Vol. 125, No. 38
News-Times Whidbey
WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2015
A burning need to train
A10
Your hometown newspaper for 125 years
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OAK HARBOR: A CENTURY OF CITYHOOD Karla Freund, left, tends to the garden on the site of the historic Freund farm in Oak Harbor. The farm is one of the state’s oldest in a city that is celebrating its 100-year centennial this week . Below is former Barrington Avenue, now Pioneer Way, around 1915.
New CEO the ‘face of the hospital’ By JANIS REID Staff reporter
Photo by Ron Newberry/Whidbey News-Times
Honoring a rich history with an eye to the future
By RON NEWBERRY
A Staff reporter
s Oak Harbor history goes, the dirt underneath Karla Freund’s feet is essentially hallowed ground. She works the garden on the hillside of the old Freund farmstead almost daily, getting a birds-eye view of Oak Harbor’s past and present. Standing over rows of eggplant, cucumbers, radishes and beets, she can look beyond an 1860s farmhouse still on the property and see most of Oak Harbor’s cityscape and more modern development. She can hear the sounds of progress, too, from the sirens to whizzing cars and horns that blare all too frequently at the nearby intersection of Erie Street and Highway 20. “I hear a lot of ‘car wash!’” Freund said. “Once in a while, I think SEE 100TH, A13
Whidbey General Hospital’s new CEO Geri Forbes demonstrated a new brand of leadership Saturday when she attended a community event at Fort Nugent Park. Forbes was on hand for presentation of portable defibrillators to a youth football team and its coaches. “This will save lives,” Forbes said at the event. For Forbes, being accessible to the community is a main pillar of her leadership style. “Part of my role is to be the FORBES: face of the hos- “Will I make it pital,” Forbes to every event? said in a Monday No, but I’ll try to interview. “I take make as many as that very seri- I can.” ously.” “Will I make it to every event? No, but I’ll try to make as many as I can.” Forbes, who started in her new role three weeks ago, takes the helm of SEE ON BOARD, A23
First few days of Filing Week yields surprise candidates Whidbey News-Times staff
There were surprises for Whidbey Island voters in the first couple of days of candidate Filing Week. And it appears that some seats may have no
candidates at all. Filing week started 9 a.m. Monday and continues through 4 p.m. Friday. For a few hours Tuesday morning, candidates weren’t able to file electronically because of an outage
involving Northwest Open Access Network that affected the state’s election web applications, according to the Office of the Secretary of State. On Monday, Oak Harbor resident Erika
Carnahan filed to run for the Whidbey General Hospital board seat currently held by Oak Harbor resident Nancy Fey, who was SEE ON FILING, A23
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