As a thirty-plus year resident of San Juan Island, I wholeheartedly encourage the San Juan County Commissioners to do whatever it takes to ensure the continued operation of Community Treasures. This unique nonprofit organization has existed here for 15 years and is surely an Essential Public Facility. CT provides several full-time jobs for Islanders, it provides essential recycling services not to be found anywhere else locally. CT provides a place for Islanders to bring items that are no longer of use to them that might be useful to others. CT is also a popular destination for local bargain hunters (try to find a parking place on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon). CT operates without public funding, and its profits go to worthy local causes.

My best CT story: My sister — a 12-year resident of Friday Harbor — passed away last spring. In this time of emotional stress and technical red tape, I was left with an apartment full of kitchen gear, furniture and12 years of accumulation.

What to do? After consulting with her church and my family, there was still a great amount of stuff to deal with and a short time to do it. I called CT, Copper an employee of CT, arrived in about 45 minutes with a large cube van and in about an hour and a half single-handedly emptied that apartment. The usable stuff he took for free; some things were unusable and I paid a small amount to have him recycle that. You can imagine the load that took off my shoulders.

In short, I cannot say enough in support of Comunity Treasures.

We have it lets not lose it!

Sincerely,

Les Kempton

San Juan Island