Wildlife is returning to places it has never been seen before, as humans spend more time indoors.

Flamingos have invaded Forest Lane!

You may have noticed some new features on the road…

Everyone, say “Hello” to your new speed humps. Designed to control speed, while not bouncing the cargo of trucks around quite as much, the new speed humps are working to address two of your biggest concerns:

• Speed on the road
• Longevity of the road

After consulting with engineers, business owners, homeowners, and all sorts of drivers, we’re sure they’re the best traffic calming devices for the job!

Some of our neighbors tell us that our humps might even be dressing up in the future…. Stay tuned!

Mary has put together a fantastic list of all the places on the island that will be offering delivery and take out during the emergency. She’ll be keeping it updated as time goes on.

Please support the local businesses if you can during this uncertain time, and besides, talking to the delivery person at a safe distance might be just the right amount of social contact to keep us grounded.

Please be safe, and take care of each other.

Based on the most recent public health guidance from the Washington State health authorities, and reflecting the fact that a decent portion of our membership is enjoying their golden years, the board has decided to postpone our annual meeting until June, with the final date to be determined shortly.

We will mail out a packet next week with materials that are necessary to continue operating through June. Our board election will be by mail so please take a look and vote.

This packet will also include the 2020 assessments which will be due April 15.

Photo by Dennis Browne, used with permission.

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A couple of quick notes as we move into spring:

First, our annual meeting is coming up on March 29th. We’ll be updating you shortly with event details, and we plan to get a complete agenda out to the membership for their review about a week in advance of the meeting.

Second, we’ve added a wonderful native plant checklist from Malloree , the owner of Chickadee Forestry to the website. It lives in the sidebar now for easy reference.

Third, we wanted to thank everyone that picks up trash along Crawford Road, year round! It’s a lot of work and we appreciate it. We’re going to be scheduling our annual clean up event here at the beginning of April to help your daily efforts. We encourage everyone to come out, and spend a morning cleaning up the road — it makes a big difference!

The Seattle Times agrees! The Cafe in the Woods, just up Crawford Road, is the best place to start your winter visit to Whidbey Island…

… Or, just hang out with Gary and the rest of the neighborhood.

Crawford Road is in the news, and the new county road is being actively discussed by the County Commissioners! 

It’s a very early stage of this process, and nothing has yet been determined, including the specific route of the road.  Generally, the route will proceed from the north side of the intersection of Craw and 525 and wander northwards, eventually meeting Crawford Road just north of the curve.  Preliminary engineering has begun to determine costs.

Connie Bowers provided us a copy of the presentation recently given to the Commissioners, regarding the Airport Access Project.  She also helpfully provided the audio of the meeting for our review.

In addition, the Island County Record reported on the meeting and the road situation, as well as the results of the economic development study. 

Big things are afoot, and we look forward to hearing your feedback in the near future!  

Good morning neighbors!

By now, you will have noticed that the winter grading of Crawford Road has begun. 

Although we think that the grading has already made improvements, we want to let you know that this is a multiple stage process.   This is just the first stage.  

After this first grading pass, there will be subsequent passes to continue to improve the road surface.  We ask that you bear with us over the next week or so as we continue our maintenance project to improve the road surface, build the crown, and improve the drainage of northern Crawford Road.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Recently, members of the MCRA Board and several property owners met with Danny – a consulting engineer with DCG – to discuss the challenges and possible solutions for drainage on the north end of Crawford Road.

We learned a lot, and we’re creating a plan incorporating what we’ve learned into the upcoming fall grading and maintenance of the gravel section of Crawford Road.

The grading will begin as soon as the rains return… We apologize for the delay caused by this glorious fall sunshine. 😉

Click on the above to review the plan for continuing the rehabilitation of northern Crawford road…

We’re looking forward to extending our gains in the late winter and spring, with the aim of of bringing the entire road to a higher standard, resulting in much smaller, regular maintenance grading and material replacement.

Pretty frightening.