43 years ago, when we moved here, the library was locat­ed in the Town Hall. Lat­er they moved to the for­mer Shrimp Boat Restau­rant loca­tion. We have a high­ly edu­cat­ed pop­u­la­tion and real­ly need a new library. The build­ing is falling apart. My hus­band ran the down­stairs book room for many years for the Friends of the Library — until it was flood­ed by runoff from the prop­er­ty in back. We need a new Library — and yes, I know we have to pay for it — but that library has saved me thou­sands of dol­lars in the cost of books.

As a for­mer teacher of read­ing for 35 years, I say please vote yes.

Janet Wright
San Juan Island

Poetry garden at the Mullis Center – Photo credit: Peggy Sue McRae

If you have not expe­ri­enced Fri­day Harbor’s poet­ry gar­dens, you can find them at the Mullis Cen­ter, on Reed St. beside the U.S. Post Office, at the San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre, and at Spring Street Land­ing below Down­rig­gers. The poet­ry gar­dens were cre­at­ed to bring poet­ry into our town’s dai­ly experience.

The gar­dens are a project of the Fri­day Har­bor Arts Com­mis­sion, togeth­er with a com­mit­tee of local cit­i­zens who estab­lished them in the spring of 2020. All res­i­dents of San Juan Coun­ty are encour­aged to sub­mit new poems for 2023. The con­test, spon­sored by the Town of Fri­day Har­bor and the Fri­day Har­bor Arts Com­mis­sion, will be held through Oct. 31. Win­ning poems will be announced in February.

Engrav­ings of the 30 win­ning poems will be on dis­play this com­ing year, replac­ing the ear­li­er win­ning poet­ry. A book of the poems will also be pub­lished for lim­it­ed dis­tri­b­u­tion. Copies of the win­ning poems from 2020 are avail­able for free by send­ing an email to Town Hall.

There is no entry fee, but entrants must live in San Juan Coun­ty. Win­ning poems in both adult and stu­dent divi­sions will be deter­mined by for­mer Wash­ing­ton State Poet Lau­re­ate and Seat­tle Civic Poet, Clau­dia Cas­tro Luna.

To enter, mail your poems to Poet­ry Gar­den Con­test, Town of Fri­day Har­bor, P.O. Box 219, Fri­day Har­bor, WA 98250 — or deliv­er to Town Hall at 60 Sec­ond St. The dead­line is Mon­day, Oct. 31.

Here is a sam­ple from the 2020 win­ning selec­tions — One Less Thing by Susie Fos­ter Hale:

This morn­ing
a small red dessert bowl
slipped from my hand and
smashed on the mar­ble counter –
a shock of shards, splin­ters of glass.
Free­dom some­times star­tles me.

View the full list of guide­lines for the 2023 poet­ry gar­den con­test.

Edu­ca­tion is one of the most impor­tant things we can impart to our youth, and this Novem­ber we can affect the lives of not just the youth on the island today, but for gen­er­a­tions to come. Our library pro­vides a safe, inclu­sive and qui­et place to study. They offer free wi-fi for many who can­not afford it, and they pro­vide lap­tops to check out if you don’t have one. The dif­fer­ence our library makes in a young person’s life can­not be overstated.

With so many wor­ry­ing about their next meal, or being able to pay their rent, let’s give them peace of mind in that they and their chil­dren have a safe, well-equipped mod­ern facil­i­ty for them to bet­ter their lives.

Please join me and vote yes on the Library Dis­trict Propo­si­tion 1.

Ron Krebs
San Juan Island

FHFF shares news about this year’s fes­ti­val, which returns to in-per­son show­ings for the first time since 2019.

Have you ever want­ed to climb a moun­tain, learn to surf, devote your life to sav­ing orcas and salmon, run with the wolves, or be an amaz­ing artist? Now is your oppor­tu­ni­ty to do these vic­ar­i­ous­ly through doc­u­men­tary films dur­ing the Fri­day Har­bor Film Fes­ti­val — in-the­atre Oct. 21–23 and on-demand Oct. 24–30.

Full infor­ma­tion and pass­es are now avail­able on the FHFF web­site. The 60-page pro­gram is also avail­able free at the FHFF office — 10 First St.

