Here’s a thought…
“We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.”
KONRAD ADENAUER
Midnight Mutterings | Curmudgeonly yours…
||| MIDNIGHT MUTTERINGS by JACKIE BATES ||| Admittedly, English is my second language. Sort of. Southern English is a dialect, one widely considered inferior and sometimes (especially when unintended) pathetically comic. In my experience, Southern English is entirely satisfactory for receptive language, pretty much OK for written language, if you
Sheriff’s Report | January 26 – February 1, 2022
||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE ||| WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26 22-000592 Domestic Dispute or Assault 09:34:40 01/26/22 A Deputy on Orcas responded to a possible domestic in Eastsound. The incident happened the night before. Both parties were separated last night and only one involved person was able to be
Firehouse Findings | At OIFR, the debacle continues
||| BY MIA KARTIGANER, SPECIAL TO theORCASONIAN ||| I’d like to talk about the waning rigor of the hiring protocol and practices at Orcas Island Fire and Rescue (OIFR). It used to be a 3 day process that included multiple oral boards, skills assessments with the County Medical Program Director
Newest COVID numbers from State Dept. of Health
||| FROM STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ||| Newest numbers. The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) reported a total of 1,355,428 confirmed cases as of 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 1.* There have been 10,845 COVID-19 deaths in Washington. Data notes: *Effective Jan. 24, DOH will update the COVID-19 data dashboard on
Weekly Ferry Update | Colman Dock construction, launch of Quiet Sound website
||| FROM WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES ||| Head of WSDOT tours Colman Dock construction WSDOT Secretary Roger Millar toured our Seattle terminal last week to view how construction is progressing on our Colman Dock project. Thank you to our Director of Terminal Engineering David Sowers and our engineers on the project for
Northern elephant seal born at Deception Pass
State Parks closes parts of Bowman Bay to protect the new pup ||| FROM WASHINGTON STATE PARKS ||| OLYMPIA – Washington State Parks announces the birth of a new northern elephant seal at Deception Pass State Park. The birth took place on Jan. 31 at Bowman Bay in the park.
Another Fantastic Friday from Rep. Debra Lekanoff
||| FROM THE OFFICE OF REP. DEBRA LEKANOFF ||| Understanding Legislative Cutoffs Although it feels like we just started, we’re over a third of the way through this year’s legislative session! In fact, yesterday we passed the first legislative cutoff of the session. Legislative cutoffs are milestones bills need to reach by
An encouraging sign? We are seeing a drop in new COVID cases this week
||| FROM BRENDAN COWAN for DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ||| Since the last update on Friday January 28, there have been 62 new confirmed or probable cases in San Juan County. Current case count is now 1048. Encouragingly, this is less than half the number of new cases reported last
Occam’s Razor | Our island, our world through the eyes, pen of S.C. Watson
||| OCCAM'S RAZOR by S. C. WATSON ||| [EDITOR'S NOTE: Apologies to Mr. Watson. This formatting is hopefully temporary as we play catch-up to the internet.]
OPALCO Board to consider adjustment to smooth billing process after extreme cold temps caused high bills
“We can do better,” said Foster Hildreth ||| FROM SUZANNE OLSON for ORCAS POWER & LIGHT COOPERATIVE ||| The extreme cold temperatures in late December caused power bills to go up significantly in January – in some cases, doubling. The basic explanation is that more kilowatt hours were used to
PeaceHealth St. Joseph receives record donation of $50M
||| FROM ANNE WILLIAMS for PEACEHEALTH ST. JOSEPH MEDICAL CENTER ||| VANCOUVER, Wash. – PeaceHealth announced that it received a transformational $50 million donation from Peter H. Paulsen to help expand PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Washington. The gift is the most sizable in PeaceHealth history and one
Some immunocompromised individuals should receive four doses of COVID-19 vaccine
People who are immunocompromised are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 ||| FROM STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ||| OLYMPIA – A fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine can help some people with weakened immune systems be less likely to catch COVID-19 and get severely ill. Certain individuals who are immunocompromised may receive up to
Peace rally this Saturday at the Green: No war with Russia
||| FROM SHARON ABREU ||| I invite you to a short peace rally on the Eastsound Village Green this Saturday, Feb. 5, from 12:00-1:00. We'll be protesting our government threatening war with Russia and the buildup of troops currently taking place in that region. If you can, please response on the Facebook event page
Latest COVID numbers from the State
||| FROM STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ||| Newest numbers. The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) reported a total of 1,339,743 confirmed cases as of 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 30.* There have been 10,776 COVID-19 deaths in Washington. Data notes: *Effective Jan. 24, DOH will update the COVID-19 data dashboard on
San Juan County joins Islands’ Trust in asking Canada for a rescue tug In Sidney
||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS ||| On Jan. 26, San Juan County Council and the Islands Trust Council sent a joint letter requesting that the Canadian government "facilitate the repositioning of one of Canada's multi-mission emergency towing vessels [ETVs, also referred to as rescue tugs] to Sidney, B.C., to extend the
Firehouse Fracas | Ongoing situation at OIFR requires townhall meeting to answer questions
||| FROM MIA KARTIGANER, SPECIAL TO theORCASONIAN ||| I want to apologize. I volunteered to take on the arduous task of looking into what has been happening at Orcas Island Fire & Rescue (OIFR) without any formal training as a journalist. I didn’t understand at the outset how multifaceted this
