A boat moored at Roche Harbor is reported fully engulfed in flames. Early reports are that the fire spread to two more boats. San Juan Island Fire Department, the sheriff’s boat Guardian and fire boat Confidence are at the scene or en route. Vessel Assist is also en route. The U.S. Coast Guard has been notified.
Russell Wayne Helmeid passed away Oct. 26, 2009 at Beacon Hill VA Hospital, Seattle, Wash. He was 63. He was born Aug. 11, 1946 in Milwaukee, Wis., the first child of Eunice P. Helmeid Haase. He was raised in the Elkhorn and Janesville, Wis., area and relocated to Fond du Lac in 1964 with his family.
The San Juan County Council wants to take you on a field trip. The council is preparing to update the county’s environmental regulations, beginning with codes covering upland wetlands and fish and wildlife habitat areas, followed by marine shoreline regulations.
The Friday Harbor Town Council meets today at 5:30 p.m. for a budget work session. The meeting is open to the public. This meeting is a continuation of an earlier meeting, in which the Town Council discussed ways to cut personnel expenses 20 percent in order to help balance the 2010 budget. Cuts to programs and projects are proposed. One alternative to cutting hours has not been considered: The council should help shoulder some of the burden.
The preliminary Friday Harbor town budget released Sept. 29 wasn’t pretty: It showed seven of 14 town funds spending more than they would take in in 2010.Three funds — the Current Fund, the Refuse Fund and the Street Fund — were projected to finish 2010 in the red; the others would be balanced with money carried over from 2009. Today in a special budget work session, the Town Council reviews a budget that is balanced, but still not much prettier.
At first glance, the Island Rec levy on Tuesday’s ballot seemed an easy sell: A renewal of 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed property valuation would keep Island Rec’s stable of youth and adult programs going for another six years. An additional 7 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation would provide a stable source of funding for school sports programs for six years. Meanwhile, a school bond measure of 60 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation expires at year end. So even if voters approved the Island Rec levy, their property tax bill will decrease 43 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation – for most property owners, a savings of about $300 a year. Voters agreed.
Carrie Lacher, 54, was elected Friday Harbor’s 28th mayor Tuesday. She is the first woman elected to the job in the town’s 100-year history.
Felix Menjivar is a San Juan County sheriff’s deputy, president of the sheriff’s guild, and a town planning commissioner. Tonight, voters gave him a new set of responsibilities.
Greg Hertel was elected to a fourth six-year term on the Friday Harbor Port Commission tonight. As of 8:16 p.m., Hertel received 1,531 votes to online journalist Sharon Kivisto’s 967. Hertel was unavailable for comment. He spent Election Day off-island. Kivisto, owner of sanjuanislander.com, also could not be reached; she is doubling as candidate and election-night reporter.
At first glance, the Island Rec levy on today’s ballot seemed an easy sell: A renewal of 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed property valuation would keep Island Rec’s stable of youth and adult programs going for another six years. An additional 7 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation would provide a stable source of funding for school sports programs for six years. Meanwhile, a school bond measure of 60 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation expires at year end. So even if voters approved the Island Rec levy, their property tax bill will decrease 43 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation – for most property owners, a savings of about $300 a year. Voters agreed.
Carrie Lacher downplayed her gender during her campaign for mayor, but all of those mayoral portraits on the wall in the Council Chambers wouldn’t let her escape this obvious fact: Since Friday Harbor’s inception 100 years ago, there has never been a female mayor. Women have held important positions in all other corners of local and county government, but the mayoralty was like an incomplete chapter in the story of women in leadership. Until Tuesday.
By noon, the voter turnout was already 50 percent. Most San Juan Island ballots have been received, the county elections office reported at 12:30 p.m. Ballots were expected to be received from Orcas Island later this afternoon, and from Lopez Island on Wednesday.
Three seals rehabilitated at Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center were released into Griffin Bay Oct. 22. All three seals had been taken malnourished to Wolf Hollow earlier this year. One seal had been found on Jackson Beach, another on a pocket beach below Downriggers restaurant, and the other on Lummi Island.
