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SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75 CENTS Your hometown newspaper for 126 years

Vol. 126, No. 31

Thieves de-tentacle the Kraken By RON NEWBERRYrnewberry@whidbeynewsgroup.com

It could be a difficult case to crack.One of the City of Oak Harbor’s most

controversial pieces of artwork has been de-tentacled.

Someone has stolen the tentacle from the kraken sculpture.

The Oak Harbor Police, notified Tuesday of the theft by a city employee, is asking for the public’s help to locate the 4-foot hammered copper tentacle that once wrapped around a

pole near the intersection of SE Pioneer Way and City Beach Street.

The detached limb was part of the bronze giant octopus sculpture the city paid $33,000 for an Oregon artist to construct.

The public art was installed in February 2015, including the tentacle that climbed a pole across the street from the sea monster, giving the illusion that it had traveled under-neath the road.

Someone shattered that illusion, leaving police to seek public input on the tentacle’s

possible whereabouts.“At that particular intersection, we don’t

have a camera,” Oak Harbor Police Chief Ed Greens said. “We’re very dependent on some-one seeing something.”

Skip Pohtilla, chairman of the city’s Art Commission, said he noticed something bare about that intersection around the one-year anniversary of the kraken’s installation in late February, then did a double-take, noticing that the largest of two tentacles was gone.

Ron Newberry file photo

A 4-foot tentacle from the Kraken sculpture on Pioneer Way was stolen.

SEE KRAKEN, A10

Photo by Ron Newberry/Whidbey News-Times

A fiery celebration in store at Ebey’s LandingOn a recent evening, the windows of the historic Ferry House in Coupeville reflect a fiery sunset. The structure, built in 1860, is one of Washington’s oldest residential buildings and one of the signature landmarks of the Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, a unit of the National Park Service. The Ferry House is owned by the National Park Service, which is celebrating its 100-year anniversary this year. As part of several events planned to celebrate the centennial, the Reserve is teaming up with the Coupeville Farm to School program from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at the historic Jacob Ebey House to celebrate farming and food and offer free Junior Ranger activities for children ages 7 to 14. The Jacob Ebey House is located a short trail walk from Sunnyside Cemetery in Coupeville.

Teens arrested after video shows chicken tossed into bonfireBy JESSIE STENSLANDjessie@whidbeynewsgroup.com

Two juveniles were arrested for animal cruelty after allegedly dousing a chicken with gasoline and throwing it in a bonfire on Camano Island, according to Island County Sheriff Mark Brown.

On April 13, a staff member at Pasado’s Safe Haven, an animal sanctuary in Sultan, reported the suspected animal cruelty case to the Island County Sheriff’s Office. Kim Koon, an investigator for Pasado, provided investigators with a report of the incident and a link to the video of the alleged crime being committed.

SEE TEENS, A10

SEE POT, A11

Pot grower asks for after-the-fact approvalBy DAN RICHMANdrichman@whidbeynewsgroup.com

A Woodinville couple yesterday sought, and will likely get, county permission to do what they’ve already been doing for two years: use the buildings in an Oak Harbor industrial park to grow and process marijuana.

Island County officials earlier this week pled ignorance of the apparent land-use infraction, despite repeated com-plaints from a neighbor, notice of the unapproved use from a reporter, and multiple stories in the Whidbey News-Times as early as 2014 detailing tenants in the buildings being kicked out to make way for marijuana operations.

“What is the point of laws if they are not enforced?” asked the neighbor, Mike Haun, owner of Precision Tire Factory

Blue Fox tossing tires page 4

He contacted the city’s senior planner, Cac Kamak, and the matter was discussed at the art commission’s March meeting.

“I think it’s probably gone for good,” Pohtilla said, add-ing the cost of both tentacles were several thousand dol-lars. “It’s upsetting. The city paid for it. It’s the citizens of Oak Harbor’s artwork. Somebody who took it is tak-

ing it from the entire com-munity. It’s just not right for them to deface public prop-erty like that.”

The kraken project drew criticism from the start as it depicted the giant octopus swallowing a Nautilus subma-rine in a city so closely affili-ated with Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

Former mayor Scott Dudley voiced his disapprov-

al of the art, which like other public art pieces in the city, are funded by a 0.25 percent utility tax on water, sewer and garbage.

Others like the sea crea-ture, inspired by the giant octopus in Jules Verne’s 1870 novel, “Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.”

“Who’s not a Jules Verne fan?” Green said. “Personally, I like it. I like art being incor-porated into the city environ-ment. I think it enhances the environment around the city.”

Copper theft is a wide-spread problem and Pohtilla

suspects that’s the reason for the tentacle’s disappearance.

“What’s a little concerning is folks who accept copper for recycling are supposed to certify where the copper comes from, something of that nature,” Pohtilla said. “That’s obviously not a ran-dom piece of property.”

“It’s going to be real obvi-ous,” Green said.

Anyone with knowledge of the missing art piece may notify Oak Harbor police by calling the department’s non-emergency line at 360-679-9567.

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KRAKENCONTINUED FROM A1

Brown said the video shows “the live chicken being thrown into a bonfire, drenched in gasoline and beaten with a pitchfork.” The flaming chicken runs out of the fire and the teen-agers pour more gas on the bird. Laughter can be heard in the background.

