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Con­tin­ue Reading

Peace­Health shares news about changes to their vis­i­ta­tion policies.

Peace­Health Peace Island Med­ical Cen­ter has relaxed vis­i­ta­tion poli­cies fur­ther, effec­tive imme­di­ate­ly. Patients can now have two peo­ple vis­it at a time. This is a change from cur­rent pol­i­cy allow­ing only one vis­i­tor at a time.

San Juan Coun­ty has main­tained a mod­er­ate trans­mis­sion risk lev­el for more than sev­en days, which meets the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion guide­lines for the low­er risk lev­el for health­care facil­i­ties. Vis­i­tors are still required to wear a mask in health­care set­tings per state health depart­ment and CDC guide­lines. Vis­i­tors will be asked to self-screen by review­ing the posters dis­played that list COVID-19 symptoms.

Peace­Health remains cau­tious and is pre­pared to tight­en up pro­to­cols should these trends again reverse.

The San Juan Island Library is look­ing for can­di­dates to fill a vacan­cy on the five-mem­ber Library Board for a non-paid term of office that runs from Jan. 1, 2023 to Dec. 31, 2027. Learn more in the Island Jobs sec­tion of the San Juan Update.

The San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil will hold a reg­u­lar meet­ing on Tues­day, Nov. 1 at 9 a.m. Items up for dis­cus­sion or action include:

• 2022 bud­get — third amendment
• 2023 bud­get mid-bien­ni­al review
• Approv­ing the 2023 Cap­i­tal Improve­ment Plan and the 2023–2028 Six-Year Cap­i­tal Improve­ment Plan
• Can­celling pri­or years unclaimed accounts payable and pay­roll warrants
• Nox­ious Weed Pro­gram assess­ment increase
• Set­ting the prop­er­ty tax levy for land con­ser­va­tion futures for 2023
• Set­ting the prop­er­ty tax levy for coun­ty roads for 2023
• Set­ting the prop­er­ty tax levy for cur­rent expense for 2023
• Approve REET 2 Pub­lic Works allocations
• Sched­ule pub­lic hear­ing for Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment Block Grant close-out
• Approve one-year exten­sion of San Juan Islands Vis­i­tors Bureau des­ti­na­tion mar­ket­ing and man­age­ment ser­vices agreement
• Approve con­tract with the Town of Fri­day Har­bor for law enforce­ment services

You can view the live stream of the meet­ing online or attend in per­son at the Coun­cil Leg­isla­tive Hear­ing Room. To make a pub­lic com­ment, sign up pri­or to 9 a.m. on Nov. 1.

He would lat­er score the game-win­ning touch­down on a fourth-and-goal play in over­time. All three Tiger foot­ball teams won their games on Sat­ur­day and will con­tin­ue post-sea­son play next weekend.

Like many islanders — and espe­cial­ly prop­er­ty own­ers — I expe­ri­enced some pret­ty intense stick­er shock at the $20 mil­lion esti­mat­ed cost of the new Library on Spring Street. It was enough to stop me in my tracks, despite being some­one who con­sis­tent­ly votes pro­gres­sive. Does a small rur­al com­mu­ni­ty real­ly need such an expen­sive new facil­i­ty, espe­cial­ly when it will increase our prop­er­ty tax­es dur­ing what is already a harsh eco­nom­ic time?

After some seri­ous con­sid­er­a­tion, and with help from the Library’s very infor­ma­tive Build­ing Project page, I have decid­ed to vote yes on the library. Here’s why:

• $20 mil­lion is a lot of mon­ey — only $12 mil­lion of which would be paid through tax­es — but con­struc­tion costs are super high now in gen­er­al and are unlike­ly to come back down. In fact, they might just con­tin­ue to get more expen­sive as time goes on, so it makes sense to build now.
• This might not feel like the time to take on a big finan­cial bur­den as tax­pay­ers, but the real­i­ty is that it’s a 20-year plan to pay $12 mil­lion and most prop­er­ty own­ers would only pay $45-$85 per year in addi­tion­al tax­es. That’s not real­ly that much — like 10 fan­cy cof­fee drinks? A few stream­ing ser­vice sub­scrip­tions? Per year?
• The old build­ing on the site is going to have to be torn down no mat­ter who buys the prop­er­ty, so if the Library doesn’t do it some­one else will. And the Library has a real­ly great plan for reusing and recy­cling as much of the old build­ing mate­r­i­al as pos­si­ble, which prob­a­bly won’t be the case for any­one else buy­ing it.

Why move in the first place? One thing I’ve heard from folks on this issue is that our cur­rent library feels ade­quate to our needs already: “There’s hard­ly ever any­one in there any­way!” But what if the Library were dif­fer­ent? Would you use it more? Think about why you might not use the library very much now, and how an improved library would change your expe­ri­ence. What if there were more rooms to do office work in, where you could talk to a co-work­er with­out dis­turb­ing oth­er peo­ple? What if your small busi­ness or non­prof­it or com­mu­ni­ty group could use a room for meet­ings or activ­i­ties? What if the Library had room for more new books that you could peruse and be inspired by? What if the kids area was sep­a­rat­ed from the main area, so the whole space was qui­eter and more invit­ing, and kids could still have fun in a safe place after school? Besides, what about every­one who sits in their cars in the park­ing lot using the inter­net, whether for lack of work­space inside or for a desire for pri­va­cy? I see lots of peo­ple doing this, so there’s def­i­nite­ly a need.

