The Town of Fri­day Har­bor sends along notice about an upcom­ing con­struc­tion project off Tuck­er Ave.

Local access to McDon­ald St. will be dis­rupt­ed begin­ning Mon­day, Sept. 12 into ear­ly Octo­ber while Richard Law­son Con­struc­tion installs a water main and recon­structs a por­tion of the street. Although the con­trac­tor has been asked to expe­dite the project with as lit­tle dis­rup­tion to the neigh­bor­hood as pos­si­ble, res­i­dents should expect short delays dur­ing cer­tain phas­es of the work.

The project con­sists of installing approx­i­mate­ly 240 lin­ear feet of 4‑inch and 8‑inch AWWA C900 water main on McDon­ald St. from Fri­day Ave. to Beach Ct., water ser­vices, and fire hydrants. The McDon­ald St. road­way will also be recon­struct­ed with new pave­ment. The work is esti­mat­ed to be sub­stan­tial­ly com­plet­ed by Oct. 15.

Local access will remain open at all times. Flag­gers will be on site as need­ed. Pedes­tri­ans and motorists should exer­cise com­mon sense and cau­tion. Be aware of equip­ment, con­struc­tion work­ers, trucks, and con­struc­tion mate­ri­als. Make sure you are seen while mov­ing with­in the job site and abide by flag­ger instructions.

Scouts of San Juan share news about their fall fundraiser.

Roche Har­bor has gra­cious­ly offered the use of their mau­soleum ceme­tery to the Scouts of San Juan to run a fundrais­ing haunt­ed experience.

From approx­i­mate­ly 6–11 p.m. Fri­day and Sat­ur­day nights from Oct. 14–29, weath­er per­mit­ting, the San Juan Sea Scouts, Scout Troop, and Wolf Hol­low Wildlife Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­ter will be offer­ing tarot read­ings and haunt­ed tours of the ceme­tery. From 6–7 p.m. the event will be child friend­ly, but as the evening wears on it will become more and more frightening.

The entry free is $5 per per­son until the last night, which will be pay-what-you-can.

All pro­ceeds to go to the Scouts of San Juan and Wolf Hollow.

The com­mis­sion­ers of the Port of Fri­day Har­bor vot­ed last month to per­form a com­pre­hen­sive ener­gy assess­ment at Fri­day Har­bor Air­port, the results from which will guide enhance­ments to the facility’s ener­gy effi­cien­cy and resiliency.

The assess­ment – part of the Port’s five-year cap­i­tal improve­ment plan with the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion – will take place ear­ly next year, accord­ing to Port Com­mis­sion­er Vic­to­ria Comp­ton. “Dur­ing that process, we’ll be able to deter­mine what the best steps for effi­cien­cies will be, includ­ing solar, which is of par­tic­u­lar inter­est to the Com­mis­sion from a stand­point of sus­tain­abil­i­ty and cost sav­ings,” Vic­to­ria says.

Project fund­ing comes from the FAA by way of the Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment and Jobs Act that was signed into law last Novem­ber. The IIJA pro­vides $550 bil­lion in new fed­er­al invest­ment in infra­struc­ture between 2022 and 2026, includ­ing roads, bridges, mass tran­sit, water infra­struc­ture, and broadband.

“Keep­ing our oper­a­tions sus­tain­able and our infra­struc­ture resilient are top pri­or­i­ties of the Port Com­mis­sion,” Vic­to­ria explains. “Invest­ments in solar and oth­er ener­gy effi­cien­cies check both of those box­es, and save the Port – and tax­pay­ers – money.”

The Port is receiv­ing more than $1 mil­lion in fed­er­al funds, which will also sup­port mov­ing and replac­ing an old fuel tank and the con­struc­tion of new hangars. The lat­ter project will allow the air­port to break even on its rev­enue and expenses.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington’s Fri­day Har­bor Lab­o­ra­to­ries is look­ing for a half-time Marine Oper­a­tions Super­vi­sor to pro­vide water­front sup­port to all of its research and aca­d­e­m­ic endeav­ors. Learn more in the Island Jobs sec­tion of the San Juan Update.

