The IOSA sends along news about their new interim executive director.

The IOSA Board of Directors would like to share with the community the news that IOSA’s Executive Director Tony Parkin is stepping back from the position at the end of May. Current Board Member Paul Hamdorf has graciously agreed to serve as IOSA’s Interim Executive Director for the foreseeable future.

Tony came to the islands from Alaska at the beginning of 2021, and his energy and experience has been instrumental in helping IOSA grow and mature as an organization.

Highlighting the difficulty of his decision, Tony explains, “Sometimes life throws you a surprise and you need to make changes, but I’m stepping back with tremendous appreciation for the mission and future of IOSA and for the incredible islanders I’ve had the pleasure of knowing since being here. My family and I will continue to call the islands home, and I look forward to being an active IOSA volunteer down the road.”

IOSA Board President J Havner, from Lopez Island, reflects the thinking of the entire Board when expressing his appreciation. “Tony came to IOSA, rolled up his sleeves, and accomplished an enormous amount of work in a short amount of time. The organization is going to benefit tremendously from the foundation he has built.”

As the incoming Interim Executive Director, San Juan Island resident Paul Hamdorf brings an entire career’s worth of spill response experience. Paul retired as a senior spill responder from the State of California’s Office and Spill Prevention and Response, and has been doing contract work in spill response management since leaving public service.

Hamdorf detailed his approach, “My goal is to build on the great work already done and ensure that IOSA remains a reliable early response to spills in the islands and continues to grow in capacity and capability. With the summer boating season ramping up, IOSA is ready to support local marinas, fuel docks, and our state and federal partners with protecting the islands.”

Islanders interested in learning more about IOSA and upcoming training opportunities, including an oiled wildlife training on San Juan Island on May 21 should visit the IOSA website.

• Salty Fox is closed until Friday, May 27. They’ll be back just in time for Memorial Day weekend.
• San Juan Brewing Co. has fixed their kitchen issues, so burgers and sandwiches and fried items are back on the menu.
• If you’re planning to attend the Friday Harbor High School state tournament game in Brewster this weekend, buy your tickets online before you go. No tickets will be sold at the game.
• There’s a Friday Harbor High School grad night fundraiser taking place next Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Masonic Lodge at 15 Second Street N. It’s all-you-can-eat spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread with a dessert auction at 8 p.m. It’s $20 per person and takeout is available.
• Westcott Bay Shellfish Company is holding their inaugural Oysters on the Green event this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. There will be live music, raw oysters, simple picnic foods, beer, and wine. Sit at picnic tables or bring a blanket to find a spot on the grass. The event is first-come-first-served with no reservations.
• The San Juan Islands Museum of Art will be discussing its accomplishments, activities, and community contributions at a public event tonight from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the museum. The event is free, open to the public, and doesn’t require advance registration.

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

The Town of Friday Harbor sends along an update about the new garbage carts that have been delivered in the last two weeks.

Town residential refuse customers are receiving their new, green refuse carts. The 32-gallon wheeled carts include a lift bar to assist workers with loading and reduce the risk of injury. The carts are provided at no cost to customers and there is no additional cost for using them. The refuse fee for pickup is the same as for traditional 32-gallon cans and traditional cans will continue to be picked up. Placement of carts at the curb is the same as for cans.

Customers are asked to securely bag all garbage before depositing it in the cart and double bag noxious trash such as cat litter and diapers. Carts are for household refuse only, not recycling, yard waste, construction debris, or other unallowable refuse as outlined on the Town’s website.

Carts are stamped with the Town’s logo and remain the property of the Town. Carts are to stay with the property when the resident moves. If they are broken or stolen, replacements may be provided while supply lasts. Once the supply is gone, customers will be asked to provide replacements, which should be available at most hardware stores.

The need to replace an aging truck in the Town’s fleet provided an opportunity to improve work conditions for the refuse crew and address concerns with the ongoing risk of injury from heavy lifting and repetitive motion.

