Dur­ing this time of social dis­tanc­ing, the San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil Hear­ing Room will be closed. If you wish to pro­vide oral pub­lic com­ment at an upcom­ing Coun­ty Coun­cil meet­ing, please fill out the form list­ed on the front page of the SJC web­site form to be added to the Speak­ers List. Forms must be sub­mit­ted  Con­tin­ue Reading

As Wash­ing­ton State approach­es the antic­i­pat­ed peak of COVID-19 med­ical surge cas­es, San Juan Coun­ty urges every­one to take more aggres­sive pre­cau­tions to pro­tect their fam­i­lies and neigh­bors when com­ing to the islands from the main­land. “As cas­es mul­ti­ply through­out the state, includ­ing Skag­it, Island, and What­com Coun­ties, islanders trav­el­ing back to the islands from  Con­tin­ue Reading

At their March 31, 2020 meet­ing the San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil direct­ed staff to make avail­able as soon as pos­si­ble funds for rental assis­tance to assist those in our com­mu­ni­ty strug­gling to make ends meet dur­ing the COVID-19 out­break. If you or some­one you know are expe­ri­enc­ing dif­fi­cul­ties with your rent or mort­gage pay­ments dur­ing  Con­tin­ue Reading

FRIDAY HARBOR, WA – San Juan Island Coun­ty Fire Dis­trict #3 Com­mis­sion­ers joined the Town of Fri­day Har­bor request­ing post­pone­ment of the sched­uled April 28, 2020 elec­tion ask­ing vot­ers to annex the Town into the Fire Dis­trict. Fire Dis­trict #3 Com­mis­sion­ers request­ed the post­pone­ment due to the impacts of the glob­al COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. The sched­uled  Con­tin­ue Reading

A list of San Juan Coun­ty Gov­ern­ment Depart­ments, their sta­tus dur­ing the COVID-19 cri­sis, and info on how to access ser­vices has been post­ed online at:  https://www.sanjuanco.com/Department-Service-Status   This resource will be updat­ed going for­ward, and is intend­ed to help cit­i­zens uti­lize vital San Juan Coun­ty func­tions in a safe and acces­si­ble way. If you have  Con­tin­ue Reading

A mes­sage from F. Milene Hen­ley, Coun­ty Audi­tor… On March 17, Wash­ing­ton Sec­re­tary of State Kim Wyman for­mal­ly asked Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee to can­cel the April spe­cial elec­tion.  On March 26, the Gov­er­nor made the deci­sion not to can­cel the elec­tion. The only mea­sure on San Juan County’s bal­lot was the annex­a­tion of the Town  Con­tin­ue Reading

This week, we announced the tem­po­rary full clo­sure of all Wash­ing­ton state parks for at least two weeks. The deci­sion fol­lows Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order issued on Tues­day. We want to do our part to help pre­vent the spread of the Coro­n­avirus, COVID-19. The mea­sure adds to our March 22 deci­sion  Con­tin­ue Reading

COVID-19 updates from San Juan Coun­ty around sub­jects on the minds of islanders By Mark Tomp­kins, SJC Health and Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices Direc­tor, and Dr. Frank James, SJC Health Offi­cer As San Juan Coun­ty begins to see pos­i­tive COVID-19 test results in our com­mu­ni­ty, we want to explain how San Juan Coun­ty Health and Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices  Con­tin­ue Reading

Fre­quent­ly Asked Ques­tions: What do these orders mean for the San Juan Islands? On Mon­day, March 23, Wash­ing­ton State Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee issued a “Stay at home” procla­ma­tion, an order for all of us to lim­it our dai­ly expo­sure due to COVID-19. On March 25th, the San Juan Coun­ty Health Offi­cer issued an order restrict­ing  Con­tin­ue Reading

Today, Wednes­day March 25, 2020, San Juan Coun­ty Health Offi­cer, Dr. Frank James, MD, issued an imme­di­ate order to restrict non-essen­­tial trav­el to San Juan Coun­ty, con­trol con­tact with play­grounds and play­ground equip­ment, and lim­it tran­sient accom­mo­da­tions and camp­ing. Trav­el and lodg­ing for indi­vid­u­als engaged in essen­tial activ­i­ties or pro­vid­ing essen­tial ser­vices may con­tin­ue. The  Con­tin­ue Reading

A mes­sage from the coun­ty with more to come… Sec­ond con­firmed pos­i­tive case on Orcas Island: A close house­hold con­tact of the first pos­i­tive case has also test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19. This pos­i­tive result was antic­i­pat­ed by San Juan Coun­ty Pub­lic Health Staff and close con­tact trac­ing was com­plet­ed over the week­end to ensure the indi­vid­u­als did  Con­tin­ue Reading

To defeat COVID-19, we’re hun­ker­ing down. Last night, I issued an order to every Wash­ing­ton­ian: “Stay home, stay healthy” for at least the next two weeks. Let me take a moment to explain to you why and what it means. Wash­ing­to­ni­ans are required to stay home unless they need to pur­sue an essen­tial activ­i­ty. All gath­er­ings are  Con­tin­ue Reading

A reminder from Mer­ri Ann Simon­son to be sure to fill out your cen­sus form. It only takes a few min­utes, you can do it online, and it brings crit­i­cal­ly need­ed funds into our coun­ty… It is imper­a­tive that you com­plete the 2020 cen­sus report as it aids in improv­ing the qual­i­ty of life in  Con­tin­ue Reading

On Fri­day, March 20, the Wash­ing­ton Supreme Court issued a new emer­gency order out­lin­ing required pro­ce­dures in response to the COVID-19 pub­lic health emer­gency. As our state’s high­est court, the Wash­ing­ton Supreme Court’s order is bind­ing on San Juan Coun­ty courts. In response to this new direc­tive, San Juan Coun­ty Supe­ri­or and Dis­trict Courts have  Con­tin­ue Reading

An impor­tant mes­sage from Mer­ri Ann Simon­son… It is imper­a­tive that you com­plete the 2020 cen­sus report as it aids in improv­ing the qual­i­ty of life in San Juan Coun­ty.   Our Coun­ty needs fed­er­al fund­ing.  Do your part, be count­ed! The request for infor­ma­tion will be either mailed as a let­ter or post card on  Con­tin­ue Reading

The long-await­­ed pro­pos­al to annex the Town of Fri­day Har­bor into San Juan Island Fire & Res­cue will have to wait a bit longer.  It had been slat­ed to be on the April 28 spe­cial elec­tion bal­lot.  Unfor­tu­nate­ly, on Tues­day, March 17, Wash­ing­ton Sec­re­tary of State Kim Wyman for­mal­ly asked Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee to can­cel  Con­tin­ue Reading