for the next four years, then the school district would be scheduled to approve a rollback in 2018 of $306,000, according to a presentation that Mehal gave during the board’s Monday evening meeting. That rollback would need to be done because a state law allowing school districts to collect a levy amount equalling 28 percent of revenue
See LEVIES page 11
Nathan Whalen photo
Whidbey General Hospital CNA Brianna Wells and nurse Mary Hunter maneuvers an Ergo Nurse into a patient room. The Ergo Nurse barely fits through the door and is used to help move patients who are either too large to move or unable to move.
Bond would bring needed space By Nathan Whalen Staff Reporter
Food drive Prairie Center Red Apple is partnering with other Red Apple Markets this month to donate food to local food banks. From now until Tuesday, Oct. 29, buy a specially packed bag of food valued at $20 for only $10. It will then be donated to Gifts from the Heart Food Bank in Coupeville. Also for every bag sold, $1 will be donated to Northwest Harvest. Ken’s Korner Red Apple Market will also host the food drive with donations going to Good Cheer.
In terms of facilities, Whidbey General Hospital is facing stiff competition from its neighbors. Neighboring hospitals in recent years have poured tens of millions of dollars into upgrading its facilities. Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett almost two years ago opened a 700,000-square-foot addition at its Colby Campus while Island Hospital in Anacortes completed upgrades in 2007 and 2012. Those expansions include features such as singlepatient rooms, which Whidbey officials are incorporating into the hospital’s expansion plans. Whidbey General Hospital officials hope the Coupeville-based campus will be the latest medical facility to upgrade if voters approve a $50-million bond measure next month. That ballot proposal needs to pass by a 60 percent supermajority. If approved, the bond, which would be paid off in 25 years and cost property owners
an estimated 32.2 cents per $1,000 assessed property value, would fund construction of a new wing that includes 39 single-patient rooms, transform the current patient wing into clinic space, provide space for future expansion and construct a new parking lot because the new wing would be built atop a current lot. “I think it would make a big difference for the patient experience,” said Belinda Hawkins, who has been a nurse at Whidbey General Hospital for 30 years. She said the biggest complaint patients have about their stay at Whidbey General is having a second person in the room and having to be moved from room to room. She said that the current rooms are ex-
tremely cluttered for patients, especially when family visits. “It can get overstimulating for patients,” Hawkins said. She added that the single rooms would lead to more satisfaction and give patients more privacy and a better place to sleep. Providence’s tower expansion was larger than Whidbey General’s plans. The new tower gives the facility 491 beds between its two Everett campuses located on Colby and Pacific avenues. It also has room to add an additional 112 rooms, but Providence would have to get state approval through
See BOND page 11