A pilot and three passengers reportedly escaped with minor injuries Wednesday night when a Beechcraft Bonanza 36 single-engine airplane made an emergency landing on Fisherman Bay Road on Lopez Island.
Earth Day is April 22, and there are several events scheduled on San Juan Island in the week leading up to that day.
This year’s Silver Tea, an annual event of the San Juan Historical Society, will be historic on two levels. First, the tea will be held in the King Farmhouse — the first event in the 1894 farmhouse since it was placed on a new foundation. Second, the event features a quilt show in the resource center — an exhibit of quilts from the museum’s collection, some dating to the late 1800s.
The Friday Harbor Elementary School PTA is putting the “fun” back in
fund-raising with a new twist on an old idea. Five island fathers will compete for the title of Mr. San Juan Island April 25 in the Roche Harbor Pavilion.
Martin V. Stewart’s flying career spanned 60 years, including 36 years in the Air Force and service in three wars: World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. After retiring to San Juan Island in 1990, Marty Stewart continued to fly actively until just months before his death from cancer in 2005.
As a deacon in the Friday Harbor Presbyterian Church, he regularly flew various pastors to visit hospitalized parishioners, and his Cessna 182 became known as “POB Airlines” (Presbyterians On Board).
Melba Margaret Mewhinney Davis, a part-time resident of Shaw Island, died April 6, 2009 at 8:30 a.m. at her Emerald Heights retirement home in Redmond. She was 97.
A San Juan Island man accused of cutting his dog’s throat and assaulting a neighbor who tried to rescue it will face a series of criminal charges, including animal cruelty.
Decibel levels of sonar pings recorded off the west side of San Juan Island April 7-8 may have been the same level as sonar pings implicated in the deaths of several beaked whales in the Bahamas in October 2003. That’s according to Dr. Val Veirs, president of The Whale Museum board and professor emeritus of physics at Colorado College. Hydrophones operated by The Whale Museum and Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School started recording sonar pings and what sounded like garbled human speech beginning at 7 p.m. on April 7. The pings and sounds continued into the early morning.
More than $130,000 is included in the state’s proposed capital budget for development of up to 15 trails in the 112-acre Cattle Point Natural Resource Conservation Area on San Juan Island. The money is intended for preservation work as well. Specifically, the money is budgeted for “natural areas facilities preservation and access.” The proposed capital budget also includes nearly $1 million to repair the wastewater system in Moran State Park on Orcas Island.
Time will tell whether an environmental impact statement on proposed solid waste transfer station sites is up to snuff. The County Council agreed on Tuesday to move forward with selecting a site for a new solid-waste transfer station on San Juan Island and to let the pending challenge of that impact statement play out at some point down the road.
It’s been said that if you want to stop growth in your neighborhood, open a hog farm. But could the threat of a hog farm influence the county’s decision on where to site a new solid waste transfer station? E.J. Thorndike has made known his opposition to the possible location of a waste transfer station on Daniel Lane.
Orca advocate Jeanne Hyde reports on her blog, whale-of-a-porpoise.blogspot.com, that loud pings believed to be from a ship’s sonar were recorded over an eight-hour period in Haro Strait Tuesday and today.
The San Juan Island School Board plans to hire an interim school superintendent for the 2009-10 school year. The decision was made Monday at a special school board meeting in the district office. A job description will be posted on the San Juan Island School District Web site. The deadline for applications and resumes is May 8.
