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health FROM 1 and Oregon. It has been a Northwest healthcare provider for more than a century, and is financing roughly two-thirds of the $30 million construction cost of Peace Island Medical Center. Barnhart said that doctors in other PeaceHealth clinics and hospitals provide family planning services, including tubal ligations, vasectomies and prescriptions for contraceptives, and that he expects Peace Island hospital and clinics will continue that policy on San Juan. “PeaceHealth has not discontinued services to Planned Parenthood and will not discontinue services to Planned Parenthood,” he added. PeaceHealth Care System was founded by the Roman Catholic Congregation of
the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. In their online “About Us” statement, it states they will continue their founder’s “emphasis on human rights, especially women’s rights.” According to Linda McCarthy, director of the Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood in Bellingham, which also offers services in Friday Harbor, PeaceHealth officials offered assurances but no answers about their next move when she met with them to discuss Archbishop J. Peter Sartain’s letter and its contents. She said that she later received a telephone call from PeaceHealth saying it “will continue business as usual with Planned Parenthood as they tried to find a solution” to the Archbishop’s request and the need for laboratory services for Planned Parenthood clients. If promises are being made, she said that she
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would like them spelled out on paper. “While we are encouraged to hear a representative of PeaceHealth state publicly they plan to continue providing lab services to Planned Parenthood patients, we have not officially been informed of that news,” McCarthy said. “We look forward to receiving that confirmation in writing.” Barnhart said that Inter Island Medical Center doctors who will join Peace Island have not provided elective abortion services at the clinic and have unanimously said they will not provide elective abortions at PIMC. However, Barnhard noted that in emergency situations Peace Island would not interfere in its physician’s medical judgments. Like Barnhart, PeaceHealth’s Michael Garrido, vice president of mission integration, assured those services would continue and that PIMC’s policies will be put down on paper. “We’ll provide these policies in writing,” Garrido said. Following the meeting, Hospital Commission Chairwoman Lenore Bayuk said that written policies “will be developed by the PeaceIsland Board” (which has yet to be named) and would be available before PIMC opens in November. “Those policies will be consistent with what was said here tonight,” she said.
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Wednesday, July 4, 2012 • The Islands’ Sounder
SOLID WASTE FROM 1 and off island that operate independently of a transfer station. “It’s a brave new world. I think those that know and love the Exchange will support it no matter what. I think there is life after self-haul,” Mulcahy said. “Because of the interest in proposals to take over the transfer stations, I don’t think people will have to worry about life after self-haul.”
Lopez Island On June 26, the county council made it official that the Lopez Island’s drop box and self-haul facility will be operated by a Solid Waste Disposal District. In May, more than 1,200 Lopezians signed a petition asking the council to create a district to take over operation of the Lopez dump and recycling center. Council Chairwoman Patty Miller asked for signatures of 550 registered voters as a “show of support” that Lopez property owners would be willing to help finance the district with property taxes. The petition-signers pledged to vote for an estimated $.08 per $1,000 valuation property tax measure in November. Miller said the district will only work if the property tax measure is passed because otherwise there is not enough revenue to keep the transfer station running. “If people are charged too much for garbage, they won’t utilize it,” she said. According to Larry Eppenbach, district secretary, the district’s advisory board nominees told the council that failure is not an option. “We are not directing any significant energy to this ‘what if?’ However, the community of Lopez has worked toward this goal for 20 years and we will not give up,” he said. “We told the council that we would certainly be back responding to their RFP [request for proposal] with a modified service plan should the ballot measure not succeed.” If the district is successful, Eppenbach said the biggest change for Lopez regarding solid waste will be local control. There will be a suggestion box, and the district will be inviting ideas and inputs from locals. The recycling service will revert to a free sourceseparated operation and will produce the highest return value. The district plans to expand recycling services over time. For a small fee, there will be an option to dispose
of recyclables in commingled form. Other big changes will come in cost savings. The district is working to find an inexpensive means to dispose of waste glass, which because of its weight is costly to transport. The recycling center “Take-ItOr-Leave-It” will be improved with volunteers organized by the district. “With the official formation of the Lopez district, SWAP (the non-profit spearheading the district) will assume an on-going support role as a membership nonprofit organization, charged with public information and education, volunteer recruitment and fundraising,” he said. “We are all feeling very excited to take the next step. The first thing we have to do, though, is get the property tax measure passed in November.”
County-wide County-wide, you can expect to put your trash and recycling bin curbside, starting Sept. 1, as San Juan Sanitation, Inc. will be providing garbage and recycling pickup service. San Juan Sanitation is the solid waste collection company approved for work in the islands by the state’s Transportation and Utilities Commission. Maps of the service areas for garbage and recycling pickup on San Juan, Orcas and Lopez Islands will be on the Public Works website within a few weeks, and county staff will be available at the county fair in August to answer questions about the transition to the new system. The county’s new “Level of Service” regulations require that recycling and garbage route collection services must be purchased in combination; existing route collection customers will be automatically signed up for recycling collection starting in September; the basic monthly recycling service will include two 32-gallon cans; excess recyclable materials can be collected for an additional charge and recycling must occur on the same day as garbage collection. Fees for services can be found at www. sanjuansani.com. To keep track of all these changes regarding the solid waste system, public works has an email news service to provide interested residents with the latest information. To sign up, visit www.co.san-juan.wa.us/mail/ optin.aspx. “We want to be open and transparent and be accessible,” Mulcahy said.
Q&A with Public Works Director Frank Mulcahy THEME: “Crabbed Age and Youth Cannot Live Together?” Forging An Intergenerational Future in a Fragmented Age — ARTISTS — Jeremy Mangan (Fulbright Fellow in Painting) • Jason Carter (Harp Guitarist, producer and composer Sony/EMI, unruly wild man) • Family and Friends (Seattle’s hot indie band) Jeff Johnson and Wendy Goodwin (Celtic Worship) • Luci Shaw (Poet) James Riordan (Rolling Stone Magazine & Biographer of Oliver Stones, The Doors) Nigel Goodwin (UK Actor, purple socks, outrageous childlike behavior) • Dieter Zander (Photographer)
— LECTURERS — Dr. Malcolm Guite (Cambridge University scholar, poet, songwriter, impish Hobbit) Dr. Jerry Root (C.S. Lewis Scholar) Dr. Jeff Keuss (Expert on Spirituality in Youth Culture, 2nd smartest guy in the room, after Malcolm) Panelists: Maureen McQuerry (writer), Jennie Spohr, Jonathan Assink, Sophie Agtarap
— SUNDANCE SELECT — Three films from Sundance Film Festival: (Chasing Ice, Indie Games & For the Bible Tells me So)
Orcas Islanders of all ages: Register for KindlingsFest Today! For info and registration call 6422 (M-F 10-3) Or online http://www.thekindlings.com/kindlingsfest/
IS: It’s been almost eight months since you took on your position. What has been a challenge and what has been success? FM: The challenge has been learning about the unique nature of the islands. There are so many different people here: tourists, and
part-time, weekend and long-term residents. There is so much diversity and different perspectives here. The biggest success has been the momentum and change regarding solid waste. Lopez’s new district has resolved one big problem. The process of getting
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proposals for the Orcas transfer station is going well. We have been making steps forward and addressing the needs of the people. People have said that Public Works is more open and transparent now. IS: You are working on improving communication with the public, can you speak more on that subject? FM: Our biggest effort has been on the website making sure we have timely info posted. Then we implemented the email alerts. We will be holding outreach events once a month, like open houses where the public can meet with us face to face. I want people to make decisions based on all the knowledge available.