March 10th, 2010, by Margie Doyle
By Stan Matthews
County Communications Program Manager
This year’s Count of Homeless Persons (PIT) in San Juan County recognized 79 persons as homeless.
Among the homeless, 29 were classified as unsheltered - living in tents, cars, boats (not equipped with facilities for living aboard) or staying in motels (with money from churches, etc.); and 50 people, including many children, were staying in temporary, unstable living arrangements either with friends or family members – a situation commonly referred to as “couch surfing”.
The state-required Count was conducted by the County Health & Community Services on Thursday, January 28th.
Count organizers had anticipated an increase in the number of homeless people in the county due to the worldwide economic crisis and significant local business closures, but the count remained close to last year’s numbers.
Last year’s count found 23 people unsheltered and 50 “couch surfing” a significant increase over the 2008 Count which reported only 9 unsheltered and 17 “couch surfing”. Similarly, in 2007 11 were reported unsheltered and 17 “couch surfing”.
Citing an extensive effort in 2006 which identified 50 homeless people, organizers, say the increased numbers reported since 2009 could be a result of the amount of effort that has been put into the count since 2009, rather than an actual increase in the overall number of homeless people.
Organizers admit these numbers are an estimate at best, it is impossible to truly know the exact number of homeless people and those staying with friends or family in unstable situations. However, based on this year’s results and information from churches, food banks and other organizations that help the homeless, organizers see no sign that the problem is decreasing.
San Juan County PIT Count organizers and volunteers worked with local schools, food banks, churches, healthcare providers, support service counselors, youth groups, Senior Centers, Family Resource Centers, Sheriff’s department, Fire and EMS departments and many other community organizations to perform this year’s count.
The PIT was established by the Washington legislature in 2005 in the Homelessness Housing and Assistance Act (RCW 43.185c). The goal of the Act was to reduce homelessness in our state by 50% by 2015.
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March 9th, 2010, by Margie Doyle
Chinook School in southwestern Washington
As I drove past Chinook Elementary School in southwestern Washington State last weekend, I suddenly remembered the wet night that my gentle Dad burst angrily through the front door, rain dripping from his 1950s hat.
“What’s the matter Dad?” My college-age brother asked.
“That darn car was stuck in first gear all the way from Tacoma to Seattle!” he said. This was before I learned to drive, and didn’t understand how being forced to go a maximum of 15 miles an hour was such a handicap. He got home safely, didn’t he? Our 1956 two-tone Chevy, with the doors on the driver’s side held shut with wire, hadn’t quit on him, it just slowed him down on his way home from a job.
Dad was frequently unemployed in those days, and having a job – or a car – at all was the big deal, not how fast it went or how good it looked.
I imagined similar thoughts were put before the people of Chinook some years ago, while the school was still populated with elementary students. And it seems as if similar thoughts are concerning people on Orcas Island who are faced with a sizable school district bond.
People say we should only repair what’s broken: the plumbing in the elementary school, the heating that wastes tens of thousands of dollars each year, things like that. We shouldn’t expand at all with new buildings, they say.
That would be like replacing the ‘56 Chevy’s doors (at sizeable cost) without addressing the larger transmission issue; it would mean spending thousands of dollars on a “fix” rather than $30 a month for a decade to drive a car that is more fuel-efficient, more road-worthy, and more of a “tool” to enable my Dad to work.
Most of the “new” construction is actually replacement construction for school buildings that engineers have told us need to be upgraded for safety reasons; the new construction is also to provide a building for the vocational (Career and Technical) education, or CTE, classes that prepare our students for careers in the growing fields of applied physics, computer technology, marine technology, agricultural, construction and carpentry trades.
Maintenance of the school buildings is an issue. And maybe my Dad’s car would have run better if its previous owners had kept up oil and transmission fluid levels. But they didn’t, and in the meantime, the cost of fuel increased, the efficacy of the heating and cooling systems improved, and the regulations on pollutant emissions increased.
