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WEDNESDAY, September 22, 2010 VOL. 43, NO. 37 75¢
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Baby on board Orcas Island woman gives birth in her car at the ferry landing By COLLEEN SMITH ARMSTRONG Editor
When Emma Claire Sheridan decided it was time to make her entrance into the world, she couldn’t be bothered with things like ferry schedules. She was ready. Now. With her mother, Linda, sprawled in the backseat of a Toyota RAV4 at the Orcas Ferry Landing, Emma drew her first breaths before an anxious audience of emergency responders and family members. “I was actually a bit relieved (to give birth),” Linda said. “If our midwife cleared us to get on the ferry to go to Island Hospital, it meant at least another two or three hours of labor, and I was just about ready to be done with everything.” Linda had been experiencing pre-labor contractions for a week, so when she began having a series of contractions at 9 p.m. on Sept. 2, she didn’t think twice about it. Her due date was still a week away. “I decided to take a bath while my husband, Paul, and my parents, Dave and Sharon Toepke, were having dinner,” Linda said. “The
bath didn’t make the contractions go away, as it had before … at that point I had six contractions in half an hour, but I didn’t really believe it was the real thing yet.” Paul called their Orcas midwife, Melinda Milligan, who was pretty sure it was the real deal. She advised the family to meet her at the ferry landing. “It was a bit of challenge getting dressed and out the door while having contractions, but with Paul’s and my parents’ help, I eventually got there,” Linda said. She had eight more contractions during the 20-minute drive to the ferry landing. They arrived at 10:35 p.m., and Melinda performed an exam. “She told Paul to call for the ambulance, because we were going to have the baby right there,” Linda said. With Melinda coaching her through the birth, Linda went into labor with a group of EMTs by her side. Dr. Michael Sullivan, Orcas Fire Department’s Medical Control Physician, happened to be in line for the same 10:50 p.m. ferry. Sullivan, who lives in Bellingham, was on Orcas for a training session at the fire department. When he got the call about
a birth at the ferry landing, he was just moments away. “It was a big comfort to have so many capable folks around,” Linda said. Ferry landing attendent Kirk Troutman said the birth caused quite a scene. “I stood back from the car and there were some pretty loud cries,” Troutman said. “It was an interesting situation. I kept traffic moving, because everyone wanted to stop and look.” By 11:15 p.m., Emma was born, weighing in at 7 pounds and 5 ounces. Emergency responders moved mother and daughter to a waiting ambulance. EMT Julie Remington drove them onto the ferry, which was on standby. Once in Anacortes, Dr. Sullivan helped the family settle in at Island Hospital, where they spent most of Labor Day weekend being observed. “Linda is tough,” Paul said. “Everyone we have told this story to says, ‘yes, of course this would be Linda’s birth story.’” Orcas Fire division chief Patrick Shepler says this may be the first baby born at the ferry landing. “When I first moved here, I delivered a baby at someone’s
Colleen Smith Armstrong/Staff Photo
Linda and Paul Sheridan with their daughter Emma, who made her debut at 11:15 p.m. inside their car at the Orcas Ferry Landing on Sept. 2. house, and I know there have been a number of births on the island,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s happened before in the ferry line … it
San Juan and Lopez transfer stations: is it over? By SCOTT RASMUSSEN County reporter
And then there was one. The Department of Public Works has its sights set on closing two of San Juan County’s three solid-waste transfer stations in order to cut costs and balance the budget of the solid waste division beginning next year. Public Works Director Jon Shannon told the County Council on Tuesday that only the Orcas Island transfer station would remain open beginning next year under the department’s preliminary 2011 budget. If that preliminary budget is approved by the council as is later this year, he said those who live on San Juan or Lopez could either haul and dispose of their trash and recycling at the Orcas facility or rely on the county’s franchise hauler, San Juan Sanitation, to pick it up. Shannon added that the department has been instructed by the county’s budgetary team, led by Administrator Pete Rose and Auditor Milene
Henley, to avoid what proved to be a miscalculation in the 2010 solid waste revenue and spending plan, and to submit a balanced budget for the year ahead. “Essentially, that one-station model works,” he said. “We can’t balance the budget with three facilities.”
“We can’t balance the budget with three facilities.” — Jon Shannon, public works
The council approved this year’s solid waste budget with the recognition that an additional $1.6 million in revenue would be needed somewhere along the way to cover the cost of the operation. That anticipated shortfall remains largely unresolved and, despite this year’s fee increases and cutbacks in service, the solid waste division is roughly $630,000 in the hole. Financed almost exclusively by tipping fees,
or the price one pays to dispose of garbage, the solid waste operation collected roughly $300,000 less in revenue in 2009 than it did the year before as roughly 2 million fewer pounds of garbage were disposed of countywide. That decline in the amount of garbage collected and in the amount of revenue collected has continued this year as well, according to Public Works. Meanwhile, the council recently enacted a $5 fee that applies to “recycling-only” customers with an expectation of generating roughly $240,000 in additional income. Though the plans are on the table, closing the San Juan and the Lopez solid waste facilities is not a done deal. Public Works will meet with the council Sept. 28 to discuss three options, along with cost projections, for the coming year. At this point, those options include operating all three facilities, maintaining only the Orcas transfer station, and for the county to get out of running a solid-waste operation all together.
sounds like it’s a first.” Linda says Emma was the sec-
SEE BABY BORN, PAGE 6
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