At first, I was really upset with your editorial in regards to the new Integrated Medical Center and contract with PeaceHealth. I do thank you for stating that you realize how great a need there is for a new facility. The upsetting part of the editorial is about being rushed into this. You also set the tone with encouraging the public to vote out the current commissioners if they don’t listen to the public.
It is interesting to observe different philosophies used by a couple of our public entities during these times of economic challenges. During the past few weeks, we’ve seen the San Juan Island School Board struggle to make cuts to their budget while trying to preserve services to their students and families. The School Board has proposed making cuts involving ALL levels of their organization, from principals down to regular employees.
Contrast this approach to the one taken by the County Council.
Marie Cunniff could pass her son off as a younger brother and get away with it, crochet an afghan in record time, and at 100 make a TV interviewer blush. She was always punctual, preferring to be early to appointments in the event she could be seen early. “Always wanting to be early, she did, however, surpass her brother Anthony, who passed at 100,” her son, Herb Cunniff, said after his mother passed away Feb. 19 at the age of 101.
Today, Feb. 25— Community Box Lunch Drive, noon to 12:30 p.m., Friday Harbor High School Dining Hall. Support the Experience…
By 1870, there was church every Sunday, not by the itinerant missionary from Victoria but San Juan’s own resident … sandy sideburned, beloved T.J. Weekes. As it happened, probably in the late 1860s, young T.J. Weekes, who was born in Kent, England, left his home and sailed around the Horn to land in Victoria, Vancouver Island. Here he met Thomas Summerville. In 1870, Summerville sent young Weekes to the San Juan Island Church to become their regular pastor.
Dr. Dennis Willows, former director of the U.W. Friday Harbor Labs, is the guest at this week’s Spring Street School Discovery Speaker Series presentation. The event is free and open to the public. Date and venue: Thursday, 7 p.m., Friday Harbor House San Juan Conference Room.
Homes in the Friday Avenue area were without water for about five hours Feb. 23 after an OPALCO worker broke a water main while digging to replace a light pole.
Griffin Bay Book Club will meet Friday, 7 p.m., at the book store, 155 Spring St. Topic: “The Geography of Bliss” by Eric Weiner.
Island Rec is holding its first-ever basketball shooting competition for grades 4-8. This is the chance to show off all those skills learned during the season. Competitions include: Free Throw Contest, Hot Spot Shoot-out, 3-Point Shoot-out and dribbling contests. Awards will be given to first, second and third place in each category.
Robin Jacobson had the winning answer to the question, “What will NOT be found under the 1894 King Farmhouse?” The contest was co-sponsored by the San Juan Historical Society and SanJuanJournal.com.
At its peak, J. Wayne Pullman’s Publishing Corporation of America, Inc. had 66 employees and published business, industrial and manufacturers directories in California. He founded the company at age 27 and guided it through the economic ups and downs of the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and ’00s. For seven years, he produced the San Juan County Fair Premium Book. But Pullman said his company — which paid salaries with advertising revenue generated from the directories it produced — couldn’t survive the economic downturn of this decade. In 2006, he and his wife, Ann, lost their Four Seasons Farm to foreclosure. Today, Pullman is looking for work (378-3714).
Great Island Giveaway and Social, a community recycling/swap meet, takes place Feb. 21 at Mullis Community Senior Center. Drop off items and social is at 8:30-9:45 a.m. Event begins at 10 a.m. The event is presented by Soroptimist International of Friday Harbor.
There will be an Ash Wednesday Service on Feb. 25, noon, in Friday Harbor Presbyterian Church. “Join us in the spiritual journey toward Easter with this noontime service, noting the beginning of the Lenten season with prayers of hope and healing.”
