Examiner The Whidbey
Middle school class explores sustainability
First-place winner, 2014 WNPA General Excellence
50¢
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www.whidbeyexaminer.com
Thursday, February 19, 2015
VOL. 20, NO. 28
Coupeville rally targets fossil fuels By Michelle Beahm Reporter
More than a dozen people gathered Friday afternoon to raise awareness for Divestment Day. The issue of divestment involves pulling money from fossil fuel investments and instead focusing efforts on renewable energy, said Gary Piazzon, event organizer. The Divestment Day Rally, organized by Piazzon and his wife, Dianna DeseckPiazzon, included a brief lecture to inform those in attendance of the issues, a group song and a sign demonstration on the sidewalk off Main Street in Coupeville. “There’s a lot of awareness needs raising,” Piazzon said. This is not the first Divestment event held on Whidbey Island. Starting with one in 2009, Piazzon and Deseck-Piazzon have attended and helped organize four events with 350.org, which Piazzon said is a group founded by university students to help raise awareness of and make a difference in climate change.
See Rally, page 12
Year in crime reveals fairly quiet town By Megan Hansen Co-Editor
It’s been almost a year since the Island County Sheriff’s Office took over management of the Coupeville Marshal’s Office. And in that year, Marshal Rick Norrie has tracked every call that his office receives. The data, he says, helps guide him in adequately covering the town and directing services. From March 1, 2014, through Dec. 31, 2014, the marshal’s office received 726 calls. While Coupeville is one of the smallest municipalities on Whidbey Island, the tiny town is home to Whidbey General Hospital and Island County’s main campus. Both entities bring traffic and issues through the community. A very small fraction of the crime that happens in Coupeville involves residents,
See Crime, page 12
Janis Reid photo
Fran Einterz, a farmer on Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve for 15 years, stands in a popular spot for wedding parties to take photos on his property. The Ebey’s Landing Trust Board is starting to discuss how to clarify the message and intent of the Reserve.
Board explores reserve’s message
By Janis Reid Staff Reporter
For some, Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve is a place to escape to from the big city or the bustle of life. For others, it’s a place to own property and make a livelihood. The question that the Ebey’s Landing Trust Board is aiming to answer in the coming months is: What exactly is a reserve? Unique among properties that are protected under the umbrella of the National Park Service, the reserve is not a park and it’s not simply a grouping of private and public property. It’s a hybrid. “It’s a whole different animal,” said Fran Einterz, who has been farming on the reserve for 15 years and serves on the Ebey’s Landing Trust Board. “It can be really confusing.” How the reserve’s purpose and uses shake down in practical terms, both for the land owners and the public, will be discovered in an ongoing discussion that is happening among trust board members and its Communications Committee. One main reason the purpose of the reserve gets confused is partly due to the language that has been used, said Kristen Griffin, who has been serving as the reserve’s manager for nearly a year now. “It gets referred to as a park,” Griffin said.
“A park has a lot of expectation that comes with it. If people think park, they think, ‘This is here for my usage.’ The communication has not been consistent.” The not-so-urban legend that gets told over and over is about the wedding party who wanders onto a farmer’s private property to take pictures because they believe the reserve is a park and open to the public. While farmers say this happens from time to time, Griffin said the issue is broader than that. Visitors and tourists with dogs, or those who wish to hunt, or even camp can overstep the rights of the private property owners within the reserve. “When people have the wrong idea, it’s going to perpetuate the wrong ideas about where to go and how to behave,” Griffin said. On the other hand, the reserve is meant to be enjoyed, and the trust board is looking to the surrounding community for input.
“To be a success, we need support from the community and our stakeholders. … We need to work together to protect the reserve,” Griffin said. Longtime reserve farmer Wilbur Bishop, who also serves on the trust board, said that his life would be very different if that legislation had not been adopted back in 1984. “If the reserve hadn’t been established, I wouldn’t have spent a career here,” Bishop said. “The reserve is a heck of a good thing. … It has been extremely successful.” Bishop said the reserve and its protections are as unique as the makeup of its property owners and residents who pressed for the legislation 30 years ago. Unlike other National Park Service areas, the reserve was intended to preserve and protect this specific agricultural community,
See Reserve, page 12