Thank you to the school board
We would like to take this time to thank our hard working and dedicated Orcas Island School District Board members. These individuals are the supreme examples of volunteerism. They are elected officials who do not get paid, get constant comments and questions from parents, administrators, teachers, legislators, and people on the street. They work long hours for our school to insure that we have quality education in a quality environment within the restraints of decreasing budgets and increasing needs. All of the teachers at Orcas Island Schools would like Charles Glasser, Tony Ghazel, Scott Lancaster, Janet Brownell and Keith Whitaker to know that we appreciate all they do to make our school run smoothly and efficiently.
Orcas Island Education Association (teachers of OISD)
Returning social security check
It’s an outrage and insulting! The $250 to all with Social Security. It’s such a pittance, until you multiply times the number who get it. It means nothing to me – the monthly electricity bill is more. My price is $50,000 at least and I would not accept that against the benefits we receive from the military, police, firefighters, EMS, schools, library, etc.
I am returning it to apply to the national debt.
Ruth Pihl
Eastsound
Thanks for helping with senior class dinner
We are writing with a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped make the senior class dinner (Monday night, May 5) such a wonderful success!
Great gratitude to Orcas Center for the beautiful Madrona Room and all the support. Next, kudos to the “Wait Staff” – Chris Dolan, Mimi Anderson, Steve Diepenbrock, and Brad and Karen Harlow! What a team. We all felt so well cared for. Thanks to Janet Brownell and Hilary Canty for the loan of the beautiful Tuscan pottery and Lori Breslauer for happy tablecloths. Thanks to Morning Star Farm for smiling tulips and nourishingly delicious greens. Thanks to Coach Cindy Elliott for her dedication as class advisor and for loving our kids. Thanks to Marcia Gillingham for showing up at just the right moment. Thanks to the bringers of appetizers. Thanks to Roses for the delicious bread. Thanks to Maddie and Anton for the wonderful slide show. Thanks to Rick Boucher for the “who is it” game. Thanks to all the parents and guardians for bringing this amazing group of young people this far.
Finally, a huge thank you to Ani Sparks-Dempster and Alex Castillo for the incredible food and the love with which it was prepared and served. We couldn’t have done it without your knowledge, skill and graciousness.
Lynsey Smith and Penny Sharp Sky
Orcas Island
EPRC open house a success
The Eastsound Planning and Review Committee would like to thank all of the citizens and participants who met for our Open House. There were displays from the Stormwater Utility, Long Range Planning, Island Stewards, Eastsound Waters Users Association and Eastsound Sewer and Water as well as members from EPRC and our County Council representatives to answer questions, look at maps and record concerns. The EPRC’s 2009 priorities were featured. These are: 1.) Completion of a Streetscape plan (for on-street parking, curbs gutters and sidewalks), 2.) Education about development of the county’s stormwater treatment property (Mount property directly behind the Village Green), 3.) Non-motorized transportation, trails and opening Madrona Point, 4.) Developing a housing element for the subarea plan, 5.) Enforcement and reevaluation of the requirement for installing sidewalks.
Street vending, the Country Corner LAMRID proposals, and water quality were also discussed. There was strong support that Eastsound should continue to develop as a “walking village.”
I would encourage everyone to look at a copy of the Eastsound Subarea Plan (available on the county website or public library) to see the development standards currently in place. The EPRC meets monthly (first Thursday of the month 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Orcas Senior Center) with minutes posted on the county web site. The public is encouraged to attend and participate in our discussions. You may also e-mail your thoughts and concerns to esplreco@yahoo.com or sign up to be sent our agendas and updates on planning issues. There is a special presentation to the County Council on June 22 when they meet on Orcas (time and location to be set). Community advocates: we are still accepting applications for our open board seat.
Gulliver Rankin
EPRC chair
Take your old books to the library
Hey folks, as the good weather comes on, many folks are undertaking cleaning projects. One thing to keep in mind is that The Exchange is inundated with more books than they have space for and many quality books are “triaged” in the name of space constraints, even though the folks at The Exchange do a great job with the available space that they have.
You can help out The Exchange and the library by taking your quality hardcover books to the library instead. Some will make it to the shelf and many will be sold at the library’s big summer book sale.
This lessens the burden on the staff at our wonderful Exchange and it helps the library to raise much needed funds in these times of tightening budgets and spending cuts for necessary public services that we all enjoy as a community.
The library isn’t really set up for multi-box deposits of books so a bit of hand sorting for the best books would be nice and maybe limiting the amount to ten as not to overwhelm the library staff with your generous donation.
Thank you all for thinking about community and environment this summer and beyond.
David Dunlap
Orcas Island
Congrats to the Girl Scouts
Kudos to the Girl Scouts of Western Washington! The scouts, along with their leaders, raised enough money to send 112,569 boxes of cookies to our troops overseas. “Operation Cookie Drop 2009” was a great success. My hat is off to these wonderful young Americans.
