News-Times Whidbey
LIVING
All-female ‘Odd Couple’ on Playhouse stage A11
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 | Vol. 125, No. 71 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢
Marina at top of city priority list By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
“The whole area sunk substantially,” Rich said. “That would have generated an earthquake.” The study, concluded July 17, was conducted in Dugualla Bay and Crescent Harbor and was the result of a partnership between the county’s department of emergency management and the Central Whidbey Lion’s Club. Researchers from Central Washington
Redevelopment of the Oak Harbor Marina is once again the top priority among a list of capital facilities projects on the city’s wish list. Last month, Development Services Director Steve Powers gave members of the City Council some homework. He asked them to use a set of criteria to assign points to a list of proposed projects for the city. Powers tallied up the results and created a prioritized list of projects, with the marina redevelopment at the top and Windjammer Park redevelopment coming in second. Harbormaster Chris Sublet said in an interview this week that he was excited the marina development came in first, as it did when the project priority list was first created eight years ago. He hopes this means that the city and community will begin talking about the options. “On Sept. 8, the marina is going to be 40 years old,” he said. “Things are beginning to come to the end of their natural life.” Sublet said he wants to explore whether it makes sense to rebuild or remodel the marina and even the possibility of moving it. One idea that’s being talked about is moving the marina closer to downtown, possibly at the site of the former Maylor Dock off Flintstone Park. “We want to consider if it’s the right size, the right place, the right slip mix,” he said.
SEE STUDY, A8
SEE MARINA, A8
Photos by Michelle Beahm/Whidbey News-Times
Br’er Rabbit, one of the 33 bands that played at the Oak Harbor Music Festival, opens the musical entertainment on one of the stages Friday, the first day of the festival.
Music Fest attendance hits 15,000 By MICHELLE BEAHM
A
Staff reporter
festival that started just three years ago filled downtown Oak Harbor with thousands of dancing feet during Labor Day weekend. With a total of 15,000 folks checking out the scene, the Music Festival saw its attendance double from last year, according to the festival President Margaret
Livermore. The festival had “more people coming and more people excited about what was happening,” she said. This year, the festival had two large stages on either end of Pioneer Way, with craft booths and food stands spread between them, as well as a beer garden near both stages. “It went really well,” Livermore
said. “It was terrific; everybody loved it.” Aside from a little wind and rain, Livermore said there weren’t any problems. “It always brings people together,” said Pam Fick, attending the festival for the first time. Fick has never been able to stop and enjoy the festivities in the past but planned to spend all three days at the festival.
“I’m just looking forward to the togetherness of the community.” But it wasn’t just Island County residents who attended the festival. There were people from all over visiting for the festival, including a few from Canada. Carin Louis, from Victoria, British Columbia, and her husband happened across the festival while boating north back to Canada. SEE MUSIC, A8
Researchers find no tsunamis —just one big earthquake By JANIS REID Staff reporter
In their search for tsunami evidence at two Whidbey Island locations, researchers said they’ve come up empty. Research, however, did unveil a substantial shift in the ground level in the Crescent Harbor area, according to Jim Rich, volunteer with Island County’s department of emergency management
and a retired oceanographer. “We were looking for evidence of tsunamis,” Rich said. “We didn’t find one. More disturbingly, we found evidence of earthquakes.” Instead of finding that Crescent Harbor was once slammed by a tsunami triggered by a nearby earthquake, researchers found that the area may have been the point of origin of an earthquake. The shift may have been as deep as three meters, Rich said.