> By Louise Dustrude The road adjoining the gravel pit and connecting Turn Point Road near the shipyard with Pear Point Road at the gravel pit will get its final chip-sealing this coming week, perhaps as soon as Tuesday according to county engineer Colin Huntemer. After that, and after any loose rocks are swept off,  Continue Reading

A $19,000 grant was awarded to Friday Harbor High School (FHHS) Science Teacher Sam Garson to support a minimum 2-year partnership between the high school science department and Friday Harbor Labs in effort to get more students involved with high-level scientific research. This grant was awarded through a competitive process in the Partners in Science  Continue Reading

The Town of Friday Harbor sees the health of our trees as vital to our sense of well-being and as a defining characteristic of our community. Healthy trees provide us the daily benefit of cleaner air, shade and source of aesthetic beauty. The Tree City USA signs at the Town’s entrances tell visitors that this  Continue Reading

The Town of Friday Harbor helped its customers jump start their spring cleaning with free pickup of oversized refuse the week of April 27-May 1. This is the fifth year the Town has offered the Spring Cleanup service to its residential refuse customers. Refuse employees Dave Smith and Jon Munn picked up a total of  Continue Reading

This week “COVID-19 Community Conversations” continues with another three videos that highlight specific efforts from organizations and people in our community that provide key services and provide crucial leadership around the county. You can find our entire collection of videos on our YouTube channel “San Juan County COVID-19 Response” at www.sjccovid.com/conversations. We now have fifteen  Continue Reading

The San Juan Island School District Board of Directors will hold a Special School Board Meeting on Monday May 11, at 5:00 pm as a Zoom meeting.  This meeting is open to the public. To access the Zoom meeting, please click on “Video” within the Board Agenda, or call the number listed on the agenda for audio only. Viewers will  Continue Reading

Your Conservation Land Bank will resume opening the gate at Mount Grant Preserve beginning this Sunday, May 10th.   We have switched to our spring/summer calendar and driving access to the summit will be available twice a week, Sundays and Wednesdays from 10am to 7pm. Please continue following social distancing guidelines whenever visiting your preserves: If  Continue Reading

EDC Survey to Determine San Juan County Impacts of Paycheck Protection Program The San Juan County Economic Development Council (EDC) is collecting data to learn how well the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is working for islands businesses. Business owners are urged to participate in the EDC’s PPP survey here: https://forms.gle/DPxi4gUSpCtnKmDW6 For more information, please  Continue Reading

This week in a Special Board Meeting the hospital district, in a unanimous vote, suspended the integration of San Juan Island EMS and San Juan Island Fire and Rescue. This project was initiated in 2018 with a Citizen’s Advisory Group, making this action a significant change for the district.  All interagency discussion, planning, or steering  Continue Reading

San Juan Island Fire and Rescue’s (SJIF&R) Commission Chairman Jarman and commissioners are disappointed by the actions taken last night by Public Hospital District’s (PHD) to cease the creation of a single all hazard emergency services agency. The timing and actions of the PHD Board’s unilateral decision in the middle of a global health pandemic  Continue Reading

In the SJI Update Mailbag this afternoon there’s a letter from Richard Grout… Dear Editor: Tuesday evening the San Juan Public Hospital District (PHD) Commissioners took an action we should all applaud. They voted unanimously to withdraw the agreement concerning integration of the San Juan Island Emergency Medical Service (EMS) and Fire District #3 and  Continue Reading

This May 2020 edition of Tide Bites was written by Alyssa Scott… As the tides of life have ebbed and flowed, I’ve continually found myself on the shores of FHL [Friday Harbor Labs]. My first encounter with the Labs was via a two-week research sailing expedition through the San Juan Islands with Deep Green Wilderness.  Continue Reading

Here is a Special Update from SJCT’s Executive Artistic Director… Dear SJCT Family, We’ve had numerous inquiries as to how COVID-19 has affected San Juan Community Theatre. While we don’t know everything that the future holds, we have an update about the State of the Theatre today. Please take a few minutes to watch the  Continue Reading

Here’s this month’s history column from the San Juan Historical Society and Museum…Remember when we could happily pose this close to each other in a crowd of people, just like the Hemphill family and friends did around 1910 in the photograph above? As everyone knows, we currently live in a time defined by a novel coronavirus,  Continue Reading

May 5, 2020: San Juan County Health and Community Services staff have been notified of one new positive COVID-19 test result in San Juan County, on San Juan Island. This brings the total number of cases in San Juan County to fifteen. The County Health Department’s Surveillance Team is actively contact tracing this new case,  Continue Reading

The San Juan Island Retail Businesses have created another virtual experience for a night of shopping and fun! The second San Juan Island Virtual Sip ‘n Shop will take place on Thursday, May 7, from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Retailers will post to Facebook, Instagram or their YouTube channel during that time, using the hashtag  Continue Reading

The San Juan Island Park and Recreation District commissioners have made the difficult decision to cancel all in-person programs and events for summer 2020 based on Governor Jay Inslee’s ‘Stay Home, Stay Healthy’ order and his four phases of reopening, in addition to Washington State Department of Health guidelines. The health and safety of our  Continue Reading

SAN JUAN ISLAND, FRIDAY HARBOR – April 30, 2020 – The Animal Protection Society – Friday Harbor (APS-FH) is pleased to announce a grant awarded by the San Juan Island Community Foundation (SJICF) Board of Directors to be used for the purchase and installation of PetPoint Data Management System – a new, updated software package  Continue Reading

In person meeting or call in?? Read on… San Juan County Public Hospital District No. 1 is giving public notice of a Special Meeting to be held on Tuesday May 5, 2020, 6:00 p.m. at the Hospital District Offices ( 849 Spring Street Unit B-5). Call-in information for the public follows: Call-In Number: 509-824-1884 Conference  Continue Reading

Need something else to be worried about this year? Covid-19 not quite enough to raise your hackles? How about Asian Giant Hornets? (a.k.a. Asian Murder Hornets) No, it’s not a B rated horror movie. They’re real and they’re here. Check out this article on CNN and for goodness sake be careful if you see any  Continue Reading

COVID-19 updates from San Juan County around subjects on the minds of islanders Antibody Testing: There Are No Shortcuts to Success There is nothing anyone of us wants more right now than to put the COVID-19 crisis behind us and get down to the work of reopening and restoring our communities. There is an inclination  Continue Reading

Need an excuse to get outside? (safely and and while maintaining self-distancing, of course…) OLYMPIA–The Washington Invasive Species Council, state agencies and researchers are calling for a census in May to help determine the location of Scotch broom throughout the state. “We need everyone’s help to size up the problem,” said Justin Bush, executive coordinator  Continue Reading