By Journal Staff

At the end of the year, we take a look at the biggest headlines of the past 12 months. This is part one. We chose the top stories from our most-read online articles and events we feel impactedour communities.

1. Tokitae’s death ends dream to return her home

The last remaining Southern Resident Killer whale taken from the Salish Sea during the captures in the late 1960s and early 1970s died suddenly Friday, Aug. 18, in the small pool at Miami Seaquarium where she had been living and performing for audiences for the past 53 years.

Lolita, aka Tokitae, aka Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, outlived over 50 other SRKW taken decades ago from Pacific Northwest waters. In a statement released from the Friends of Toki, a non-profit working closely with the Miami Seaquarium to return Tokitae to the Pacific Northwest, “Over the last two days, Toki started exhibiting serious signs of discomfort, which her full Miami Seaquarium and Friends of Toki medical team began treating immediately and aggressively.” In the following weeks, an autopsy revealed the progression of multiple chronic conditions as the cause of her death, including a worsening of renal disease and pneumonia due to old age.

Tokitae was actively being prepared for her return home to the Salish Sea, making her death all the more heartbreaking. In recent years, a number of critical factors had aligned to make her return to the Salish Sea a reality, as the Lummi Nation and several non-profit organizations led an indigenous effort to bring Toki home around 2019.

Near the end of 2021, the purchase of the Miami Seaquarium by the Dolphin Company and the reports from the USDA of Toki’s ill health galvanized the path to Toki’s journey home. A wealthy benefactor, Pritam Singh, reached out to Eduardo Albor, CEO of Dolphin Company, and a meeting between the two resulted in an agreement to allow an independent veterinarian to visit and assess Toki’s health and welfare on a regular basis. As significant progress had been made to improve Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut’s health and ‘life support systems,’ the task ahead was just beginning to shift and focus on Toki and her proposed move to the Salish Sea, when she suddenly passed away.

A little over a week after her death, nearly 400 people gathered at Jackson Beach Park south of Friday Harbor on Aug. 27 to witness a ceremony celebrating Toki’s life, and an estimate of another thousand or more watched the event online from around the globe.

The Port of Friday Harbor hosted the Lummi Nation, Se Si’ Le, and House of Tears Carvers to “celebrate the life of a great loss to the Salish Sea community, Sk’aliCh’elh’tenaut, Tokitae/Lolita.” The Port welcomed the community to join and witness this ceremony of song and story for Tokitae, and unveil the new Story Pole that traveled across the country to the Miami Seaquarium to raise attention to Sk’aliCh’elh’tenaut’s plight.

According to Lummi Tribal Leader Nickolaus Lewis who spoke during the ceremony, while Sk’aliCh’elh’tenaut’s death was tragic, “the work shifts to protecting her family. Whatever we do now, we do it for the future.”

2. Three San Juan County deputies trained in animal control

In May 2023, Deputy Jason Gross of Orcas, Deputy Walker Vandelhazen of Lopez and Deputy Nicholas Wainright of San Juan Island underwent 80 hours of training and were certified as animal control officers by the Criminal Justice Training Academy in Burien.

According to retired San Juan County Deputy Jon Zerby, who served as the de facto Animal Control Officer for the islands for many years, the request for an animal control officer has been going on for at least 25 years now, but the department never felt there was a big enough need to dedicate time to animal control training.

Nonetheless, reports of animal neglect and abuse were certainly present on the islands. According to Jan Murphy, former manager of eight years for the Animal Protection Society of Friday Harbor, a local non-profit founded in 1982 in Friday Harbor, she received consistent reports of animal neglect and abuse, such as dogs being tied up 24/7 or starved farm animals.

Animal control officers have a wide range of things they have to look into on abuse and/or neglect calls. They need to have an understanding of issues related to animal health, such as guidelines on “Body Condition Systems,” a method of determining if a specific type of animal is within the proper weight range and body mass index. According to Wainright, he and the other certified officers were given several resources to reach out to for questions.

“I think what it means to anyone that lives in our county is that we now have a resource to go to when an animal is threatened, or animals are threatened. Or people are threatened by animals at large. This is a positive change for the humans of our community as well as animals,” said Murphy.

3. Hannah Heights Water System highly contaminated

On Friday, April 14, San Juan County Health and Community Services received test results from the Washington State Department of Health for Group A public water systems found alarming levels of toxic chemicals in a well from Hannah Heights Water System on San Juan Island. These toxic chemicals are Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, or PFAS, and are known by public health agencies to be harmful to human health.

Hannah Heights Well #2, which was the primary source of drinking water provided to over 40 households in Hannah Heights Home Owners Association, was found to have the highest levels of Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) in Washington state outside of one private well, at levels 164 times the State Action Level (SAL) threshold.