San Juan Coun­ty shares infor­ma­tion about poten­tial health risks asso­ci­at­ed with wild­fire smoke that is expect­ed to reach the islands Fri­day through Sunday.

Smoke from near­by wild­fires is pre­dict­ed to make its way to San Juan Coun­ty this week­end, Sept. 9–11. Take pre­cau­tions to pro­tect your­self and fam­i­ly mem­bers if smoke reach­es unhealthy levels.

“We have three air qual­i­ty mon­i­tors one on each of the three largest islands,” said Coun­ty Health Offi­cer Dr. Frank James. “The Pur­ple Air sys­tem col­lects indi­vid­ual mon­i­tor­ing data and can be very use­ful to see what air qual­i­ty is like in real time locally.”

You can also mon­i­tor air qual­i­ty in our area using Wash­ing­ton Smoke Infor­ma­tion Blog or Washington’s Air Mon­i­tor­ing Net­work map.

Smoke con­tains very small par­ti­cles and gas­es. These par­ti­cles can get into your eyes and lungs where they can cause health prob­lems. Inhal­ing smoke is not good for any­one, how­ev­er, peo­ple most like­ly to have health prob­lems from breath­ing smoke include peo­ple with heart and lung dis­eases, peo­ple with res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tions, peo­ple with dia­betes, stroke sur­vivors, infants, chil­dren, preg­nant peo­ple, and peo­ple over 65 years of age.

To reduce smoke exposure:

• Lim­it time out­side and avoid stren­u­ous out­door activity
• Close win­dows and doors unless it is too hot to main­tain safe temperatures
• Don’t add to indoor air pol­lu­tion (e.g., cig­a­rette smok­ing, burn­ing candles)
• Fil­ter indoor air (HVAC sys­tem, HEPA portable air clean­er, box fan filter)
• Set air con­di­tion­er to circulate
• Seek clean­er air else­where if need­ed and possible
• If you must go out­side, wear a prop­er­ly fit­ted par­ti­cle res­pi­ra­tor, like a N95 mask

It is impor­tant to mon­i­tor symp­toms of smoke expo­sure. Symp­toms include burn­ing eyes, cough­ing, throat and nose irri­ta­tion, headaches, fatigue, wheez­ing and short­ness of breath, irreg­u­lar heart­beat, and chest pain. If your symp­toms become seri­ous, seek med­ical atten­tion immediately.

Contributed photo

The Sail­ing Foun­da­tion shares the lat­est news about their after-school sail­ing program.

The San Juan Island Sail­ing Foun­da­tion is again spon­sor­ing low-cost after-school sail­ing for mid­dle and high school stu­dents with any amount of sail­ing expe­ri­ence — from com­plete novice to expe­ri­enced rac­er. Younger stu­dents will be con­sid­ered based on their matu­ri­ty and their own pas­sion for sail­ing, as well as their size and weight. Inter­est­ed sailors should go ahead and reg­is­ter and the pro­gram lead­ers will be in touch.

The pro­gram takes places Tues­days and Thurs­days from 3:15–5:30 p.m. for all of Sep­tem­ber and Octo­ber, depend­ing on weath­er and tides, start­ing imme­di­ate­ly. It’s okay to start at a lat­er ses­sion, even for begin­ners. All class­es take place at the far end of the road at Jack­son Beach. Instruc­tion and prac­tice in sail­ing tech­niques and rac­ing will be pro­vid­ed. Boats used include RS Teras, Lasers, RS Fevas, and V15s.

Rac­ing is the best way for sailors to assess their sail­ing abil­i­ty. Inter­est­ed sailors will be coached to com­pete in the mul­ti­ple region­al regat­tas avail­able; par­tic­i­pa­tion in races is optional.

The cost is $100 per sea­son. Full aid is avail­able, gen­er­ous­ly pro­vid­ed by the SJI Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion and mul­ti­ple donors. Just ask. Con­tin­ue Reading

The Simon­son and Zam­brovitz Team at Cold­well Banker San Juan Island send along this real estate mar­ket snap­shot for the island. Despite stress­es in the broad­er eco­nom­ic mar­ket, medi­an home and land prices on San Juan con­tin­ue their upward trajectory.

