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