Animal Control Officer Carol Barnes and Lt. Jeff Myers investigated the case and arrested two teenage boys, ages 15 and 16, on

suspicion of first-degree ani-mal cruelty.

One teenager is from Camano Island and the other is from Stanwood.

“They both appeared to be remorseful after the fact,” Barnes said, adding that the boys were coopera-tive with the investigation.

The incident occurred during the teenagers’ spring break. The boys shared the video with friends but don’t know who posted it on Twitter.

The teenagers were booked into Island County juvenile facility in Coupeville.

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Saturday, April 16, 2016 • Whidbey News-Times WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM Page A11

& Auto Center. “It is so dis-couraging.”

Christina and Scott Hensrude for about three years have owned seven of the 11 buildings between 3143 and 3171 Goldie Road, on the west side of that road between Industrial Avenue and West Ault Field Road, said Scott Hensrude, 55, on Tuesday.

At a hearing Friday, in a process known as a site plan review, they sought county permission to convert the seven buildings away from rented commercial space, using 41,646 square feet for marijuana growing and 10,412 square feet for pro-cessing.

There’s just one problem: Five of the seven buildings in the six-acre complex have already been converted, without the permission of the county. Pot is also being grown in a sixth building.

At yesterday’s hearing,

Hiller West, the county’s director of current-use plan-ning and community devel-opment, posed no objections to the proposed conversion. Hearing Examiner Michael Bobbink said he will rule on the proposal within ten days. Unopposed reviews are usu-ally granted.

A visit to the complex Monday revealed that five buildings are surrounded by high cyclone fencing ren-dered opaque by slats and topped with coils of razor wire. One man behind the fencing, who declined to give his name or be interviewed, confirmed that marijuana is being grown and processed there. Another man, who declined to come out from behind the fence, give his name or be interviewed, described himself as a tenant at the facility. The aroma of marijuana was present.

One of the two buildings not yet fenced has also been home to a grow operation for about six months, said Terry Boese, the tenant next door to the grow.

The buildings’ owner said

he has no idea what is going on in the buildings, despite the fact that he collects rent from multiple tenants grow-ing and processing pot there.

“I own those buildings, but I don’t go to them for months at a time,” Scott Hensrude said Tuesday. “I don’t know how long (the marijuana operation) has been up and running. I’m a landlord, an owner of properties. I’ve been very successful.”

West yesterday continued to insist the county has no knowledge of the unlawful use. On Tuesday, he said didn’t know the buildings were already being used for marijuana.

“If they’re doing it without site plan review, they’re doing it illegally,” he said. Though informed of the violation by a reporter, who documented the situation with photo-graphs, he said the county lacks official knowledge until a complaint has been filed. And as of Tuesday, none had been filed, said county code-enforcement officer John Clark.

If a complaint is filed, then

Clark must investigate, West said. A finding that the owner proceeded without site plan review would be a violation of the county’s land-use code, Clark said. It could lead to the county’s issuing a cease-and-desist order, imposing fines and possibly initiating legal action by the county’s pros-ecutor, West said.

“I have complained over and over again, for years,” Haun, the tire-store owner, testified under oath at yester-day’s hearing. “I have tried to make contact with the county enforcers, and they never got back to me. These guys have just done what they want and steamrolled everyone. Is it my responsibility to come down and enforce it?”

Bobbink said he will not be considering any land-use violations in his deliberations, because they are “extrane-ous.”

When asked after the hear-ing why he had approved the plan when he knew of prior violations, West replied, “Actually, I don’t have knowl-edge. There’s been no com-plaint filed.” Just having been

told about the violation, even by credible sources, doesn’t equate to “knowledge,” he said. “People mention things to me all the time. That doesn’t mean I have evi-dence.”

Not all recreational-mar-ijuana businesspeople take county approval as casually as the Hensrudes.

Lucas Jushinski waited “months and months, spent thousands and thousands on rent” while the county delib-erated over his permits, he said.

“I didn’t consider going ahead without county approv-al,” he said. “I didn’t want the county to come in and close me down.” He finally got approval recently and planned to open Island Herb, a retail store in Freeland, last week.

Maureen Cooke, owner of Whidbey Island Cannabis Company, in the store’s early days suffered a stop-work order because she opened her store without a site plan approval.

The county has long had ample opportunity to learn

what was going on at the Oak Harbor complex, formal-ly known as North Whidbey Business Center. One former tenant there, Mark Calim of Mark’s Auto Repair, said in a May 2014 Whidbey News-Times story that he was essentially kicked out of his location to make way for mar-ijuana-related enterprises. Another tenant, not-for-profit Garage of Blessings, said in June 2014 that it had gotten a letter from the property man-ager saying that its property would be fenced and that, as of July 2014, customers would lose access to a garage filled with the free, used items the charity gives away.

If Bobbink approves the conversion request, all the remaining tenants at 3161, 3159 and 3163 Goldie Road (two buildings, despite three addresses) will be forced to vacate. From north to south, they are: Whidbey Island Homebrew Supply, Valdez Construction, Arirang Garden Korean and Japanese Food, Garage of Blessings and Mobile Music, a car-ste-reo store.

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