The voters’ guide for the Aug. 19 primary election recently began arriving in local mailboxes.
ONCE UPON A TIME there were seven little kittens: Cloud, Johnny, Cypress, T’Basco, Nugget, Cleo and Whisper. Actually, they’re here right now at the Orcas Animal Protection Society. They play every day with each other, and get great attention from the young shelter volunteers. But you can see they’re all looking at the door waiting for new families to come and take them home. It’s Open House every day at the Shelter, 2 to 5 p.m., so come pick your favorite. Or choose one of the older occupants … they’re great. They’re all on the web, too: www.orcaspets.org. Or call 376-6777.
Turn Point Lighthouse open house
Brown Bag concert at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Eastsound, featuring Organist Marianne Lewis from noon to 12:30 p.m. at Emmanuel Episcopal Church. Information available at 376-6579.
Every summer since 1954, one of the major events on the Orcas Island event calendar is the Library Fair. This coming Saturday, Aug. 9 from 10 to 4 p.m. at the Eastsound Village Square will be the 52nd annual fair. Though the first Library Fairs consisted of craft booths and books, additional elements have become fair traditions over time. This year’s event promises everything that annual attendees have come to expect. There will be booths offering a plethora of food, art, crafts and information; children’s activities, musical entertainment, the art and silent auctions, the quilt raffle and of course thousands of books.
Early last spring the gardener at the Doe Bay Resort and Retreat came to café Executive Chef Janay Destello with seed catalogs and asked her what she would like to have on the menu this year as part of their “Seed to Plate” program. “I love the fact that so much of the food we serve comes from right up the hill in the garden. Together we looked through the catalogs and I decided what I wanted to cook this year,” Destello says.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing site improvements, including the addition of a new restroom facility, on public lands it manages at Turn Point Light Station located on the San Juan Island’s Stuart Island. The proposed action would replace the current composting toilet with a vault toilet, re-route a portion of the existing trail from the outhouse to the historic water tank, remove selected and hazardous trees and create a volunteer host camp site.
The Veterans Administration has started once-a-month clinics at the Inter Island Medical Center on San Juan Island on the last Saturday of each month. The clinics are the result of longstanding efforts by San Juan County Council Member Kevin Ranker, working with “first gentleman” Mike Gregoire, State Washington Veterans Affairs Director, John Lee, and the Veterans Administration.
At their regularly scheduled meeting of July 30, the Lopez School Board approved an annual budget for school year 2008-09, with a General Fund amount of approximately $4.1 million. The overall budget also includes $1.6 million in Capital Projects funds, reflecting voter approval of last February’s Capital Projects Bond for eight different projects at the school.
Sports Physicals and Well Child Health Screening clinics conducted by County Health Officer, Frank James, M. D. and the public health staff of the San Juan County Health Department are scheduled for Aug. 13 and Sept. 3 at the Public Health Office in Friday Harbor.
Leadership San Juan Islands announces that preparation for Class V has started. Leadership San Juan Islands is a county-wide program which fosters leadership skills such as facilitation, collaborative problem solving, and public speaking as well as the analysis of local systems related to governance, economics, social services, history and culture, education and the environment. Participants are selected in the fall and spend five months together, January through May, with a staff of four and many regional leaders.
The five core interrelated aspects to emergency medical care on Orcas Island are the paramedics, the EMTs, the medical director, the ambulances, and communication.
The San Juan County Land Bank Commission will hold its regular monthly meeting on Friday, Aug. 15 at 8:30 a.m. in the Council Hearing Room at the San Juan County Legislative Building in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. A Public Hearing on the Proposed Second 2008 Amended Expenditure and Acquisition Plan is scheduled for 9 a.m. with projects reviewed to include the San Juan Historical Museum and Sundstrom/Ackley Farm properties on San Juan Island and the Steinbrueck property on Lopez.
