As PeaceHealth’s project lead for the new San Juan Island hospital, I’ve heard from dozens of islanders about San Juan Island EMS. By all accounts, your EMS is held in high regard for its expertise, quality of care and responsiveness. I have also read about many real-life stories of heroic, compassionate and at times life-saving care provided by the EMTs and first responders. And I’m aware of national measures of performance for which the San Juan Island EMS is rated among the very best in the country.
Cynthia Elliott is pleased with her husband’s joke. “He calls it my “elder-horse-stal,” she smiles. Sitting in her living room, tucked up upon the sofa, Elliott exudes the cheerful determination of someone in the process of changing dreams to reality. “I’ve wanted to do this since I was a kid … I didn’t have a horse, but I would help out with my friends’ horses. I would feed and care for them.”
Juanita Rouleau, a retired teacher on Stuart Island and in Friday Harbor who was active in preserving San Juan Island history, has died. Mrs. Rouleau died in her Argyle home Saturday afternoon (Jan. 15). She was 93.
Tom Bauschke of San Juan Island was an Army veteran and local house painter when he became active in the Wounded Warrior Project. In 2005 and 2006, he hiked the 96-mile Wonderland Trail around Mount Rainier to raise pledges for the WWP, which assists wounded men and women returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. He never suspected that in three years he would become a wounded warrior too.
Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday honoring the late civil rights leader. Today, any islanders will commemorate the day by participating in a Day of Community Service at Mullis Community Senior Center.
For 15 years, Pearl Django has been sharing the groove of their Hot Club style across the divides of musical tastes.
And for the sixth time in those 15 years, they bring that eclectic musical recipe to the San Juan Community Theater.
Walt Wegener could become the San Juan Island School District’s Jim Mora. Hired last summer from Toppenish, where he was student services coordinator earning $106,000 a year, Wegener was brought on as interim superintendent to succeed Vashon Island-bound Michael Soltman. Since then, Wegener has managed the district during the sixth-grade’s move from middle school to elementary school, the transfer of management of the Experience Food Project, and voter approval of a tax levy that funds school sports through Island Rec, relieving the cash-strapped school district.
Robert W. Hutton died peacefully at home in Seattle on Jan. 5. He was 88. Bob was a native of the Northwest, a member and supporter of numerous local civic organizations, a successful business executive and a dedicated husband and father. With his wife Charlotte, Bob lived much of his life in the Seattle area, in addition to 25 years in Greenwich, Conn.
Elijah Mathew Enochs, son of Lindsay Johnson and Justin Enochs of San Juan Island, is San Juan County’s first baby of 2010. Elijah was born Jan. 14, 12:45 a.m., in Island Hospital in Anacortes; Melinda Milligan of Eastsound was the midwife. He weighed 8 pounds 2.2 ounces and measured 20.6 inches long. Elijah wins The Journal’s Baby Derby and about $600 worth of prizes from 16 local merchants.
If you want to help those affected by the Haitian earthquake, the simplest way is to make a donation to the American Red Cross International Response Fund.
The Friday Harbor Port Commission wrote off $8,800 in bad debt Jan. 13. The amount was comprised of debt that had been held in collections for two years. Some $2,000 of that debt was from the now-defunct Island Dive. Another chunk was from unpaid slip rent for a sailboat that has been impounded.
Proponents of PeaceHealth Medical Center expect the state Department of Health to issue a certificate of need by the end of February. The certificate is a determination that there is a need for a hospital on San Juan Island. Once that certificate is obtained, proponents will complete their fund-raising, the purchase of the property will be completed and design of the new hospital, proposed near the airport, will begin. The hospital is expected to open in 2012.
The Friday Harbor Port Commission meeting could have been a segment of “Late Night” with Conan, Dave or Jay, Jan. 13 in Ernie’s Café.
First, reelected Port Commissioner Greg Hertel was asked if that was a new Hawaiian shirt he was wearing to his swearing-in. “It’s not new. I just washed it,” he replied. (Ba-doom-doom-ching!)
