SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
WEDNESDAY, March 5, 2014 VOL. 47, NO. 10 75¢ www.islandssounder.com
Latest CAO chapter coming March 5 by STEVE WEHRLY Journal reporter
Benjamin Edwards Photo
Weddings in the San Juans Inside this edition
Another chapter in the seemingly unending Critical Areas Ordinance update process is reaching a conclusion. The San Juan County Council is scheduled to complete the current installment at a March 5 special meeting. But this chapter is far from the end of the story. At a Feb. 25 public hearing, the council considered 26 amendments to three of four critical areas ordinances originally passed in late 2012, which were intended to bring the environmental and construction permitting regulations into compliance with the state Growth Management Act. “All of us have reservations about the CAO, but we have worked together and we have been able to approve options provided by the planning commission that will put the county in compliance,” SJC Council Chairman Rick Hughes said. An “update” of four critical areas regulations were originally required by the GMA to be com-
From the library to Nigeria and back again
Cali Bagby/ Staff photo
Editor’s note: The Orcas Island Library is hoping to embark on an expansion of its facility. In the next year, there will be public meetings, design work and fundraising. The Sounder is running a series on the library’s staff.
Left: Library volunteer Lynn Carter.
by CALI BAGBY Staff reporter
Lynn Carter worked for 19 years as an administrator. Little did she know that those skills would transfer to 13 years of service for the Orcas Island Public Library and would also take her far across the sea and deep into the jungle. She and her husband James Lobdell moved to the island in 1998 from Portland, Ore. In Portland, Carter worked as third party administrator for unions mainly dealing with pension and health plans and cemetery and funeral pre-planning. On Orcas, Carter was a perfect volunteer because she was able to work with computers and because giving her time to the library is literally woven into her family tree. Her mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law were both heavily involved in the Orcas Island Public Library. Yet, it was not what Carter had
in mind for her retirement. She thought she would just work on one project because she knew how to navigate computers and then Carter said it all “escalated.” She was taught how to manage the finances, catalog books and man the front desk. “One thing led to another,” she said. Carter has been volunteering on the island since 2001. She also serves as the Friends of the Library treasurer. The Friends is a nonprofit
that raises funds for the library. Between these two capacities, Carter spends about 20 to 30 hours a week at the library. In her office, which she calls a little hole in the wall, there are stacks of books labeled with words like pottery, expensive and eBay. This room in the back of the library is where all the donated books for fundraising are funneled to. The two main fundraising events are the Friends’ winter and summer book sale. Some of the donated books will bypass the sale and go straight to eBay. Volunteers like Carter research the top end books to find out how much they should sell them for online. “I’ve never realized how much value there are in books and the connections people have with them,” she said. Carter said the objective is to get rid of the books and get the cash. It may sound funny to learn that in a room in the back of the library they are being sold to later benefit the library. Thanks to those donations the Friends have
SEE LYNN, PAGE 5
pleted by 2006, but procedural and substantive impediments delayed completion until 2012. The council’s 2012 enactments were then appealed to the Growth Management Hearings Board in early 2013 by property rights advocates and environmentalists. A September 2013 decision by the board essentially upheld objections advanced by the Friends of the San Juans that the critical areas ordinances failed to comply with the GMA in nine respects. Contentions advanced by the Common Sense Alliance and other property rights advocates were rejected by the board. Both the Alliance and Friends of the San Juans have appealed the hearings board decision in San Juan County Superior Court. That action is under consideration by Judge Don Eaton, and further appeals could still be pursued at the state Court of Appeals and in the state Supreme Court. In addition, the county or any party can bring additional legal action in response to the decision by the hearings board regarding the amendments expected to be passed on March 5.
SEE CAO, PAGE 5
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