The San Juan Coun­ty Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Stew­ard­ship shares details about the Island’s major annu­al pub­lic clean-up event.

The Great Islands Clean-up is back in per­son. Come join your fel­low Islanders for the 2022 Spring Great Islands Clean-up on Sat­ur­day, April 23, between 10 a.m and 2 p.m.

This year’s theme, All Hands on Deck, cel­e­brates our col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts as a com­mu­ni­ty to keep our oceans and roads lit­ter free. Dur­ing this event, par­tic­i­pants of all ages can sign-up to col­lect trash on a des­ig­nat­ed beach or road, and then bring their trash to the cen­tral meet­ing spot to be counted.

On San Juan Island, meet at 10 a.m. at the San Juan Island Brew­ing Co. park­ing lot at 410 A Street to pick up trash col­lec­tion equip­ment and receive beach and road­way assign­ments. Cof­fee and good­ies will be pro­vid­ed by Laut­en­bach Recy­cling to fuel your efforts (bring your own cof­fee cup, please). Drop-off your col­lect­ed trash at the same loca­tion by 2:30 p.m. There will be an after-par­ty at San Juan Island Brew­ing Co. start­ing at 3 p.m. If you’d like to be assigned a loca­tion ahead of time, con­tact Kather­ine for beach­es and con­tact Tina for roads.

“Plas­tic pol­lu­tion in our oceans is hav­ing a dev­as­tat­ing impact on marine life and human health,” says Katie Flem­ing, San Juan County’s Sol­id Waste Coor­di­na­tor. “The Great Islands Clean-up is a good oppor­tu­ni­ty for our com­mu­ni­ty to join togeth­er and address this glob­al issue. Every lit­tle bit helps – hun­dreds of vol­un­teers col­lect thou­sands of pounds of trash dur­ing this bi-annu­al event in the islands each spring and fall.”

The San Juan Island Park and Recre­ation Dis­trict is look­ing for a Park Main­te­nance Work­er to help out from May through mid-Sep­tem­ber. Learn more in the Island Jobs sec­tion of the San Juan Update.

The San Juan Island Library sends along a reminder about the impor­tance of its indi­vid­ual finan­cial supporters.

What is 100 years old and opens its doors to Islanders 6 days a week? Your local library! The San Juan Island Library wel­comes Islanders and vis­i­tors of all ages, and has for a cen­tu­ry. With noth­ing more than your free library card, you have access to an incred­i­ble vari­ety of read­ing mate­ri­als, media, games, tech­nol­o­gy resources, and sup­port from friend­ly staff and volunteers.

Library Giv­ing Day start­ed as an idea gen­er­at­ed by the Seat­tle Pub­lic Library Foun­da­tion. The con­cept was to cre­ate a nation­al day of giv­ing that pub­lic libraries would ral­ly around and that the pub­lic would embrace.

As an indi­vid­ual sup­port­er, you can pro­vide crit­i­cal fund­ing for pro­grams not cov­ered by the Library’s budget.

Did you know that your library offers ten inno­v­a­tive pro­grams each month designed to engage Islanders in learn­ing and dis­cov­ery at any age? A safe place for teens to meet up, car­ing out­reach for island seniors, and job research oppor­tu­ni­ties are just a few of the ser­vices avail­able beyond the tra­di­tion­al media col­lec­tions and resources.

Show your appre­ci­a­tion for the many ways the San Juan Island Library pro­vides a place for you to dis­cov­er the things you val­ue – learn­ing, read­ing, and essen­tial con­nec­tion with oth­er com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers. Make a secure online dona­tion, drop off dona­tions, or mail checks to the SJI Library, 1010 Guard Street, Fri­day Har­bor, WA 98250. Please also share the library’s social media posts and this arti­cle with your friends.

All dona­tions for Library Giv­ing Day will be used for gen­er­al sup­port of pro­grams and mate­ri­als. Togeth­er, we can make it a success.

