The new boys’ coach is an old hand at coaxing Orcas athletes into shape.
Dan Drake has worked as an Orcas Elementary School PE teacher since he and his son Chase, now a junior, moved to the island from Bellingham 13 years ago.
“It’s just pure excitement, the anticipation of the coming season,” Dan said.
1,340-year-old mussels tell the story, says SeaDoc-funded study
California mussels from the Salish Sea have undergone a serious transformation over the past millenium, indicates a recent scientific study funded by The SeaDoc Society. Their shells have become 30 percent thinner and are increasingly made of fossil fuel-sourced carbon.
“Corrosive water has recently been documented in the northeast Pacific, along with a rapid decline in seawater pH over the past decade,” wrote University of Chicago researcher Cathy Pfister and colleagues in the study abstract.
Odd Fellows Artisans’ Faire
Odds Hall will bustle with 40 talented island artisans, gift baskets for raffle, and the tantalizing aromas of hot food for sale wafting up the stairs.
“We’ve got several new artists joining us, plus many of our old standards,” said organizer Carol Anderson. New this year are Suzanne Olson’s kids’ toys and furniture; Carla Stanley’s new children’s book; and wool products Jennifer Pietsch has made from her own alpacas. Cari Darner will sell upcycled tin can candle lanterns she has flame-burnished with designs.
The state legislature will begin a special session tomorrow in order to determine the scope and details of further cuts needed to balance the state’s budget.
The legislature recently received a letter signed by 35 Western Washington school superintendents, including Orcas Island School District superintendent Barbara Kline, Lopez Island Superintendent Jerry Jenkins, San Juan Island School District Superintendent Rick Thompson and Shaw Island School District Superintendent Rob Pattermann.
The superintendents had three requests: stop issuing unfunded mandates; reduce the number of school days instead of cutting programs; and retain the Local Effort Assistance Program.
Recently passed liquor initiative 1183 will put the state out of the liquor business.
Will it also put islanders out of business? Or keep substance-abuse counselors busier? It all depends on a myriad of factors.
The tsunami devastated the coast of Japan, washing away homes and killing 1,000 people on a winter’s night.
It was the year 1700.
Japanese history calls it “The Orphan Tsunami” because it seemed to birth itself; they felt no warning earthquake.
The Pacific Coast has no such written history, and for a long time quake experts believed that the closest fault, the Cascadia subduction zone, was safely aseismic.
A handful of adults approached the school board about the district’s handling of a recent adult-hosted high school drinking party, for which 10 student athletes were suspended from their teams.
During the Nov. 15 meeting, Suzanne Morrisey read a statement in which she called the event a “coed drinking sleepover for minors” and said the school “used poor judgment,” disciplining “based on hearsay” and “a draconian system.” She called the school’s disciplinary process “a witch hunt,” saying it was “abusive” and “psychologically scarring to the children in your charge.”
The Port of Orcas has officially introduced its three new commissioners who will take office in January: Dwight Guss will replace Dave Noneman; Sheldon Gregory will replace Alan Edwards; and Brian Ehrmantraut will replace chairman Bret Thurman. They will join current commissioners Audrey Wells and William Hopkins on the board.
Orcas Fire will soon be searching for a new fire chief to replace Mike Harris, who is moving on.
Board member Barbara Bedell will chair the search and selection committee, hand-picked by the Orcas fire board during executive session.
Old Jack Frost took a whirl through Eastsound last night, glazing the earth with a sparkle of hoarfrost.
It’s a quiet weekday morning at the Island Skillet. A smattering of diners leisurely indulge in the eatery’s “all-American” fare: shrimp and avocado omelets, eggs benedict, breakfast burritos.
Recognizing the Sounder, an islander calls over: “The huevos rancheros are to die for.”
Word of mouth is quickly spreading about the new restaurant that opened its doors last week in the Eastsound space behind Teezer’s a spot last occupied by the Italian Luna’s.
This coming week is National Community Foundation week, and Nov. 17 is National Philanthropy Day. The Sounder is recognizing these events with a feature of Orcas Island’s community foundation.
Orcas Island supports at least 110 nonprofits with a population of roughly 5,700.
The national average is around four nonprofits per 1,000 people, Orcas Island Community Foundation director Hilary Canty tells the Sounder.
Is it too late for the dainty red phalarope, the tufted puffin or the cackling goose?
The birds are just three of 23 new species of Salish Sea wildlife that were added to federal, state and provincial “species of concern” lists over the past two years, according to a study just released by the SeaDoc Society.
“Even if we just consider the 23 newly listed species, this is the greatest jump seen since we began tracking this in 2002,” said SeaDoc Society director and study co-author Joe Gaydos, PhD. The total number of “species of concern” considered by the study has nearly doubled, from 64 in 2008 to 113 by January of this year.
