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Pride parade See...A12
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2014 | Vol. 90, No. 65 | www.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.com | 75¢
Chemical dependency program in ‘imminent’ danger By JANIS REID South Whidbey Record
the Langley Community Club and Langley Men’s Club bumped up the date nearly a month this year in hopes that the weather will be hot and dry, or at least not raining. Sunday will mark the downhill derby’s 42nd year, though it’s missed a year here and there. From morning till noon Aug. 17, soup box racers will cruise nearly two blocks down First Street.
Island County has been identified as one of several Washington counties that are at imminent or critical risk of losing their chemical dependency programs. “We’re losing money,” said Jackie Henderson, Island County’s human services director. Henderson said last year the program, now run by Sea Mar, was able to bill patients at both Medicaid rates and higher private-pay rates. With most patients now on Medicaid as a result of the Affordable Care Act, the program is getting less money to provide the same service. Sea Mar is currently supplementing the programs in smaller counties with income from profitable programs in larger counties and urban areas. But it is unlikely they will want to do that forever, Henderson said. “They agree that they shouldn’t have to be taking money from other parts of the state to supplement our programs here,” Henderson. Island County’s Sea Mar Health Center works closely with the county’s drug court system to provide drug and alcohol assessments, intensive outpatient treatment for addicts, relapse prevention, offender monitoring and assists with deferred prosecution if clients seek treatment. Henderson said the loss of the county’s chemical dependency treatment program would have a “huge impact on our court system and our medical system.”
SEE DERBY, A14
SEE ADDICTION, A9
Kate Daniel / The Record
The Freeland Hall 100th anniversary planning committee from left to right: Gabriele Delon, Catherine Rawlings, Charlene Miller, Sharon Anderson, Keasha Jennings, Sophia Jennings, Mary Poolman, Lavena Declercq, Gunda Vesque.
Freeland Hall Still a community affair after 100 years
By KATE DANIEL South Whidbey Record Freeland Hall, known to many as “the big brown building on the hill,” turns 100 this month. The Freeland Improvement Society originally commissioned the hall to be built, with the help of the First Thursday Club, in August 1914. Volunteer laborers had com-
pleted the project by the following spring. In the beginning, the hall was a community meeting place for groups like the First Thursday Club, whose early meeting minutes included such topics as “the harm of wearing long skirts” and “property rights of women in Washington State.” Various groups continued to use the hall for meetings and events, and in 2004 the hall was officially des-
ignated a historic site by the state. “What we’re trying to do is get the public aware of Freeland Hall,” said Sharon Anderson, co-operator of Freeland Hall. “It’s not just the big brown building sitting up on the hill.” A free-admission anniversary celebration will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23. Festivities include games, a raffle for local goods such as stained glass
and wood art and gift certificates, a beer and wine garden, food provided by Freeland Café and other island vendors and a carnival which will include a bounce castle, cake walk and dunk tank. A shuttle will be running every 15 minutes from Trinity Lutheran Church to the hall and SEE FREELAND HALL, A9
Racers rev up for Soup Box Derby Event organizers hope for sunshine, dry streets By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record Ben Watanabe / The Record
Phil Simon sits in the near-finished car that he’ll drive Sunday during the Soup Box Derby in Langley.
Everything was set for last year’s Soup Box Derby. Then it rained. A lot. It rained so much that organizers scrubbed the event. Hoping to avoid a similar catastrophe,