A decision published last week by the Washington state Court of Appeals cleared up the legal confusion over special assessments for conservation districts.
As a result, it appears that Island County commissioners are moving ahead with a revised ordinance approving a special assessment to fund the Whidbey Island Conservation District and the Snohomish Conservation District, which serves Camano Island.
The Island County commissioners have set a special session Dec. 2 to interview and choose among three candidates to replace Clerk Sharon Franzen, who is resigning next month.
Bill Oakes hasn’t done the math to figure out the odds that 14 companies would bid on a construction project and that two would tie for lowest bid. But he knows that it’s very, very unlikely to happen.
So employees at the Island County Public Works Department were understandably surprised when they opened bids last week on a project to expand a facility at the county’s solid waste transfer station and discovered that the two lowest matched, down to the penny.
The Island County Health Department temporarily closed down the Acorn Motor Inn in Oak Harbor Tuesday after testing showed methamphetamine contamination in a room and hallways.
The motel is the fourth business in the Oak Harbor area that have been shut down and posted with “unfit for use” orders over the last year because of meth contamination.
The former manager of an Oak Harbor used car business, who was busted when a large amount of methamphetamine was found at the lot, was recently sent to prison.
Island County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Ohme said that 41-year-old Nolan Brown pleaded guilty in Island County Superior Court last week to possession of meth with intent to deliver.
Oak Harbor police officers put an end to a burglary spree when they caught a couple of burglars red handed after they broke into a home two days in a row, court documents indicate.
Two people in Island County have died and 12 hospitalized from the H1N1 swine flu, according to Island County Health Director Keith Higman.
Struggling to fill a $1.2 million deficit, Island County commissioners are considering raising the county’s property tax levy by the amount former commissioners “banked” during healthy economic times.
But even then, the extra revenue would fill only a small portion of the budget gap.
Jerry Goen crept ahead of incumbent Larry Morse by just two votes in the race for a seat on the North Whidbey Fire and Rescue commission.
Only 10 ballots are left to count from the Nov. 3 election, according to the Island County Auditor’s Web site.
Six elected Island County officials signed onto a stinging open letter to the county commissioners, demanding that they take certain steps before making cuts in their departments to plug the $1.2 million shortfall in the 2010 general fund budget.
The Island County sheriff is holding a public meeting in Oak Harbor Thursday, Nov. 12 to discuss a low-risk sex offender who is living out of his car.
Jesse Blankenship, 31, was convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense in Colorado last year after he inappropriately touched a 16-year-old girl at a grocery store when he was drunk.
Four Oak Harbor children who were sexually abused by a former youth leader at Living Faith Christian Center won a $150,000 settlement from the church’s insurance company last week.
An 18-year-old Oak Harbor man who got hit over the head with an empty wine bottle while burglarizing a garage Oct. 9 could end up in prison, court documents state.
Prosecutors charged Dakota Simpson in Island County Superior Court Oct. 26 with residential burglary and vehicle prowling in the second degree. If convicted of the charges, he could face up to a year and five months in prison under the standard sentencing range.
