OPALCO shares news about rate changes com­ing in 2023 and beyond.

The 2023 OPALCO annu­al bud­get was approved at the Nov. 17 board meet­ing. It includes a six per­cent rate increase for all mem­bers, fund­ing for con­struc­tion of the Bail­er Hill Com­mu­ni­ty Solar Project, and ener­gy effi­cien­cy incentives.

The bud­get fore­casts a six per­cent rate increas­es for each of the next five years to keep up with infla­tion, the ris­ing costs of pow­er and labor, and to man­age the co-op’s equi­ty posi­tion. The co-op uses equi­ty to bor­row fed­er­al funds for major cap­i­tal projects, like the sub­ma­rine cable replace­ments that are sched­uled in the next 10–20 years.

OPALCO con­tin­ues to lever­age grant funds and the Bon­neville Pow­er Admin­is­tra­tion rebate pro­gram to encour­age mem­bers to make their homes and busi­ness more ener­gy effi­cient and help reduce their total ener­gy spend­ing. OPALCO’s on-bill financ­ing pro­gram, Switch It Up, lets mem­bers start effi­cien­cy projects now and pay for them lat­er. Mem­bers in good stand­ing can get projects such as weath­er­iza­tion, solar and bat­tery projects, or upgrades to heat­ing sys­tems installed with no mon­ey down and two per­cent inter­est. Oth­er res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial rebates are also available.

OPALCO’s sec­ond com­mu­ni­ty solar project, the Bail­er Hill Micro­grid, is sched­uled to begin con­struc­tion in 2023, and mem­bers will be able to pur­chase a piece of the project as soon as next spring. Com­mu­ni­ty solar is local­ly pro­duced pow­er that mem­bers buy into and get cred­its on their bill for the ener­gy pro­duced. These projects are fund­ed through grants and by the mem­bers who buy into the project. This project will includes bat­tery stor­age like OPAL­CO’s Decatur Island Microgrid.

The bud­get also includes increased sup­port for ener­gy assis­tance to house­holds who strug­gle to pay their pow­er bill. There are two pro­grams that mem­bers can apply to for bill assis­tance — Project Pal, which is a grant once each year dur­ing the heat­ing sea­son, and Ener­gy Assist, which pro­vides a bill cred­it every month based on house­hold size. Islanders can apply for ener­gy assis­tance online or through the Fam­i­ly Resource Center.

The Cham­ber of Com­merce shares news about tonight’s hol­i­day event.

The San Juan Island Cham­ber of Com­merce’s Island Lights Fes­ti­val will take place tonight at 6:30 p.m. in down­town Fri­day Har­bor. This kick-off event for the Fri­day Har­bor Win­ter­fest is pre­sent­ed in part­ner­ship with Island Rec and, of course, San­ta Claus.

Our tree light­ing will be a touch dif­fer­ent this year and we will be resort­ing to how the Island Lights Fes­ti­val was years ago. This is due to the sad demise of the big tree in Memo­r­i­al Park. The Town will make the shape of a tree with twin­kling lights and the col­ors will coin­cide with the Noel sign, which is man­aged by the San Juan Island Lions Club.

It will be a fun-filled evening when the com­mu­ni­ty gath­ers on Spring Street between First and Front streets to await the arrival of San­ta. We will have car­ol­ing while sip­ping some hot choco­late and cof­fee before he arrives to light the tree. Then it’s up to Brick­works for crafts with Island Rec and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take pic­tures and self­ies with Santa.

Contributed photo

One of San Juan Island’s artists shares news about an upcom­ing solo exhibition.

On Sat­ur­day, Dec. 3, a selec­tion of works on paper by local artist Glenn Hen­drick will be fea­tured in Joe Cooper’s inti­mate­ly pro­por­tioned Art­space, locat­ed at 160 Macgi­nite Road. The open­ing will take place from noon to 3 p.m., with tea and cookies.