Cap­tain Paul Wat­son, the sub­ject of the new doc­u­men­tary Wat­son, returns to the fes­ti­val to dis­cuss the film and his new Cap­tain Paul Wat­son Foun­da­tion. Its pur­pose is to defend life in the sea through a unique strat­e­gy of aggres­sive non-vio­lence and inter­ven­tion against ille­gal oper­a­tions exploit­ing sea life. Wat­son will be shown Sat­ur­day at 4 p.m. and Sun­day at 10:15 a.m. at San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre. Cap­tain Wat­son will be there for Q&As.

At the Open­ing Night Gala Hon­or­ing Film­mak­ers, FHFF will present the Andrew V. McLa­glen Life­time Achieve­ment Award to Sidewinder Films, which works to inspire and empow­er audi­ences through remark­able sto­ries that make a last­ing pos­i­tive impact. Direc­tor Isaac Halasi­ma will intro­duce the screen­ing of Water­man, about surf­ing leg­end and five-time Olympic medal­ist Native Hawai­ian Duke Paoa Kahanamoku. Water­man will play again Sun­day at 1:15 p.m. at San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty Theatre.

The Local Hero Award will be pre­sent­ed Sun­day evening to Robert Dash, Orcas Island edu­ca­tor and award-win­ning pho­tog­ra­ph­er. His work fea­tures com­plex tex­tures and pat­terns of micro nature. He high­lights small sub­jects that have sig­nif­i­cant sto­ries about cli­mate and biodiversity.

If you can’t make it in per­son, you can watch most of the fea­tures, shorts, and stu­dent films, as well as record­ed Q&As and the Film­mak­ers Forum, on-demand Oct. 24–30 — all from the com­fort of your favorite chair.

The San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil will hold a reg­u­lar meet­ing on Tues­day, Oct. 18 at 9 a.m. The meet­ing includes a pub­lic hear­ing accept­ing tes­ti­mo­ny relat­ed to the pro­posed 2022 Pub­lic Facil­i­ties Finance Assis­tance Pro­gram awards. Items up for dis­cus­sion or action include:

• Nox­ious Weed Pro­gram assess­ment increase
• Finan­cial policies
• REET 2 Pub­lic Works allocations
• Revis­ing the Parks & Fair­grounds fee schedule
• Com­pre­hen­sive Plan briefing

The Coun­cil will also hold a closed ses­sion to dis­cuss mat­ters per­tain­ing to col­lec­tive bargaining.

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 Oct. 18.

I am writ­ing in sup­port of the library bond that will appear on the Novem­ber 8th bal­lot. I am the par­ent of a 2nd and a 4th grad­er and their young lives have been so enhanced by the ser­vices at our pub­lic library. From tod­dler sto­ry time, to craft­ing activ­i­ties, to free access to tech­nol­o­gy, to sum­mer read­ing pro­grams, to cul­ti­vat­ing a gen­er­al love of books and learn­ing, the library has giv­en so much to my fam­i­ly and our com­mu­ni­ty as a whole. Now it is our turn to return the favor by vot­ing yes on the bond measure.

Our library is sim­ply so much more than a place to check out books. The staff and pro­grams antic­i­pate the spe­cif­ic needs of local fam­i­lies and indi­vid­u­als and then cus­tomize their offer­ings to serve us. The library is open six days a week and serves all cit­i­zens, free of charge. It is a crit­i­cal com­mu­ni­ty hub for San Juan Islanders, young and old.

The pop­u­la­tion on San Juan has grown 50 per­cent since the library’s last expan­sion. They are ask­ing for sup­port because the cur­rent site is sim­ply too small to accom­mo­date the growth in demand for our library’s ser­vices. I want to help them expand on Spring Street so they can serve our com­mu­ni­ty in even big­ger ways, now and far into the future.

I urge you to join me and vote yes on the bond mea­sure on Novem­ber 8th.

Katie Flem­ing
San Juan Island

The Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Soci­ety of Fri­day Har­bor shares a look at the adopt­able ani­mals of the week — two six-year-old bea­gle mixes

Hi there! Our names are Willy and Fynn and we’re a pair of bea­gle-like broth­ers. Being broth­ers and hav­ing a broth­er is the best. It’s like hav­ing a built-in best friend and know­ing that no mat­ter what you get your­self into, he will be your part­ner in crime — every step of the way. Broth­ers are also good for things like play­ing, goof­ing off, pulling pranks, giv­ing good advice, and always hav­ing each other’s back.

