On behalf of the Dolan family, thank you for the love, prayers and help of all kinds you’ve continually offered in support of RoseAnn. The generosity and kindness of this community is amazing. RoseAnn is at Swedish Hospital in Seattle recovering from surgery related to her ongoing liver disease. For more information, please visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/roseanndolan1.
This is RoseAnn’s second surgery this fall and she will need special care and continued treatments going forward. An account has been set up at Islanders Bank in RoseAnn Dolan’s name to help meet her medical expenses and to help the family through this difficult time. In addition, if you’d like to help with meals or household tasks, please call Betty Barats at 376-5706.
The Dolan family thanks you for your kindness and support.
Suzanne Olson
Eastsound
Shoplifting was a big mistake
At the end of August we were arrested for shoplifting. Never had we thought that we would be a part of something so terrible. Yet peer pressure, boredom and bad decision making put us in this position.
This experience has stirred up so many problems in our lives. We have lost the trust of so many people, family and friends, but they are not the only ones who have lost trust. Shop owners now have to look twice at anyone walking through their stores. We have also lost a great deal of privileges. We have been grounded for months and have been put on probation with the law. We have also had various meetings with the shop owners from which we stole. One shop owner said to us, “You don’t show preference to whom you steal from. Everyone is somebody’s mother” – we are all related.
How did we get into this? The answer, peer pressure, boredom and poor choices!!! This island has been called Orcatraz, but that gives us no right to do what we did. Instead we could have found fun in the Funhouse, the library, the beach, horseback riding or found a new hobby. If we really wanted the things we stole, we could have found ways to earn the money for them by babysitting, mowing lawns, and doing things around the house. We have some simple advice to you, our peers: don’t give in, just say NO. Those words may seem hard to say, but take it from us, it is NOT worth the trouble.
Jenna & Lizzy Tully and
Sorrel Hughes
Orcas Island
Holiday Festival of Arts a success
This is a big “Thank You” to everyone who helped make the Holiday Festival of Arts a huge success. Special thanks go to Aurora’s, Bilbo’s, Crow Valley Pottery, Darvills, Deer Harbor Inn, Eclipse Charters, Lisa Heisinger, Island Hardware, Island Market, Jillery, Orcas Center, Orcas Island Hardware, Orcas Village Store, Poppies, Portofinos, Ray’s Pharmacy, Rose’s, Sea View Theatre, Smith and Speed, Susie’s Barber Shop and The Inn at Ship Bay all for their generous donations to our raffle. Also to Karen Blinn and Dorothy Arbuckle and friends for their beautiful quilts, Magdalena Verhasselt for her wonderful knitted blanket, and Frank Loudin, Bill Trogdon, Sarah Coffelt, Ron and Nancy Malzon, Karen Slawson, The Olga Symphony, Betsy Louton, JoEllen and Stan Moldoff, Phoebe Grant Designs, The Trading Company, and Blaze for their donations to the Silent Auction. However, the Festival would not have been a success without the 43 artisans and the wonderful Orcas Island community who came and helped the Senior Center and the artisans by doing their Christmas shopping. I would also like to thank Maggie Schuler, the front desk volunteers, and the Senior Center staff for all their efforts in making the festival a success and thereby helping to keep the Senior Center a viable and special place.
Jane Heisinger
OISC Advisory Committee Assistant
Poachers, not hunters
I share your concern about the safety of hunting on Orcas and I hope the men described in the Dec. 3 Sounder are prosecuted and lose their hunting privileges.
But if these men are “hunters,” then we might as well call the drug dealers threatening our teens “pharmacists.” Those who don’t follow the rules are called “poachers,” and the difference is more than a legal or linguistic technicality.
Responsible hunters not only present no threat to their neighbors, they actually help improve the public safety and ecology of our island. The deer population of these islands exceeds ecologically sustainable levels. Their excessive numbers threaten the native vegetation they consume, which disrupts other species that rely on that plant life. It also makes the deer less healthy, as they are forced in closer proximity to each other, which spreads communicable diseases, such as hair loss syndrome, more easily. Also, the deer become a threat to property and human safety when population pressure forces them out into our roadways.
The deer we hunt are free range, hormone free, grass fed ruminants, which are healthier and far more ecologically responsible and sustainable than factory farmed meat. And it doesn’t just feed hunters and their friends. Organizations like Hunters for the Hungry distribute millions of pounds of venison to those in need.
Hunting regulations require that hunters either hunt their own land or have written permission of the land owner. They must know the lay of the land, especially where residences and property lines lie. They must pass a hunter safety course and be licensed, and the licensing fees support state wildlife management. They must use primitive weapons, not centerfire rifles that can carry for over a mile. They also must report their activity to the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, which assists in animal population. Hunting has an excellent safety record with fewer accidents and injuries than high school sports or golf. Consider that includes all hunting incidents, even from poaching, and you get an idea how safe responsible hunting is.
Michael Clements
Orcas Island
PTSA Book Fair well attended
In these times of chronic state underfunding of our public schools, especially including our school libraries, we here on Orcas have yet another example of how fortunate we are to live in such a caring community. On Dec. 3, the PTSA sponsored its second Family Reading Night at the school library and kicked off our recent Scholastic Book Fair. Lots of cookies were eaten and books were read!
