In the SJ Update Mail­bag today we have this let­ter from the SJC Repub­li­can Par­ty Chair, Daniel Schwartz… State­ment on Vac­cine Man­dates San Juan Coun­ty Repub­li­can Par­tyThe Repub­li­can Par­ty is not anti-vac­cine:  it is for the right of a free and informed cit­i­zen­ry to make its own health choices.Never in our 245-year his­to­ry have fed­er­al,  Con­tin­ue Reading

In the mail­bag this morn­ing we have this let­ter from Sasha von Das­sow… To the Edi­tor: 9/11/21 At 6 am on the 20th anniver­sary of 9/11 we in the San Juan Islands are at a stand­still because a few folks work­ing in the state fer­ry sys­tem decid­ed to stage a sick out in protest of  Con­tin­ue Reading

9/1/21 Covid-19 Pol­i­cy Update: Proof of Vac­ci­na­tion & Mask­ing REQUIRED A Let­ter from the Exec­u­tive Artis­tic Direc­tor Dear SJCT Patrons, You may have seen our social media posts today regard­ing the new pol­i­cy requir­ing proof of vac­ci­na­tion at San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre per­for­mances and events. If not, you can find our updat­ed poli­cies here. We  Con­tin­ue Reading

A let­ter of thanks to you from the Library… Dear Friends, A tremen­dous thank you to every­one who joined in and donat­ed dur­ing the vir­tu­al San Juan Coun­ty Fair in August to raise funds for the new library build­ing project. We were grate­ful to join the San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty Foundation’s match­ing grant pro­gram, which  Con­tin­ue Reading

In the SJ Update mail­bag today we have a Heads Up from Barn­a­by Zall about the RHNA Annu­al Pic­nic… After care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion, on Sat­ur­day, August 21, the Board of Direc­tors of the Roche Har­bor Neigh­bor­hood Asso­ci­a­tion vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to can­cel its 2021 Labor Day Isth­mus Potluck Pic­nic, orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled for Sept. 4.  RHNA is a char­i­ty  Con­tin­ue Reading

In the SJ Update Mail­bag this morn­ing we have this let­ter from Dr. Mark Fishout… The sum­mer of 1940 saw the Bat­tle of Britain, the aer­i­al con­flict between the Roy­al Air Force and the Ger­man Luft­waffe, reach its apex. When in this speech Churchill stat­ed ‘Nev­er in the field of human con­flict was so much  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Lee Stur­di­vant, Fri­day Har­bor As a 42 year res­i­dent of Fri­day Har­bor, I write to encour­age the town res­i­dents to vote for Farhad Ghatan, our present F.H. may­or, who deserves anoth­er term.  The town of Fri­day Har­bor is only 1 mile square, but every­thing that hap­pens here affects all island res­i­dents, even all coun­ty res­i­dents,  Con­tin­ue Reading

By David Bay­ley, Fri­day Har­bor I’m writ­ing to enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly endorse the reelec­tion of our town’s may­or, Farhad Ghatan. I have known and admired Farhad for almost 30 years, and have been con­tin­u­al­ly impressed by his intel­li­gence, ener­gy and com­mit­ment to pub­lic ser­vice.  Expe­ri­ence mat­ters, folks! Farhad’s back­ground in local gov­er­nance, chair­ing the Plan­ning Com­mis­sion for six  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Lau­ren Cohen, San Juan Island The return of our town’s beloved Fourth of July parade was an enor­mous step for­ward in our return to nor­mal life. It was a chance for our com­mu­ni­ty and the vis­i­tors we wel­come every year to come togeth­er and cel­e­brate our nation and the free­doms we enjoy. The San Juan Jour­nal  Con­tin­ue Reading

By David Mark Jenk­ins, Fri­day Har­bor I have worked with Farhad Ghatan for over sev­en years and found him to be extreme­ly reli­able, pro­fes­sion­al, cre­ative and hon­est. More­over, Farhad is a strong advo­cate for the Arts in Fri­day Har­bor, and as in many oth­er com­mu­ni­ties, pub­lic art adds great­ly to our visitor’s expe­ri­ence of the  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Learn­er Lim­bach, Orcas Island Have you ever looked at your choic­es on a bal­lot and thought, “I’m just not excit­ed about any of these”? I have, and I’m tired of being coerced into vot­ing for the “less­er evil”. I think many oth­ers are, too. Ranked-choice vot­ing is one idea that is giv­ing me hope, and it  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Dale Heisinger M.D., Noel Monin, John Gey­man M.D., Chris­tine Min­ney, Jamie Stephens, Cindy Wolf, Kyle Davies, San Juan Coun­ty Board of Health   Recent­ly the Robert Wood John­son Foun­da­tion and Uni­ver­si­ty of Wis­con­sin pub­lished the coun­ty health rank­ings for states.    The rank­ings were based on health out­comes and health fac­tors (see countyhealthrankings.org for com­pre­hen­sive view).    In Wash­ing­ton State,  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Bob Jar­man, chair of the board of com­mis­sion­ers, San Juan Coun­ty Fire Dis­trict 3 On behalf of the elect­ed board mem­bers of San Juan Coun­ty Fire Dis­trict 3, our career staff and our vol­un­teers, we thank the vot­ers of San Juan Island and the Town of Fri­day Har­bor for your over­whelm­ing sup­port in the April  Con­tin­ue Reading

From Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Soci­ety of Fri­day Har­bor The Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Soci­ety of Fri­day Har­bor would like to acknowl­edge the San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion for the many oppor­tu­ni­ties it pro­vides for San Juan Island non­prof­its to receive sup­port from the foun­da­tion and its donors. On March 9, the ani­mal shel­ter received two grants from the  Con­tin­ue Reading

 By Janet Wright, San Juan Island I wrote an e‑mail to our state leg­is­la­tors April 14 about the fer­ry sit­u­a­tion. Anoth­er bro­ken-down fer­ry.  Hmmm, I have lived here over 40 years and it has nev­er been this bad. I have two friends who were try­ing to get to the main­land for surg­eries and they were stuck.   Con­tin­ue Reading

By Susan and Peter Riss­er, San Juan Island Since Peter and I had the good for­tune to serve in var­i­ous roles, includ­ing the assis­tant chief for over 20 years with the now-defunct Fri­day Har­bor Fire Depart­ment, we became fair­ly well acquaint­ed with some of the chal­lenges involved in pro­vid­ing good fire pro­tec­tion to our com­mu­ni­ty.   Con­tin­ue Reading