By Nan­cy Young, San Juan Island For many years we have sup­port­ed, through our tax­es, this impor­tant levy, as it does so much to enhance the youth on the island. My hus­band has been a vol­un­teer for over 20 years in the roller hock­ey pro­gram. Now, more than ever, our young peo­ple need to have  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Susan West, San Juan Island Island Drug, in Oak Har­bor, has hun­dreds of vac­cine appoint­ments avail­able each day online for eli­gi­ble recip­i­ents. Sign­ing up is easy, and receiv­ing the vac­cine is free.   Island Drug has all three brands of vac­cine — the one-and-done John­son & John­son, the Pfiz­er which is approved for any­one 16  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Tony Fyrqvist, San Juan Island I strong­ly sup­port the Island Rec Levy. We have lived on the island for 30 years and I have seen the improve­ment has made in the com­mu­ni­ty. The levy is a small price divid­ed among many to pro­vide a great return for all. In the ear­ly ’90s, Cindy Bak­er was  Con­tin­ue Reading

From Jef­frey Struthers and Rick Christ­mas, OPALCO Orcas Dis­trict Rep­re­sen­ta­tives It is time to vote for Orcas dis­trict direc­tors for OPALCO and Rock Island. We, your cur­rent Orcas dis­trict direc­tors — Jef­frey Struthers and Rick Christ­mas — ask for your vote. Here is why we believe you should return both of us to the board for  Con­tin­ue Reading

From the Pur­ple and Gold Boost­er Club The Pur­ple and Gold Boost­er Club ful­ly endors­es the Island Rec levy renew­al. We sup­port Fri­day Har­bor High School by run­ning con­ces­sions at the games and col­lect­ing tick­ets for events. We fill in some of the gaps that are not cov­ered by the Island Rec levy such as pro­vid­ing  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Gib and Jen Black, San Juan Island Please join us in sup­port­ing Island Rec by vot­ing in favor of renew­ing its levy. Our fam­i­ly, like many here on San Juan Island, receive a val­ue from Island Rec that far exceeds what we con­tribute in tax­es. We ben­e­fit from dai­ly walks at the Grav­el Pit with  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Mis­sy Mar­tin, Fri­day Har­bor Dear Edi­tor: I encour­age Islanders to vote YES for the upcom­ing Island Rec levy! They are request­ing fund­ing at the same rate, with­out an increase from the pre­vi­ous six years. The fact that Island Rec funds high school sports is rea­son alone to voice my sup­port and vote. But the actu­al­i­ty that  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Martha Alvara­do, Floyd Bourne, Stephanie Buf­fum, Katie Flem­ing, Dar­la Jung­mey­er, Kari McVeigh, Bri­an Moore, Katy Tay­lor-Jacob­son Through this levy, Island Rec funds our high school sports pro­gram which allows our school dis­trict to focus on acad­e­mia. Places to play and sports are impor­tant for child devel­op­ment.  Ath­let­ic par­tic­i­pa­tion improves self-esteem, teach­es time man­age­ment, builds  Con­tin­ue Reading

The fol­low­ing is an open let­ter to the San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil from dozens of San Juan Island busi­ness­es, includ­ing Mike’s Café and Wine Bar, San Juan Hos­tel, Crys­tal Seas Kayak­ing, Island Pets, On Point Bar­ber Shop and more. Dear San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil, We are strong­ly opposed to the mora­to­ri­um that you have recent­ly enact­ed  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Travis and Jen­nifer Ayers, Fri­day Har­bor We encour­age all eli­gi­ble vot­ers to join us and vote YES for the renew­al of Island Rec’s levy on April 27. This is not a new levy; it remains at $0.385 per $1,000 of assessed prop­er­ty val­ue. It is worth not­ing that this rate is only 64% of the  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Karen Meenan, San Juan Island I was asked to be on the Island Rec Levy Com­mit­tee and I glad­ly said yes.  Let me tell you why.  I love Island Rec.  What a gem for our com­mu­ni­ty; such a robust set of pro­grams for a lit­tle com­mu­ni­ty like ours.  Most of us use or sup­port at  Con­tin­ue Reading

Frank James MD, health offi­cer for San Juan Coun­ty, sent this open let­ter to coun­ty schools on Jan. 30. I am rec­om­mend­ing that schools con­sid­er open­ing grades K to 6 for in-per­­son edu­ca­tion. The Wash­ing­ton state met­ric for open­ing in-per­­son edu­ca­tion has not been met due to high rates of infec­tion in our four-coun­­ty region, how­ev­er,  Con­tin­ue Reading

By San Juan Coun­ty Pub­lic Hos­pi­tal Dis­trict No. 1 Thank you to all the advo­cates rais­ing their voic­es. At the Skag­it Val­ley Hos­pi­tal Dis­trict board meet­ing on Dec. 18, the hos­pi­tal dis­tricts that joint­ly own Hos­pice of the North­west announced that they would not sell to Bris­tol Hos­pice. San Juan Coun­ty Pub­lic Hos­pi­tal Dis­trict No. 1  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Don­na Sand­strom, Whale Trail direc­tor and for­mer mem­ber of Gov­er­nor Inslee’s Orca Recov­ery Task Force Last Fri­day, Wash­ing­ton Depart­ment of Fish and Wildlife Com­mis­sion­ers approved rules for com­mer­cial whale-watch­ing that will make it eas­i­er for the endan­gered south­ern res­i­dents to for­age and rear their young in these next few crit­i­cal years. Com­mer­cial whale-watch­ing on the south­ern  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Fred Woods, Super­in­ten­dent, San Juan Island School Dis­trict It is with sad­ness and frus­tra­tion that I must announce the return to teleschool for all grades in the San Juan Island School Dis­trict. As a com­mu­ni­ty, San Juan Island is begin­ning to expe­ri­ence increased lev­els of the COVID-19 virus, and though we have main­tained a  Con­tin­ue Reading

As cas­es spike dra­mat­i­cal­ly in San Juan Coun­ty, Wash­ing­ton, and the Unit­ed States, we would like to urge islanders to scale back their hol­i­day plans. Over recent months, we’ve been able to enjoy a slow reopen­ing of our islands. Restau­rants, gath­er­ings, shops, gyms, and most recent­ly schools have all made slow progress towards return­ing to a  Con­tin­ue Reading