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COMMUNITY CONTENT SPONSORED BY BOEING
Record South Whidbey
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2015 | Vol. 91, No. 86 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Boeing in Puget Sound:
A Century of Partnership
B
oeing is coming up on a special year. In July, the company will be 100 years old. It’s a great success story, but Boeing didn’t do it alone. They’ve had incredible support from the community. It’s this special relationship between Boeing and its Puget Sound neighbors that will make its second century even better for the company and the communities where its employees live and work. Boeing and Puget Sound have come far in their journey together. Today, they’re major partners in international trade – with aerospace accounting for over half the state’s exports last year. Boeing is the largest single exporter in the U.S. – an important engine of the economy and a creator of jobs in the Puget Sound area. Although Puget Sound is home to a number of major companies, Boeing remains the state’s largest private employer, with over 80,000 employees based here in Washington. In the past five years, Boeing and Amazon together accounted, directly or indirectly, for more than 40 percent of the jobs created in the Puget Sound region. Commercial aviation is growing around the world, and Boeing’s success in global markets supports rising production rates in Boeing factories around Puget Sound. At the same time, as Boeing increases its international growth, it is also providing support in Puget Sound communities where the majority of its employees live.
In 2014, Boeing, its employees
INSIDE
Boeing employees are also playing a leadership role in supporting their communities where they live and work. Through the Employees Community Fund of Boeing Puget Sound, more than $9 million in financial assistance was provided to local nonprofits to boost education, human services and veterans support. The company is also inspiring the next generation of Puget Sound leaders. More than 650 Everett middle school students have participated in Boeing programs focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy. Students are also learning about clean energy and energy conservation due in part to a Boeing-funded science curriculum within the Everett School District. Boeing partners with Everett Community College to train aviation mechanics, and has contributed more than $9 million to the United Way of Snohomish County and other organizations dedicated to service. For the past five years, Boeing employees have volunteered to encourage recycling, employee engagement and community volunteering companywide. The Sustainables, a Green Team based in the Puget Sound, has completed about 80 site-based projects since 2010, contributing to a 74 percent increase in recycling and environmental education initiatives at the local sites. Boeing also supports military personnel and families. The Employees Community Fund awarded a grant to USO Northwest to support the construction on a new USO Welcome Center at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which will serve more than 10,000 military personnel and their families each month. Boeing is lead supporter for Rally Point 6, a nonprofit that helps veterans seeking employment, educational opportunities, assistance with benefits, housing or transition advice. Since the center opened in March 2014, more than 1,750 military, veterans and their families have found support. With Boeing winning in growing the aerospace marketplace, Puget Sound residents will see a win of their own. As the state’s largest employer, Boeing has shown a commitment to giving time, talent and resources to build up the communities its employees call home.
Boeing’s impact, contribution to the community See...A12 and retirees gave more than $50 million to Washington
state charities and nonprofit organizations.
Hearings board tells county to hurry up, comply
Boeing support for Puget Sound communities
Boeing is an important presence in Washington state and in the lives of its residents, and has become a catalyst for positive change in millions of lives. In 2014, Boeing, its employees and retirees gave more than $50 million to Washington state charities and nonprofit organizations. The continued growth in aviation means the Puget Sound region stands to receive continued strong community support for health and human services, arts, environmental, culture and civic engagement.
Boeing is working to significantly expand Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) educational opportunities for Puget Sound youth.
By DAN RICHMAN Whidbey News Group
with Island County. There are two zones within the rural area of intense development: rural center (commercial) and rural residential. Anything that was already developed within the area,
A state judicial body last week gave Island County until Nov. 10 to say how and when it will comply with a decision the body issued this summer. But two Island County Commissioners insisted the county will not be pushed. “It has been four months since the final decision and order were issued,” wrote the Growth Management Hearings Board on Oct. 26. That is “sufficient time within which to take steps.” The hearings board also required the county to file a status report on Dec. 18, as required in the June 24 order. In that order, the hearings board ruled in favor of Whidbey Environmental Action Network (WEAN), requiring that the county protect its only Natural Area Preserve and follow the state’s Growth Management Act by protecting critical areas using the best available science. Specifically, it ordered the county to safeguard the habitat of rare plants, prairies, oak woodlands and the Western
SEE CLINTON, A11
SEE HEARINGS BOARD, A28
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Sherryl Christie leads a small group during a Clinton Community Council meeting Thursday night with the Island County planning department. Several ideas included ways to attract and keep people in the commercial hub along the highway.
Clinton rallies to ready comp plan Absentee property owners, sewers, industry cited as Clinton woes, needs By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record Getting people to think about Clinton’s future went hand-in-hand with discussions of current woes and challenges such as a lack of sewers, absentee property owners, and needed industry during an Island
County planning meeting Thursday night. With about 40 people in attendance, Clinton Community Council leaders set out what Clinton’s rural area of intense development (RAID) is, why it was established and what it allows. The state-mandated and court-defended area is practically set in stone, said Brad Johnson, principal planner
Attorney General’s brief says district judge overstepped By JESSIE STENSLAND Whidbey News Group
Record file photo
Island County District Judge Bill Hawkins listens to a recording in a hearing prior to hospital administrator Linda Gipson’s trial.
The state Attorney General’s Office argues that an Island County District Court judge committed “three fundamental errors of law” in awarding reimbursement of legal fees to a hospital administrator acquitted of assault. Stephen Fairchild, assistant attorney general, filed an opening brief in Island County Superior Court this week. It lays out the attorney general’s arguments for appealing the reimbursement decision. The award was so excessive, the brief
states, that it was “over five times the amount awarded in any other reported selfdefense reimbursement case.” Whidbey General Hospital Chief Nursing Officer Linda Gipson was acquitted during a trial in Island County District Court this summer of assaulting a restrained patient. Following the verdict, district court Judge Bill Hawkins ruled — over the prosecutor’s objection — that Gipson’s $250,000 in legal fees should be reimbursed through a special state fund for criminal defendants who are acquitted on the basis of selfdefense.
Since Whidbey General Hospital paid for Gipson’s attorney fees, the hospital may be out $250,000 if the appeal is successful. Gipson’s attorney, Andrew Schwarz of Seattle, previously emphasized that the appeal only concerns the narrow issue regarding the reimbursement and has nothing to do with his client’s acquittal; double-jeopardy rules prevent her from being tried again. Fairchild argues in his opening brief, however, that Hawkins abused his disSEE JUDGE, A11