Record South Whidbey
INSIDE
A holiday favorite, ‘The Nutcracker’ See...A12
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014 | Vol. 90, No. 98 | www.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.com | 75¢
Clinton’s
TURNCO WOOD GOODS takes shape as
international biz By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Above, Janae Cameron applies wax to a carafe stopper. Upper right, Kelly Cameron inspects some elm drying outside of his Clinton shop.
School officials to meet with state lawmakers By KATE DANIEL South Whidbey Record Board members and superintendents from each of Island County’s three school districts will convene for a dinner and meeting with state lawmakers today to discuss such topics as class sizes, state funding for public education and other issues. Steve Scoles, vice-chair of the South Whidbey School District board of directors SEE SCHOOL BOARD, A24
Kelly Cameron puts in 12-hour days in his woodworking shop, a cavernous space in Clinton off Cultus Bay Road. The long labor is worth it for the British Columbia native and co-owner of Turnco Wood Goods, which has seen rapid growth in the past 12 months
operating on South Whidbey. He estimated that 70 percent of the business’ earnings come from the wood goods side of the business that also makes architectural pieces, such as parts for lamps or cabinets and even replicated wood columns and balusters for a clock tower in Heppner, Ore. This time last year, the hus-
band-and-wife company that produces a handful of wooden wares for the home, including spatulas, mason jar lids, carafe stoppers and lamps, had its products in only three stores. Today, it’s in 23 brick-and-mortar shops from Saskatchewan to Maine and New York to SEE WOODWORKERS, A14
Proposed Maxwelton assessment can wait until 2016, diking district commissioners decide By JUSTIN BURNETT South Whidbey Record The first assessment proposed in decades for Diking District 2 property owners will not move forward next year as planned. During a well-attended and cordial meeting Saturday morning, district commissioners voted unanimously not to proceed with the measure, which would have approved collection in 2015. Instead, the board committed to working with the community to rethink the existing proposal, specifically the assessment method, in hopes of passing a revised and widely-supported assessment for 2016. The decision was something of a surprise as the board had worked on the levy for months, and its passage seemed a near certainty, but board members were swayed by testimony from a healthy crowd of concerned district property owners. “I was prepared to charge ahead because I felt we needed to get
something in place … but the input we received has caused me to take whole new look at this,” Commissioner Daryl Vander Pol said. “I would rather back off to get it as right as reasonably possible the first time,” he added. “I don’t think it’s worth poisoning the well to push too quickly,” Commissioner Carolyn Geise added. Diking District 2 is located in the lower valley of the Maxwelton watershed. To fund tide gate maintenance and administrative costs, such as liability insurance, the board proposed the first assessment in recent memory that would collect $12,500 from 55 property owners using a $45-per-acre charge. While many in the community bristled at the prospects of funding work that would help drain agricultural fields, claiming the benefits to SEE DIKING DISTRICT, A5