The Town of Fri­day Har­bor is look­ing a full-time Util­i­ty Work­er for its Refuse depart­ment. Learn more in the Island Jobs sec­tion of the San Juan Update.

SJIMA shares news about its recent lead­er­ship change.

The board of the San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art is pleased to announce the elec­tion of its new pres­i­dent, Lin­da Chowdry. She joined the board in 2019 and has recent­ly served as the board vice pres­i­dent and secretary.

As a fair­ly new islander, Lin­da became aware of SJIMA ear­ly on and was pleased to be invit­ed to join the board. Over the years she has served on large and small boards which helped pre­pare her for ser­vice as pres­i­dent of the SJIMA. Lin­da finds it fun and reward­ing to be part of an orga­ni­za­tion that con­tributes so much to our community.

“As an art lover, I feel priv­i­leged just to be in the build­ing work­ing with vol­un­teers and staff,” she says. “Togeth­er we will build a stronger orga­ni­za­tion con­tin­u­ing to bring exhi­bi­tions and pro­grams of excel­lence to San Juan Coun­ty. Come see us!”

Tak­ing on the posi­tions of vice pres­i­dent and sec­re­tary, respec­tive­ly, are Lisa Brooks and Rob Ray. Dianne Hall was re-elect­ed SJIMA trea­sur­er. All took their new posts on the first of the year. Lin­da Chowdry replaces out­go­ing board pres­i­dent Diane Martindale.

To the cit­i­zens of San Juan County,

It has been an hon­or and a priv­i­lege to serve as your Sheriff.

Dur­ing my time as Sher­iff, we accom­plished so much togeth­er. We imple­ment­ed a new 911 radio and tele­phone sys­tem. We put our marine unit back to work, suc­cess­ful­ly res­cu­ing and trans­port­ing hun­dreds of sick and injured peo­ple from all areas of our coun­ty dur­ing some of the worst weath­er when no oth­er trans­port was avail­able. We began the unprece­dent­ed process of seek­ing state accred­i­ta­tion for the Sheriff’s Office and are cur­rent­ly only a few weeks away from meet­ing all require­ments. We put a sergeant on each island, which has pro­vid­ed bet­ter super­vi­sion and ser­vice. We uti­lized Lex­ipol to cre­ate San Juan Coun­ty-spe­cif­ic poli­cies, which dra­mat­i­cal­ly improved our organization’s over­all per­for­mance and pro­fes­sion­al­ism. I insti­tut­ed a pol­i­cy that all my com­mand staff as well as field train­ing offi­cers would attend the FBI LEEDA lead­er­ship cours­es. As a result, our lead­ers were equipped with tools to bet­ter serve the cit­i­zens of San Juan Coun­ty. I formed some incred­i­ble rela­tion­ships that I hope will last and serve the Sheriff’s Office and San Juan Coun­ty for years to come.

Above all, the thing I am proud­est of dur­ing this time is our amaz­ing team at the Sheriff’s Office. I am so very thank­ful for hav­ing been in a posi­tion to recruit and hire some of the most tal­ent­ed and ded­i­cat­ed peo­ple we now have on our team. I have the utmost respect for the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office and sin­cere­ly con­sid­er myself most for­tu­nate and priv­i­leged to have served them as Sher­iff for the past eight years. I want to thank them for the excel­lent job they have done and con­tin­ue to do every day. It is due to their qual­i­ty of char­ac­ter and ded­i­ca­tion that I am con­fi­dent that the Sheriff’s Office will con­tin­ue to pro­vide the high lev­el of ser­vice you have all come to know and expect.

Last­ly, to the cit­i­zens of San Juan Coun­ty, who I con­sid­er to be my fam­i­ly. I have always tak­en my job, my duties, and my respon­si­bil­i­ties seri­ous­ly and per­son­al­ly. Serv­ing my com­mu­ni­ty has always been first and fore­most in my heart. I look for­ward to return­ing to the Sheriff’s Office and con­tin­u­ing to do what I have always loved, serv­ing my com­mu­ni­ty and family.

I want to sin­cere­ly thank every­one for the sup­port you have all giv­en me and my fam­i­ly as well as the great men and women in the Sheriff’s Office. I have tru­ly been blessed.

