The San Juan Update has a new own­er! I am very hap­py to intro­duce the new Owner/Editor of the San Juan Update to you — Jeff Arn­im. Jeff is cur­rent­ly work­ing on a post to intro­duce him­self and fam­i­ly to you — that should be pub­lished here with­in a few days I think, but in the  Con­tin­ue Reading

“I’m late, I’m late for a very impor­tant date ‑Hap­py New Year” John Miller shares yet anoth­er pho­to of beau­ti­ful swans at Lakedale. Thanks John!

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

Join­ing the board of the San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art (SJIMA) are Lisa Brooks, Barb Snider and Rob Ray who all share of love of the arts. Join us in wel­com­ing them to our art muse­um board. Lisa Brooks is a 3rd gen­er­a­tion Seat­tleite who was intro­duced at a young age to Pacif­ic North­west art by  Con­tin­ue Reading

Mar­i­lyn O’Con­ner shares this pho­to of Jor­dyn Mag­nu­son (left) and Alex Hayes (right), two of the crew on either side of Pam Stew­art, own­er of Cafe Deme­ter, as they hang the “closed” sign on Christ­mas Eve.  The bak­ery is clos­ing per­ma­nent­ly.  It has been a beloved com­mu­ni­ty gath­er­ing place for many years, not just for the  Con­tin­ue Reading

Vol­un­teers at the San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art (SJIMA) have been busy over the last few weeks, prepar­ing for the annu­al Artists’ Reg­istry Show, which opened its doors Decem­ber 17.  The show is the much-antic­i­­pat­ed event high­light­ing the recent works of artists from each of the San Juan Islands.  A bit of his­to­ry fol­lows.  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

Local pho­tog­ra­ph­er John Miller shares this image he cap­tured Sat­ur­day of a swan on Dream Lake (Lakedale). Thanks for shar­ing John!

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

Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series on the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi… (Authors note: this fic­tion­al tale of Alas­ka bush life adven­ture, grief and redemp­tion, cir­ca the 1980s, will be con­tin­ued found­ed upon two pre­vi­ous sto­ries.  See Freez­er Burned: “No Mat­ter What” and “The Con­fines of Heav­en” for char­ac­ter back­ground.) The Con­fines of  Con­tin­ue Reading

Richard Lind will present a recital of Christ­mas music for the organ on the Sec­ond Day of Christ­mas, Sun­day, Decem­ber 26, 2021, at 2:30 PM. There is no admis­sion charge, how­ev­er, dona­tions to the Fri­day Har­bor Food Bank and/or the Joyce L. Sobel Fam­i­ly Resource Cen­ter will be accept­ed. A recep­tion of Christ­mas cook­ies and cider  Con­tin­ue Reading

Dick Grout shares this pho­to of Dwight Col­ley being sworn in ear­li­er this week as the new com­mis­sion­er of San Juan Fire Dis­trict 3 by Judge Kathryn Loring.

The Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Soci­ety — Fri­day Har­bor (APS-FH) is pleased to announce our Volunteer(s) of the year — Renee Koehne and her daugh­ter, Brit­tany Koehne. Renee and Brit­tany vol­un­teer as expert cat trap­pers for APS-FH’s TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return) pro­gram as well as expe­ri­enced kit­ten fos­ter par­ents through our Fos­ter Pro­gram. These angels recent­ly moved  Con­tin­ue Reading

Sto­ry by Louise Dus­trude… Wash­ing­ton state attor­ney gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son spoke at the Decem­ber meet­ing of the League of Women Vot­ers on Mon­day about the great vari­ety of issues cur­rent­ly being con­front­ed by his office. Speak­ing to the group on Zoom, he called his office “the largest law firm in the state,” and said they  Con­tin­ue Reading

Just got a call from Bruce Mar­tin with the Lions club. They’re hav­ing a guest speak­er at their meet­ing today at noon — Dr. House from Even­tide Health will be talk­ing about the future of health­care on the island and you’re invit­ed to attend via zoom. Here’s the info you will need to join: