What a heart Orcas has!
Enormous thanks go to the 30 Orcas leaders, representing 12 local groups, and to youngsters from Matt Chasanof’s first-grade class and Kaleidoscope preschoolers, who gave up part of last rainy Wednesday to participate in the United Way Day of Caring (DOC).
The latter group brought blackberry cobbler and hot cocoa to feed volunteers who built a path from the school to Orcas Center and weeded Orcas Senior Center
The DOC project, which kicked off San Juan County United Way’s fall fund-raising campaign that supports more than 30 county organizations, also involved cleaning the gutters of several low-income seniors.
Rick Anda, Moriah Armstrong, Jack Becker, Merry Bush, Teresa Chocano, Walt Corbin, Ethna Flanagan. Laurie Gallo, Didier Gincig, Joe Goodrich, Kyle Hall, Toby Hiller, Aaimee Johnson, Mike Jonas, Robin Kucklick, Paul Losleben, Jeff Ludwig, Sage MacLeod, Amber Minnis, Pete Moe, Marta Nielson, Erin O’Dell, Alyson Stephens, Jack Titus, Jen Vollmer, Dixie Walmsley, Don Webster, Bill Yarlott, and the undersigned Orcas board members of United Way.
Groups represented were: Kaleidoscope, Kiwanis, Lions, Montessori School, Odd Fellows, OPAL, Orcas Center, Orcas Early Childhood Consortium, Orcas Family Health Center, Orcas Island Prevention Partnership, Orcas Recreation Program, Team Orcas, The Funhouse, and United Way.
Orcas is so fortunate to have you all!
Jan Koltun-Titus
Carol Vincent-Hall
SJC United Way Board Members
Judd Cove
history lost
Recently the Land Bank purchased the log dump and associated property at Judd Cove. My pleas to have that entity remain as a historical remembrance as part of logging industry in the Pacific Northwest have gone unanswered. We spend thousands to preserve the museum in Eastsound to recreate our history while at the same time we spend thousands dismantling that same history in another venue.
Additionally, the elimination of the log dump use, whose fees could help defray the acquisition cost, does not seem a prudent thing to do. I don’t know the economics involved with hauling logs in booms to mills with tugs or trucks/ferry. But maybe in times of high-energy costs, this should be considered.
For healthy forests it is necessary to thin and log sustainably. We don’t seem to have a comprehensive plan for how our County should do this. When we thin or log, we generate a large amount of woody biomass, which could be used for the generation of electricity. I have been unable – in fact, I was dissuaded by Representative Quall who is alleged to have allied with Rep. Spanel and Morris on this matter – from pursuing my ideas further.
Walter Corbin
Olga
Thanks for
rolling up sleeves
On behalf of patients in our community’s hospitals, I wish to extend our thanks. During your blood drive on September 25, Puget Sound Blood Center registered 97 donors and collected 79 units of blood. This will benefit up to 237 patients.
Special thanks to Paul Losleben for organizing the drive, the Orcas Island Lions Club for their support and blood drive sponsorship, Cindy Elliot for her assistance in spreading the word at Orcas High School, and the Orcas Island Fire Department for providing the blood drive site.
Each weekday, 900 people must donate blood to meet the needs of patients in western Washington hospitals. Your blood drive has played an important role in helping meet that goal. Your blood drive provided over 11 percent of the blood needed the following day in area hospitals.
Attached is a link to learn more about some of the many patients who benefit from blood drives like yours: http://www.psbc.org/video/patient.htm#
The following patients are just a few of the many who have received blood from Puget Sound Blood Center in the past few days. The blood was available for them, thanks to blood drives like yours:
• nine-year-old patient (liver transplant) has been issued 33 units red blood cells, three units platelets, 20 units plasma and three cryoprecipitate pools.
• 30-year-old patient (obstetric bleeding) has been issued 22 units red blood cells, three units platelets and four cryoprecipitate pools.
• 60-year-old patient (motor vehicle accident) has been issued 20 units red blood cells, one unit platelets, 12 units plasma and one cryoprecipitate pool.
• 25-year-old patient (fall, multiple trauma) has used 32 units red blood cells, 20 units plasma and three unit platelets.
• 29-year-old patient (open heart surgery) has been issued 35 units red blood cells, 34 units plasma, eight unit platelets and two cryoprecipitate pools.
Next blood drive date is Thursday, December 11
Give the gift of life, donate blood.
Carol Rondello
Puget Sound Blood Center
Rosario
There you go,
Rosario.
Gaveled once more,
for dollars sore.
May you rise from the mist,
as if princely kissed.
To wine and dine and sing and dance,
to family, friendship and romance.
There you go,
Rosario.
