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 the mail­bag this after­noon we find this let­ter to you from J. Michael Edwards… The PHD #1 Again ‘Miss­ing the Boat’ In their press release of Nov. 24, 2021 the PHD #1 stat­ed: “On Novem­ber 2, 2021, res­i­dents vot­ed for San Juan Island EMS to remain under the juris­dic­tion of San Juan Coun­ty Pub­lic Hos­pi­tal  Con­tin­ue Reading

Here’s a let­ter to you from SJI Fire & Res­cue… San Juan Island Fire and Res­cue (SJIF&R) remains com­mit­ted to con­tin­u­ous improve­ment in our ser­vice to our islands’ com­mu­ni­ties to ensure pro­fes­sion­al, qual­i­ty, and com­pas­sion­ate emer­gency response and ser­vice. Why does SJIF&R respond to med­ical calls? First: SJIF&R’s guid­ing prin­ci­ple is do what is right for  Con­tin­ue Reading

In the Mail­bag today we have this let­ter from Nathan But­ler, Super­in­ten­dent and EMS Admin­is­tra­tor… We have seen the recent let­ter from Fire Chief Norvin Collins regard­ing our agency and merg­er talks. He bad­ly mis­rep­re­sent­ed our agency, and his let­ter is an object les­son in why we have opt­ed not to try again at merg­ing  Con­tin­ue Reading

Dr. Frank James wrote this let­ter to share with you… Just to be clear. This is the qui­et before the storm. Be wise and pru­dent and don’t go out to eat, don’t trav­el for the hol­i­days, love the ones you are with now and have been with all along. Jan­u­ary will be the hard­est time in  Con­tin­ue Reading

This arti­cle was Sub­mit­ted by Tran­si­tions San Juan Island Waste Man­age­ment Group… What keeps on giv­ing each year? Cre­at­ing tra­di­tions that help nature: A pot­ted fir tree brought inside to dec­o­rate, used year­ly; grow­ing side by side with us all. A can­dle lit every Xmas eve. A cac­tus passed down through gen­er­a­tions, nour­ished and watered through­out the year  Con­tin­ue Reading

In the SJ Update mail­bag today we find this let­ter from Norvin Collins… As the year comes to a close, your San Juan Island Fire and Res­cue (SJIF&R) respon­ders and I wished to take a moment to reflect where we are today and what the future holds. There are three points to address that are  Con­tin­ue Reading

A let­ter to the com­mu­ni­ty from Fri­day Har­bor May­or Farhad Ghatan… As I reflect on my past eight years work­ing for this coun­cil and the Town I so dear­ly love, I am filled with grat­i­tude for those who have seen fit to allow me to rep­re­sent their inter­ests as well as those who have made  Con­tin­ue Reading

This morn­ing we find a let­ter to you in the San Juan Update Mail­bag from Steve Ulvi… In the late 1960s, my out­door adven­tures grew grit­ti­er; in wilder land­scapes, great­ly expand­ing on child­hood camp­ing trips.  My dom­i­nant inter­ests became nature-cen­tered, access under one’s own pow­er.  I felt the thrum of the non-human com­mu­ni­ty of life and  Con­tin­ue Reading

In the SJ Update mail­bag this morn­ing there is this let­ter to you from Vic­to­ria Comp­ton… Dear Island Neigh­bors, Thank you infi­nite­ly for your words of encour­age­ment, your advice, and for shar­ing your thoughts about our island’s Port dur­ing my cam­paign. I was so proud and hum­bled to be able to car­ry your hopes for  Con­tin­ue Reading

In today’s mail­bag, Bon­nie Sliger shares this with you… My name is Bon­nie Sliger and I am run­ning for a posi­tion on the Mullis Cen­ter Dis­trict Com­mit­tee.  If you are 60 and over or are dis­abled, and live in the San Juan Dis­trict, please be sure to vote Novem­ber 8th thru 11th at the Mullis Cen­ter  Con­tin­ue Reading

In the SJ Update mail­bag today we have this let­ter from Alice Deane… Please be sure to vote in the very impor­tant upcom­ing elec­tion for Dis­trict Com­mit­tee mem­bers of the Mullis Senior Cen­ter. The true and cor­rect infor­ma­tion on what has become a very con­tentious elec­tion can be found at the Mullis Cen­ter web­site www.mulliscenter.org The  Con­tin­ue Reading

Below are links to let­ters regard­ing var­i­ous items on the upcom­ing elec­tion. Let­ters are shown in the order received and this page will con­tin­ue to be updat­ed as more let­ters come in. Let­ters for and against SJC Pub­lic Hos­pi­tal Dis­trict No. 1 Propo­si­tion No. 1 Autho­riz­ing Reg­u­lar Prop­er­ty Tax Levy: Ali­son Lon­g­ley Lee Stur­di­vant War­ren Apple­ton MD, JD Dean­na Osborn  Con­tin­ue Reading

In the SJ Update Mail­bag this morn­ing we have this let­ter from Frank Pen­well… Dear Islanders, Mullis Cen­ter elec­tion issues of 2021 are impor­tant. Issues: Senior Vot­ing rights.  The cur­rent Board end­ed vot­ing rights, and it took a 2‑year law­suit to force that Board to hold elec­tions.  WHY? Ques­tions sur­round­ing finances.  The cur­rent Board has  Con­tin­ue Reading

In the Update mail­bag this morn­ing we have this let­ter from San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil mem­ber Cindy Wolf… Hel­lo Edi­tor, Cen­sus num­bers are in and the pro­posed redis­trict­ing maps are out. You can see them at https://www.redistricting.wa.gov/commissioner-proposed-maps. In my opin­ion, the strongest move we can make this week for the future of our fer­ry sys­tem is  Con­tin­ue Reading

In the SJ Update mail­bag today we have this let­ter from Susan Grout… Edi­tor: A num­ber of us are very con­cerned about a seri­ous prob­lem on our island. There is a crit­i­cal short­age of trained home health care­givers. In order to rem­e­dy this sit­u­a­tion, which could affect all of us at some point, we urge you  Con­tin­ue Reading