While determining a source for the chemicals will take time, the fact remains that the contaminated well is located less than 150’ downslope from a San Juan County Fire & Rescue Station. According to SJC Health and Community Services, nearly all PFAS contamination in WA State has been correlated with the use of a firefighting foam that was no longer in use as of 2002.

In an email sent to residents in the Area of Concern, the County stated that “PFAS are not readily absorbed through skin or air, so existing water supplies are considered safe for bathing, washing, cleaning, etc.” It was also recommended that “water contaminated with PFAS not be used to irrigate gardens where produce is being grown for consumption,” and that residents in the Area of Concern should switch to drinking bottled or filtered water.

Hannah Heights residents brought in Dr. Seetha Coleman-Kammula PhD., the president of PFASolutions, an independent non-profit organization dedicated to providing solutions to PFAS contamination by detecting PFAS in the environment and researching technologies to remove and ultimately destroy PFAS.

“It’s important to remember that the Hannah Heights community has no alternative sources of drinking water…the Hannah Heights community is trying to access funds via the State Drinking Water Revolving Fund (SDWRF). But getting funds via SDWRF can take many months,” said Coleman-Kammula.

It was later learned that SDWRF does not have a provision for safe drinking water supplies and the fund does not allow for either bottled or transported water. It will likely take years, and require the involvement of multiple government agencies, universities, and experts in PFAS concentration.

As the county is looking into grants to assist, San Juan Island resident Maureen See and her husband Harry organized the “Water Project” with the San Juan Island Fire Fighters Association. The project is working with Kings Market, Ace Hardware, Brownes Home Center and Interisland Water Company to help their island neighbors.With funds from the Mary See Foundation, four pallets of bottled water were acquired along with water dispensers and 30 five-gallon jugs and 12 three-gallon jugs of water.

Paul Hart, HOA board member responsible for water, told the Journal in July that while solutions both temporary and long term are being investigated, the neighborhood is grateful for the donation of bottled water.

“It is a wonderful and thoughtful gesture of the Firefighter [Associations’] donation of bottled water and dispensers,” Hart said.

4. Ferry struggles continue throughout the year with hundreds stranded on Memorial Day weekend

The Washington State Ferries continued to struggle throughout 2023, due to a continued lack of crewing and operational boats. Over Memorial Day weekend, hundreds were stranded in the Friday Harbor Ferry terminal. With four boats in service, and Memorial Day weekend traffic back to pre-Covid numbers, hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles and thousands of vacationing travelers made their way to the islands to enjoy the sunny weekend.

“Sunday morning was dead slow,” said Dunayski, “but by afternoon the ferry lines really began to fill up.” Unfortunately for those waiting to catch a ferry back to the mainland following a lovely weekend in the islands, the 135-car ferry Yakima was unexpectedly taken out of service with mechanical issues.

That’s when things really began to fall apart.

The loss of the Yakima canceled three full sailings, forcing ferry employees to do the best they could to accommodate an ever-increasing line of cars vying for a spot on the next possible ferry. The line of bumper-to-bumper cars reached all the way up Spring Street to well past the roundabout, gnarling traffic for even those not wishing to catch a ferry.

By nightfall, a record number of 116 cars were stranded on San Juan island for the night, with 103 cars and their passengers staying in line and forced to sleep in their cars because there was no lodging available across the entire island. “We tried calling everybody, hotels, B&Bs. Even the hostel was full,” added Dunayski.

Frustrated and angry, people began to gather at the terminal to demand something be done. But ferry terminal staff have no power over the ferry system. That’s the responsibility of the Operations staff located miles to the south in Seattle or Olympia.

At one point the Sheriff was called, and two deputies were dispatched to assist with the situation well past midnight, attempting to calm the angry crowds.

Throughout the summer ferry cancelations continued in the Anacortes/San Juan route, and six months later nothing has been set in place to prevent a similar stranding event from occurring.

5. Progress is made on an affordable housing project on Argyle

On April 18, after listening to public comments, the San Juan County Council voted to direct staff to enter into negotiations with the San Juan County Home Trust. Council member Jane Fuller noted she had heard from and reached out to a number of members of the community as well as the Prosecuting Attorney Amy Vira, asking questions, and gathering information until she felt comfortable deciding to move forward with one of the applicants. That applicant in the end was the Home Trust.

Council member Christine Minney mentioned key reasons she felt the Home Trust met the application requirements and also stated that the recommendations from both staff and their advisory committees are important to listen to. In this case, staff and the Housing Advisory Committee had both recommended the Home Trust proposal.

Council Chair Cindy Wolf wanted to make sure that it was stated clearly in the motion that they were directing staff to enter into negotiations only, and had not agreed to anything yet.

