Recent base-closing panic spurs search for clean industry

By REBEKAH DENN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

More of Oak Harbor's children would likely return if they could find jobs to support them, says native Hank Nydam, the city's parks supervisor.

The town's economy is largely dependent on the base, with a traditional downtown near the waterfront and strip developments on Route 20 and other arterials. A Wal-Mart now rising on the Freund's old land on Route 20 was bitterly opposed -- but also drew hundreds of job applications, city officials say.

The development is a sad sight for Micheal Cox, son of a Navy couple, who has moved in and out of town three times in his 20 years.

Oak Harbor was rural even a decade ago, with two-lane roads instead of four-lane arterials, Cox says as he waits to get a tattoo at the Island Ink shop outside a gate to the base.

The city has since grown too large to enjoy its quietude, Cox says, yet it hasn't grown large enough to provide affordable and fun activities for young people.

"I wish they'd build something besides banks -- banks and houses," he says.

The town recently built a skateboard park in response to a petition from dozens of youngsters, and is working hard to diversify its economy, says Krista Blackburn, the city's economic development coordinator.

A shock wave hit the town in the early 1990s when Whidbey Island was included on a list of potential base closures.

Even though successful lobbying kept the base open, a half-dozen ideas are being studied to strengthen the economy and expand it beyond the military. Among them: annexation of 80 acres outside town for a business park, building a convention center, increasing tourism and revitalizing the historic downtown.

Blackburn also is encouraging software and technology companies to come to Oak Harbor, following the lead of a few who have already found it to their liking.

The fast-growing Logos Research Systems company houses its 60 employees in a roughly renovated barn that still bears the nameplate "Oak Harbor Feed and Seed."

The company wanted to consolidate its academic and religious software business under one roof, rather than keeping its separate offices in Kirkland and New Jersey, says co-founder Dale Pritchett, the company's vice president of sales and marketing.

The Oak Harbor move has been a success, he says.

"We're basically dealing in a world market. We're not dependent in any respect on the Oak Harbor economy, and that was an important consideration to us," he said "People dealing in the local market would have a more challenging time."

The natural beauty, the weather -- Oak Harbor has half Seattle's rainfall -- a labor pool of military spouses and a good telecommunications infrastructure all cemented the deal, he says.

"It's a little more challenging to hire the technical people -- we have to import them," he says. "We have to give them a tour of the island to get them to come here."

The small-town location is also considered a plus by Interwest Bank, which opened its first branch in 1957 in Oak Harbor, in what is now a narrow-entranced barbecue joint downtown.

"The people in Oak Harbor founded it. At the time there was a need for another bank, and one that would provide mortgage financing," says Barney Beeksma, the bank's chief executive officer for 30 years and now the chairman of the board.

Interwest is Island County's largest private employer, he says.

It's uncommon for a bank of Interwest's size to be headquartered in a town of Oak Harbor's size, Beeksma says, but "there is no reason to move that we could find. . . . We just think it's a good place to do business."