A man from British Columbia is dead and a Lopez Island teen is in a Seattle hospital after a collision Sunday afternoon on Lopez Sound Road. Paul John Jaholkowsky, 26, was jogging southbound on Lopez Sound Road at about 2:30 p.m. when, according to authorities, he was struck head-on by a 1974 Chevy Nova sedan driven by a 15-year-old Lopez boy who was driving north at what is believed to be a high rate of speed.
A San Juan Island man will face a minimum of five years in prison after pleading no contest two weeks ago to allegations that he acted recklessly when he shot his live-in girlfriend in the chest with a .40-caliber handgun.
On July 13, Douglas Curnow, 36, pleaded no contest in San Juan County Superior Court to first-degree assault with a deadly weapon, a Class A felony; and to second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, a Class C felony.
Friday Harbor Postmaster Dan Fleming turned out to be the big winner in the “kiss-a-pig” Relay for Life fund-raiser. More than $1,700 was raised as islanders cast votes — donations of $1 — for one of five brave volunteers who volunteered to kiss a pig as part of a unique and apparently popular fund-raising event.
It all came together last week for San Juan Island’s Darren Black. The 29-year-old pro at San Juan Golf & Country Club shot an even 200 at the Rosauers Open Invitational to claim a share of a three-way tie for sixth place at the three-day tournament at Indian Canyon Golf Course in Spokane.
Assessor Charles Zalmanek said that a 12-month extension should provide enough time for the department to appraise all of the county’s new construction, re-value one-third of the county’s property and to get back on its 3-year cycle of on-site appraisals by 2011.
County Auditor Milene Henley is “reasonably optimistic” the general fund, which pays for the bulk of the county’s day-to-day expenses, including payroll, will be short about $1 million in revenue from the amount the 2009 budget had been based on late last year.
If approved, revenue generated by a second quarter-percent real-estate excise tax would be dedicated exclusively for parks, roads, sewer and stormwater projects
Bigger might not necessarily be better when it comes to the size of a home. But it won’t cost any extra when you pay for a permit to build one in San Juan County. The County Council on Tuesday reversed an earlier decision and eliminated a so-called surcharge on building permits for homes of more than 3,500 square feet. That surcharge would also have applied to an addition of an existing home that bumped its size beyond that 3,500-square-foot mark.
San Juan County’s Department of Public Works will cast a line outside its ranks to hook an engineer to oversee the pending construction of an improved solid-waste transfer station on San Juan Island.
The expense of bringing an outside engineer onboard would be folded into the overall cost of the project and is expected to run somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000, according to Public Works Director Jon Shannon.
Some will get more. Others will get less. But for the most part, San Juan County’s tourist-related facilities will have to get by next year with about the same amount of public support that’s helping them to pay the bills this year.
Islanders would have a little less time to conduct business at various county departments under legislation that’s designed to help offset the impact of $1 million or more of pending budget cuts. In a 5-1 decision, the San Juan County Council voted June 9 to put the proposal into the pipeline and have its legal team prepare it for possible approval at a July 14 public hearing, which begins at 2:10 p.m.
Thanks to the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the owners of San Juan Excursions, Colin’s dream of traveling to the San Juans to search for killer whales from the deck of a whale-watch boat is no longer a fantasy
Funding awards include $30,000 to the EDC, to pay the salary of the Agricultural Resources Committee coordinator.
