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.

• Doug DeMeer­leer’s art­work, Print­onyx’s print­ing, and Cecil DeMeer­leer’s pub­lic­i­ty efforts joined forces to raise $1,155 for the Fam­i­ly Resource Cen­ter. The funds will be used to help those impact­ed by the April 7 fire with essen­tial house­hold and fam­i­ly needs. There’s a chance that addi­tion­al prints of Doug’s paint­ing of the build­ings at the cor­ner of Spring and First Streets will be avail­able soon. We’ll keep you posted.
• A meal train has been orga­nized for James Duke, whose part­ner Veni­ta Iver­son passed away on Sun­day. There are plen­ty of open­ings left if you’re inter­est­ing in help­ing out.
• The OPALCO Board of Direc­tors elec­tion dead­line is today. At least 10 per­cent of co-op mem­bers must cast a vote in the elec­tion in order to achieve a quo­rum and have the elec­tion count.
• Fri­day Har­bor High School base­ball and fast­pitch had their road games against Coupeville post­poned due to weath­er. Both teams will give it anoth­er shot today.
• The Madrone Cel­lars & Cider tast­ing room at 40 First Street is back to their nor­mal hours, start­ing today. They’ll be open Wednes­day through Sun­day from noon to 6 p.m. Their wine gar­den is open as well.

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

Incum­bent San Juan Coun­ty Asses­sor John Kulseth has announced his inten­tion to run for re-election.

“I’ve had the priv­i­lege of serv­ing as your Asses­sor for the past eight years and am ask­ing for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue serv­ing you,” Kulseth said in his cam­paign announce­ment. “I’ve worked for the past eigh­teen years to under­stand and suc­cess­ful­ly respond to the chal­lenges of the Assessor’s Office, includ­ing mov­ing from a three-year cycli­cal re-val­u­a­tion process to an annu­al re-val­u­a­tion process, and adapt­ing to the increas­ing pub­lic desire for online infor­ma­tion. I have and will con­tin­ue to ded­i­cate my time and effort to pro­vid­ing the ser­vice tax­pay­ers expect and pro­mot­ing an assess­ment process that is pro­fes­sion­al, fair, and clear­ly under­stood. I ask for your ongo­ing trust and your vote in November.”

Coun­ty Asses­sor is one of eight posi­tions up for a vote in the Nov. 8 gen­er­al elec­tion. The Coun­ty Coun­cil seat for Dis­trict 3 (Lopez and Shaw), Audi­tor, Clerk, Pros­e­cut­ing Attor­ney, Sher­iff, Trea­sur­er, and Dis­trict Court Judge are also open in 2022. The pri­ma­ry elec­tion for those con­tests takes place Aug. 2.

San Juan Island Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Park shares an update about the open­ing of its Eng­lish Camp and Amer­i­can Camp vis­i­tors this spring and summer.

San Juan Island Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Park is get­ting ready to open its vis­i­tor cen­ters for the year.

This year, the Eng­lish Camp Vis­i­tor Cen­ter will open Fri­day, May 28, and will remain open until Octo­ber 1. The Amer­i­can Camp Vis­i­tor Cen­ter, where staff and vol­un­teers are work­ing on vis­i­tor enhance­ments and installing a brand new, state of the art exhibits, will open the week­end of July 4. San Juan Island Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Park received over 630,000 vis­i­tors in 2021, a steep increase above past years. Our sea­son­al staff and park hosts are ready and excit­ed to wel­come you to our park.

The new Amer­i­can Camp Vis­i­tor Cen­ter, cre­at­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the park-asso­ci­at­ed Tribes of San Juan Island, will be unlike any oth­er park facil­i­ty we have built. Park staff have worked close­ly with artists, arti­sans, schol­ars, and sci­en­tists to cre­ate a com­mu­ni­ty facil­i­ty that pays trib­ute to the mul­ti­ple his­to­ries of San Juan Island and their mean­ing for dif­fer­ent indi­vid­u­als and groups and the unique envi­ron­ment of our island.

Reg­u­lar pro­gram­ming sched­uled for this sum­mer include guid­ed walks, his­tor­i­cal tours, liv­ing his­to­ry, and recur­ring Mon­day night con­tra danc­ing. This year is the 150th anniver­sary of the Bound­ary Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion which ensured a peace­ful set­tle­ment to The Pig War; we have already begun pro­gram­ming and have much more on hand this sum­mer. A major high­light will be the long await­ed return of pop­u­lar mul­ti-day liv­ing his­to­ry encamp­ment which will return to Eng­lish Camp in ear­ly August. If you or your orga­ni­za­tion would like to part­ner with us to com­mem­o­rate this his­to­ry, please con­tact us.

Our staff is excit­ed to see vis­i­tors new and old this summer.

• Fri­day Har­bor High School’s base­ball and fast­pitch teams take on Coupeville on the road today at 4 p.m.
• St. David’s Epis­co­pal Church is host­ing a free con­cert this Sun­day fea­tur­ing works from C.P.E. Bach, Gio­van­ni Per­golisi and Richard Lind. Any pro­ceeds from dona­tions at the door will be giv­en to the Fri­day Har­bor Food Bank and the Fam­i­ly Resource Center.
• The Mullis Cen­ter is look­ing for vol­un­teer dri­vers to deliv­er meals and help clients trav­el to appoint­ments both on and off island. They also need recep­tion desk help and assis­tance with meal set­up and kitchen cleanup. Con­tact Deb­bie (360–370-7526) or Anna (360–370-7520) if you’re able to help.
• Fam­i­ly Art Days con­tin­ues at the San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art this Sat­ur­day, where fam­i­ly art packs can be picked up from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. This week’s project involves cre­at­ing seascapes and waves with pat­terned paper. Pre-reg­is­tra­tion is required.
• Fri­day’s Crab­house opens for the sea­son on … Fri­day, of course.
• The San Juan Preser­va­tion Trust is look­ing for bird enthu­si­asts to help them search for West­ern Blue­birds on San Juan Island tomor­row morn­ing in their sec­ond and final blue­bird blitz of the year. You can reg­is­ter here.

Pho­to cred­it: Brad Pillow

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

The Town of Fri­day Har­bor shares an update about the USDA award they received last week.

The Town of Fri­day Harbor’s waste­water treat­ment plant improve­ment project begins lat­er this year and has already earned the Town spe­cial recog­ni­tion. On behalf of the Town, May­or Ray Jack­son accept­ed the Build­ing a Bet­ter Amer­i­ca Envi­ron­men­tal Stew­ard­ship Award from USDA Rur­al Devel­op­ment at San Juan County’s Earth Day cel­e­bra­tion. This award is in response to major upgrades planned for the plant that will ensure its abil­i­ty to pro­vide the increas­ing­ly high lev­el of treat­ment required by the state.

“As a coastal com­mu­ni­ty, we have both the desire and oblig­a­tion to invest in the pro­tec­tion of our marine envi­ron­ment,” said Jack­son, adding that the Town is proud to be bring­ing this qual­i­ty improve­ment to the community.

Accord­ing to the State Direc­tor for USDA Rur­al Devel­op­ment, Helen Price John­son, the award is in “grate­ful recog­ni­tion on Earth Day, April 22, 2022, for your con­tin­u­ing com­mit­ment to main­tain and improve the envi­ron­ment and ensure a sus­tain­able future for the mem­bers of your com­mu­ni­ty and beyond.”

The waste­water treat­ment plant project is expect­ed to take two to three years. The Town has secured grant fund­ing and low-inter­est financ­ing from USDA Rur­al Devel­op­ment for most of the $16 mil­lion project.