Sincerely,
Mike Stolmeier
Orcas Island
Lopez waterfront appeal
Lopez Islanders, do you remember Mr. Rech and his partner, the venture capitalist? They bought that little sliver of land on the waterside of Fisherman Bay Road. The lot was advertised as being un-buildable and priced accordingly, the one where shoreline and road setbacks overlapped so that it was impossible to build anything without a variance.
You might recall the two well attended public hearings on their variance application, the county’s refusal to grant the variance and when appealed, the Shorelines Hearings Board upholding the county’s variance denial.
Well, friends, they are back. Mr. Rech and Mr.Neslund are still trying to find a way around the Shoreline Master Program’s reasonable variance requirements. They are appealing the SHB’s ruling to Superior Court, in King County. Yes, it is legal to appeal in the petitioner’s county of residence, and Mr. Rech has used the King County venue numerous times when appealing his previous land use denials.
At this point, citizens can only influence the legal outcome by contacting the prosecutor’s office and asking Mr. Gaylord to ensure that the case is well defended. Rech v. San Juan County and Ecology is important, and could have serious adverse consequences for other county and state shoreline parcels. Assistant Prosecutor John Cain will again present the county’s defense; we can hope he will be well prepared, organized, and more assertive this time.
We can also hope that scarce county resources will eventually cease to be spent on a matter that many consider frivolous. The SHB characterized the Rech and Neslund expectations as more speculative than reasonable when claiming a hardship that required the remedy of a variance. After all, the board concluded that the petitioners knew, or should have known, that the lot would not accommodate a residential building
San Olson
Lopez Island
Fralick served school district well
I served on the Orcas Island School Board with Richard Fralick in the mid-80s. He was serving as the president of the Board at that time and, in my opinion, was its most hardworking and highly respected member. He carefully researched and thoughtfully presented every issue.
Although he had very strong opinions, he listened to all others and led the group to carefully considered consensus. When he joined the board, the district was in serious financial difficulty, but by the end of his tenure we were operating within our set budgets, had established a policy for a Reserve Fund and had begun building that fund.
Before he joined the board, the district was paying professionals to negotiate both the OEA and the SEIU contracts. In an effort to save district money, Richard took on the job of leading the board through these contract negotiations and proved to be a tough but fair negotiator. In short, Richard was and is a strong leader, a very smart guy and would serve us well in the Orcas West County Council position.
Kathy Youngren
Eastsound
Fralick builds consensus
For the nearly 20 years that I have known Richard Fralick I have admired his intelligence and tenacity. However, we had never worked together on a community planning issue. Over the last year Richard has been actively involved in the meetings on the Orcas Village Plan and I have found him to be thoughtful, creative, and a consensus builder – all qualities essential for a member of the County Council.
Therefore, I take pleasure in supporting Richard Fralick for the West Orcas seat on the County Council.
Mike Krieger
Orcas
Open
question for Fralick
In these times of declining county revenues, your plan to balance the budget includes the elimination of governmental waste and inefficiencies and the setting of priorities for spending our tax dollars.
County property tax revenues in inflation-adjusted dollars have declined and will continue to decline because of the one percent cap on the yearly increase in the total, pooled, property tax.
Inflation for 2008 is running above four percent. This means that real property tax revenues are shrinking by more than three percent this year alone.
With our slowing economy, other county revenues are also declining. Balancing the budget will require more than the elimination of governmental waste and inefficiencies.
Which of the following essential public services will you cut first in order to balance the county budget:
1. Road maintenance?
2. Schools?
3. Ferry service?
Janet Alderton
Deer Harbor
Don’t cut Orcas rec
The county is considering cutting funding for the Orcas Island Recreation Program. We currently receive approximately 15 percent of our funding from the county (the remainder comes from participation fees, community donations, and grants). As it is, we must do a tremendous amount of fundraising to meet our annual expenses.
Now it is up to Pete Rose, county administrator, to prepare the preliminary county budget and to the county council to make the final budget decisions, including whether or not to continue funding our vital community program.
We are asking you to please take the time to contact Pete Rose and the county council members with phone calls, and/or e-mails, faxes, and letters expressing support for the Orcas Rec. Program and asking them to continue program funding.
Costs to provide programming are up as are the requests for scholarship support. We are raising some prices, but can only do so much of that without making programs too expensive for the families that need them. We appreciate the community support we receive through donations and grants, but the competition for each dollar is increasing with so much fundraising going on with the many non-profit organizations on Orcas.
Here are bulleted items that could be included in a letter, fax, e-mail, and/or phone call.
We suggest a short, concise letter, e-mail, fax, and/or phone call. Feel free to make it personal.
Here are some ideas:
• This program is a priority, a vital asset to the community – a key investment in our children.
• Our programs promote healthy kids and a healthy community.
• Helps create a safe community, reducing criminal system costs.
• Hundreds of children and families participate annually
• We are doing everything we can to meet expenses through raising participation fees and fundraising to be as self supporting as possible while keeping prices affordable for families.