The School District had years of cutting maintenance expenses and deferring maintenance in order to balance the school’s general budget (in 2006, there was only $5,000 in the district’s reserve fund – it is now at $341,000, up $100,000 from last year). What this means is that the OISD Board, assisted by the Orcas Island Education Foundation (OIEF), and the Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) have rebuilt the district’s financial structure responsibly and responsively.
Deferred maintenance, like a dangerously low reserve fund, will no longer be considered as a policy option by this school district board. The proposed school bond provides the capital (investment) outlay for a contractual maintenance plan as well as for energy savings and efficiency.
The bond, as currently written by OISD Board resolution, calls for the authority to request funds in two stages. This means that the Board may ask for the full amount they’re authorized to ask for in the first stage, but then they may well ask for a lesser amount in the second phase.
It’s been known to happen that capital projects come in under-budget: the replacement Tacoma Narrows Bridge was completed last year, under budget and before deadline; the oil field fires in Iraq following the first Persian Gulf War in the 1990s were extinguished far ahead of what was thought possible. Here on Orcas, we do the “impossible” rather frequently – purchasing Turtleback Mountain, outlawing jet skis and plastic bags, producing healthy reserve funds for our institutions, building outdoor stages with local effort, and operating cemetery and port districts at below the authorized tax dollars.
New construction business models have introduced the General Contractor Construction Manager (GCCM), rather than the design-bid-build process in which the lowest bidder (who may well be an off-island company) contracts for the entire job. In the GCCM method, the contractor is there throughout the building process to help mitigate issues in design.
Board President Scott Lancaster has been researching the GCCM model for the last five years. The Board hopes to write into the contract that local contractors have priority consideration, if not for the General Contractor position, but also for the sub-contracting jobs that the bond pays for. This is why the bond has been described as a “Local Stimulus” investment that will employ islanders.
And for those over age 61 and those disabled who will “never” see an increase in their income, if that income is below $35,000, our County’s Treasury provides that their property value will be “frozen” and they can be exempted from paying any of a new bond amount. (See accompanying story “Low-income Seniors and Disabled Qualify for Bond ‘Tax’ Exemption”).
Did you know that the kids at school are building new cars? Julian Glasser, class of ’09, retrofitted an engine to use biodiesel fuel. This year, another senior is working to re-define the car as our primary mode of transportation.
This week, Kari Schuh, the Career and Technical Education Director, and Superintendent Barbara Kline are meeting with State school officials to discuss local “satellites” of vocational instruction centers. Maybe within our lifetime, Orcas students will “invent” a new mode of transportation that ends our dependence on foreign oil and high prices at the gasoline pump, much as Lakeside School students Paul Allen and Bill Gates, Jr. built a new information communications system in the last generation.
That will never happen, you say? I remember my Dad saying, “I’ll never have a car that works,” and my Mom replying, “Never is a long, long, time.”
My Mom also went to work the following year, and two years later, bought one of those weird little Volkswagen “Bugs” – on time. She considered it an investment in her livelihood, and in our future.
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March 9th, 2010, by Margie Doyle
Senator Kevin Ranker has sponsored bills that will better manage and protect the health of Puget Sound, straits and coast and the communities that depend upon them. The two measures, Senate Bill 6350 and Senate Bill 6557 garnered bipartisan support in the State House on March 4 and will now return to the Senate for concurrence.
Senate Bill 6350 will limit user conflicts between the increasing number of existing and new uses being proposed in our states marine waters. SB 6557 will help limit the amount of environmentally harmful copper, which ends up in Puget Sound, straits and coast waters through dissolving brake pads.
“The Sound and our beautiful coastal waters are so critical to everyone in this state. We must do everything in our power to protect the precious environmental and economic resources,” said Ranker, the prime sponsor of both measures. “These bills will go a long way toward keeping our waters clean and their usage fair, and I appreciate the strong support in the House, particularly from my seatmate, Representative Jeff Morris,”
Marine spatial planning will limit conflicts between critical existing uses such as fishing, shellfish aquaculture, shipping and recreation while promoting renewable resources such as wave, tidal and other energy facilities. SB 6350 received a 64-34 vote in the House.
