Here’s a thought…
“Neither the evil nor the good in our history determines who we are. It is what we do now. If we do not say something ourselves about this horror, we allow ourselves to be changed.”
TIMOTHY SNYDER
San Juan County Affordable Housing News Roundup – Fall 2024
Council approved five Affordable Housing Awards totaling $65,000 and allocated $30,000 to local Resource Centers via the Emergency Rental Assistance Pilot Project. ||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS ||| San Juan County continues to support affordable housing efforts throughout the islands via the Home Fund, the Affordable Housing Awards, Connecting Housing
Animal rights group calls for release of Argentina’s last captive orca
||| FROM WJBD RADIO.COM ||| (LONDON) — Animal rights activists are calling for the release of an orca who has been living in Argentina’s largest aquarium for over 30 years. The orca named Kshamenk, pronounced Shamenk, is the last captive orca in all of Latin America, living in Buenos Aires’
Letter to Editor | Land Bank is successful; let’s not lose it
||| FROM JANE WENTWORTH ||| I am proud to live in a county with a citizen-founded Land Bank. The forward-thinking citizens of San Juan County voted in 1990 to establish the Land Bank real estate excise tax (REET), after helping to create the state enabling legislation. Citizens have renewed it
Inslee provides $1.5M emergency funding for San Juan Island transportation service
||| FROM THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR JAY INSLEE ||| During a meeting with San Juan Island leaders, residents and businesses today, Gov. Jay Inslee announced he is issuing $1.5 million in emergency and short-term funding to restore critical ferry transportation networks throughout the San Juan Islands. Due to crewing challenges,
Letter to Editor | We are entitled to hear the whole story about McVeigh
||| FROM DAVID JOHNSON ||| I am compelled to respond to Kari McVeigh’s recent letter to the editor published on July 10, 2024, titled “Kari McVeigh responds to attacks.” While Ms. McVeigh attempts to frame the previous news coverage as an unwarranted assault on her campaign, it is crucial that
SJC Tourism at a Crossroads? (Part 2 – Paulsen-Hughes respond)
||| BY MATTHEW GILBERT, theORCASONIAN OP-ED REPORTER ||| In Part 1 on the future of the SJC Visitors Bureau, I had planned to include the thoughts of each candidate vying to represent Orcas Island on the County Council – Justin Paulsen and Rick Hughes – since one of them will likely
New orca calf born to Southern Resident L pod
||| FROM KING-TV ||| A very young orca calf was spotted off the coast of San Juan Island Monday. The calf is the newest member of the L pod subgroup. According to the Center for Whale Research, the calf, L128 and its mother, L90, both look healthy and appear to
Guest Opinion | Energy transition, the bigger picture, Part 3 of 3
||| FROM ED SUIJ ||| Richard Heinberg had seven concurrent steps of what we could do. Here are a couple more. If all happened simultaneously we might have a slim chance. Step 1 It is clear that there is only one way to avert the coming global upheaval, and that
Art Opening | Robert Dash
||| FROM ORCAS CENTER ||| Orcas Center’s Visual Arts Committee (VAC) is pleased to present the next Art Opening, Friday, September 27 from 5:30pm – 7pm with featured artist, Robert Dash in the lobby, and a community show of Drawings and Prints in the Madrona Room. Robert Dash is an
PFFAP applications open to support local infrastructure and small businesses
||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS ||| Starting today, applications are open for the Public Facilities Funding Assistance Program (PFFAP). Funded by sales and use tax, this program allows for local entities to apply for funding to finance public facilities serving economic development purposes. What is PFFAP? San Juan County
Letter to Editor | A cascade of management failures
||| FROM MICHAEL RIORDAN, FRED KLEIN, and ROBERT AUSTIN ||| On Saturday EWUA members received yet another in a long chain of email letters purportedly written by Board President Teri Nigretto, claiming to absolve General Manager Dan Burke of his unauthorized misappropriation of over $10,000 in member funds. Upon closer
Editorial & Adrift | Another beautiful day on Orcas Island
||| BY LIN MCNULTY, theORCASONIAN EDITOR ||| It's just another beautiful day on Orcas Island. The sky is clouded over and we probably, once again, will not see the aurora over our heads tonight. If the cloudiness lasts a couple more days, we will miss the upcoming lunar eclipse. There
Guest Opinion | Energy transition, the bigger picture, Part 2 of 3
||| FROM ED SUIJ ||| Before we continue with Part 2, here is some added information that is useful when we talk about the lifespan of solar panels. The energy payback of solar panels is about 1-4 yrs (newer technology has lower embedded energy) which means for the rest of
Guest Opinion | Energy transition, the bigger picture, Part 1 of 3
||| FROM ED SUIJ ||| A few notes regarding the excellent recent article by Richard Heinberg about energy transition, which was published HERE a couple weeks ago. We will have a closer look at: urgency, energy descent, population and steps 1-7. Urgency Let’s take a look at where we are
Letter to Editor | Two major reasons to support Kari McVeigh
||| FROM SHAUN HUBBARD and HAROLD KAWAGUCHI ||| Two of the many reasons why we support Kari McVeigh for San Juan County Council: fire and water. Inherently, islands are finite bodies of land surrounded by water, and yet we have a scarce supply of fresh, drinkable water. Kari is in
Letter to Editor | Land Bank deserves our support
||| FROM ELISABETH ROBSON ||| When I first considered moving to San Juan County over a decade ago, the first thing I did was go to every bit of public and protected land in the county that I could find. Along with a good library, the most important feature of
