• MV Yaki­ma remains out of ser­vice. This will can­cel the 5:45 a.m., 6:25 p.m., and 10:05 p.m. sched­uled sail­ings from Fri­day Har­bor. New reser­va­tions are still sus­pend­ed and exist­ing reser­va­tion hold­ers will be pri­or­i­tized on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Due to the strong response it received the first time around, 50 more prints of Doug DeMeerleer’s paint­ing of the build­ings at the cor­ner of Spring and First Street have been cre­at­ed thanks to the fine folks at Print­onyx. The prints won’t last long, so get to Cecil’s on Argyle as ear­ly as you can today if you want one. They’re $25, cash or check only, and all pro­ceeds once again go the Fam­i­ly Resource Cen­ter to help those impact­ed by the April 7 fire with essen­tial house­hold and fam­i­ly needs.
• The store at the farm for­mer­ly known as Danc­ing Seeds is open. They have tulips, let­tuce, radish­es, greens, and spring gar­lic. You can find them at 3501 Beaver­ton Val­ley Road.
• It’s the last day to take part in the Com­mu­ni­ty Care Cans project orga­nized by Sorop­ti­mist Inter­na­tion­al of Fri­day Har­bor, which is col­lect­ing house­hold items to help islanders in need.
• There are cur­rent­ly 24 active­ly mon­i­tored COVID cas­es on San Juan Island. Next week’s on-island vac­cine clin­ic for sec­ond boost­ers is cur­rent­ly full, but appoint­ments may become avail­able if exist­ing reg­is­trants cancel.
• Coho is back with anoth­er Sat­ur­day night pop-up. This week it’s Mex­i­can-themed — tamales, tacos, mole, enchi­ladas, huaraches, flan, con­cha and hor­cha­ta. It runs from 5 to 10 p.m.

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

The charred remains of the four Spring Street build­ings destroyed in an April 7 arson will like­ly start to come down on Monday.

Accord­ing to Fri­day Har­bor Town Admin­is­tra­tor Denice Kulseth, the two insur­ance com­pa­nies that under­wrote the poli­cies on the build­ings – Farm­ers Insur­ance and Lib­er­ty Mutu­al – have agreed to hire local com­pa­ny MEM Enter­pris­es to demol­ish and haul away what remains of the structures.

MEM expects to start work on Mon­day and has esti­mat­ed that the project will take two weeks to complete.

It’s not yet known when Spring Street will reopen to traffic.

“The Town will need to ensure the site does not present a safe­ty haz­ard to vehi­cles or pedes­tri­ans and that any traf­fic rout­ing makes sense from a safe­ty per­spec­tive,” Kulseth explained.

Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton Fri­day Har­bor Labs shares news about their first open house in sev­er­al years.

We are delight­ed to share the good news that UW Fri­day Har­bor Labs will host its first open house in sev­er­al years. We look for­ward to wel­com­ing our com­mu­ni­ty and San Juan Island vis­i­tors to the Labs on Sat­ur­day, May 21, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Dur­ing the free open house, the Labs will be open for self-guid­ed tours. Every­one is wel­come and invit­ed to check out the research and teach­ing facil­i­ties. This is a won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet sci­en­tists and stu­dents who will show­case their marine sci­ence research, answer ques­tions and pro­vide demon­stra­tions. There will be posters, marine plants and ani­mals, micro­scopes, plank­ton sam­pling and obser­va­tions, and activ­i­ties for vis­i­tors of all ages. This is a great fam­i­ly-friend­ly event.

The pub­lic is invit­ed to learn more about marine zool­o­gy, botany, fish­eries, oceanog­ra­phy, and the equip­ment used by sci­en­tists in these fields. The R/V Kit­ti­wake, FHL’s research ves­sel, will be open for vis­i­ta­tion. There will also be an under­wa­ter SCUBA demon­stra­tion from the FHL dock, and sci­en­tif­ic lec­tures by res­i­dent researchers. Walk­ing shoes are rec­om­mend­ed because the tour route includes rough dock planks, grav­el paths and trails.

