• Here’s today’s farm­ers mar­ket line­up.
• The Chil­dren’s Fes­ti­val takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at the Fairgrounds.
• Mike Vouri is lead­ing a guid­ed walk explor­ing the sto­ries of Eng­lish Camp — pre-his­to­ry, the Roy­al Marines, the Crook fam­i­ly, the Nation­al Park — from 10 a.m. to noon. The walk starts from the Eng­lish Camp park­ing lot.
• The Toy Box (20 First Street) is tak­ing part in Free Com­ic Book Day between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. today. They’re also run­ning a char­i­ty side­walk sale and silent auction.
• The San Juan His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety and Muse­um is hold­ing an open house today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Coho is hav­ing an Ital­ian-themed menu tonight from 7:30 to 11 p.m. — bruschet­ta, bagna cau­da, frit­to mis­to, car­bonara, piz­za, and more.
• San Juan Island Yacht Club’s open­ing day brunch and boat parade take place tomor­row. Brunch is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the boat parade starts after the fer­ry leaves around 2:30 p.m.
• The first Sal­ish Sea hump­back calf of 2022 was spot­ted on Mon­day after­noon in Bound­ary Pass.
• The Beech Tree Espres­so stand at Roche Har­bor is open for the sea­son, Thurs­day through Mon­day from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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

Local vol­un­teers for the Statewide Health Insur­ance Ben­e­fits Advi­sors (SHIBA) pro­gram are host­ing an online intro­duc­tion to Medicare for enrollees join­ing the pro­gram in 2022.

On Thurs­day, May 12 at 1 p.m., the pre­sen­ters will out­line how Medicare works, its dif­fer­ent cov­er­age options, and key pro­gram mile­stones and dates that must be met in order to avoid penalties.

To reg­is­ter, email shibasjco@yahoo.com or call 360–376-5892. You’ll need to pro­vide your first name, last name, and email address.

SHIBA is over­seen by the state’s Office of the Insur­ance Com­mis­sion­er to pro­vide free, unbi­ased, con­fi­den­tial coun­sel­ing in San Juan Coun­ty. The orga­ni­za­tion is spon­sored local­ly by the Inter Island Health­care Foun­da­tion.

The month of May is always a busy time in your school dis­trict. Each of your schools admin­is­ter the State exams, orga­nize year end field trips, and work dili­gent­ly to keep all stu­dents focused as the sun and warmth return. This is an excit­ing time of year as schools move toward that last day in June while at the same time prepar­ing for the fall of 2022 opening.

We have learned much over the last two years. The COVID pan­dem­ic cre­at­ed pres­sures not seen before and the stu­dents and staff in this dis­trict showed resilien­cy in the face of these chal­lenges. I can assure you this great staff is com­mit­ted to serv­ing these chil­dren and sup­port­ing their aca­d­e­m­ic, social, and emo­tion­al growth.

As we end one year and pre­pare for the next, there is some impor­tant infor­ma­tion that all of us in this com­mu­ni­ty should know. Con­tin­ue Reading

The San Juan Island Food Co-op is look­ing for an Assis­tant Man­ag­er who is pas­sion­ate about organ­ic and nat­ur­al foods and prod­ucts. Learn more in the Island Jobs sec­tion of the San Juan Update.

In a media release pub­lished yes­ter­day, San Juan Coun­ty offi­cials report­ed 18 active COVID cas­es on San Juan Island, in addi­tion to 17 on Lopez Island and 13 on Orcas Island. By 9 a.m. this morn­ing, active cas­es on San Juan Island had jumped to 29.

The Coun­ty also not­ed that they have rea­son to believe the actu­al num­ber of active cas­es is sub­stan­tial­ly high­er. “Many cas­es [are] going unre­port­ed as indi­vid­u­als uti­lize over-the-counter test kits (OTC),” the Coun­ty said in their media release. “The num­ber of cas­es that are report­ed and tracked is esti­mat­ed to account for only approx­i­mate­ly 20 per­cent of cas­es actu­al­ly present in the community.”

If that assess­ment is accu­rate, it means that San Juan Island’s true active case count is near­ly 150 cases.

Free COVID test­ing kits are still avail­able through the Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Health’s Say Yes COVID test web­site. Islanders can order up to two test kits each month. Deliv­ery is cur­rent­ly esti­mat­ed to take one to two weeks.

