Privately-owned Vendovi Island, located about 7 miles north of Anacortes, between Guemes Is. and Lummi Is., has been sold to the San Juan Preservation Trust, a non-profit land trust, for $6.4 million. 

The Shell Refinery at March Point conducted a planned drill Thursday morning which included sirens audible in much of Anacortes. The sirens rang out at about 9:45 am, according to Human Resources Manager Jaunty Rutter.

The City Council has approved three contracts totalling nearly $60 million for construction of a new water treatment plant on the site of the current plant in the Riverbend area of Mount Vernon.

Had enough of the rain, yet? We got plenty of it over the weekend. The city's official weather station at the downtown fire station recorded 2.58 inches of rainfall over the weekend, about the same at Skagit Airport, which recorded 2.53 inches.

When Anacortes Police officers responded to a 911 call of someone wielding a knife, they found two men apparently holding another man on the ground in the 300 block of Commercial Ave. following a fight. (Ed: see comment at the end)

Workers hang a new sign on Anthony's Restaurant, still under construction at Cap Sante Marina. The restaurant is set to open mid-January, according to General Manager Tami Wolfe.