In keep­ing with Fri­day Har­bor Labs open house tra­di­tion, there will be free popcorn.

FHL’s web­site pro­vides a detailed overview of our research, ser­vice and edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties.

MV Yaki­ma, the num­ber two ves­sel on the San Juan Islands-Ana­cortes fer­ry route, is out of ser­vice indef­i­nite­ly fol­low­ing an inci­dent at Lopez Island yes­ter­day afternoon.

“We’re just begin­ning an inves­ti­ga­tion into what hap­pened,” says Ian Ster­ling, pub­lic infor­ma­tion offi­cer for Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries. “We know that the anchor was dis­lodged some­how and dam­aged both parts of the dock and the Yaki­ma itself above the water­line. The ves­sel is out of ser­vice until we can deter­mine what led to the inci­dent. We’re begin­ning repairs to both the slip at Lopez and the Yaki­ma today. Hope­ful­ly, we’ll know more soon.”

With all of the Yaki­ma’s sail­ings can­celled, no new reser­va­tions are avail­able for the rest of the sail­ings in order to leave extra space for trav­el­ers affect­ed by the dis­rup­tion in ser­vice. Exist­ing reser­va­tions hold­ers will be giv­en pri­or­i­ty on a first-come, first-serve basis. No-show fees will not be charged for those who do not travel.

To help lim­it addi­tion­al ser­vice dis­rup­tions, new reser­va­tions have been sus­pend­ed through at least Sun­day, May 1.

• San Juan Coun­ty is hold­ing the first of three pub­lic meet­ings relat­ed to the devel­op­ment of its Sus­tain­able Tourism Man­age­ment Plan tonight. The meet­ing will take place over Zoom from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Pre-reg­is­tra­tion is required.
• Fri­day Har­bor High School base­ball lost 11–8 at Coupeville, end­ing their win­ning streak at ten games and plac­ing them in a tie with Coupeville at the top of the 1B/2B North­west Dis­trict stand­ings. The Wolver­ines play again on Fri­day in a road game at Concrete.
• High school fast­pitch also lost to Coupeville on Tues­day by a 6–3 count. They’re off until next Tues­day when they play a home dou­ble­head­er against LaConner.
• Schol­ar­ships are avail­able for Island Rec pro­grams. Make sure to apply before sum­mer pro­gram reg­is­tra­tion opens on Monday.
• Salty at Heart Island Apothe­cary is hav­ing their grand open­ing on Fri­day. Stop by between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.
• The Madrona Bar & Grill at Roche Har­bor re-opens for the sea­son today. They’ll be open dai­ly from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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

Start­ing Mon­day, May 16, res­i­dents inter­est­ed in run­ning for polit­i­cal office can sub­mit their can­di­date fil­ings. Eight coun­ty­wide offices are up for a vote in the Novem­ber 8 gen­er­al elec­tion, includ­ing Asses­sor, Audi­tor, Clerk, Dis­trict 3 Coun­cilmem­ber, Dis­trict Court Judge, Pros­e­cut­ing Attor­ney, Sher­iff, and Treasurer.

Accord­ing to the San Juan Coun­ty Elec­tions Office, can­di­dates may sub­mit their fil­ings online, by email, by fax, or in per­son at 55 Sec­ond Street, Suite A. Online fil­ing will be avail­able start­ing at 9 a.m. on May 16 through 4 p.m. on Fri­day, May 20. In-per­son, emailed, or faxed fil­ings will be accept­ed on the same days between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

The Coun­ty will accept mail-in fil­ings no soon­er than Mon­day, May 2. Mailed fil­ings must be received no lat­er than May 20.

The names of can­di­dates fac­ing two or more chal­lengers will appear on the August 2 pri­ma­ry bal­lot. Offices with one or two can­di­dates filed will go direct­ly to the Novem­ber 8 gen­er­al elec­tion bal­lot. Precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers are elect­ed on the August 2 pri­ma­ry bal­lot, if opposed. If unop­posed, they are deemed elected.

More details are avail­able on the Elec­tions Office web­site.