Town residential refuse customers may direct questions to Town Hall at (360) 378-2810 or contact the Town Administrator.

The San Juan County Conservation Land Bank Commission will hold a regular meeting on Friday, May 20 at 8:30 a.m. Items up for discussion or action at Friday’s meeting include:

• General public comments
• Chair and Commissioners report
• County Council update – Christine Minney
• First amended budget proposal
• Director’s report – Acquisitions update
• Open Public Meetings Act – Amy Vira, County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney
• Stewardship report
• Outreach and volunteer report
• Future agenda items

You can view the live stream of the meeting online.

Contributed photo

The Sculpture Park shares news about their upcoming summer programming.

Summer fun is waiting for you at the San Juan Islands Sculpture Park. Every Saturday beginning June 18, join the fun with a BYOP — bring your own picnic — followed by a family-friendly group sculpture event. The fun kicks off with Alchemy Art Center artists leading us as we make tiles to complete the park’s brilliant ceramic salmon. The following Saturday, June 25, we’ll paint real feathers and construct a 10-foot-wide set of wings that would make any bird jealous. Fun is always in the making, but this event will also provide a perfect photo-op for dreamers of all ages.

Plan a picnic with family and friends, or bring some goodies to share and make friends at the park. It’s time to shed the COVID doldrums and reconnect — with friends, with art, with nature. Spread a blanket out on the grass or, if there’s a little drizzle that day, pull up a chair under the two tents set up near the parking area. All sculpture events will be led by local artists and are designed to be fun for all ages. We’ll create an abstract piece emerging from the pond, an orca food pyramid, a 15-foot spiderweb stretching between trees, and a capsized canoe with scarecrow paddlers.

If you just want to explore the park, come try our sculpture bingo. Find the sculptures pictured on our bingo card (five in a row any direction) and win a prize. Or try your hand at our sculpture scavenger hunt. No, you won’t have to bring back a 30,000-pound sculpture — you’ll just draw the sculpture once you find it to win a prize.

Donations are welcome, but the events are free and open to the public. Kids under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. No artistic experience necessary. All you need is a good attitude and a determination to have fun. That’s true in life as well as at the Saturday Sculpture Park picnics.

Sculptural artists wanting to participate or lead their own project, either this year or planning for next year, are encouraged to contact David Halpern.

On Tuesday, more than 16 months after enacting a moratorium on new vacation rental permits, the San Juan County Council put into place a long-term cap on the number of permits allowed within the county.

Under the amended ordinance passed unanimously by the Council, San Juan Island will be allotted 337 permits, with 211 for Orcas Island, 135 for Lopez Island, and 10 for the outer islands — excluding Shaw and Waldron islands, both of which are subject to existing ordinances that disallow vacation rentals. That equals a county-wide cap of 693 permits.

The final permit cap number for San Juan Island matches the number of existing permits that had been issued as of Friday, May 6. It reflects a compromise between the recommendations proposed by the County Planning Commission earlier this year and the guidance that the Council originally provided to the Planning Commission in June 2021.

“I believe that I live on an island that does not feel the impact [of vacation rentals] in the same way that Orcas does,” said Councilmember Christine Minney of San Juan Island, who proposed the 337-permit limit for San Juan. “However, without a doubt, there are many people who are also in support of not allowing vacation rentals to continue unchecked into the future.” Continue Reading

Friday Harbor High School sends along an update about what’s next for its spring sports teams.

Baseball – Our baseball team beat Coupeville 3-2 on Friday in a winner-to-state playoff game at La Conner. The boys will now play in the regional state tournament at Brewster High School this Saturday at 1 p.m. Friday Harbor is the #10 seed and will play #7 seed Kalama from District 4. The winner of this game will advance to play the winner of the #2 seed Brewster and #15 seed Warden, also on Saturday. The boys need to win both games to move on to the final four portion of the state tournament in Ridgefield the next weekend.