“In order to maximize the benefits our Sound and ocean provide – both ecologically and economically – we urgently need a comprehensive process to rationally guide the multiple management objectives,” Ranker said. Close to seven million metric tons of dissolved copper enter the Sound and ocean every year — half of which originates from brake pads. Copper causes significant harm to salmon and other marine species.
SB 6557, which passed through the House with a vote of 86-12, requires brake pads be made of substances less detrimental to the environment. “We’ve found that the copper powder that comes off brake pads is a significant contributor to polluting the marine environment,” Ranker said. “Together with the auto industry, we are fixing the problem by developing a solution to keep motorists safe while protecting our waterways.”
David Dicks, Executive Director of the Puget Sound Partnership said “The best way to control pollution in Puget Sound and all of Washington’s waters is to stop it at the source.The elimination of copper brake pads is one way to reduce a significant source of highly toxic material in our aquatic environment. The passage of this legislation ensures that any new products must be safe for drivers and safer for the environment.”
Both bills now head back to the Senate for concurrence on amendments, and must be finalized by March 11.
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March 6th, 2010, by Margie Doyle
Updated March 6 at 6:45 p.m.
“It seems like the validity of the EPRC is at stake… it comes down to a continuity issue.” Clyde Duke at March EPRC meeting
At the monthly Eastsound Planning Review Committee (EPRC) meeting on March 4, County Council members Gene Knapp and Richard Fralick reviewed the County Council’s 2010 priorities: chief among them was the dwindling county general budget, which translates into less county staff time for the priorities EPRC has set.
Already several EPRC projects are stopped at the county door: among them engineering time for the Streetscape Plan, near finalization since 2008; and implementation of Orcas Island signage.
The two Orcas Council Members said that the County Council had recently agreed that their three top priorities for 2010 were:
- The County Budget, still projected to be in the hole even after the property tax increase voted in last November;
- The Crtical Areas Ordinance updates for the uplands and shoreline areas;
- Solid waste transfer, with operations running at a deficit in the face of mandatory improvements and protections. “An increase in tipping [disposal[ fees seems a likely immediate action,” said Knapp, and Fralick added that the matter has to be dealt with this year.
In discussing what the county budget means for the EPRC, Fralick said, "The difficulty is that you’re doing things that require the county to come forward with money or staff time, and in today’s climate it’s just not going to happen.”
EPRC member Patty Miller questioned if it was time to consider the incorporation of Orcas Island. "I have never been a advocate for it but if we continue to struggle to get any County resources dedicated to Eastsound then it triggers the question for me," she added.
Fralick suggested that the EPRC may want to delineate where its projects are stalled at the county, and report to the County Council regularly, reviewing its priorities.
Fralick told the EPRC that one-third of the operational costs for the county transfer stations is transportation off-island.
He said the Council hopes the county can “do a good job with the uplands portion of the CAO and generate a model that makes sense to citizens” that will make the shoreline portion of the CAO update more acceptable.
Fralick said he didn’t understand the EPRC’s position regarding the removal of the proposed Country Corner LAMIRD from the Eastsound Sub-area Plan, as proposed by County Prosecutor Randy Gaylord.
Knapp said at the EPRC meeting that he did understand each side’s argument, but hasn’t come to a conclusion about it.
The removal of the 6 lots of the proposed commercial LAMIRD from the long-standing Sub-area Plan is supported by Gaylord’s office; EPRC members, while in support of establishing the LAMIRD, have expressed their opposition to removal of the proposed LAMIRD from the Sub-area Plan, which extends beyond the Eastsound Urban Growth Area (UGA).
Gaylord has said that the removal of the Country Corner Commercial LAMIRD would be consistent with how other “Activity Centers” on the island, such as Orcas Village and Deer Harbor, have been handled; it would also move towards making the Eastsound Sub-area boundaries consistent with the Eastsound UGA boundaries.
Those objecting to Gaylord’s position have stated that the Eastsound Sub-area Plan boundaries were established by Orcas Islanders intent on maintaining the rural character of the island. They also argue that, by removing the 6 Country Corner lots from the Sub-area, property that is a “logical” area for commercial expansion for the Eastsound “municipal” area will be reduced.