The Fri­day Har­bor Film Fes­ti­val shares news about their ongo­ing Direc­tor Series.

Rac­ing Extinc­tion, Fri­day Har­bor Film Festival’s next offer­ing in The Direc­tor Series, fol­lows under­cov­er activists try­ing to stave off a man-made mass extinc­tion. Sci­en­tists pre­dict that humanity’s foot­print on the plan­et may cause the loss of 50 per­cent of all species by the end of the cen­tu­ry. A team of artists and activists go on an under­cov­er oper­a­tion to expose the hid­den world of endan­gered species and the race to pro­tect them against mass extinction.

Span­ning the globe to infil­trate the world’s most dan­ger­ous black mar­kets, and using high-tech tac­tics to doc­u­ment the link between car­bon emis­sions and species extinc­tion, Rac­ing Extinc­tion reveals stun­ning, nev­er-before seen images that tru­ly change the way we see the world. Direc­tor Louie Psi­hoyos has craft­ed an ambi­tious mis­sion to pull into focus our impact on the plan­et, while inspir­ing us all to embrace the solu­tions that will ensure a thriv­ing, bio­di­verse world for future generations.

Fol­low­ing a free online show­ing tonight from 6:30 to 9 p.m., stream the film on demand from Sept. 9–21 for $1.95.

• There’s still space left in the Library’s book group for third, fourth, and fifth graders. Par­tic­i­pants can pick up this mon­th’s book at the Library to reg­is­ter, then read the book at home, and after that attend a book dis­cus­sion with crafts and activities.
• Alche­my Art Cen­ter is reg­is­ter­ing kids for their Clay Club and Print Kids class­es, both of which start Oct. 4. Clay Club is for ages 6–12 and Print Kids is for mid­dle and high school students.
• Rip­tide Cafe’s fall spe­cials include a bunch of fla­vored lattes — pump­kin spice, car­damom, gold­en milk, and maple almond.
• Van Go’s Piz­za will be closed for a post-tourist sea­son break from Sept. 13 through Oct. 2.
• Cana­di­an folk rock band The Paper­boys per­form this Sat­ur­day at 7:30 p.m. at San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty Theatre.
• Par­tic­i­pants in Island Rec’s Sum­mer Mileage Chal­lenge col­lec­tive­ly cov­ered 4,237 miles this sum­mer. The next chal­lenge starts in Jan­u­ary; you can reg­is­ter on the Island Rec web­site.
• Thanks to our adver­tis­ers for their con­tin­ued sup­port of the San Juan Update — includ­ing Ani­mal Inn & Well­ness Cen­ter.

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

San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre shares a look at a con­cert tak­ing place lat­er this month.

Folk/pop singer-song­writer Zan Fiskum will per­form a live con­cert at San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre on Sat­ur­day, Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m.

Fiskum was raised in Maple Val­ley, where she honed her musi­cal style and gained nation­al recog­ni­tion when she per­formed on NBC’s The Voice. There she received high praise from the celebri­ty judges, Kel­ly Clark­son and John Leg­end, who described her voice as “sub­tle, ethe­re­al.” Open­ing for Zan Fiskum is Alec Shaw, also a Wash­ing­ton­ian, and an indie folk musi­cian whose work fea­tures ele­ments of gospel and R&B.

Tick­ets are $30 for adults, $15 for stu­dents, and $5 for stu­dent rush. To pur­chase tick­ets call the box office at 360–378-3210 or vis­it the SJCT web­site.

Sal­ish Seeds sends along news about their upcom­ing fall wild­flower sale.

Native plant lovers take note — the Sal­ish Seeds Project’s annu­al fall wild­flower sale is almost here. Reserve plants online Sept. 13–19, then pick them up on Sat­ur­day, Oct. 1. All plants are pro­duced local­ly by the Sal­ish Seeds Project, a joint pro­gram of the San Juan Coun­ty Con­ser­va­tion Land Bank and the San Juan Preser­va­tion Trust. The sale opens online at 9 a.m. on Tues­day, Sept. 13 on the Land Bank’s web­site.