• Fri­day Har­bor High School base­ball and fast­pitch both had their Thurs­day games at Orcas Island can­celled due to rain. The games will not be resched­uled. Base­ball takes to the field for the league cham­pi­onship tiebreak­er against Coupeville next Thurs­day at 3 p.m. in LaConner.
• All 50 of the sec­ond-run prints of Doug DeMeerleer’s paint­ing of the build­ings at the cor­ner of Spring and First Street sold last week, bring­ing the grand total of funds raised to help those impact­ed by the April 7 fire to $2,613.
• The Amer­i­can Legion is host­ing a spaghet­ti feed and dessert auc­tion this evening from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. They’re rais­ing funds in sup­port of sum­mer tour­na­ments for the Babe Ruth base­ball team they spon­sor. It’s $25 per plate or $45 for two. Food and treats are pro­vid­ed by Stacey’s Cater­ing. Curb­side pick-up is available.
• There’s a bake sale fundrais­er tomor­row from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. out­side the Mullis Cen­ter. The pro­ceeds go to Free Wheel­in’ Rides, who hope to pro­vide a mobil­i­ty van for island wheel­chair users and oth­ers who need spe­cial­ized transportation.
• Tom­my Dale & the Dan­ger­fields are putting on a free street dance to ben­e­fit the fire relief fund next Sun­day, May 15, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Brickworks.
• Island Rec is hold­ing a pick­le­ball tour­na­ment two weeks from now — on Sat­ur­day, May 21 and Sun­day, May 22 — at the Fair­grounds. It’s a dou­bles tour­na­ment and prizes will be award­ed to the win­ners in each brack­et. It’s $33 if you enter by May 12, $38 after that.

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

Pho­to cred­it: Brad Pillow

Mer­ri Ann Simon­son sends along this year-over-year real estate mar­ket snap­shot for the San Juan Islands.

The medi­an sale price for homes on San Juan Island increased rough­ly 13 per­cent in 12 months — but it could have been worse. Dur­ing the same peri­od, the medi­an price rose 37 per­cent on Orcas Island and 46 per­cent on Lopez Island.

Fri­day Harbor’s lat­est pub­lic art instal­la­tion came to life this past Tues­day in the Sun­shine Alley breeze­way between The Bait Shop and the Palace Theater.

There’s a Sto­ry Here repur­pos­es his­toric San Juan Island pho­tographs in the style of so-called exag­ger­a­tion post­cards, a pop­u­lar design approach in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry that added absurd but real­is­tic-look­ing ele­ments to exist­ing images, most often for the pur­pose of pro­mot­ing the supe­ri­or­i­ty of a spe­cif­ic place or local commodity.

Although most of the six post­card pan­els are recent cre­ations, one of the pieces – It’s the Salt Air! by J.A. McCormick – was recent­ly dis­cov­ered by the San Juan His­tor­i­cal Muse­um. It is one of only two known orig­i­nal exag­ger­a­tion post­cards from San Juan County.

There’s a Sto­ry Here is the third out­door exhib­it the Town of Fri­day Har­bor has installed in the Sun­shine Alley breeze­way since 2018. It will remain in place until May of next year.

The Town thanks Kris­tine Brown of Print­onyx for research and graph­ic design; the San Juan His­tor­i­cal Muse­um, the What­com Muse­um, Peg­gy Sue McRae and Jen­nifer Rigg for pho­tographs; and Ali­cia and Jeff Carnevali for use of their build­ing as the installation’s canvas.

Island Rec reminds the com­mu­ni­ty about the upcom­ing Chil­dren’s Festival.

Island Rec is pleased to announce that the 30th annu­al Children’s Fes­ti­val is this Sat­ur­day, May 7, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Fairgrounds.

Com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions that you know and love will be pro­vid­ing all kinds of cre­ative and hands-on activ­i­ties. Kids will enjoy tak­ing their pic­ture in the under-the-sea pho­to booth. There will be face paint­ing and a car­i­ca­tur­ist. Island Rec is pro­vid­ing inflat­able fun includ­ing a bounce house and slide, and FANS has been dili­gent­ly prac­tic­ing their bal­loon ani­mal techniques.

Come join us for some free fam­i­ly fun.

The Town sends along news about the steps involved in cre­at­ing its new hous­ing action plan.

The Town of Fri­day Har­bor is pleased to invite the com­mu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in upcom­ing com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties planned for each project mile­stone that will be used to devel­op and shape the Fri­day Har­bor Hous­ing Action Plan. The HAP is a plan­ning tool that looks at hous­ing stock, hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty, hous­ing needs, hous­ing types, and reg­u­la­to­ry con­straints to design imple­mentable hous­ing strate­gies in Fri­day Harbor.