This is our chance to build what this island has need­ed for a long time, and will con­tin­ue to need into the future: a mul­ti-use com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter for peo­ple of all ages, where islanders can gath­er for free, find inspi­ra­tion, access inspi­ra­tional and edu­ca­tion­al resources, have fun, and get reli­able access to fast inter­net — some­thing a lot of peo­ple still don’t have at home. We don’t have a rec cen­ter, an arcade, or real­ly any­where for kids to go after school except the library. We are los­ing all of our cafes and restau­rants where peo­ple could hang out and use the inter­net. We have few­er com­mon spaces than ever. With so many beloved busi­ness­es clos­ing, peo­ple are wor­ried for the char­ac­ter and integri­ty of our town. I think now is actu­al­ly the per­fect time to invest in this project, because it’s an invest­ment in our future as a community.

We may not be Seat­tle, but we deserve an awe­some library that will sup­port all islanders for many, many years to come.

Glenn Hen­drick
San Juan Island

The Town shares news about its year­ly ini­tia­tive to pro­vide some extra sup­port for Fri­day Har­bor Food Bank.

Each Novem­ber, the Town of Fri­day Har­bor asks that you help us sup­port an impor­tant com­mu­ni­ty need — the Fri­day Har­bor Food Bank. The Food Bank spends over $10,000 each month serv­ing near­ly 750 house­holds, and rough­ly 1,475 indi­vid­u­als per month. In the last year, they pro­vid­ed near­ly 500,000 pounds of food to locals. They do this entire­ly through com­mu­ni­ty donations.

Accord­ing to Food Bank man­ag­er Rachelle Radon­s­ki, the need for your gen­er­ous dona­tions is even greater in these eco­nom­ic times. “The needs of the Food Bank patrons are ongo­ing and crit­i­cal,” Rachelle says. “Food costs con­tin­ue to rise, but the Food Bank is com­mit­ted to keep­ing healthy pro­duce and pro­teins avail­able. With the hol­i­days upon us, the num­ber in need will grow even larger.”

To assist with the Food Bank’s need for fund­ing, the Town will direct all of your dona­tions from this month’s Har­bor Life Ring to the Fri­day Har­bor Food Bank. Each year you have answered the Town’s call to con­tribute, and the Town has matched your dona­tions. This year, the Town is increas­ing that match up to a total of $5,000.

Sup­port our local Food Bank by donat­ing to Har­bor Life Ring on your Novem­ber util­i­ty bill. As we cel­e­brate Thanks­giv­ing and all that we have to be thank­ful for, here is a per­fect way to pay it for­ward. Please con­sid­er an extra con­tri­bu­tion at the bot­tom of your util­i­ty billing.

Thank you for your gen­er­ous sup­port, and best wish­es to you and yours this hol­i­day season.

Inter Island Propane is hir­ing a Cus­tomer Ser­vice Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for a full-time posi­tion with flex­i­ble hours. Learn more in the Island Jobs sec­tion of the San Juan Update.

“Frank and Francesca are the two res­i­dent bald eagles that use the Cat­tle Point light­house as a fish­ing perch,” Brad says. “At this angle it’s hard to tell the size dif­fer­ence for deter­min­ing male and female, but if you look at the beaks, Francesca has the larg­er beak as females do. Also, the pupil size shows that Francesca is focused on me where­as Frank is check­ing out a her­ring ball in the chan­nel. Unlike humans, eagles can dilate and con­strict their pupils at will.”

On your bal­lot right now is the years-long cam­paign to build a new Library. The issue is shroud­ed in rumors and misinformation.

Many won­der why the Library itself has not done more to respond and answer people’s ques­tions. The answer is sim­ple — pub­lic agen­cies are high­ly con­strained in their abil­i­ty to cam­paign, and the Library is act­ing with­in the law. The Library has doc­u­ments and facts on its web­site but must leave it to out­side vol­un­teers to cam­paign and advocate.

A ded­i­cat­ed group of vol­un­teers has been try­ing to get the facts in front of vot­ers with an exten­sive FAQ page and let­ters to the edi­tor, as well as per­son­al let­ters to friends and neigh­bors. Our site clar­i­fies and guides you through the doc­u­ments you see on the Library’s web­site.

We under­stand that the new Library rep­re­sents expen­sive pub­lic con­struc­tion. Our group believes that the right time for our com­mu­ni­ty to improve civic infra­struc­ture is now. By build­ing it now, we’ll do it at a time where inter­est rates for pub­lic enti­ties are at very rea­son­able lev­els – between four and five per­cent, a far cry from some of the mis­in­for­ma­tion float­ing around.