Two proposals for future affordable multiple housing rental units that may one day be located at the corner of Malcolm and Argyle in Friday Harbor were presented to the San Juan County Council Tuesday, April 4. The competing proposals were presented to the council by the San Juan Community Home Trust and the newly formed Favor 34 LLC, managed by David and Laura Flaum.

The proposed building site is located in what is defined as a transitional neighborhood by the Friday Harbor Historic Preservation District. Board president Jim Goetz, project manager Karl Eberhard, and trust Executive Director Amanda Lynn led the trust’s presentation. Team members also include project architect Bill Singer, contractor Bernie Hansen, civil engineer Tom Bennett, Starr Surveying owner Bob Anderson, along with board members Lisa Bennett, Rob Littauer, and former County Commissioner Darcie Nielsen.

Favor34 LLC proposes a three-story apartment building complex with a total of 48 units, costing just shy of $20 million dollars. The occupancy target date is September 2025. The proposal provides 50% rentals for extremely low, very low, and low-income tenants. Laura and David, along with legal council and development advisor Rob Spitzer, Mercer Island architect Suzanne Zahr and project manager Joel Bruck addressed this project.

The County Council directed staff to enter into negotiations with the Home Trust. That proposal includes building a neighborhood of single and multi-family homes that retain the historic character of Friday Harbor while providing 40 units. The project comes with a $15 million dollar price tag, could be built in stages, and at the time was anticipated to be fully occupied by summer 2027.

6. Hung jury leads to a retrial then a plea agreement

In November, a year and a half after a devastating fire in downtown Friday Harbor, a Seattle jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the trial of Dwight Henline for arson, after hearing testimony from nearly 50 witnesses and viewing over 100 pieces of evidence. Henline was indicted in May 2022 for allegedly starting the fire that burned four buildings along Spring Street in Friday Harbor on April 7 of last year, destroying several local businesses, including Herb’s Tavern, Crow’s Nest Coffee, Crystal Seas Kayaking and Windermere Real Estate.

Henline was charged by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Western Washington with violating the federal arson statute. He has been detained in a federal correction facility since his arrest in April 2022, while his case proceeds. After eight days of testimony, almost entirely by the prosecution’s witnesses, the jury notified the court on its third day of deliberations that it was unable to reach a verdict. U.S. District Court Judge John Chun, who presided over the case, read the jury some additional general advice on how to break their impasse and sent them back to continue deliberating. But mid-afternoon that same day the jury once again declared that they were unable to reach a verdict; minutes later, the judge declared a mistrial.

The prosecution argued that Henline is a troubled and angry man whose life hit rock-bottom on April 6: he had lost both his job and his housing, his friends had largely abandoned him, and he was planning to leave Friday Harbor for good on the evening ferry. But just before boarding the ferry that evening he allegedly bought a container of cigarette lighter fuel and poured much of it out and set it ablaze on the lower wooden deck behind Crystal Seas Kayaking. According to the prosecution, that fire then smoldered for several hours before turning into a large conflagration around 3:45 a.m. the next morning.

Investigators pieced together security camera footage from several sources tracing Henline’s movements around town on the evening of the 6th. In a set of events critical to the prosecution’s case, video showed Henline purchasing lighter fuel at the Little Store at 9:53 p.m., then walking outside of Herb’s Tavern and down Spring Street toward the waterfront at 9:56 p.m. A security camera inside Windermere Real Estate’s conference room showed a bright flare-up, consistent with a fire, behind the building at 10:04 p.m. that lasted for 34 seconds. Then a security camera at Spring Street Landing observed Henline at the foot of Spring Street, outside Cask & Schooner, at 10:05 p.m.

But according to a court filing by the defense, in an interview with prosecution and defense attorneys after the trial concluded some jurors indicated several issues were preventing them from reaching a guilty verdict beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard for conviction. The final jury vote before the mistrial was declared was apparently 10-2 favoring “not guilty.”

The prosecution filed a motion to retry the case, and a date was scheduled in January. Then a plea agreement was reached: Henline pled guilty to a state charge of arson, a class b felony. He was sentenced on Dec. 20 to 12 months for arson and eight months for a firearm charge in San Juan County. The charges will be served concurrently. With time already served, he was ordered released but will serve one year in community custody. He is barred from visiting Friday Harbor or contacting any of the victims, and consuming or possessing alcohol or drugs. Henline is also required to undergo a mental health evaluation.

He is also ordered to pay restitution to the victims, however, the amount will be determined at a future hearing.

Kelley Balcomb-Bartok Staff photo An unassuming faucet sits idle above PFES-contaminated well #2 which has been turned off due to dangerously high levels of PFAS, a toxic chemical known to be harmful to human health.

Contributed photo A graphic image of the Home Trust proposal.