Record South Whidbey
INSIDE
Falcons fall to Lakewood See...A10
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015 | Vol. 91, No. 12 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Whidbey RadioShacks to stay open as corporate files for bankruptcy
Langley to take bluff project to public
By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
Whidbey Windermere Real Estate, said that buyers have “far more confidence” now than they have in previous years, in part because of “remarkably low” 4 percent interest rates and a gradually strengthening economy. However, he said inventory is “critically low” for the 38 agents at South Whidbey Windermere and
The first step in the doover of Langley’s proposed Cascade Avenue bluff project will occur some time in March. Langley’s mayor and planning director confirmed they are working on a charrette, a public input workshop to figure out which course the city should take to ease pedestrian movement between the marina and business district. Previous projects such as the funicular and bridge and elevator stalled after public outcry grew and questions were raised about their necessity and cost of maintenance. Since then, other ideas including a tram along the bluff, a wheeled trolley and increasing the Langley Main Street Association’s electric golf cart operations have been floated. “What we’d like to do is look at every option presented or proposed by the public,” Director of Community Planning Michael Davolio said. “Put everything out there and let the public have a look at everything,” he added. Mayor Fred McCarthy announced earlier this year he would abandon the pursuit for a funicular in response to criticism for redirecting the project from the much maligned bridge-and-elevator concept. Having inherited the idea for the project from a previous mayor — it’s also been in the city’s comprehensive plan for a decade — McCarthy said with a new planning director and obvious public interest it was best to go back to the drawing board. “This is better in the context of community plan-
SEE VALUES, A13
SEE CHARRETTE, A13
South Whidbey’s two RadioShack stores will stay open amid news that RadioShack Corp. filed for bankruptcy and would shutter more than 1,700 stores nationwide. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Feb. 5 and announced a wave of stores to potentially be closed. None of the three Whidbey stores — Oak Harbor, Freeland, and Clinton — are included in a document titled “Potential store closure list” on the radioshackcorporation. com website. That’s because the two South Whidbey stores are independently owned and operated. “We are locally-owned as always,” said owner Mike Rains on Tuesday morning. “People always forget we’re not a corporation,” he added. According to one RadioShack employee who identified himself as Rick, the Oak Harbor store’s staff was not informed of any change. “They haven’t informed us,” he said Monday afternoon. Later, he said that it was “Business as usual,” before hanging up. Of the electronics chain’s 4,000 stores, up to 1,750 may be purchased and operated as a “store within a store” by Sprint Wireless and Standard General, according to a company news release. South Whidbey’s stores aren’t likely to see Sprint phones, however, because there are no Sprint cell towers on South Whidbey, Rains said. SEE RADIOSHACK, A16
By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
Justin Burnett / The Record
From their home in Greenbank, Mary and Tom Coupe look at the 944-foot Hanjin Yantian and the 869-foot Conti Basel (out of sight) in Holmes Harbor Monday. The ships arrived Sunday, are there waiting for dock space in Seattle to unload their cargo.
Massive container ships drop anchor in
Holmes Harbor By JUSTIN BURNETT South Whidbey Record
Holmes Harbor is sheltering a couple of unusual visitors this week, two massive container ships. The 944-foot Hanjin Yantian and the 869-foot Conti Basel arrived in the area late Sunday, and are presently swinging on their anchors. Like many other container ships in Puget Sound, they are in a holding pattern as they wait to unload their cargo in Seattle and Tacoma, two of nearly 30 ports on the West Coast that were closed this past weekend due to stalled contract negotiations
between shippers and a longshoremen’s union. Both vessels were directed to Holmes Harbor by the U.S. Coast Guard, Sector Seattle Vessel Traffic Service, because moorages around Puget Sound were largely full, according to Alan Calvert, a watch supervisor with the organization. “Right now they are full, nearly filled, or booked for the next couple weeks,” Calvert said. Longshoremen returned to work Monday, but the backlog of containers, which Calvert said are “stacked SEE SHIPS, A16
Property values still on the rise, experts say By KATE DANIEL South Whidbey Record Island County home prices for 2014 were at their highest since 2007, with a median value for single family homes at $264,950. According to data released by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, this is an increase of $9,950 since 2013, when the median price in Island County reached $255,000.
The organization and Jennifer Cox, managing broker at South Whidbey’s Windermere Real Estate, report the median selling price for single family homes on the South End was $325,000; for Central Whidbey it was $285,000; and for North Whidbey, $224,900. Brokers in Island County sold a total of 1,407 single family homes during 2014. Joe Mosolino, owner of South