• It’s our duty as adults. It’s not so much that we’re looking to provide programs so kids stay out of trouble and not experience substance abuse. We’re doing what we do so children can thrive.
• Individuals can add their own experiences with Orcas Rec.
Here is the contact info.
Council Members: Howie Rosenfeld, Kevin Ranker, Bob Myhr, Rich Peterson, Alan Lichter, Gene Knapp. People are invited to contact each member. See http://www.sanjuanco.com/council/AboutTheCouncil.aspx for contact information.
Thank you!
Didier Gincig
Coordinator
Orcas Island Recreation Program
Objection to public comments
I have lived on Orcas for over 36 years and have never written a letter to the editor of the Sounder, not that I had not thought about it on more than one occasion.
This week I attended the county council hearing for the RHBR franchise to install a water line from a well on a parcel of land in Crow Valley to a 100+ acre parcel on the Dolphin Bay Road. I listened to many people express their opposition to this proposal. There were many good points made and I certainly respect people’s right to their opinion and free speech.
That being said I was put off and embarrassed by the disrespect and rudeness shown the VanValkenbergs. In the long run the law will prevail. I did not see the need to belittle or demean them to get the opposition’s point across. These are great people and I believe would be assets to this community. To label them as rich developers who are coming here to impose their will on us is far from the truth. I have been working with them since the purchase of the property. I have seen them go to great lengths to do the right thing in every step of their project to this point. Again, in the end the law will determine if they go forward with this project and if the law does not permit it, so be it.
If the disrespect and rudeness shown by some at this hearing had been shown to any of us on our arrival to Orcas, how many of you would be here today? What makes Orcas a great place? Its beauty yes, but most importantly, its people.
Sincerely,
John D. Thompson
Eastsound
Results available from the Transportation Summit
Close to 200 people attended the first ever Transportation Summit on Sept. 17, 2008 at the San Juan County Fairgrounds. Attendees were exposed to present and future transportation needs and challenges. They generated actionable ideas for improved transportation in the islands and began the collaboration to implement those transportation solutions. If community results are to come from the Summit it is the people who attended who will need to step up and organize around their particular issue. Some of the actions are individual (be a role model, each one teach two, etc.) and some of the actions will require legislative action or entrepreneurial creativity. We invite everyone who attended to continue the conversation and work together to find economically and environmentally sustainable multimodal transportation solutions for San Juan County.
An Executive Summary, presenter slides, session notes and session handouts (if any) from each session are available at www.islandway.org/transummit under the “Outcomes” button. Hard copies of all materials as well as videos of sessions and photos from the graphic recording will be available at local libraries by the end of October. At the bottom of the “Outcomes” page, you’ll find a link to our “Green Report Card” evaluating the results of our objective of producing “Zero Waste.”
Any questions, please send email to transummit@islandway.org, or call Bill Watson, San Juan County Economic Development Council, 378-2906.
Thank you,
Liz Illg, Jim Hooper, Deborah Hopkins, Laura Tretter, Bill Watson, Shannon Wilbur
2008 Transportation Summit Planning Committee
A death in the family
Most people think they know what to do when someone dies, but maybe they don’t.
If the patient needs pain pills, be prepared for doctors to balk at providing adequate pain pills and know what to say to them. Nurses can help you.
The Senior Center can be a big help as they lend wheelchairs, commodes, walkers and other equipment. Lahari has nurses who will come to one’s home to help. If one has done nursing in the past, probably a lot of techniques once used are obsolete. The Lahari nurses know what to do and how to do it. They tell you what to expect and where to get help.
The paramedics are great also and can help within a few minutes usually.
Calling a mortuary and the sheriff when death is expected within a few days expedites procedure. The paramedics will help carry the body to the hearse. The ferry gives priority to the Hearse, but needs notice.
A mortuary in Anacortes is used by many island families. The Neptune Society will retrieve a body from almost anywhere in the world and is comparatively inexpensive. An inexpensive and experienced mortuary is in Mt. Vernon.
All of the above help make a passage much less fraught with pain,
Mary Gibson Hatten
Eastsound
Support for water franchise
It should be pointed out that the VanValkeburgh family purchased the 108 acres on Orcas with the idea of dividing the property into 4 parcels. The land was shown as two tax parcels on the assessor’s map in Jan 06 and taxed as two parcels. The family merely wanted to do a simple land division, keep one and sell the other three. The assessors office deemed that though they were taxed as two they were not seperate lots. What is the logic behind this? I live on Lummi Island and know the VanValkenburghs. They never wanted this whole mess, they are not greedy developers looking to subvert the islands water supply but good caring people. I just returned from Yellowstone where the VanValkenburghs/Wayne graduate students were instrumental in getting the wolves back on the endangered species list. These people are not looking to trash Orcas. Please consider working with them.
Jim Lane
Lummi Island
