Dear Edi­tor, On Feb­ru­ary 8, 2022, the com­mu­ni­ty of San Juan Island will be asked to vote to renew a local prop­er­ty tax. The Edu­ca­tion­al Pro­grams and Oper­a­tions Levy funds our local pub­lic schools, 100% of which stays in our com­mu­ni­ty, sup­port­ing our stu­dents in pro­grams not fund­ed by the state. This levy is renewed every  Con­tin­ue Reading

In response to the crit­i­cal lack of mar­itime and fer­ry trans­porta­tion work­ers, and the con­tin­ued need for high-wage careers for islanders, the EDC has launched a Mariner Train­ing Ini­tia­tive. Work­ers seek­ing a new career are invit­ed to the EDC’s new pro­gram on mariner work­force devel­op­ment. First, on Jan. 29th, 2022, the EDC will offer a  Con­tin­ue Reading

Peo­ple seek­ing job skills or career inspi­ra­tion are invit­ed to a free, hands-on wood­work­ing course, offered by the Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Coun­cil of San Juan Coun­ty (EDC).  This four-ses­­sion course, Intro­duc­tion to Wood­work­ing, will be taught by Kris­ten Ryan, the wood­work­ing instruc­tor at Lopez Island High School. The course runs Jan. 22nd to Feb. 12th (Sat­ur­days),  Con­tin­ue Reading

If you would pre­fer not to have an otter fam­i­ly under your house or a rac­coon fam­i­ly in your attic this spring, now is a good time to do some pre­ven­tive main­te­nance. Look around the out­side of your house. Are there holes beneath the skirt­ing or loose cov­ers on vents that would allow crit­ters easy  Con­tin­ue Reading

Can you believe it? Win­ter break is almost upon us. Wasn’t it just yes­ter­day that we opened our school doors to full day, in-per­­son instruc­tion? Even though this fall has flown by, last week’s Thanks­giv­ing cel­e­bra­tion remind­ed me we have much to be grate­ful for in our pub­lic schools. Hope­ful­ly you have noticed the rebuild­ing  Con­tin­ue Reading

Just in time for Hol­i­day Gift Sea­son, Join Ani­ta Bar­reca and Tina Fish­er in learn­ing how to make Beeswax Wraps.  They’re easy!  Just bring your own 100% cot­ton fab­ric cut to the prop­er sizes and a few bucks to cov­er the cost of the beeswax.  Space is lim­it­ed so sign up soon and we will  Con­tin­ue Reading

Spring Street Inter­na­tion­al School 6–7th graders will per­form a grat­i­tude read­ing at the Fri­day Har­bor Pres­by­ter­ian Church on Novem­ber 22nd. The per­for­mance begins at 11:30 and will last about 70 min­utes. Please come and cel­e­brate their poise and wis­dom. Their words are beau­ti­ful and their voic­es are brave. Invite your friends and kin. We are arrang­ing a potluck  Con­tin­ue Reading

Wash­ing­ton PTAC, EDC offer work­shop on Gov­ern­ment Con­tract­ing Essen­tials Inter­est­ed in doing busi­ness with the gov­ern­ment?  Join Wash­ing­ton PTAC and the EDC for a work­shop out­lin­ing the basics of gov­ern­ment con­tract­ing and pro­cure­ment.  The work­shop will be held via Zoom on Mon­day, Decem­ber 6th from 10–11a. The work­shop will intro­duce par­tic­i­pants to gov­ern­ment pro­cure­ment, includ­ing  Con­tin­ue Reading

On Wednes­day, Novem­ber 17 2021, the San Juan Island School Dis­trict Board of Direc­tors will hold a reg­u­lar (open) School Board Meet­ing at 5:00 pm as a Zoom meet­ing with an option for in-per­­son atten­dance.  All in-per­­son atten­dees must reg­is­ter before 4:00 pm on Tues­day Novem­ber 16th to pro­vide con­tact trac­ing infor­ma­tion. Social dis­tanc­ing and the use of face masks will be expect­ed. Non-com­­pli­ance  Con­tin­ue Reading

Are you a gar­den­er in San Juan Coun­ty? Do you enjoy learn­ing and shar­ing your knowl­edge with oth­ers? Have you just moved to the islands and want to get involved in the com­mu­ni­ty and learn about gar­den­ing in our unique ecosys­tem? The WSU Exten­sion San Juan Coun­ty Mas­ter Gar­den­er Vol­un­teer pro­gram may be just what  Con­tin­ue Reading

Island rec is search­ing for some kid lov­ing, capa­ble peo­ple to help with our dai­ly STAR- Study Time and After­noon Recre­ation — pro­gram.  If you are 14+ look­ing for San Juan Ser­vice Schol­ar­ship Hours for school, or some­one that thinks that vol­un­teer­ing for kid pro­grams is right up their alley, we would love to have  Con­tin­ue Reading

Peo­ple seek­ing new job skills or career inspi­ra­tion are invit­ed to a free, hands-on intro­duc­tion to mason­ry, offered by the Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Coun­cil of San Juan Coun­ty (EDC).  The one-day course will be taught by Dave Koch, retired mason­ry con­trac­tor, on Sat­ur­day Decem­ber 4th, 2021, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM in Fri­day Har­bor, WA. Dave  Con­tin­ue Reading

At 7:00 pm, Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 23, 2021, join Shona Aitken, Edu­ca­tion Coor­di­na­tor at Wolf Hol­low Wildlife Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­ter, to explore the fas­ci­nat­ing world of island owls, and learn about the many dif­fer­ent owls that live here on the San Juan Islands. We hope you can all attend this enlight­en­ing talk. To reg­is­ter email: giverson@sjlib.org You will receive  Con­tin­ue Reading

Date­line: Fri­day Har­bor, WA — Fri­day Har­bor Film Fes­ti­val opens with a FREE Open­ing Broad­cast Hon­or­ing Film­mak­ers on Thurs­day, Octo­ber 14 at 7:30 pm.  This spe­cial livestream event cel­e­brates all film­mak­ers show­ing their work at the fes­ti­val.  The evening will begin with an intro­duc­tion of the film­mak­ers, fol­lowed by a video high­light­ing all the films sched­uled dur­ing  Con­tin­ue Reading

It is not uncom­mon for a rental agree­ment to play a role in a real estate trans­ac­tion.   Tim­ing can be every­thing and often the homes on the mar­ket are occu­pied by a ten­ant or sell­ers are unable to time the clos­ing of their cur­rent home and the pur­chase of their next home. In some cas­es,  Con­tin­ue Reading

Tama­ra Weaver, a bro­ker with Win­der­mere Real Estate San Juan Island has opened a new busi­ness, San Juan Real Estate Resources (SJRER), to help peo­ple nav­i­gate the maze of buy­ing or sell­ing real estate on San Juan Island. Here’s what she has to say about it: “I think there are a lot of peo­ple out there  Con­tin­ue Reading