But maybe the most spe­cial thing of all about being broth­ers is that no mat­ter what life throws at us, we know we’ll always get through it togeth­er. Recent­ly, we’ve suf­fered the pass­ing of our beloved per­son and though our hearts are bro­ken and try­ing to heal, we’re ready to find a new home that can make room for both of us because sib­lings like us stick together.

To learn more about Willy and Fynn, con­tact the Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Soci­ety.

We have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to make a pos­i­tive and sub­stan­tial con­tri­bu­tion to our com­mu­ni­ty by vot­ing yes on the bond for build­ing a new San Juan Island Library.

After thor­ough­ly inves­ti­gat­ing all options — includ­ing remod­el­ing the cur­rent facil­i­ty now on the Spring Street prop­er­ty — and con­sult­ing con­struc­tion spe­cial­ists, the Library Board has deter­mined that the best and least cost­ly alter­na­tive to the Library’s over­crowd­ed and aging facil­i­ty is a new build­ing, one that is not over­sized but that can meet today’s needs and allow for lat­er expan­sion for tomorrow’s new ser­vices. Mind­ful of spend­ing com­mu­ni­ty monies care­ful­ly, the Board has spent years study­ing and con­sid­er­ing what kind and size facil­i­ty is need­ed, assur­ing that the cost esti­mates are up-to-date and that, giv­en the expense of pub­lic build­ing con­struc­tion, the request for funds is based on actu­al need.

Please help bring this vital 100-year-old com­mu­ni­ty resource into a 21st cen­tu­ry facil­i­ty. Vote yes for your pub­lic library!

Alan Roochvarg
Lynn Weber/Roochvarg
San Juan Island

• Cask & Schooner clos­es its doors today. Accord­ing to the restaurant’s web­site, own­er Gary Gero needs to retire for health rea­sons. The busi­ness is for sale, and prospec­tive new own­ers can call 360–739‑2053 for more information.
• Fri­day Har­bor High School beat La Con­ner 67–18 in a road game last night. The Wolver­ines have two games left this sea­son — next Sat­ur­day at Belling­ham High School and Fri­day, Oct. 28 at home against Coupeville for Homecoming.
• San Juan Island Fire & Res­cue hosts their open house tomor­row from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. They invite the com­mu­ni­ty to stop by for lunch, a tour of the build­ing, activ­i­ties for kids, and free blood pres­sure checks. Fire­fight­ers will run through a live fire demon­stra­tion at noon.
• Alche­my Art Cen­ter’s Artist Talk series con­cludes tomor­row at 5:30 p.m. at the San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art.
• The sec­ond annu­al Fri­day Har­bor Witch­es Pad­dle takes place on Sun­day, Oct. 30. 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.
• Thanks to our adver­tis­ers for their con­tin­ued sup­port of the San Juan Update — includ­ing the Mullis Cen­ter.

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

We, the under­signed San Juan Island writ­ers and authors, sup­port the Library bond in the upcom­ing Novem­ber 8th election.

The Library is of great impor­tance to us in many ways. It sup­ports our writ­ing by pro­vid­ing a well-stocked col­lec­tion for research and inspi­ra­tion as well as offer­ing work­shops on writ­ing, edit­ing, and pub­lish­ing. It fea­tures and sup­ports our pub­li­ca­tions through its col­lec­tions as well as local author pro­grams such as poet­ry and prose readings.

The bond, if approved, is an essen­tial source of fund­ing for a new Library build­ing at 660 Spring Street. By offer­ing 50 per­cent more space than the cur­rent facil­i­ty, the new build­ing will enhance those qual­i­ties that we already val­ue: qui­et, com­fort­able places to read and work and ample and ade­quate spaces for author read­ings and work­shops for writ­ers. The new Library will pro­vide more oppor­tu­ni­ties for shar­ing our work with the community.

Please join us in vot­ing yes for the Library bond in the Novem­ber 8th election.