Ron Krebs
San Juan Coun­ty Sheriff

Reg­is­tra­tion for Island Rec’s win­ter and spring pro­grams opens online start­ing at 7 a.m. tomor­row morn­ing, or over the phone start­ing at 9 a.m. Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about youth and teen pro­grams as well as pro­grams for adults is avail­able on the Island Rec website.

As we head into a new year, many of us will take it as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­mit to health relat­ed goals. For me, I am among the many old­er adults cur­rent­ly suf­fer­ing from sleep apnea. I sus­pect that I am not alone in that my basic approach to the avail­able treat­ment can best be described as kick­ing and scream­ing.

The Mayo Clin­ic describes obstruc­tive sleep apnea as the most com­mon type of sleep-relat­ed breath­ing dis­or­der. “It caus­es you to repeat­ed­ly stop and start breath­ing while you sleep,” the orga­ni­za­tion explains. “This type of apnea occurs when your throat mus­cles inter­mit­tent­ly relax and block your air­way dur­ing sleep. A notice­able sign of obstruc­tive sleep apnea is snoring.”

Do you snore? Do you feel con­sis­tent­ly sleepy dur­ing the day? Chances are you have sleep apnea. How do you find out for sure? While I sus­pect­ed that I might have sleep apnea an overnight stay at Peace Health hos­pi­tal last year con­firmed my sus­pi­cion. I was referred to Island Sleep Well­ness Cen­ter in Ana­cortes. After an ini­tial appoint­ment I was then able to do my sleep test at home. The home test con­sist­ed of sleep­ing 2 nights with a bor­rowed machine that assessed my sleep expe­ri­ence. Alter­na­tive­ly, you could stay overnight at the cen­ter. The cen­ter in Ana­cortes has since closed. Please see the list at the end of this arti­cle for rec­om­mend­ed sleep health facilities.

Once diag­nosed, and if your treat­ment involves a CPAP machine, you will need to fig­ure out which place your insur­ance will cov­er get­ting it from. I got mine from Belle­vue Health­care in Burling­ton. Again, you may have to insist, but they will send it to you if the thought of going to Burling­ton is burdensome.

I had the CPAP machine for almost a month before I opened the box. It’s not that I don’t want a good night’s sleep, it’s putting all that stuff on my face I don’t like. The set up includes a mask with an air hose that con­nects to a bed­side machine about the size of a clock radio. For me, the most chal­leng­ing part is all the straps that keep the mask in place over my nose and mouth. I’ve slept two nights with it now and I have had bet­ter sleep. Five sol­id hours before I wake up and rip that thing off my face. It’s a start.

As a friend told me, for her­self and her hus­band sleep­ing with a CPAP machine is just part of liv­ing a healthy life. I believe her. Sleep, blessed sleep, is worth bit­ing the bul­let and wear­ing a mask to bed.

My new year’s res­o­lu­tion is to get some sleep. What’s yours?

Region­al sleep health facilities

• Everett Clin­ic Pul­monary and Sleep Med­i­cine (accepts pedi­atrics) — 425–339-4204
• North­Star Sleep Med­i­cine — Belling­ham — 360–676-1696
• Peace Health Pul­monary and Sleep Clin­ic — Belling­ham — 360–788-6112
• Prov­i­dence Sleep Health — Mill Creek — 425–258-7460
• Seat­tle Children’s Sleep Med­i­cine — Belle­vue — 206–987-5072
• Skag­it Region­al Cen­ter for Sleep Dis­or­ders — 360–428-2550
• South Sleep Health (tele­health) — 425–636-2400
• Whid­bey­Health Sleep Care (lim­it­ed capac­i­ty) — 360–240-4080

Lime Kiln Point State Park and the Friends of Lime Kiln Soci­ety are kick­ing off 2023 by tak­ing part in Wash­ing­ton State Parks’ First Day Hikes event. In addi­tion to walks through the park, there will be hot cof­fee, tea, cider, and snacks. Par­tic­i­pants will also receive a State Parks 2023 First Day Hikes col­lectible pin.

The event starts at 10:30 a.m. out­side the inter­pre­tive cen­ter in the low­er park­ing lot.