Thank you to the many book fair volunteers, cookie bakers, guest readers (and standby readers) who made these events happen: Jennifer Pietsch, Lorena Stankevich, Vicki Vandermay, Anne Garfield, Tammy Grantham, Marian O’Brien, Kelsey Whitaker, Susan Stolmeier, Jennifer Kaden, Dawn Light, Sheila Veldman, Michelle Kostechko, Ellen Goldberg, Laurie Mayhew Waage, Nancy O’Brien, Pam Jenkins, Tom Gobeske, Barbara Kline, Mathew Chasanoff, Janet Brownell, Scott and Judy Whiting, as well as Santa and Mrs. Claus, who took time from their busy schedule this time of year to read at the Family Reading Night.
Special thanks to the school library staff, School Librarian Maria Doss and Assistant Librarian Linda Slone, for their flexibility in allowing the library to be transformed by boxes and sales carts, and for their help selecting the new materials the fair made possible.
Finally, and most importantly, thank you to all the students, teachers and community members who purchased books – especially those of you who bought books as “Secret Santas” for others. All of the profits from the Book Fair will be used to provide hundreds of new books for our school library!
Barb Skotte, PTSA President
Eastsound
Council salaries questioned
During informal discussions when we were constructing the new county charter, it is my belief that the freeholders anticipated that the six, part-time council members, replacing the three full-time commissioners, would be compensated somewhat below the compensation of the council members of Whatcom County, which like us is a charter county. Their population was 190,000 with seven council members, each being paid $18,000, and ours was about 17,000 and six council members.
Amazingly, the salary commission provided our council with the princely sum of $32,000 each. The council position was only supposed to be a part-time job – not a career-based salary. The charter spells out that the council is only to be involved in legislative matters. No administration, such as a county administrator, would be hired, and they deal with no legal or land use matters.
The three full-time commissioners were getting about $62,000 each and advised the freeholders that the three of them were only spending about 1/3rd of their time on legislative matters. Since the charter would be doubling the number of representatives, or council members, we figured that the six council members doing 1/3rd of the work of the three commissioners, would enjoy no more compensation than $15,000 each for their work. As a result of our generous salary commission, we now have an administration which is doing 1/3rd of the work at double the cost. But I guess that is typical bureaucracy. But this is San Juan County and not Washington. And here is an easy solution to getting more work done at half the cost.
Reduce the salary of the council by $10,000 each and install an interactive video conferencing system between islands, increasing their efficiency by perhaps 100 percent. This would decrease the hundreds of wasted hours on the ferry and also allow the public to participate at hearings without traveling to Friday Harbor. Such a system could also be used by all county departments – again saving administrative costs. Ours is a small community and especially in these tough economic times, we should insist that our council and our county administrator operate more economically and efficiently in utilizing our tax dollars. I certainly don’t want to compare our council members with the likes of what we have seen concerning Wall Street and the auto industry, but I will offer this once-heard refrain: IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID!
Walt Corbin
Olga
Thanks to OIEF and the community
Thank you, thank you to the Orcas Island Education Foundation, Camp Orkila, all who donated time and materials, and our wonderful community for the support you gave to this year’s Food for Thought fundraiser for our schools!
It was another beautiful event with lots of delectable food and fabulous items created and donated to be auctioned off. As always, it was so wonderful to be celebrating our school programs and the children they serve, while raising much-needed funds to maintain our excellent schools.
Where would we all be without you?!
Our deepest, heartfelt gratitude.
The staff of Orcas Island Public Schools
Congrats to Orcas School
Orcas High School is rated one of the very best in Washington State!
In the annual search for the best high schools in the United States, U.S. News and World Report analyzed academic and enrollment data from more than 21,000 public high schools across the country. The top schools were placed into gold, silver, bronze, and honorable mention categories.
In a three-step process, they ensured that the top schools served all students well, using state proficiency standards, and then assessed the degree to which the schools prepare students for college-level work. The top 100 schools in the nation received gold medals, including about six in our state. The next top 500 schools received silver medals. Orcas Island High School was one of the small group of 12 high schools in Washington state to receive silver medals! I am so proud of the achievements of our leader/superintendent/high school principal, Barbara Kline, and the excellent and dedicated staff of teachers from our high school level, and, also, from the elementary and middle school levels, who prepare our students for their rigorous high school curriculum. And thank you to our generous community, who privately assist in the funding of programs. WAY TO GO ALL OF YOU!!!
Leota Shaner
Orcas Island
Choral Society cancellation
Thanks to all of you who braved ice and snow to hear our Joyous Sounds of Christmas 2008 concert on Saturday night. We very reluctantly cancelled the Sunday concert because of road conditions.
We would appreciate your considering the cost of your unused ticket as a donation to the Choral Society. Requests for refunds will also be honored. Call the Orcas Center Box Office to arrange this: 376-ACT1, Thurs., Fri., Sat., noon til 4.
With our best wishes for a joyous holiday season.
Catherine Pederson, Director
Orcas Choral Society
