Persistence appears to have paid off for a Pearl Island property owner who first sought permission to build a private dock on the north end of the island more than four years ago. On Aug. 31, San Juan County Superior Court Judge John Linde sided with an appeal filed by Christopher Hughes of Seattle, a part-time resident of Pearl and San Juan islands, and overturned an earlier ruling by the state Shoreline Hearings Board, which had quashed a permit allowing Hughes to build a 98-foot dock at the tip of Pearl Island’s north end.
No one expected Concrete to put up much of a fight. And the Wolverines made sure expectations weren’t exceeded with a crushing victory in three-straight over the Lions in their home-opener Tuesday in Turnbull Gym. The Wolverines posted winning scores of 25-10, 25-16, 25-6, in a match up of league opponents that wasn’t as close as game scores might reflect. They led from start to finish and were never tested against an inexperienced Concrete squad that’s been a fixture at the bottom of the league in recent years.
It’s a stockpile that won’t last forever. But for now, there are pens and pencils aplenty at the headquarters of the San Juan Island School District — calculators, glue sticks, backpacks and three-ring binders too — thanks to the first-ever Gear Up for Our Schools campaign sponsored by Islanders Bank.
To hear local authorities tell it, John Weida is lucky to be alive. The 64-year-old Marysville man escaped with minor injuries when an explosion blew out the cabin windows and cracked the hull of his 25-foot Bayliner during an apparent fueling mishap early Wednesday at the Roche Harbor Marina. Moored alongside the fuel dock, Weida had just finished fueling the Bayliner with gasoline when, as he switched on the ignition, the boat was pummeled by a powerful blast that split open its stern, shattered the windows in the forward cabin and left deep cracks running up and down its fiberglass hull. The blast could be heard throughout the resort and surrounding areas, according to Brian Gettman, a marina employee.
With the outcome in doubt and the Island Cup trophy still up for grabs, the Friday Harbor Wolverines and the Orcas Vikings took to the field to slug it out in overtime with the score knotted at 14-14, Saturday at Dahl Field on Orcas Island. Trailing by seven points almost the entire game, Orcas put another seven points on the board as sophomore quarterback Robby Padbury and senior wide-out Tyler Diepenbrock hooked up on a perfectly-placed touchdown pass in the back-corner of the end zone with 4:18 left in regulation.
A woman and her grandson were shaken but escaped with only minor injuries following a single-car collision near the intersection of Douglas Road and Madden Lane that nearly toppled a power pole and left residents on the southwest side of San Juan Island temporarily without power.
There’s more than just bragging rights at stake when Friday Harbor and the Vikings of Orcas High School square off Saturday in the 2009 season-opener at Dahl Field on Orcas Island. There’s the hardware, of course, and to the victor go the spoils. The coveted Island Cup, the crown jewel of the inter-island rivalry, has been a fixture in the Wolverines’ trophy case ever since Friday Harbor upset the balance of power and clawed its way to a 2-point victory in 2004.
San Juan County Council Chairman Rich Peterson came away encouraged from the council-sponsored workshop on possible changes to the county’s critical areas and shoreline regulations, Tuesday in the San Juan Community Theatre. Peterson, North San Juan, said that before the workshop — which spanned nearly four hours — he was discouraged that the county appeared to be “boxed in” by state and federal guidelines that call for bigger buffers between development, shorelines and wetlands. He believes a set of locally tailored regulations on development near critical areas and shorelines may now have a chance.
A San Juan Island man who shot his girlfriend in the chest with a handgun at point-blank range was ordered to serve nine years in prison after pleading no contest in mid-July to first-degree assault, a class A felony. On Aug. 12, Douglas Paul Curnow, 36, was sentenced in San Juan County Superior Court to a total of 112 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,550 in fines and fees. The amount of restitution Curnow will be ordered to pay will be determined at a hearing slated for mid-October.
John Collins made his first-ever visit to San Juan Island a memorable one. The 37-year-old from Oak Harbor kicked into high-gear at the base of the hill below the fairgrounds and catapulted to first place Saturday in the 32nd annual Friday Harbor 8.8K Loop Run.
Twelve cents for each $1,000 of assessed value. That’s how much more local landowners would pay in annual property taxes over the next six years to prevent an even deeper cut into county-run programs under a revenue-generating ballot measure which islanders will weigh-in on in November.
His latest appearances in Northwest Washington have been dominated by discord over the effort to reform the nation’s healthcare system. But on Monday in Friday Harbor, Congressman Rick Larsen got a break.
For the better part of an hour, Larsen, D-Bellingham, and regional Veterans Administration officials were able to talk to and listen to local military veterans regarding issues that matter most to them, and about the new services and initiatives that the federal agency has in store.
An estimated 300 islanders crowded into Friday Harbor High School’s Hall Gym on Tuesday to hear a panel of well-credentialed experts take issue with the state’s best available science and pending changes to the county’s Critical Areas Ordinance. The heat did little to dampen interest in the forum, sponsored by the Common Sense Alliance. The public meeting on the state-required CAO update featured four panelists who called on islanders to take a critical look at the “best available science” developed by various state agencies and cautioned against accepting it on face value.