At the March 4 EPRC meeting, Clyde Duke commented that it “seems like the validity of the EPRC is at stake… it comes down to a continuity issue.”
Fralick replied, “I want a cogent argument that says, ‘We want to maintain the LAMIRD and the Sub-area Plan for the following reasons…..’”
The matter will come up before the County Council for deliberation next Tuesday, March 9 at 10:45 a.m. in Friday Harbor; the only public testimony accepted will be in writing.
Byways, Streetscape Plan, Stormwater, Housing
The EPRC also discussed progress on the San Juan Islands Scenic Byways Corridor Management plan as a possible way to fund signage for Eastsound and island trails.
Miller asked about .09 funds allocation to the Public Works department – designated for infrastructure projects — and if such funds could be used for a parking lot or the sidewalks and engineering for the Eastsound Streetscape Plan. Read more
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March 5th, 2010, by Margie Doyle
Contributed by Tim Thomsen
2010 Census Partnership Assistant
It is 2010 and it is time to stand up and be counted!
Like many of you, I was unaware of the importance of the census. It wasn’t until last October when I started my job with the US Census Bureau that I fully grasped its’ significance. With the census coming soon, San Juan County and its residents will only benefit by knowing the facts about the census and by completing our census forms.
Each year federal funds are allocated to states, counties and towns for important programs such as schools, libraries, roads, food banks, family resource centers, EMS and senior services and more. In the 2000 census, San Juan County was undercounted, because we only returned 34% of our census forms. The national return rate was 72%! We gave away federal dollars not just for that year but for each year over the next decade. Let’s not allow that to happen again!
The information you include in your census form is, by law, absolutely confidential. There is no way the census bureau can share that information with any other governmental agency. Your information is safe! The form is short and easy to complete.
Census forms will be mailed to all island street addresses on San Juan Island on March 15. If you have a PO Box, a census enumerator will hand-deliver a form to your home a few weeks after the initial mailing. On Orcas Island and other outer islands, all forms will be hand-delivered. There will also be census forms available at several BE COUNTED sites.
Note: Census forms will be distributed at Island Market by Orcas High School Key Club members on Saturdays, March 20 and March 27.
In the coming weeks, we have a chance to claim our fair share of federal revenues for important services and infrastructure improvement and to improve the quality of life in our island communities. Stand up and be counted in 2010!
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March 5th, 2010, by Margie Doyle
Transfer station on Orcas may be the only one to remain open
By Stan Matthews
County Communications Program Manager
A new legal opinion from Prosecutor Randall Gaylord stunned the County Council and the County’s financially-troubled solid waste utility Tuesday, March 2. In a briefing during the regular Council session, Gaylord said – in light of court cases – the option of assessing a flat solid waste utility fee on each parcel of land in the County should be “taken off the table.”
After several weeks of discussion, and at the urging of the County’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee, a majority of the Council had appeared willing to strongly consider a parcel fee to head off a growing financial crisis at the utility.
Public Works Director Jon Shannon described the utility’s financial status to the Council Tuesday saying, “The cash flow issue literally leaves me in a place where I’m not willing to authorize the expenditures. We’re $700,000 in the hole and we have contracted work where the bills are coming in.” He described the unexpected legal opinion as “an atomic bomb.”
The utility is currently funded almost entirely from fees based on the weight or volume of garbage handled. In the face of increased costs to fund mandated capital improvements to meet state operating requirements on San Juan and Orcas Islands, the tonnage of solid waste being handled has dropped nearly 20 percent from 2008 to 2009, plunging the utility into the red.
In the short term, with parcel fees off the table, the Council and utility are looking to raise the money needed to continue solid waste operations through a combination of fee increases, borrowing and possible further service reductions.
Shannon expressed serious concern that additional increases in “tipping fees” – which are already the highest in the state – could cause further losses of volume, such as having large haulers opt to take their loads directly to facilities on the mainland. He warned that this could put San Juan County’s utility into a “death spiral” with higher rates actually producing less revenue because of the loss of volume.
