Military, old-time values unite for 'heaven on earth'

By REBEKAH DENN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

For casual travelers, Oak Harbor is just a heavily developed segment of state Route 20, the last stop for fast food on the way to Deception Pass State Park.

But for the more than 20,000 residents in this Navy town -- those who turn off the strip-malled thoroughfare and head for the waterfront -- Oak Harbor is paradise.

Jaw-dropping views of the water and mountains and islands are mixed with the services and values of an old-fashioned small town.

The Lions and Soroptomists and a half-dozen other service clubs are still healthy and active. Though the city has a sprinkling of mansions, a larger chunk of its million-dollar views are claimed by city parks, by the library and community college and by affordable military housing.

"There isn't a slum area of Oak Harbor," says city native and businessman George Churchill. "Conversely, there isn't a luxury area of Oak Harbor."

The sidewalks are crowded with children walking home from school; the businesses and base with working men and women; the senior center with active retirees.

Oak Harbor is threaded with parks and recreation, with the 29-acre City Beach Park by the water a microcosm of the larger town.

"It's Oak Harbor's backyard," says Churchill.

Children clamber over the playground built by the service clubs and learn to swim in wading pools and a saltwater lagoon. A windmill notes the city's Dutch heritage, while the mayor kisses the Blarney Stone, noting its Irish settlers at the annual St. Patrick Day's parade.

"It's heaven on earth," says retired elementary school principal Mike Milat, who moved to town from nearby Anacortes at age 29.

It's also a complex community with its own history and issues and goals, neither a tourist town nor a commuting suburb like so many of its neighbors.