One can’t help but like Charlie Noble, the live-aboard investigator in love with wooden boats, just learning to love a new woman after the painful death of his first wife, whom he still grieves.
Four San Juan Island Firewise residents recently attended the biennial Firewise Conference in Tampa, Fla. Attending the conference: Brent Johnson, North Forty; Jon Zerby, Hillview Terrace III; Rex Stickle, Westside Story; and Ron Garner, Alaska Place.
In loving memory of Ida Pellandini Hammond. Ida passed away on April 21, 2009, in Pinegrove, Calif., due to complications of a recent stroke. Nearly 97 years of age, she passed peacefully in her sleep. Ida was born Aug. 10, 1912, in Ceres, Calif., to Louis and Marie Pellandini. She spent most of her life in Sonoma, graduating from Sonoma High School, class of 1931. It is believed that Ida was the last surviving member of that graduating class.
May Boyce, a lifelong resident of Friday Harbor who was born more than two years before the town was established, died Thursday in Island Convalescent Center in Friday Harbor. She was 102 and possibly the oldest resident of the San Juans. Evans Funeral Chapel is handling the arrangements. Funeral arrangements hadn’t been made this morning. They will be reported as soon as received.
For several years, grants from the Puget Sound Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure have helped pay for transportation for island women needing to visit doctors on the mainland for cancer treatment. But this year, that grant fell victim to increased needs elsewhere as well as the economic slump.
The San Juan Island School Board has voted to issue notice to employees that the district expects to eliminate six positions in the 2009-10 school year. The board made the vote Tuesday, anticipating a $1 million budget shortfall because of expected reductions in the state education budget. Though the state budget reductions will not be known until the legislative session concludes April 26, state law and teachers’ union contracts require that districts provide anticipated reduction-in-force notices to affected employees by May 1.
Where children once played, horses tread. Crumb rubber, removed from the Friday Harbor Elementary School playground on March 7-8 after a citizens committee raised money for its replacement, was sold to Roxanne Christensen of Horseshu Ranch on Douglas and San Juan Valley roads.
Who will be the next mayor of Friday Harbor? Mayor David Jones told The Journal Wednesday that he will not seek a second term. Jones’ four-year term ends Dec. 31. His retirement as the centennial-year mayor leaves a big question mark on who might run to succeed him. It also raises the possibility that a political ceiling will be shattered.
The San Juan County Public Works Department has violated state law by allowing contaminated water at the Sutton Road waste transfer station to come into contact with groundwater, according to an administrative order hand-delivered to Public Works Director Jon Shannon by the state Department of Ecology. The county is also in violation for not having an Industrial Stormwater General Permit from Ecology.
The National Marine Fisheries Service today proposed to list three populations of rockfish in Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia for protection under the Endangered Species Act. A final decision on the three will be made a year from now.
Weston D. Callender, born in Seattle, Wash., June 20, 1948 and a long-time resident of Friday Harbor, peacefully entered into rest April 15, 2009 in Mount Vernon, Wash. He was 60.
The number of drinking and driving crashes is on the rise in San Juan County. According to San Juan County court records, 44 DUI cases were cases filed in 2004. That number climbed to 61 in 2007 and 94 in 2008. Nineteen DUI cases were filed in the first quarter of 2009. A program hopes to turn the tide by reinforcing images of the consequences of driving while intoxicated.
The number of drinking and driving crashes is on the rise in San Juan County. According to San Juan County court records, 44 DUI cases were cases filed in 2004. That number climbed to 61 in 2007 and 94 in 2008. Nineteen DUI cases were filed in the first quarter of 2009. A program hopes to turn the tide by reinforcing images of the consequences of driving while intoxicated.