Girls Tennis – Weather and the lack of home courts have been a disruptive force in this year’s girls tennis season. While the girls have made the best of a difficult situation, it has been frustrating to not be able to complete some of our matches. While it has not been easy, our top two singles and doubles teams will be traveling to Tumwater on Friday to compete in the bi-district tournament with District 4. The winners of this tournament will advance to state in Yakima on May 27-28.

Boys & Girls Golf – Our boys and girls golf teams competed this past week at their district tournaments. Three boys qualified for the tri-district tournament being played this Thursday at Loomis Trails Golf Course in Bellingham. Jack Mason, Jack Hess, and Ryan Rautenberg will be trying to earn their way to the state tournament the following week. On the girls side, Izzy Graham earned the final spot to the state tournament being played next week at Deer Park golf course in North Spokane.

Boys & Girls Track – Our track teams head to the tri-district tournament on Friday at WF West High School in Chehalis. Competition gets started at 3 p.m. Our athletes will be competing to move on to the state tournament the following week at Eastern Washington University. Only one athlete in each event will automatically advance. Additional entries may be earned if an athlete meets the state qualifying time or distance.

Fastpitch – Our fastpitch team competed well, finishing second in league. Unfortunately for the girls, the Northwest 2B/1B league only carries one allocation to the state playoffs this year. Our girls fell just short.

More state tournament information is available on the WIAA website.

Photo credit: Peggy Sue McRae

The advice columnist known as Dear Abby once said, “These days it takes nerves of steel just to be neurotic” — and she said that in the sixties. In today’s world there is plenty to fray our weary nerves. We have all the usual causes for mental distress: anxiety, isolation, loss, health issues, all magnified by the ongoing pandemic.

Caring for our mental health has unfortunately carried a stigma for a long time. People suffer unnecessarily because they are reluctant to ask for help. Especially if you have suicidal thoughts do not wait to seek help. Call 911 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or go directly to the emergency room.

If you are not suffering acutely but your sparkle for life has dimmed leaving you in low spirits there are a five suggestions from Mental Health Ireland that are free, easy, small improvements that can significantly make a difference in your well being. Continue Reading

• San Juan Brewing Co. donated all of its Saturday beer proceeds — over $3,000 — to help the Friday Harbor businesses most affected by last month’s fire.
• The Friday Harbor High School boys track & field team are the District 2B academic state champions for spring.
• The Port of Friday Harbor will be holding its second annual Rock & Roll Regatta on June 24. Here’s the video from last year’s event.
• Alchemy Art Center is holding a multi-color screen printing workshop this Saturday. It costs $45 and you can register online.
• The San Juan Preservation Trust is holding their annual meeting on Thursday, starting at 5 p.m. This year’s meeting is virtual.
• WaterWorks Gallery is hosting an opening reception for Teresa Smith’s Mystical Landscape: A Walk In The Woods exhibition this Friday from 4 to 7 p.m.

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

The EDC shares news about its new Tech Accelerator Training Initiative.

In an effort to train local workers into high-wage, skilled tech jobs, the San Juan County Economic Development Council has launched a Tech Accelerator Training Initiative to serve island youth, unemployed and underemployed workers, and business owners needing technological assistance for their enterprises. This initiative has been launched by the EDC in partnership with the Town of Friday Harbor, San Juan County, and the Raynier Institute.

The first tech training course offered will be in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, launching in June of this year. The course will be offered online through Johns Hopkins University, and a cohort of students will meet each week with an EDC advisor to achieve successful benchmarks, working on their own schedules.

In the course, participants will work from the ground up, learning the basics of modern web pages with HTML and CSS. By the end of the course, students will utilize JavaScript to build a fully functional web application. Instruction is open to participants from San Juan County over 18 years old who are looking to enter careers in the web development field.