“I believe that if we borrow the $2 million we need [to meet cash flow and capital requirements] and promise to pay it back with a $100 a ton higher tipping fee, the system will collapse,” he said. At this point the only non-fee related revenue source that has been identified is a property tax levy, which would require voter approval and not produce any revenue until 2011.
“It’s pretty shocking news for all of us,” Council Member Rich Peterson said during the discussion Tuesday. “We have two elections coming up this year. We need to get something on the soonest ballot we can.”
In the meantime, the Council has asked Shannon to analyze the potential cost savings of closing the two of the three transfer stations, most likely those on San Juan and Lopez Islands and directing all solid waste and recycling to the transfer station on Orcas. Shannon expects that analysis to take at least two months. Shannon cautioned that it is too soon for people to think of a one-station system as the likely outcome. In February, the Council, by consensus, expressed a policy preference to continue operating three stations open.
For the immediate future, Shannon is putting together a short term survival plan to discuss with the Council at its March 9 meeting. He said the plan will likely include elimination or postponement of all expenditures that aren’t immediately required to keep the utility in operation. His presentation will also include recommendations for the utility’s tipping rates and other fees that the Council is scheduled to adopt on March 30.
The idea, he said, is to buy time until the Council determines if it can and should raise additional revenue through property taxes or other means; or if further cuts in service need to be made. The utility has reduced operations at the Orcas and San Juan Island transfer stations by two days per week, since September 2009.
Shannon offered some perspective on the cost of providing the current level of service, “We have the same number of transfer stations as Snohomish County. Snohomish County collects 1 million tons of garbage a year and they collect revenue on it. We have three transfer stations and we generate 10,000 tons. We do everything in triplicate on a customer base that can’t support it using the traditional ways governments fund this.”
The solid waste utility’s financial problems are just a part of a problem county-wide. Even after two years of decreasing budgets and the adoption of a levy lid-lift last November, the County Council learned last month that it will need to adopt nearly $300,000 in additional cuts to balance the current year’s operating budget due to an additional 2009 revenue shortfall.
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March 5th, 2010, by Margie Doyle
Contributed by Amber Paulsen, Director, Kaleidoscope Childcare Center
Currently there are working families in need of an affordable, high quality learning center where their youngest children can be safely cared for between 7:30 a.m. and
Kaleidoscope Childcare Center is breaking ground for its "Building for Families" expansion project
p.m., five days a week. Kaleidoscope offers this consistent and educationally rich environment for 50 of our island’s families however, more space is needed to accommodate up to 22 more young children.
To continue to help keep our community’s families working and promoting their children’s early learning, Kaleidoscope has begun phase 1 of the “Building for Families” project. This addition will provide new space to support more families in maintaining their employment and their family’s financial security. Phase 1 will take the project through the structural “dried in” completion. All of the funds for this first phase have already been secured. As phase 1 progresses, fund raising will continue to secure donations to begin phase 2.
Donations of labor, time, and equipment have made groundbreaking possible, thanks to the generosity of Orcas Excavators, Inc. and San Juan Sanitation. There will be many, many more to thank in the future. If you are able to help Kaleidoscope continue to support our island’s working families, please contact Kaleidoscope at 376-2484, P.O. Box 1476 Eastsound, or Island Hardware and Supply’s “Building for Families” campaign either in person or at 376-4200.
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March 3rd, 2010, by Margie Doyle
A six-week course called Intermediate Birding: Summer Birds is now being offered by Kim Middleton at the Orcas Island Public Library. The course will run from Thursday March 18th to Thursday April 22, from 1 to 4 pm. The course will include 5 classroom sessions and one field trip.
The intermediate birding class will focus on the summer birds of Orcas Island and will cover bird migration, species identification, and good places from which to observe the summer birds. Instructor Kim Middleton has been an avid bird watcher since she was ten years old, and has dedicated her life to the conservation of birds through field research, rehabilitation, and public education.
She has degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Western Washington University, and has worked as a research chemist, a science teacher in Botswana with the Peace Corps, an ornithologist, bird trainer, wildlife rehabilitator, and environmental educator. Now residing in Eastsound, Kim shares her passion for birds through her artwork, guided fieldtrips and ornithology classes.