Jake Jacobus
Eastsound
Response to “Earth cooling” letter
When I saw a letter to the editor on April 15 suggesting that the Earth was on a cooling trend, I had to check to see if I had picked up the Flounder and not the Sounder! Most of what was presented in that letter is inaccurate. Average annual global temperatures are not falling. Calling the trend from 1998 to 2008 a cooling trend is like noting that it was 69 degrees in Eastsound on April 6 and 52 degrees on April 12 and concluding that winter must be fast approaching! Last year was the eighth warmest year in history. The 10 warmest years in history have all occurred in the last 12 years! As a geologist, I can tell you that you would be hard pressed to find a scientist who would deny that global warming is occurring. While variations in sunspot activity, Earth’s orbit and wobble, volcanism, and other natural phenomena do have an impact on Earth’s temperatures, the global warming we are experiencing correlates negatively with these natural phenomena but correlates positively with the dramatic additions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Yes, hundreds of millions of years ago it was much warmer and sea level was many tens of meters higher, but let’s not wish for that because even a likely one- or two-meter rise in sea level will displace tens to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
There is near unanimity among global climate change scientists that the greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere are the major cause of this rapid global warming and that the warming will accelerate if we do nothing about it. Scientists have documented that species ranges of plants and animals in our hemisphere are migrating northward an average of 6.1 kilometers per decade, spring events (flowering, egg-laying, etc.) are occurring 2.3 days earlier per decade, glaciers worldwide are melting dramatically, the north polar ice cap is shrinking and will soon disappear, ice shelves in Antarctica are disintegrating, and sea level is rising. Pretending there is no problem is not the solution.
Jonathan H. Berg
Eastsound
Thanks for supporting writers festival dinner
Thank you to everyone who came out to support the May 9 “Coming To Our Senses” benefit dinner and cooking class for the Orcas Island Writers Festival.
We are especially grateful to local chef Bill Patterson of the Sazio dinner club, and farmer Rhonda Barbieri of La Campesina Project for their generous and talented support.
Good writing depends on utilizing the senses, and we certainly had our senses quickened as we learned about farming and cooking with local foods. A special thanks to local event coordinator Rinda McGarry for the visual presentation of the lovely Emmanuel Parish Hall, photographer Sandi Hedrich for making Rhonda’s farm come alive for us, and musicians Charly Robinson and Brenin Wertz-Roth who enlivened our auditory senses with their lively music.
For more information about the September 17-20 Orcas Island Writers Festival visit www.orcasislandwritersfestival.com. Early Bird Registration is now underway.
Barbara Lewis
Festival Director
Give input on presidential process
I am PCO for District 1 on Orcas Island. I recently attended a Democratic meeting on Orcas.
The issue of most importance to me, and I believe for my district constituents, was the issue of the presidential candidate selection process. What I heard from many people last year, when the caucus took place at the Orcas Island school gym, was that it was disorganized, congested and disenfranchising to many people who could not attend. Along with the fact that the primary vote did not count at all, it left many people feeling dissatisfied with the state of the candidate selection.
At this meeting a straw poll was taken. Out of approximately 12 people who attended the meeting, many PCO’s representing districts throughout San Juan County, only two (myself being one of the two) voted for a primary election only to select presidential candidates. Nobody voted for a caucus only, like that used in 2008, and the rest voted for a combination selection process that had some delegates selected by the primary vote and some selected by the caucus process.
I am asking District 1 voters to let me know where you stand on this issue and all other county voters to let their PCOs and representatives know what they want as their presidential candidate process.
My personal belief is that the primary election affords the most people the opportunity to show their preference for a candidate. The caucus in my view is skewed in favor of those who are more vocal, have the time that specific day to attend, extroverted, and charismatic speakers that can successfully influence. The other issue I have with the caucus process is that it in a small community not all citizens feel comfortable letting everyone know what their political beliefs are. Why are all other voting processes secret?
So please let your PCOs and local representatives know your preference. The next time a vote is taken on this issue I will hopefully know what “my people” want. My email: errol@smithandspeed.com or 376-7608.
Errol Speed
Orcas Island District 1 PCO
Waffle breakfast A success!
A mere thank you cannot express our gratitude to this community and their abundant support for Louise Sasan and her family. We were able to raise close to $15,000! This exceeded our expectation but was not surprising, given where we live and the amazing people we live with! The joy in watching our community come together is a gift in itself. Your donations, prayers, compassion, time and love are unsurpassed!
Thank you from deep within our hearts … the Sasan Family, the Gage Family, the Harper Family, the Bledsoe Family, all our children and the Teezer’s Crew … we love you!
“Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full — pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The measure you give will be the measure you get back.” Luke 6:38.
Teezer’s Cookies
Support new location for Farmers’ Market
We are writing in support of permanently locating the Saturday Farmers’ Market on Prune Alley between “A” Street and Fern Street.
There is a wonderful community feeling about this location, the farmers like it, and as neighbors we greatly approve.
Charles Dalton,
Nikki Ames,
Gordon walker,
Robin Woodward
