Last week Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike endorsed Kevin Ranker for the State Senate seat in the 40th legislative district. Ranker is a San Juan County Council member who has won the nomination and the sole endorsement of the local Democratic Party, the conservation community, unions and teachers. In the last week, Kevin Ranker has also been endorsed by Pike’s mayoral opponent, Dan McShane, Equal Rights Washington, and Bellingham City Councilwoman Barbara Ryan.
The effort to put the county’s fireworks ban ordinance up for a vote has cleared the county’s required legal review, and enters into the signature-gathering phase as Referendum 2008-2.
Orcas Village will have an election of its own come November.
On Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 6, the 90-car Sealth replaced the 144-car Elwha on the Anacortes-San Juan Islands route, so the Elwha could undergo necessary repairs for an apparent propulsion cooling system failure.
The Eastsound Off-Leash Dog Park has moved. Jeff Hanson, Chair of the Park Committee, says that, thanks to the generosity of the Port of Orcas, a multitude of donors and Ezra Richardson construction, the new Off-Leash Area is now open next to the Port of Orcas Day Park at the corner of North Beach and Mt. Baker Roads.
San Juan County’s Solid Waste Division is offering to lend portable recycling set-ups to organizations that want to increase recycling at public events.
A dead orca calf was recovered from a beach on Henry Island’s Open Bay, Saturday, Aug. 2, by the San Juan County Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
Laurie Cameron, Managing Director of Olympus Real Estate Partners, has announced that Rosario Resort and Marina, which it owns, will be offered at auction on or about Sept. 30, 2008.
Library Director Phil Heikkinen said of Saturday’s 52nd annual Library Fair, “Overall we were really happy with the results of this year’s fair. The main thing that I rediscovered is how resilient and resistant to rain both islanders and visitors alike are. When it was raining they stood looking at books under the plastic and when it stopped they immediately started buying.”
A slowdown in the local real estate market has county officials seeing red.
That’s red, as in a looming blow to the bottom line of San Juan County’s financial plans for this year and presumably the next.
Due to a technical error, the following questions and responses were not added to the Islands Sounder website as announced in last week’s paper.
There were a few surprises and even more laughs at the League of Women Voters primary candidate forum Aug. 2, in Mullis Community Senior Center in Friday Harbor.
Surveys to assess toxic chemicals and oxygen depletion in Puget Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca