For a second time, the Island County commissioners asked a hearings board to find its conservation regulations in compliance with the Growth Management Act, or GMA, but a local environmental group again objected, claiming that the regulations do not actually protect local populations of rare plants or the western toad, a species of concern in Washington.
Freeland residents and visitors will soon have a new non-motorized trail on which to walk, rollerblade or ride their bicycles.
A new half-mile path will run along the southwest side of Highway 525, from Cameron Road to Fish Road, according to Public Works Engineer Bryant Mercil.
Island County Human Services is once again hoping to connect local service agencies with government funding.
The county department, which oversees assistance services, issued several requests for proposals last week to address affordable housing and homelessness.
At the county Auditor’s Office, Elections Supervisor Michele Reagan is seeing a slow trickle of ballots that is all too familiar.
With room for 58 inmates, the Island County Jail is small by most standards, but the responsibility to provide inmates with sufficient medical care is anything but.
“We’re a small jail but we still have to define a minimal level of care,” said Sheriff Mark Brown.
What that level of care should be was the focus for Brown and other county officials last week.
‘The more the merrier’ is a philosophy the Whidbey Island Animal Improvement Foundation, or WAIF, tends to embrace when it comes to taking in cats and dogs.
But as the old saying goes, too much of a good thing is a bad thing, and this rings true when Shari Bibich considers the island’s significant feral and free-roaming cat population. The Shelter Manager of WAIF’s Coupeville facility, Bibich says the foundation has begun to readdress this issue with a new program, CATsNIP.
Between now and October, Island County residents and visitors can expect considerable delays when traveling on Highway 20 south of Coupeville.
Crews began construction between Jacobs Road and Morris Road on June 13, reducing the one-mile stretch of road to a single lane between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.
Island County will not meet its long-planned summer deadline for an approved comprehensive plan update.
So, decision makers have worked with state officials to revise a new finish line, shooting for the end of the year. Planners are also moving forward with a phased approach to future updates.
As the demand for housing continues to rise, property owners in Island County are seeing big increases in home and land values this year.
Last week, Island County commissioners responded to a state board’s order to improve regulations meant to protect fish and wildlife, but the environmental group that originally objected to the county’s rules says the proposed fix still isn’t enough.
Under the Growth Management Act, known as GMA, counties are required to protect “critical areas,” such as fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, through a consistent comprehensive plan and conservation regulations. GMA also requires counties to periodically review and update these regulations.
Bill Oakes has been building things for as long as he can remember.
In college, radio-controlled airplanes held his fascination, and the act of bringing many pieces together to form a functioning whole fueled his passion for something greater — engineering.
“That it started out as a box of wooden parts, that’s cool for me,” said Oakes, public works director and county engineer for Island County.
When Naoma Howard moved to Whidbey Island last year, several things shocked her — the beauty of the landscape, a welcoming community and the great two-bedroom apartment she found in Oak Harbor.
But that wasn’t all.
Howard was also shocked by the price tag.
Members of the Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, or COER, were left disappointed Tuesday afternoon when the Island County Board of Health’s monthly meeting was cancelled on short notice.
The group previously asked the board to address potential health hazards of noise produced by the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island’s EA-18G Growler aircraft training flight at the Outlying Field near Coupeville. The members planned to address their concerns for the third time with the health board.