Com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment activ­i­ties will include pop-up events, dig­i­tal sto­ry­telling, sur­veys, work­shops, and pub­lic meet­ings. The project team has start­ed a pre­lim­i­nary assess­ment of exist­ing con­di­tions, local hous­ing con­straints, and an eval­u­a­tion regard­ing poten­tial oppor­tu­ni­ties. These find­ings will be shared with the com­mu­ni­ty lat­er this sum­mer. Upon com­ple­tion of exten­sive research, com­mu­ni­ty out­reach, and pub­lic meet­ings, the Town’s HAP is sched­uled for adop­tion in June 2023.

Fri­day Har­bor Mar­ket Place is host­ing the first oppor­tu­ni­ty to gath­er your input regard­ing hous­ing needs in town. Come meet with Town staff and the Town’s HAP con­sul­tant on Sat­ur­day, May 14 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Ryan Eric­son, Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment Direc­tor, at 360–378-2810 or ryane@fridayharbor.org.

Island Rec sends along an update about the sta­tus of their spring co-ed soc­cer league.

Don’t miss out on your chance to join our recre­ation­al sum­mer soc­cer league. Ref­er­eed games are played on Tues­day and/or Thurs­day evenings from May to July at John O. Linde Com­mu­ni­ty Park, end­ing with a cham­pi­onship tournament.

New this year, every play­er must reg­is­ter indi­vid­u­al­ly. The min­i­mum num­ber of par­tic­i­pants and teams must be met by the ear­ly dead­line of Wednes­day, May 11 or the league will be can­celled. So don’t wait — and make sure your team­mates sign up. A min­i­mum of eight full teams is need­ed by May 11 and the max­i­mum team size is 20 peo­ple. Addi­tion­al rules can be found on the Island Rec web­site.

The cost is $35 per per­son until May 11 and $40 there­after. Reg­is­ter online or call the Island Rec office at 360–478-4953.

A small group of us on San Juan Island are thrilled, delight­ed, moved, awed, and impressed by our local com­mu­ni­ty theater’s pre­sen­ta­tion of the New York Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera.

We are so for­tu­nate that right here in our small town we have this world class opera due to the gen­eros­i­ty of Dodie Gann. It’s amaz­ing to us that more peo­ple in our com­mu­ni­ty don’t embrace the excite­ment, the lush­ness and grandeur of opera. This treat is avail­able for a frac­tion of the cost of going to a large the­ater pro­duc­tion in the city. Month­ly we rev­el in watch­ing the Met Opera on the enor­mous screen, the dra­mas and some­times come­dies of var­i­ous operas. Nat­u­ral­ly, the singing is gor­geous, but includ­ed as a delight for the sens­es are the rich ele­gant cos­tumes, amaz­ing scenery and fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ries that unfold as we sit in our com­fort­able chairs and enjoy our time in the dark­ened theater.

We’ve tak­en to going out after the show to var­i­ous places for a drink to dis­cuss what we’ve seen, what parts we loved best and what per­haps was dif­fi­cult for us.

Don’t miss out! Won’t you join us? We are also award­ing schol­ar­ships to any stu­dent will­ing to take a chance on the opera. How about it?

Susan Grout
Liz Pil­low
Pat­ty Rasmussen
Lee Stur­di­vant
San Juan Island 

• A few dozen islanders gath­ered out­side the San Juan Coun­ty Cour­t­house on Tues­day evening to show their oppo­si­tion to the prospec­tive over­turn­ing of Roe v. Wade.
• Fri­day Har­bor base­ball won both games of a dou­ble­head­er against LaCon­ner, 17–4 and 3–1, bring­ing their over­all record to 14–2 and improv­ing to 11–1 in league play. They trav­el to Orcas Island on Thursday.
• Orga­niz­ers of last mon­th’s Great Islands Clean-up announced that vol­un­teers on San Juan, Orcas, Lopez, and Shaw Islands col­lec­tive­ly gath­ered 3,500 pounds of trash from the coun­ty’s roads and beach­es dur­ing the April 23 event.
• The library is hold­ing a fam­i­ly Lego event on Thurs­day from 3 to 5 p.m. in the meet­ing room. No reg­is­tra­tion is required, but preschool chil­dren must be super­vised by an adult.
• The pho­tog­ra­phy dis­play at the Fair needs a num­ber of vol­un­teers to help accept entries, judge pho­tos, answer ques­tions, accept Peo­ple’s Choice votes, and clean up after the event ends. Email Miles Crossen at superfairphoto@gmail.com if you can help out.
• Fri­day Har­bor Film Festival’s next offer­ing in its Direc­tor Series is Pandora’s Promise, a film about the his­to­ry and future of nuclear pow­er. There’s a free online show­ing on Thurs­day from 6:30 to 9 p.m., after which the film will be avail­able on demand for $1.95 until May 18.

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