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SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 2014 | Vol. 90, No. 64 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Parade a final farewell for Paul Schell
Sand shrimp ban may not last By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
would have to layoff 20 percent of its workforce — 24 workers — stop Saturday bus service, eliminate a number of routes and modify several others. Rose blamed former financial manager Barbara Savary for the problem, saying she’d failed to run monthly cash flow analysis reports for years. Savary was fired in May. Several people at the Freeland meeting asked why Rose, or other financial administrators, were not present to answer financial questions. “Where’s the leadership?” an unidentified woman asked. According to Shawn Harris, operations manager for Island Transit, it was a conscious decision to staff the community meetings with operational staff only. The purpose was to get feedback from the public about the service changes, and attendance
Sand shrimp harvests around Whidbey and Saratoga Passage halted in April may someday resume. That was the message presented by an official from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources at an Island County Marine Resources Committee on Tuesday. Blain Reeves, assistant division manager of science, shellfish and invasive species management, aquatics division, discussed the history of the state’s understanding and lack thereof about sand shrimp. He cautioned that the ban may not continue in perpetuity. “It isn’t a forever stop,” he said. Four months ago, the state revoked three rights of entry to a handful of state-owned tidelands around Saratoga Passage. Effectively, that ended the commercial harvest of sand shrimp, also called ghost shrimp, which are used as bait along the West Coast. Sand shrimp are an important food source for gray whales, and Orca Network co-founder Howard Garrett has previously stated that it may be the primary food for the massive marine mammals as they migrate through Washington. The shrimp advisory committee, a group formed by Langley Mayor Fred McCarthy, requested the harvesting halt. They submitted reports and statements about residents noticing fewer gray whales feeding around Whidbey Island in the same areas
SEE TRANSIT, A11
SEE SHRIMP, A20
Arts center plans procession, memorial in Langley By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record The man who picked up mail for the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts every day for the past decade will take one final trip to the theater next week. A procession and party for Paul Schell, who unexpectedly died July 27 following complications from a quadruple bypass heart surgery, will wind through Langley on Thursday, Aug. 14. The line will start at the Inn at Langley, owned by Paul and wife Pam Schell, and make its way through town in what organizer Stacie Burgua likened to a New Orleans funeral — though that word is one she avoids when discussing Paul Schell’s farewell. “I don’t want to call it the funeral procession,” Burgua said. “It’s the Paul Schell Procession.” Following the walkabout led by the car carrying his ashes, a public memorial will be held in the arts center’s Zech Hall at 4 p.m. The Schells were instrumental in founding the arts nonprofit and were driving forces in its two capital campaigns over the past decade. Both served on its board of directors as well. His wife had a similar but different word for the string SEE SCHELL, A13
Justin Burnett / The Record
Gordon Labuhn, a Langley man, quizzes Island Transit staff about pending service cuts at a meeting in Freeland Thursday afternoon.
A year without full service too long, transit riders say ‘Go find the money. It’s out there, go find it.’ — Gary Bluhm By JUSTIN BURNETT South Whidbey Record Pending Island Transit service reductions on South Whidbey will hit the community hard, and residents let department officials know it this week. About 20 people showed up Thursday afternoon to the Freeland Library to share their concerns about hefty route cuts and modifications that will go into effect Sept. 1. The meeting was one of a series the transportation agency is holding on the upcoming service changes. A meeting was also held Friday in Langley, but occurred after press time and could not be reported on. The mood during Thursday’s meeting was courteous, but sentiments from the crowd were across the board, ranging from worry and concern to irritation and incredulity that the agency lacked the internal controls and oversight to allow such
a fiscal emergency to occur. Many wanted to know more details about the financial crisis, but were left disappointed. The meeting was run by operational staff only — Director Martha Rose was not present — and they said they simply didn’t have all the details. The sheer magnitude of the problem wasn’t made clear to staff until June, they said. Gordon Labuhn, a Langley man, said he’d held leadership roles at small corporations for 30 years and was “astounded” by their claims of being blind to the problem until it was too late. “No matter what position I had, I always knew the budgets of every other department,” Labuhn said. Last month, Island Transit leaders announced the transportation service was is in the grips of a dire financial crisis, and that the board of directors had approved what was essentially an $800,000 bank loan to pay its bills. To stay afloat, the agency