• Fri­day Har­bor High School base­ball blew out Con­crete High School 20–0 yes­ter­day after­noon at Linde to move to 7–1 over­all and 4–0 in con­fer­ence. The Wolver­ines play again on Fri­day in a road game at LaConner.
• Coho is run­ning anoth­er pop-up this Fri­day night from 6 to 10 p.m., only instead of dim sum, this time it’s Indi­an food.
• There’s a baby and tod­dler group that gets togeth­er every Thurs­day at 10 a.m. at the meet­ing room in the library. Care­givers can learn rhymes, songs, and short sto­ries designed to stim­u­late child­hood lan­guage development.
• Four-inch house­plants are 30 per­cent off through Fri­day at The Gar­den Cen­ter at Browne’s.
• The Web Suites on Web Street have a 900-square-foot com­mer­cial space avail­able for rent start­ing June 1.
• Trea­sure Hounds has many new­ly donat­ed house­hold items and pieces of fur­ni­ture avail­able. They’re open Thurs­day through Sat­ur­day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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

Incum­bent Coun­ty Trea­sur­er Rhon­da Ped­er­son sends along her re-elec­tion announcement.

I am hon­ored to have served as San Juan Coun­ty Trea­sur­er since Jan­u­ary 2015, and announce that I am run­ning for re-elec­tion. I am proud of my department’s high lev­el of integri­ty, com­mit­ment, and ser­vice to the cit­i­zens of San Juan Coun­ty, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the unprece­dent­ed chal­lenges pre­sent­ed by COVID-19. Dur­ing my tenure, my team has assist­ed me in the imple­men­ta­tion of sys­tems to improve effi­cien­cy, com­pli­ance with new legislation/mandates, stream­lin­ing ser­vices to the pub­lic, and work­ing close­ly with tax­pay­ers fac­ing foreclosure.

I look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to serve as your Trea­sur­er and remain com­mit­ted to meet­ing the needs of our cit­i­zens and the chal­lenges of the future with com­pe­tence, effi­cien­cy, and ongo­ing growth and development.

The Com­mu­ni­ty Arts The­atre Soci­ety (CATS) sends along news about their bake sale fundrais­er, which takes place next Saturday.

The annu­al Ele­gant Edi­bles East­er Bake Sale returns on Sat­ur­day, April 16 in the Lob­by of the Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre. Doors open at 10 a.m. and the sale ends at noon. Arrive ear­ly to select your favorite island baked treats. The The­atre address is 100 Sec­ond Street in Fri­day Harbor.

The fab­u­lous Bak­er Boys will be back with their sought after sig­na­ture breads, cook­ies and pies. The always over-the-top raf­fle bas­ket of gourmet treats is back, too, along with our auc­tion for cus­tom cakes to be made and deliv­ered at a date of your choice.

This annu­al bake sale extrav­a­gan­za is spon­sored by CATS to sup­port the San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty Theatre.

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Kathy Schwartz or Peg­gy Cre­gor.

• The high school base­ball team returns to the dia­mond at Linde this after­noon at 4:30 p.m. in a con­fer­ence game against Con­crete High School.
• San Juan Singers are per­form­ing a Celtic con­cert this Fri­day and Sat­ur­day at 7:30 p.m. at the Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre. The per­for­mances fea­ture Irish, Scot­tish, and Welsh music accom­pa­nied by piano, harp, fid­dle, and clar­inet. Tick­ets are $20 for adults, $10 for stu­dent reserved, and $5 for stu­dent rush.
• Island grown lamb is avail­able for your East­er meals. Call Michelle Lof­tus at 360–378-4738 to order.
• Lynn Weber-Roochvarg has writ­ten a detailed his­to­ry of the Fri­day Har­bor water sys­tem.
• The Land Bank’s Com­mu­ni­ty Con­ver­sa­tion with San Juan Island res­i­dents takes place tomor­row at 5:30 p.m. over Zoom.
• Her­b’s has karaoke every Wednes­day from 9 p.m. to mid­night. And you thought there was­n’t any nightlife on San Juan Island.

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