The cost of the class is $75, and class size for each section will be limited to 20 students. Sign up now at the Orcas Island Public Library to learn more about the summer birds of Orcas Island. For more information, call the Library at 376-4985.
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March 3rd, 2010, by Margie Doyle
The news of the Ace Hardware attempted break-in this weekend has pumped life into the bored, bond-weary, environmentally-critiquing Orcas public, and the town is buzzing with conjecture about the Moldy Hairy Colt who may be running rogue throughout our sleepy village.
But that is why we see Scott Lancaster’s stoic integrity and refusal to pander to the romanticism that a “common thief” (in Lancaster’s words) engenders, as inspirational.
Lancaster said on Monday that he had been contacted by no less than a dozen “news” shows for interviews about the Sunday morning alarm at his store. He refused them all. He was told that Sheriff Bill Cumming had also refused to be interviewed. Far more helpful is Cumming’s frequent advice to take action to prevent burglaries; such advice kept a “successful” break-in from happening at Ace Hardware this time.
Yes, there is a “romantic” element to a “kid” who has the chutzpah to steal planes, destroy surveillance equipment and elude arrest, but, especially locally, isn’t that a little dismissive of the nerds, the wonks, the grinds, the “ordinary Joes” who labor day in and day out to make our everyday life a little better, a little easier, a little more pleasant and safe for our children and elders?
The Lancaster family bought Ace Hardware less than two years ago, and have been working to continue this local business; Orcas Homegrown Market, Vern’s Bayside, Island Market all are not just unpeopled, faceless corporations, but our neighbors — contributing businesses that keep us employed in an ongoing manner, supply us with workday needs and frequently lead the pack when islanders organize to help others less fortunate.
So it’s a little facile to say that the thief that is victimizing them isn’t hurting any person, that his/her crimes are “only against property.” It’s more than galling to find various Colton Harris-Moore “fan clubs” organized to laud his exploits. What about Kyle Ater of Homegrown Market, Belinda Landon and Marion Rathbone of Vern’s Bayside, and Dale Linnes of Island Market – and their employees — who are left to pick up the pieces and work to provide the services we ask them for everyday?
We know, it’s just human nature to mythologize someone who’s brazen, imaginative and reckless in his/her snubs to “the establishment.” But it’s ambulance-chasing like the media frenzy this punk has inspired that gives those who promote it a “sensational” reputation. As one caring islander said wearily, “It’s just a matter of time before there’s a ‘Movie of the Week’ about him.”
We’d rather stand by the Scott Lancasters of this community, and neighbors like Kyle Ater, who said “We’re all here everyday to help other islanders.”
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February 26th, 2010, by Margie Doyle
Phil Heikkinen and Bob Connell (seated) at the Sustainable Orcas Island's booth at the 2009 Fair
The Sustainable Living Fair will take place on Saturday, May 1, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Eastsound Village Green, alongside the first Farmers Market of the season. The mission of the Sustainable Living Fair is to share information and resources toward creating a more environmentally and economically sustainable San Juan Islands.
The Stewardship Network of the San Juans and Sustainable Orcas Island are soliciting organizations and businesses to have a display/demonstration booth at the ” Sustainable San Juans 2010: A Sustainable Living Fair on Orcas Island”.
This is the third annual event put on by the Stewardship Network. Prior events were held in April 2008 in Lopez Village and April 2009 in Friday Harbor. The first Orcas Sustainable Living Fair was held last May and was a great success.
The event will include businesses and organizations with a focus on promoting environmental and economic sustainability in the island environment, and in our homes and workplaces. There will be music in the bandshell and an awards ceremony for those chosen to receive this year’s San Juan Islands Good Steward Awards (affectionately know as the “Finnies”) for leadership in sustainability in our San Juan Islands communities. It should be great fun and a great opportunity for people to learn about our work and products.
Organizations and businesses are invited to share information about their work, products or services from their booths, although nothing is to be sold directly from these booths.
Booth space is available now for just $25 or $50 for the day, depending on the size of your organization. For information about signing up for a booth and for registration forms, please visit www.stewardshipsjc.org or the Orcas Island Library (ask at the desk).
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