Art­space is the home stu­dio of Joe Coop­er, tucked around the cor­ner from part­ner Paula West’s pot­tery stu­dio. In addi­tion to pro­vid­ing dis­play space for fin­ished pieces and works in process, this 200 square foot space is home to peri­od­ic, care­ful­ly curat­ed shows of work by oth­er artists. The spare, sim­ple build­ing pro­vides a clear and clean con­text for the pre­sen­ta­tion of small but potent bod­ies of work.

Glenn Hen­drick works in ceram­ics, print­mak­ing, paint­ing, draw­ing, tex­tiles, and pho­tog­ra­phy, weav­ing obser­va­tion, sym­bol­ism, and per­son­al mythol­o­gy. This selec­tion of work was most­ly cre­at­ed with­in the past two years, and fea­tures paint­ing, draw­ing, and print­mak­ing inspired by the nat­ur­al fea­tures of her island surroundings.

Glenn received her BFA from the School of the Art Insti­tute of Chica­go in 2006. She has lived on San Juan Island since 2013 and is Co-Direc­tor of Alche­my Art Center.

Photo credit: Russel Barsh

For the last few years the glob­al pan­dem­ic has wreaked hav­oc with many of our cher­ished hol­i­day tra­di­tions. This has giv­en us all an oppor­tu­ni­ty to shift to sim­pler sce­nar­ios. We’ve out of neces­si­ty had to shift, or in some cas­es give up, tra­di­tions that pre-pan­dem­ic seemed per­ma­nent­ly estab­lished. We have an oppor­tu­ni­ty now to cre­ate new and pos­si­bly more reward­ing traditions.

But wait — is the pan­dem­ic over? While some of my friends have been eager­ly fill­ing up their social cal­en­dars and plan­ning trips, I’m still won­der­ing where I’m going to find the lev­el of soli­tude required to learn how to make sour­dough bread!

That’s right. I’m an introvert.

Often mis­un­der­stood, we intro­verts don’t dis­like peo­ple — we just might not want to see all of you at the same time. We need qui­et spaces in between activ­i­ties to regroup. The more extro­vert­ed among us might ben­e­fit from strate­gies intro­verts use to avoid stress­ing out dur­ing the holidays.

Rather than becom­ing like a ping-pong ball bat­ted from one activ­i­ty to the next, become the cap­tain of your own des­tiny. Make a plan. Before your cal­en­dar is full, block out days for qui­et activ­i­ties you know you will enjoy.

Spend some qual­i­ty time with peo­ple you love mak­ing cook­ies, watch­ing movies, and tak­ing nature walks. Plan a spir­i­tu­al­ly renew­ing retreat. Spend some time with ani­mals. Cre­ate your own jour­nal­ing work­shop. These are just a few sug­ges­tions to keep the mad­ness of the sea­son at bay.

I recent­ly saw a hol­i­day mes­sage from my friend Ale­jan­dra Zac­ci, who works as a life coach. She reminds us, “For those of you who don’t want to cel­e­brate, who don’t feel like cel­e­brat­ing, it’s OK. You don’t have to.” Let me repeat — you don’t have to, and it’s OK. You have free will and are allowed to make choices.

Here’s wish­ing you and your loved ones the very best of this win­ter hol­i­day sea­son in what­ev­er ways suit you best.

Contributed photo

The Peace Island Vol­un­teers Christ­mas Shoppe returns this Sat­ur­day with dozens of hol­i­day bas­kets avail­able for sale. The event takes place at the Mullis Cen­ter, with doors open­ing at 10 a.m.

There are gift bas­kets for chil­dren, adults, dog and cat lovers, wine lovers, sports fans, and many oth­ers — each assem­bled with care by a ded­i­cat­ed team of island vol­un­teers. Bas­kets are priced from $5 to $150, with all pro­ceeds ben­e­fit­ing the Vol­un­teers’ Angel Fund.

