Vol. 125, No. 42
News-Times Whidbey
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2015
WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75 CENTS
‘Pirates’ sails onto stage
A10
Your hometown newspaper for 125 years
Is. Transit route to Anacortes getting ax By JANIS REID Staff reporter
Photo by Ron Newberry/Whidbey News-Times
Elayna Charboneau plays with balloons during a 2015 Relay for Life of Whidbey Island kickoff event held earlier this year at the Oak Harbor Elks Lodge. Charboneau, 6, is a cancer survivor who will attend the Relay for Life event Friday night at North Whidbey Middle School.
Little miracle to walk with survivors
By RON NEWBERRY
E Staff reporter
layna Charboneau never ceases to amaze her mother. Like most kindergarteners, she loves to sing and dance and play outside.
What tends to get Wendy Charboneau’s attention more, however, are the uncanny traits displayed by her 6 year old. There’s a confidence and determination about her, shown in her love of learning and reading books, and an “aggressiveness and fearlessness” that surface when she’s chasing a
ball on the soccer field. “She’s definitely our little miracle,” Wendy Charboneau said. Elayna Charboneau is one of the more unlikely participants one would expect to see SEE ELAYNA, A5
Military families can now swim for free By DEBRA VAUGHN Staff reporter
Military families can take a dip in the pool for free starting Monday. Active-duty personnel already have free access to John Vanderzicht
Memorial Pool in Oak Harbor and Fidalgo Pool in Anacortes. Now children and spouses of those personnel are free at both pools, too, thanks to an agreement between the pools and Whidbey Island Naval Air
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Station Moral, Welfare and Recreation. The free entry is only for open swims, which includes lap swimming. Military families must show their military identification. SEE POOLS, A5
Island Transit board members voted Friday to cut Whidbey Island’s only off-island route and initiate a fare study. “I’m obviously disappointed,” said Island County Commissioner Jill Johnson, who serves on the IT board. The board eliminated Route 411, which travels from Oak Harbor, over Deception Pass Bridge and to March’s Point on Fidalgo Island. The cut to Whidbey Island’s only off-island route is one of several made county-wide over the last year after significant financial problems were uncovered at the public transit system. More than 20 IT staff members were laid off and former Executive Director Martha Rose resigned amid criticism. State auditors subsequently identified serious problems with financial oversight at the public transit agency. State grants that supported the route’s creation and implementation over the last few years expire on June 30. Johnson said IT’s already thin operating budget cannot sustain the route, though the board will continue the service through Aug. 1. SEE ROUTE 411, A5
Photo by Debra Vaughn/ Whidbey News-Times
Luke, 3, and Joey, 4, practice kicking in the wading pool at John Vanerzicht Memorial pool with their dad Mike Piccone, who is retired military.
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