From Sept. 26 — Sun­set on a warm fall evening at San Juan Coun­ty Park.

The Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Soci­ety of Fri­day Har­bor shares a look at the adopt­able ani­mal of the week — Gretchen, a two-year-old domes­tic shorthair.

Hi there, my name is Gretchen and I’m one of the newest cats here at the shel­ter. I came here with my lit­ter of kit­tens — Jan­ice, Karen, Regi­na, and Dami­an — after being found as strays liv­ing out­side. Being out­side wasn’t always so bad, but once I had my babies, my pri­or­i­ties changed and I knew that get­ting us safe­ly inside was the best option. I just knew that if I could get us with the car­ing-kind-of-humans, we’d have the best shot at liv­ing long, full, hap­py, and love-filled lives, and that’s all a mom like me could ever hope for her children.

Although a lady like myself nev­er reveals all her secrets, suf­fice it to say, the first part of the plan has worked — I suc­cess­ful­ly got us all inside, and not just any inside, but in with APS-FH, and their car­ing-kind-of-humans who help to get cats like us adopt­ed into lov­ing, for­ev­er homes! Now the sec­ond part of the plan is in effect, and so far, so good. My lit­tle Jan­ice was the first of us to have found and gone home with her human fam­i­ly. Next to go were Karen and Dami­an who were adopt­ed togeth­er by their human this week. My mom­ma heart is so full to hear such great news regard­ing my babies — I sim­ply can­not wait until Regi­na and I have the same luck, with peo­ple com­ing to claim us as their own. Could you be those peo­ple for us?

Con­tact APS to learn more about Gretchen.

Cousin Vin­nie’s NY Piz­za has moved down the block. The long-run­ning restau­rant is now locat­ed at 135 Spring St., in the same build­ing as Spring Street Deli and Fri­day Har­bor Trad­ing Post.

From Aug. 20 — Smiles every­where at Matt Hen­ry’s Big Bub­ble Show on the last day of the 2022 San Juan Coun­ty Fair.

OPALCO shares news about the impact of the recent stretch of cold weath­er on upcom­ing ener­gy bills.

Due to the extend­ed cold snap in Decem­ber, OPALCO mem­bers are going to see a big jump on their next pow­er bill. Extreme win­ter weath­er means our heat­ing sys­tems are work­ing hard­er to keep up. Even if you keep your ther­mo­stat the same, your sys­tem is run­ning more often and for longer peri­ods to keep up with the dif­fer­ence between the out­door and indoor tem­per­a­tures. The longer the cold spell, the hard­er the sys­tem works and the more elec­tric­i­ty you use.

On Dec. 22, OPALCO’s pow­er sys­tem had record-high ener­gy usage of 85+ megawatts. The last big peak dur­ing the 2021 cold spell was only 80+ MW.

Mem­bers can can track how much elec­tric­i­ty they are using in the SmartHub app. It shows hourly, dai­ly, and month­ly usage. Mem­bers can see the direct cor­re­la­tion between drop­ping temps and ris­ing elec­tri­cal usage. This can help you decide when to turn the ther­mo­stat down, close the doors to some of the rooms you aren’t using, or take oth­er win­ter work-arounds to keep your ener­gy bills down.

Anoth­er com­po­nent to pay atten­tion to is the ener­gy charge adjust­ment line item on the bill. Each month it can be a cred­it or a deb­it depend­ing on the pre­vi­ous month’s pow­er bill from OPALCO’s sup­pli­er, the Bon­neville Pow­er Admin­is­tra­tion. The ECA reflects the vari­a­tion in pow­er costs and kWh sales for the pre­vi­ous month, cal­cu­lat­ed by com­par­ing bud­get­ed to actu­al pow­er cost per kWh sold. This adjust­ment pro­tects mem­bers and the Co-op from large year-end true-ups. OPALCO expects a large demand charge from BPA for the Decem­ber pow­er bill due to the high demand. Mem­bers will like­ly see that on their Jan­u­ary bills as an addi­tion­al debit.

If you or some­one you know is strug­gling with win­ter pow­er bills, they can sign up for Project Pal and Ener­gy Assist. Now is also a great time to donate to Project Pal to help Co-op neigh­bors in need.