Quan­ti­ties are lim­it­ed. Ear­ly shop­ping is rec­om­mend­ed to avoid disappointment.

Native wild­flow­ers are beau­ti­ful, attract pol­li­na­tors and oth­er wildlife, and are per­fect­ly adapt­ed to our island habi­tats. The 2022 fall sale fea­tures over 20 species of plants in four-inch pots, includ­ing past favorites Cana­da gold­en­rod, red-flow­er­ing cur­rant, and seashore lupine. Seed pack­ets and native onion bulbs will also be avail­able. An advance guide to the sale, fea­tur­ing descrip­tions and pho­tos of the plants, is avail­able now on the Sal­ish Seeds Project web­page.

The price per plant off­sets the cost of pro­duc­tion, allow­ing the Land Bank to pro­vide this com­mu­ni­ty service.

The Sal­ish Seeds Project enables restora­tion of native wild­flow­ers and grass­es in the San Juan Islands. Plants and seeds of species native to coastal grass­lands, oak savan­nas, and rocky mead­ows are pro­duced at a nurs­ery locat­ed at Red Mill Farm on San Juan Island. In a fruit­ful part­ner­ship, the San Juan Preser­va­tion Trust owns the prop­er­ty and the Land Bank runs the nurs­ery. Grants and pri­vate dona­tions have fund­ed near­ly all the nurs­ery infrastructure.

The Fri­day Har­bor Ele­men­tary School PTO shares good news about their recent fundraiser.

The FHES PTO extends a huge thank you to all who helped us raise rough­ly $10,000 at the pie booth at the Coun­ty Fair this year.

After the two-year hia­tus, the PTO is grate­ful for all the sup­port received — from help set­ting up the booth to pie bak­ers, servers, pie eaters and gen­er­ous dona­tions from Roche Har­bor Resort. We also wish to thank pre­vi­ous PTO mem­bers and fun­ders who cre­at­ed this deli­cious fundrais­er on wheels. Funds raised from the pie booth will be used to sup­port school field trips, spir­it wear for all stu­dents, class­room sup­plies, books, and more.

The FHES PTO is a non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion whose mis­sion is to raise funds for Fri­day Har­bor Ele­men­tary School pro­grams. For more infor­ma­tion, email PTO pres­i­dents Can­dace Rags­dale and Kay­la Roe at ptofhes@gmail.com. We also invite you to attend our next PTO meet­ing on Tues­day, Sept. 27 at 6 p.m.

• There’s been an increase in car prowls on San Juan Island, with nine instances hav­ing been report­ed to the San Juan Coun­ty Sher­if­f’s Office in the last month. Sher­iff Ron Krebs says that the crimes are cur­rent­ly being inves­ti­gat­ed and that the Sher­if­f’s Office has a strong lead on a sus­pect. If you’ve expe­ri­enced a sim­i­lar crime, report it by call­ing the non-emer­gency num­ber — 360–378-4151 — and a deputy will call you back to take a report.
• Fri­day Har­bor High School girls soc­cer tied Nook­sack Val­ley High School 2–2 in a road game yes­ter­day after­noon. They play a con­fer­ence game at Linde Com­mu­ni­ty Fields tomor­row at 4 p.m. against Coupeville High School.
• Due to staffing lim­i­ta­tions, Bak­ery San Juan is now open­ing at 9 a.m.
• Pur­ple & Gold need vol­un­teer grillers and servers for their three foot­ball tail­gate events this Sep­tem­ber and Octo­ber. These fundrais­ers pro­vide sup­port for stu­dent schol­ar­ships, coach­ing clin­ics, uni­forms, post-sea­son trav­el, and home­com­ing floats.
• Audi­tions for BOTS! — San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre’s fam­i­ly the­atre show — take place on Thurs­day and Fri­day after­noon this week. Kids in grades K‑6 and par­ents are wel­come to audi­tion. Grades 7–12 can join the pro­duc­tion’s tech crew. Learn more on the SJCT web­site.
• Here are the week’s spe­cials from Mar­ket Place and Kings.

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