We believe that we are doing the right thing for the com­mu­ni­ty, for this gen­er­a­tion and the next, in vot­ing yes for the Library. And we ask you, our friends and neigh­bors, to do so as well.

Louise Dus­trude
Beth Hel­stien
William Appel
Dana Ander­son
Eileen Drath
Gay Gra­ham
Susan Maz­zarel­la
Lov­el Pratt
Boyd Pratt
Liz Pil­low
Mark Mad­sen
Lara Braith­waite
Lau­rie Orton
Jean Grif­fin
Richard Grout
Alan Roochvarg
Lynn Weber/Roochvarg

Every com­mu­ni­ty deserves a first-rate pub­lic library, and I hope that we will all embrace this oppor­tu­ni­ty to build one. The exist­ing struc­ture is burst­ing at the seams, with no room to expand in its cur­rent loca­tion. Through years of work and study, our library board has cre­at­ed a vision for a facil­i­ty that can serve the island for decades. Some argue that now is not the time, but it’s hard to imag­ine that the future would be a bet­ter time, when real estate and build­ing costs will be even more expen­sive, and when a suit­able site will no longer be avail­able with­in the walk­a­ble core of Fri­day Har­bor. This project allows us to address a clear com­mu­ni­ty need in a thought­ful way, sub­stan­tial­ly off­set­ting the pub­lic invest­ment with grants and pri­vate fundrais­ing. That approach can serve as a mod­el for oth­er local pri­or­i­ties, and in fact it already has. Ten years ago, sim­i­lar efforts result­ed in a fine new hos­pi­tal to care for the health of our bod­ies. Let us do the same now to nour­ish the health of our minds.

Thor Han­son
San Juan Island

Fol­low­ing a suc­cess­ful sea­son for Fri­day Har­bor Tigers youth foot­ball, all three teams will host a first-round play­off game tomor­row at Linde Com­mu­ni­ty Fields.

The Midget team (ages 9–10) kicks off at 11 a.m. against Belling­ham, fol­lowed by the Juniors (ages 11–12) at 1 p.m. against Belling­ham, and the Pee Wees (ages 6–8) at 3 p.m. against Oak Harbor.

The teams enter the play­offs with con­fi­dence after strong per­for­mances against dif­fi­cult off-island com­pe­ti­tion all season.

“Fri­day Har­bor Tiger youth foot­ball has his­tor­i­cal­ly played against sim­i­lar­ly ros­tered teams from La Con­ner, Lum­mi Island, Con­crete, Dar­ring­ton, Lake­wood, and Gran­ite Falls,” says Pee Wees coach Juan Unping­co. “But this sea­son, leagues were merged to include Belling­ham, Ana­cortes, Oak Har­bor, Mount Ver­non, Fer­n­dale, and Sedro Wool­ley. These teams have twice the num­ber of play­ers and are usu­al­ly two times the size of our Fri­day Har­bor Tigers.”

Each team rose to the chal­lenge this year, with the Juniors fin­ish­ing 6–2, the Midgets 7–1, and the Pee Wees 5–3.

Coach Juan encour­ages the com­mu­ni­ty to come out to the games on Sat­ur­day to show its love and sup­port for our hard-work­ing island athletes.

• Today is home­com­ing at Fri­day Har­bor High School. The parade starts at 3 p.m. from WSF Lot C and pro­ceeds up Spring St., to be fol­lowed by a pep ral­ly at 3:30 p.m. at Turn­bull Gym. The foot­ball game against Coupeville High School starts at 6:30 p.m.
• High school boys soc­cer fin­ished up their reg­u­lar sea­son strong with a come-from-behind road win at Mt. Ver­non Chris­t­ian by a count of 3–2. They end­ed the sea­son 10–2 over­all, 7–1 in con­fer­ence, and play in the dis­trict tour­na­ment next week.
• The San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art hosts a gallery walk-and-talk with artist Kevin Chris­ti­son tonight at 5:30 p.m.
• Tom­my Dale & the Dan­ger­fields host a Hal­loween dance tomor­row night from 7–10 p.m. at Brick­works. The 21-and-over event has a beer and wine gar­den, and a cos­tume con­test with prizes. It’s pay-what-you-can, with a $5 sug­gest­ed donation.
• The sec­ond annu­al Fri­day Har­bor Witch­es Pad­dle takes place on Sun­day. All human-pow­ered ves­sels are invit­ed to meet at Ship­yard Cove for a 10 a.m. launch. Park­ing at Ship­yard is lim­it­ed, so car­pool­ing and drop-offs are encour­aged. Email wendyzappelli@yahoo.com for more information.
• Here are the week’s spe­cials at Kings and Mar­ket Place. Mar­ket Place is hav­ing a Hal­loween-themed anniver­sary sale that runs through Nov. 1, with spe­cial deals and a chance to win prizes like Alas­ka Air­lines miles and a stay at Sun­ca­dia Resort.

Have some­thing to share with the Island? Whether the news is big or small, let us know!