Atten­dees are encour­aged to arrive ear­ly, as the bas­kets usu­al­ly sell out ear­ly in the day.

The Coun­ty shares news about the cul­mi­na­tion of plan­ning and com­mu­ni­ty input six years in the making.

The San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil adopt­ed the 2036 Com­pre­hen­sive Plan Update today after six years of meet­ings, pub­lic hear­ings, and input. The doc­u­ment will serve as the road map for future devel­op­ment, growth man­age­ment, and Coun­ty pro­grams over the next two decades.

“This is such an impor­tant achieve­ment for the Coun­ty,” said Coun­cilmem­ber Jamie Stephens, who has spent half of his 12-year coun­cil career work­ing on the Plan. “I’ve been part of dif­fi­cult deci­sion-mak­ing over the years in hopes that bring­ing it up to date will help the Coun­ty plan more eas­i­ly and mind­ful­ly for future growth.”

The 2036 Com­pre­hen­sive Plan Update process began in 2016 and has been a major focus for the Coun­cil and the County’s Depart­ment of Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment. The Plan­ning Com­mis­sion ded­i­cat­ed 71 meet­ings to the Com­pre­hen­sive Plan Update over the last six years, and since mid-Sep­tem­ber the Coun­cil has held spe­cial meet­ings to review dif­fer­ent ele­ments of the Plan includ­ing land use, hous­ing, trans­porta­tion, his­toric and arche­o­log­i­cal preser­va­tion, and offi­cial maps.

This accom­plish­ment is pos­si­ble thanks to the work of count­less mem­bers of the pub­lic, Plan­ning Com­mis­sion vol­un­teers, past and present coun­cilmem­bers and Coun­ty employ­ees, con­sul­tants, and more, who con­tributed their time, tal­ents, and exper­tise. Con­tin­ue Reading

One of San Juan Island’s local artist groups shares news about their upcom­ing art sale.

The artists of the Fri­day Har­bor Ate­lier invite the pub­lic to a hol­i­day open house and art sale on Fri­day, Dec. 2 from 4–7 p.m. More than a dozen artists will be on hand to open their stu­dios or present their work in the gallery space for sale, with styles and themes includ­ing por­traits, land­scapes, flo­rals, ani­mals, and abstract fine art. There will also be a selec­tion of cards, fine art prints, tote bags and oth­er unique gifts.

“This year we are cel­e­brat­ing our fifth anniver­sary as an art com­mu­ni­ty,” says artist Deb­bie Daniels. “After the past few years, more than ever we want to cel­e­brate local small busi­ness­es and encour­age islanders to give the gift of hand­made art for the holidays.”

Fri­day Har­bor Ate­lier — locat­ed at 313 Spring St. — will also be open Dec. 3, 10, and 17 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

The Ate­lier is an inde­pen­dent group of artists work­ing in a com­mon stu­dio space. They pro­vide afford­able pri­vate stu­dio spaces, an open stu­dio space, show­case art, and host class­es, work­shops and exhi­bi­tions. Mem­ber artists of the Ate­lier include Gretchen Alli­son, Rita Althoff, Shan­non Borg, Mary Bruce, Deb­bie Daniels, Ali­son Engle, David Harsh, Lori Hell­strom, Pam Hoke, Lisa Lam­ore­aux, Lau­ra & Sam­my Long, Jan Mur­phy, Tere­sa Smith, and Dol­ly Sundstrom.

The San Juan Island Library hosts Har­ry Pot­ter Triv­ia for youth in grades 5–12 from 2:30–4 p.m. on Wednes­day, Nov. 30 in the Library Meet­ing Room. Accord­ing to the Library, ques­tions cov­er a vari­ety of wiz­ard­ly top­ics and will draw facts from the orig­i­nal Har­ry Pot­ter books and movies.

Snacks will be avail­able, the win­ning team gets a prize, and no reg­is­tra­tion is required.