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Community portrait Pages 6-7
Thursday, SEPTEMBER 11, 2014
VOL. 20, NO. 5
Businesses Asleep at the wheel cook up partnership By Megan Hansen Co-Editor
Two long-standing Coupeville business owners are putting it all on the line with a new partnership. Beth Kuchynka, owner of bayleaf, said she didn’t think buying her building was possible when the complex went up for sale last year. It wasn’t until Kuchynka and business neighbor Andreas Wurzrainer, owner of Christopher’s on Whidbey, were helping with a community fundraising in December that the idea sprouted. Less than a year later, the two business owners created Courageous Adventures LLC and now share ownership of the commercial complex on the corner of Coveland and Alexander streets. Kuchynka said she and Wurzrainer were helping the Soroptimist International of Coupeville with the Red Dress Ball early this year when Soroptimist member and Whidbey Island Bank manager Janice Vaughan asked why the pair weren’t buying their buildings. “It was a lot to wrap our heads around,” Kuchynka said. With the encouragement of Vaughan, real estate agent Janet Burchfield and building owners Doug and Mary Lu McFayden, Kuchynka and Wurzrainer moved forward with the idea. Initially, the pair were unsure how to pro-
See PARTNERSHIP, page 3
State of Town set for Sept. 18 Coupeville Mayor Nancy Conard will be giving a State of the Town Address 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18 at the Coupeville Recreation Hall. The address is being hosted by the Coupeville Chamber of Commerce and will feature hor d’oeuvres from the Oystercatcher and a glass of wine. There will also be a raffle drawing with prizes from Front Street Grill, Whidbey Coffee, M. Denis Hill, Pacific Northwest Art School, Cascade Insurance, Keystone Cafe, Prairie Center, Lavender Wind Farm and more. Tickets are $20 and may be purchased at the chamber of commerce until Wednesday, Sept. 17.
Ron Newberry photo
Buffy, a Lakeland Terrier, rests in a 1913 Ford Model T and waits for her owner during lunch time Monday in Coupeville. More than 60 pre1916 vehicles rode into Coupeville as part of a Whidbey Island tour for the Horseless Carriage Club of America’s Skagit-Snohomish chapter.
Curbside attractions line street
By Ron Newberry Staff Reporter
On any day, a trip to the waterfront in historic downtown Coupeville evokes thoughts of another time. Add nearly 70 century-old vehicles to the scene and people dressed in early 1900s clothing and an even clearer picture presents itself. “You look at the buildings and the cars, it’s the way it must’ve looked 100 years ago,” said Bob Strieter, his vintage driving goggles pulled above his eyes. Strieter drove his 1911 Ford Model T from Ridgefield to join other pre-1916 vehicles on a five-day tour centered on Whidbey Island. The tour is an annual road trip staged by the Skagit-Snohomish chapter of the Horseless Carriage Club of America with a new location picked each year, drawing participants from up and down the West Coast. Pat Farrell of Sedro-Woolley was tasked with organizing the tour this year and hearkened back to his Oak Harbor roots. “They needed somebody who knew all the roads,” said Farrell, a 1963 graduate of
Oak Harbor High School. The participants of the Island Navigator Tour have sputtered around the island — the vehicles drive most comfortably at about 35 mph — since arriving in Oak Harbor on Sunday and will continue until their departure Thursday. The trip from Southwest Washington took a toll on Strieter’s Model T as it knocked out the No. 1 cylinder and he had to park the vehicle at the tour’s host hotel in Oak Harbor. But knowing he was in reliable and abundant company, little could wipe a smile off Strieter’s face as he surveyed historic Coupeville and a line of century-old cars as far as the eye could see parked along Front Street Monday.
“This is my first time here. We absolutely love it,” he said. It’s a good thing Strieter favors the Model T. Its popularity and affordability resulted in more than 15 million of them produced from 1908-1927, meaning that even a century later, spare parts aren’t too difficult to find. “You’ll see more Model T cars here than any other,” said Steve Rex of Everett. “They had the most parts reproduced. Parts for a Stanley? Forget it.” Rex rolled up with his grandson in a 1911 Ford Model T, featuring a rear seat that re-
See CLUB, page 3