Alice Ache­son
William C. Agosta
Robin Atkins
Judith Anne Azrael
Sher­ry Bell
Jen­nifer Boyden
Paul Chadwick
Michael J. Cohen
RA (Rebec­ca) Cook
Cere Demuth
Ter­ry Domico
Ingrid Fabianson
Emi­ly Reed Geyman
John Gey­man, M.D.
Lib­bie Grant
Susie Fos­ter Hale
Thor Hanson
Amy Harold
Amy Herdy
David Mark Jenkins
K. Thor Jensen
Low­ell Jons
David M. Kennedy
Jim Lawrence
Tara Mesa­lik McMahon
Stan Matthews
Julie McIntire-Corey
Lynn Mercer
Rebec­ca E. Moore
Roger Morris
Jim Nollman
Thomas S. Odegard
Boyd C. Pratt
Nan­cy M. Spaulding
Lee Sturdivant
Janet Thomas
Gary Thompson
Jim Vedder
Karen Vedder
Susan Vernon
Julia Vouri
Mike Vouri
Richard Walker
Paul Walsh
Susan Wingate

Island Rec shares news about its upcom­ing event for kids.

School’s out ear­ly on Fri­day, Oct. 21, so grab your pals and come explore rigs of all shapes and sizes at Island Rec’s annu­al Touch-a-Truck event. We will be at the Fri­day Har­bor Ele­men­tary School play­ground again this year, from 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Kiwa­nis Club of Fri­day Har­bor will be there pro­vid­ing free hot dogs — and don’t miss out on the raf­fle to win a ride to school in a patrol car!

This all-ages event is free.

In these stress­ful, con­tentious times, our library, more than any oth­er place, pro­vides a cen­ter for every­one in our com­mu­ni­ty. It offers so many ser­vices beyond books and the future of these many ser­vices are jeop­ar­dized if the library remains in its present location.

The oppo­nents of the library bond argue that now is not the time. But, if not now, when? The library has pur­chased a per­fect cen­tral­ly locat­ed site for a new build­ing. The site selec­tion was the result of months of work to find a suit­able place to build. Con­sult­ing archi­tects and engi­neers have deter­mined that adding a sec­ond sto­ry to the cur­rent loca­tion is not fea­si­ble. If the bond is not passed, the site will have to be sold and the library will lose for­ev­er the per­fect loca­tion to con­struct, for the first time in island his­to­ry, a build­ing designed to be a library and pro­vide the ser­vices we need.

The time to build a new library is now. Vote yes for the library bond.

Karen & Jim Vedder
San Juan Island

APS-FH shares some kind words about their vol­un­teer of the month.

The Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Society—Friday Har­bor is pleased to announce Luci Fran­cis as the APS-FH Vol­un­teer of the Month for October.

Luci has been vol­un­teer­ing with APS-FH since April.

Luci is a joy to the dogs and shel­ter staff alike. She always has a pos­i­tive atti­tude, a smile on her face, and shows up for her shift rain or shine. She ded­i­cates time to each dog and focus­es on their indi­vid­ual needs. Whether it’s play­ing with a favorite toy in the yard, a long walk through the woods, or a cud­dle on the couch in the enrich­ment room, she’s your go-to dog gal. Luci’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence with shel­ter and res­cue dogs is of great help to the shel­ter. The staff feel con­fi­dent in her and her abil­i­ties, often hav­ing her do enrich­ment care with some of the more fear­ful or high-lev­el res­cues. Luci is great at “read­ing” them and can rec­og­nize what will make each dog hap­py and com­fort­able. Shel­ter dogs look for­ward to vis­its from vol­un­teers with whom they often form spe­cial rela­tion­ships with, and Luci is def­i­nite­ly one of them.

Luci vol­un­teers at APS-FH because of her love for work­ing with dogs. She feels like she can con­tribute with her years of expe­ri­ence and we here at the shel­ter all agree.

Thank you so much, Luci, for mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in the lives of shel­ter ani­mals. You are a won­der­ful friend to all the dogs here at the shelter!

APS-FH has numer­ous vol­un­teer­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. If you are inter­est­ed in help­ing, vis­it our web­site to learn more about our vol­un­teer pro­gram.