The hos­pi­tal dis­trict is hap­py to announce that it has reached agree­ment with San Juan Island Fire and Res­cue to take over Emer­gency Med­ical Ser­vices on our behalf in 2023, pend­ing vot­er approval. “It’s been a long process, but we’re ready to sup­port the Fire Dis­trict tak­ing this to the pub­lic,” said hos­pi­tal dis­trict com­mis­sion­er  Con­tin­ue Reading

On August 6, 2021, East­sound Water Users Asso­ci­a­tion (EWUA) and the Doe Bay Water Users Asso­ci­a­tion (DBWUA) signed an agree­ment to work in part­ner­ship to man­age the Doe Bay Water sys­tem. East­sound Water will take over oper­a­tions in Q2 of 2022 and per­form all dai­ly tasks includ­ing test­ing, mon­i­tor­ing and main­tain­ing the Doe Bay Water  Con­tin­ue Reading

In March of 2019 Tran­si­tion San Juan Island left the radar as COVID 19 halt­ed in-per­­son meet­ings. Now, more than ever, it is time to revi­tal­ize our move­ment with a Resilien­cy Fair. Bring your ideas and enthu­si­asm as we reac­ti­vate our mis­sion: To “cre­ate con­di­tions for com­mu­ni­ty resilience and regen­er­a­tion in a rapid­ly chang­ing world.”

From the town of Fri­day Har­bor The RV dump sta­tion locat­ed in Fri­day Har­bor on Har­bor Street (across from the waste­water treat­ment plant) has been reopened with lim­it­ed, secured access.  The sta­tion has been closed due to a deposit of unknown chem­i­cals in the sewage that proved harm­ful to treat­ment process­es at the waste­water treat­ment plant.  Con­tin­ue Reading

From San Juan Coun­ty Parks and Fair A new play­ground will be ded­i­cat­ed to res­i­dents and vis­it­ing chil­dren noon Sat­ur­day, Aug. 14 at the Vil­lage Green on Orcas Island. The Play­­ground-on-the-Green is a prod­uct of Orcas Island’s imag­i­na­tion, ener­gy and fund­ing, and was con­struct­ed by Orcas artists Chuck Green­ing and Zackarya Leck. The play­ground design, by  Con­tin­ue Reading

From Rep. Rick Larsen’s Office July 21, Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02) announced he has secured $10,662,665 for ten Sec­ond Dis­trict projects in the Fis­cal Year 2022 House appro­pri­a­tions bills, includ­ing near­ly $700,000 to repair an erod­ing Lopez Island road.  “My pri­or­i­ty in shap­ing spend­ing bills is to invest in local com­mu­ni­ties to cre­ate well-pay­ing jobs  Con­tin­ue Reading

From the San Juan Island Friends of the Library The San Juan Island Friends of the Library will host its annu­al in-per­­son book sale Sat­ur­day, Aug. 14 at the library’s new loca­tion, the for­mer Life Care Cen­ter at 660 Spring St. in Fri­day Har­bor.  Friends of the Library mem­bers can shop from 9–10 a.m. and  Con­tin­ue Reading

From San Juan Coun­ty Fair The count­down to 2021 “Let­tuce Enter­tain Ewe,” the vir­tu­al fair, is under­way. While staff has worked hard to host some recent, small­er in-per­­son activ­i­ties, the Aug. 18–21 event will remain online.  There are two more weeks for exhibitors to reg­is­ter online. The goal for this year is to beat the 600  Con­tin­ue Reading

“Island Senior” is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Peg­gy Sue McRae.  UPDATE — We are mon­i­tor­ing devel­op­ments with Delta and oth­er COVID vari­ants that may affect our Mullis Cen­ter onsite com­mu­ni­ty meal re-open­ing. Every­one’s health safe­ty is our top pri­or­i­ty. Please stay tuned for more infor­ma­tion via our newslet­ter, web­site, Face­book page and  Con­tin­ue Reading

From San Juan Coun­ty Adult Drug Court The San Juan Coun­ty Adult Drug Court award­ed its first cer­tifi­cate of grad­u­a­tion to Jor­dan Lynn-Jef­fer­­­son of Orcas Island July 7. After 697 days or almost 24 months in the county’s ther­a­peu­tic pro­gram, Jor­dan emerges a more self-con­­fi­­dent and mature young man with goals for his life and tools to  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Hay­ley Day, San Juan Island Update After near­ly a decade at the helm, town of Fri­day Har­bor Admin­is­tra­tor Dun­can Wil­son is hang­ing up his hat. Wil­son retires Jan. 4, 2022. Cur­rent San Juan Coun­ty Man­ag­er Mike Thomas takes over Dec. 13, so Wil­son can train his suc­ces­sor and “smooth the tran­si­tion,” he said.  “Mike has a  Con­tin­ue Reading

From the town of Fri­day Har­bor The Town of Fri­day Har­bor will replace three side­walk trees on Spring Street at First and Sec­ond Streets due to sig­nif­i­cant side­walk upheaval caused by over­grown root sys­tems. Instal­la­tion of new shade trees appro­pri­ate for down­town side­walk areas will elim­i­nate the poten­tial for root intru­sion and the result­ing trip  Con­tin­ue Reading

Neg­a­tive Lodg­ing Tax Funds in 2020, to the Best Year in Land Bank His­to­ry in 2021 By F. Milene Hen­ley, San Juan Coun­ty Audi­tor I have always been amazed by four-way stops. Dri­vers learn as teens to nego­ti­ate these tricky, coop­er­a­tive inter­sec­tions, and most of us nev­er for­get. It’s a mar­vel of social engi­neer­ing. This past  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Gay Gra­ham, Spon­ta­neous Dis­or­ga­ni­za­tion of Yan­kee Doo­dlers Our island’s Fourth of July parade may be small, but it will be mighty — espe­cial­ly if you all can lend a help­ing hand! A few of us crazy islanders will be push­ing shop­ping carts — lent by Browne’s Home Cen­ter — to col­lect food for the Fri­day  Con­tin­ue Reading

From San Juan Island Cham­ber of Com­merce The San Juan Island Cham­ber of Com­merce is excit­ed to bring back our beloved Fourth of July cel­e­bra­tion! Our cham­ber and com­mu­ni­ty are work­ing behind the scenes, get­ting ready for the big day. The parade entries are trick­ling in, more bunting is going up every day, the fire­works  Con­tin­ue Reading

From San Juan Islands Com­mu­ni­ty Net­work San Juan Islands Com­mu­ni­ty Net­work’s sec­ond forum on vaca­tion rentals was held June 17 to a Zoom audi­ence of about 45. The forum, enti­tled “Com­mon Ground” focused on areas of agree­ment and the best next steps to take. Watch it at sjicn.org/forums. Com­mon Ground brought back the same pan­elists as  Con­tin­ue Reading