The course is broken into weekly assignments that can be completed on one’s own schedule. The EDC will host advisory meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. from June 14 to July 21 via Zoom. These meetings will give participants the opportunity to work through course assignments as a group, ask questions, and discuss course materials. The EDC will cover all course costs, apart from a required $50 application fee.

Visit the EDC website to register. For questions, contact the EDC’s Tech Training Coordinator Jillian Urbach at 360-378-2906, or [email protected].

San Juan Community Theatre shares news about a one-night-only concert taking place next Monday.

Canadian vocalists Clifton, Fraser, and Victor create the award-winning and multi-platinum-selling band The Tenors. They will be performing live for one night only at San Juan Community Theatre on Monday, May 23 at 7:30 p.m., accompanied by brass soloist Jens Lindemann.

The Tenors’ distinct sound reimagines iconic hits and blends classical music, contemporary pop, classic rock, folk, and inspired self-penned original songs. They have had the honor of sharing the stage with some of the biggest names in music including Sir Paul McCartney, Sting, Justin Bieber, Andrea Bocelli, Sir Elton John, and Stevie Wonder. In addition, Jens Lindemann is the first classical brass soloist to ever receive the Order of Canada, is hailed as one of the most celebrated artists in his instrument’s history, and was recently named International Brass Personality of the Year by Brass Herald.

Tickets are $50 for adults and $25 for students.

The San Juan County Council will hold a regular meeting on Tuesday, May 17 at 9 a.m. The meeting will include four public hearings to consider:

• Adopting an ordinance to adopt technical corrections to the San Juan County Charter regarding Council residency districts
• Adopting an ordinance establishing a cap on permits for vacation rental of residences or accessory dwelling units not to exceed 1,200 permits countywide
• Adopting an ordinance to repeal SJCC 18.30.640 (payment in lieu – Eastsound Village parking fund)
• Removal of a planning commissioner pursuant to RCW 36.70.110

Items up for discussion or action include:

• Revise table 18.30.040 (allowable and prohibited uses in Rural, Resource and Special Land Designations) to allow government offices allowed by right in the RGU, RI and RC zoning districts and with conditional use permits in the RR, RFF, AG, FOR and C districts
• Surplus gravel on Waldron Island
• Notice of funds available
• Revisions to Parks Department Changes Fund
• Proposed changes to the Parks/Fair fee schedule
• Acceptance of a statutory warranty deed for the Hauschka property, Cady Mountain, San Juan Island
• Acceptance of a donation of a trail easement deed for the Lopez Community Land Trust Property, Lopez Sound Road, Lopez Island Trail Easement
• Assessor’s Office staffing proposal

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 May 17.

• The Port of Friday Harbor has released the draft of their strategic plan. A public hearing will be held at San Juan Island Yacht Club at noon on Wednesday, June 8 to receive public comments prior to final action by the Port Commission. You can also send written comments to [email protected] up to 48 hours prior to the public hearing.
• WSU San Juan County Extension is hosting a field walk today from 5:30 to 7 p.m. They’ll discuss their ongoing research into the impact of organic fertilizer and no-till seeding on forage productivity, quality, and species composition. The walk takes place at the Beaverton Valley Preserve. Pre-registration is required.
• San Juan Community Theatre had to cancel two performances of Cinderella over the weekend, as well as this Thursday’s show, due to positive COVID tests among the cast and crew. SJCT will issue refunds to the credit cards used to purchase tickets for the cancelled shows by Wednesday.
• The San Juan County Coalition for Diversity is holding an event where participants can learn how to counter anti-Muslim bigotry. It takes place next Monday, May 23 at 6 p.m. at St. David’s Episcopal Church on Park Street.
• San Juan Island National Historical Park shares an insightful story about the history of Hawaiians on San Juan Island.
• The Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team is hosting a talk titled “Seabirds, Citizen Science and Saving the World” this Saturday, May 21 at 1:30 p.m. as part of the Friday Harbor Labs open house.

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