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Thursday, JULY 31, 2014
Front Street trucks bring frustration
VOL. 19, NO. 51
Salute to the Reserve
By Megan Hansen Co-Editor
Town of Coupeville officials are working with Front Street merchants to address concerns about delivery trucks double parking and blocking traffic. Mayor Nancy Conard said that years ago, Front Street used to have loading zones, but merchants requested additional parking and agreed to eliminate those zones. Now, the town is receiving complaints from merchants about the delivery truck issues, and the town is working to mitigate those concerns. One of the biggest problems is trucks are double parking when downtown is packed in the middle of the day. “It’s interesting how many go down at the lunch hour,” said Councilwoman Jackie Henderson. The other concern is how long they are parking on the street. Councilwoman Molly Hughes said she’s received complaints from community members including photos of incidents involving delivery trucks blocking drivers and nearly crashing, causing accidents. She’s also witnessed trucks make multiple deliveries and move slowly down the road.
See Trucks page 12
Jessie Stensland photo
The Pakawalups, a trio of sisters who perform USO-style numbers, entertained a crowd of roughly 100 during the Friends of Ebey’s Summer Picnic Saturday. From left is Cathie Ledray-Senff, Sue Murray and Vicki Grabicki. The fundraising picnic helped bring in more than $10,000 and helped the Friends meet its goal of $50,000 to receive a matching donation for preservation projects in the reserve. “It was a beautiful night for an event, and it was great to highlight another preservation project being done in Fort Casey State Park, which is a valued partner of Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve,” said Kyle Waterman, executive director for Friends of Ebey’s. The event also included a catered dinner and tours of Fort Casey’s battery.
Financial fiasco causes transit to make big cuts By Jessie Stensland Co-Editor
A total of 24 employees will be laid off, Saturday bus service is being cancelled and five routes will be eliminated or changed due to financial problems uncovered at Island Transit. Martha Rose, director of Island Transit, said she fired Financial Manager Barbara Savary in May after she disclosed that the agency didn’t have the money to pay $135,000 in bills. Rose said she was dumbfounded to discover that Savary hadn’t been running the monthly cash flow analysis for years. She said the simple, internal report is not only a vital part of the job, but would have alerted the agency to cash flow concerns years ago. Island Transit is an independent agency overseen by a board of directors. It offers farefree transit and is funded by a nine-tenths of
1 percent sales tax and grants. The operating budget for this year is $12.2 million. Unbeknownst to her, Rose said, Savary was dipping into investments as expenses outpaced revenues for years on end. Rose said she found unpaid bills in Savary’s desk after she was gone. “We are implementing swift, decisive changes in service to fix the problem,” Rose said. “We expect to come out of the clouds in about a year.” Members of the agency’s board of directors said they were shocked by the revelation. Bob Clay, transit board member and Coupeville councilman, announced the developments at the recent Town Council meeting. He claimed the reports the finance manager was providing to the director and board were “erroneous.” Clay said the board didn’t see regular financial statements, but that will change. He said taxpayers trusted Island Transit with pro-
viding specific services. “We’re going to fail those people for a short time,” he said. Island County Commissioner Helen PriceJohnson, a member of the transit board, said she was extremely disappointed and that her heart goes out to riders and employees affected by the cuts. “Every aspect of this must be investigated, by internal audit and state audit,” she said. Also, I want assurance that there was no illegal activity.”
Rose said she hopes to bring back employees and restore routes by the end of 2015. As a result of the shortfall, the transit board approved an $800,000 note — basically a bank loan — to pay bills. On top of that, the board OK’d issuance of a $1.5-million bond to pay the balance of the agency’s matching funds for the new transit facility near Coupeville. Both are supposed to be paid back by next
See Transit page 12