San Juan Island Service Scholarship’s Fill the Fund campaign takes place for the third straight year this Friday, March 18. Island Petroleum Services, located at 315 Carter Avenue, is donating 50 cents from each gallon purchased on Friday to SJISS.

Formerly known as Dollars for Scholars, SJISS provides needed scholarship funds to graduating seniors who successfully complete a minimum of 80 volunteer hours for nonprofit organizations on San Juan Island.

Learn more about the San Juan Island Service Scholarship at their website.

The Town of Friday Harbor shares the following update on their revised Public Works Engineering & Design Standards.

The public is invited to learn about and comment on the updated Public Works Engineering & Design Standards at the Town Council meeting on Thursday, April 7 at 12 p.m.

The Town has updated the Street & Storm Drainage Standards and the Water System & Sewer System Extension Requirements for development in Friday Harbor. These documents are now incorporated into one document, the Public Works Engineering Design Standards. Creating one document with permitting requirements, variance requirements and development standards will help facilitate the review and permitting process.

The objectives for updating the Standards are:

• Provide a user-friendly document.
• Provide a clear administrative process for permitting and project closeout.
• Update design criteria and typical details to reflect current code, land use plans and Town preferences.
• Add design criteria and details for new topics (i.e., bike ways, low impact development and illuminations).
• Provide guidance on locally produced materials.

Comments and concerns regarding the Standards can also be forwarded to the Town by contacting Amy Taylor, Town Clerk at 360-378-2810 or [email protected].

A long-term cap on the number of vacation rental permits allowed in San Juan County came a step closer to reality at the County Council meeting this past Tuesday, March 8, as the Council took up debate on the recommendations proposed by the County Planning Commission.

Representatives from the County’s Community Development department outlined the Commission’s conclusions, which center on a county-wide cap of 650 vacation rental permits. Of those 650 permits, 229 would be allotted to San Juan Island, with 334 for Orcas Island, 85 for Lopez Island, and two for the outer islands. Those numbers match the number of compliant permits as of July 31, 2021 – the last day of the month that the Commission began discussing the issue of permit caps.

The Commission’s recommendations differ substantially from the guidance provided to them by the County Council the month prior, in June 2021. That guidance called for more than 1,100 permits, including roughly 500 permits each on San Juan and Orcas. It did not specify a precise number for Lopez, but advocated allocating more than the 130 permits that had been issued there at the time.

Resolving that difference is the most pressing consideration for the Council as it works to finalize a revised vacation rental permit ordinance by the May 2022 deadline it set for itself in December of last year. Continue Reading

On Monday, Feb. 28, the San Juan County Public Hospital District finalized its $4.8 million purchase of the Village at the Harbor, a 36-bed long-term care facility located on Spring Street.

With the sale complete, the PHD now embarks on an ambitious plan to ensure the continued availability and eventual expansion of long-term care services on San Juan Island. The PHD aims to maintain the Village’s existing private-payer model, while at the same time adding substantial capacity for lower-income residents on Medicaid, establishing a program to help seniors age in place, providing stability for the Village’s staff, and improving its facilities.

One of the major staffing changes took place the day following the acquisition, when all employees working 32 or more hours per week were provided medical, dental, and vision coverage, along with retirement benefits and paid time off. None of these benefits had been offered while the Village was under private ownership.

Employees also received wage increases of roughly ten percent on March 1. Continue Reading

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, Island Rec’s Study Time and Afternoon Recreation (STAR) program returns to Friday Harbor Elementary School on Monday, March 21.

“The STAR program serves a critical need for elementary age after-school childcare in our community, and we know how important it is for Island Rec to get this program up and running again”, said Maddie Ovenell, Director of Island Rec.

STAR serves children from kindergarten through grade five. It operates out of the elementary school cafeteria each school day from 2:45 p.m. to 6 p.m., as well as early dismissal days from 11:10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Operated by three Island Rec staff members, the program offers free play, a variety of organized recreational and educational activities, and structured homework time, as well as a daily snack.

STAR costs $12.50 per day on regular school days and $18.25 for each early dismissal day. Parents must submit an application to Island Rec prior to their children attending.

Minnie Knych sends along the following request for help from the Island community on behalf of the American Legion Auxiliary.

Since 2001, the American Legion Auxiliary in Friday Harbor has organized and sent monthly care packages to any service man or woman who is a friend or relative of a local resident and serving in a war zone. This was made possible by the generous donations of the citizens of San Juan Island.

