The following are segments of stories taken from the front pages of the Whidbey Island Record 25 and 15 years ago on Tuesday, Dec. 24, 1991 and Wednesday Dec. 19, 2001.

25 years ago

Editor: Jim Larsen

Unity talk follows controversy

“Island County Republicans were divided on whether they agreed with last week’s decision by two county commissioners to deny the third, Dick Caldwell, his turn as board chairman for 1992.

They did agree, however, that the ‘bickering’ among the county’s elected officials must stop.

‘Please put your personal bickering to bed and get back to business,’ said Andy Pringle of Freeland, the party Central Committee’s outgoing chairman.

Some members said they felt the snub of Caldwell could be seen as an effort to politically displace South Whidbey in the county’s distribution of power.”

15 years ago

Editor: Matt Johnson

Wind, rainstorm pound island, cut electric power

“A weekend of high winds and record-setting rainfall smacked South Whidbey twice in four days, knocking out power and sloshing debris onto the island shores.

Winds reaching 55 miles an hour at the shoreline and into the mid-40s inland were literally the downfall for a number of trees and power lines on both Thursday and Sunday nights. The worst outages came during the weekend evening, when trees ripped through high-power transmission lines near Coupeville and north of Oak Harbor.”