Over the years, we’ve sometimes had as many as sixteen people on our list at one time. By 2014, our list had dwindled to three, and then finally to one serviceman in Afghanistan. From 2017 to 2022 we have not known of any active duty military serving overseas. Now the world has changed. At this time there are active duty military being posted to the Middle East as well as to Eastern European NATO nations on the border of Ukraine.

If you have a friend of relative who is posted to one of these areas, please let me know and we will make sure that he or she receives a monthly care package to share with their unit. Or if you would like to donate items for the boxes, please contact me at 360-378-7040 for a list of items to donate.

Island rock band Desolation Sound will premiere live versions of songs from their new album “Salish Rock” at a benefit concert tomorrow, March 12, at the San Juan Community Theatre.

The event starts at 7:30 p.m., the entry fee is pay-what-you-can, and all proceeds will go to the Joyce L. Sobel Family Resource Center and SJCT.

Desolation Sound is Darvis Taylor, Scott Sluis, Tom Henry, and Daniel Day. You can hear tracks from the band’s previous records on Bandcamp.

The San Juan County Department of Emergency Management reports 23 confirmed or probable new COVID cases on San Juan Island since March 4. Neither Orcas Island nor Lopez Island reported a new case in the last week. The 23 new cases bring the total case count to 1,247.

In their media release, the County discussed the mask mandate that expires tomorrow:

When we wake up on Saturday morning, masks will no longer be required in public settings, including schools — but please note that some locations, including healthcare and long-term care facilities, will still have masking requirements in place. There are also federal requirements for transportation systems, including ferries and air travel, that will continue to require masking.

While many of us will be excited to take our masks off, we should remember that the masks we wore dramatically reduced disease spread by protecting both ourselves and those around us. With masks off, there will likely be a resurgence of flu and other respiratory illness and possibly a bump in COVID cases as well. Let’s all wear masks if we’re sick and in a public setting, including school. It’s pretty much common sense and basic decency at this point.

Assuming you are vaccinated and boosted, it still makes sense to mask up if you’re going to be interacting closely with someone who is high risk or are in a setting (e.g., indoors with large numbers of people) in a higher risk setting.

America’s Boating Club of the San Juan Islands will host its annual flare shoot and fire extinguisher training on Saturday, March 19 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Jackson Beach.

Participants will learn how to signal for help and practice setting off flares and using a fire extinguisher under the guidance of America’s Boating Club and San Juan Island Fire and Rescue. You can bring your own expired flares or use flares provided by the training staff.

Contact America’s Boating Club of the San Juan Islands for more information.

Spring Street International School’s virtual spring speaker series returns starting this Tuesday, March 15 from 6 to 7 p.m.

In the first of five sessions between March 15 and April 21, Joe Van Eeckhout of the Spring Street class of 2006 will discuss his journey as a cinematographer and filmmaker. Joe describes his experience this way:

Raised between Wyoming, Washington, and Alaska, the American West is where he draws most of his inspiration. After spending nearly a decade on the East Coast of the USA and three years based in East Africa, he returned to the West. Joe seeks to tell impactful, character-driven stories about rural America and the issues faced by its communities.

Joe has been behind the camera for multiple documentary films and recently he has worked on projects for Chums, Hulu, HBO Documentaries, Nat Geo Docs, The New York Times, VICE, and more.

Joe’s experience spans from branded production to non-fiction television, to documentary news and film. He has worked both domestically and internationally, recently working abroad in India, Philippines, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia.

Advance registration is required to receive the Zoom link for the March 15 presentation.

For the sixth straight year, the Town of Friday Harbor will offer residential garbage customers a one-time curbside pickup of items that are too large or heavy to fit in their garbage cans. The pickup will take place on customers’ regular collection day between Friday, March 25 and Thursday, March 31. According to the Town:

Specific rules apply regarding the volume and type of items that will be accepted including that items must fit in a standard pickup truck bed and weigh no more than 60 pounds. This pickup is for non-hazardous, non-liquid items such as large toys and scrap metal, mattresses, carpet, and unusable furniture. It is not for items such as yard or household waste, building materials, electronics, or large appliances, or for items that can be reused or recycled. Additional rules apply, and there will be no exceptions.

The Town reserves the right to decline pickup of any items. Unaccepted items must be removed by the customer within two days of their refuse pickup day. Unremoved items and anything left in front of empty homes will be investigated by Code Enforcement as illegal dumping. This service is solely to assist existing Town refuse customers, and no items may be brought to or left in Town.

If you have questions about the Spring Cleanup, call Town Hall at (360) 378–2810.