Sports
Dunn does it again; FH heavyweight earns Mat Classic appearance No. 4 page 5
Scene
How one FH resident’s eyes were opened on a trip to Africa page 9
Editorial
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Journal
The 75¢ Wednesday, February 15, 2012 Vol. 105 Issue 7
of the San Juan Islands
www.sanjuanjournal.com
Heated wetland dispute goes viral At issue: sides drawn over lack of permits By Cali Bagby
Journal photo / Cali Bagby
San Juan County Sheriff Rob Nou surveys the scene at Watmough Head Road, Lopez Island in August, when over 30 demonstrators showed up in protest of the county paving a portion of the road.
Law & justice reprieve Funds reinstated to sheriff’s dept. and persecutor’s office By Colleen Armstrrong Islands’ Sounder editor
The County Council has back-peddled on cuts it made in December to law and justice despite voicing serious financial concern. On Feb. 7, the council voted 6-0 to reinstate $60,000 to the sheriff ’s department and $21,000 to the prosecuting attorney’s office after a tentative budget agreement reduced funding to those departments. Council chairwoman Patty Miller said the move was “delaying the inevitable,” as the county
faces major financial troubles in the next six years. “I am voting for this, but with the expectation that your starting point for 2013 is the original budget,” Miller told Sheriff Rob Nou and Prosecuting Attorney Randy Gaylord, who both spoke to the council prior to its decision. Council’s discussion The council originally approved taking out $30,600 from the prosecutor’s budget. That number was later reduced to $26,206. The sheriff was looking at a $74,939 cut. County administrator Pete Rose outlined the council’s options for finding savings in other areas: employees’ benefits plans (around $20,000) and using an extra $22,000 currently in the cash balance, or reserves. Councilman Howie Rosenfeld
was adamant that both departments remain intact for as long as possible. “We can afford to keep us relatively whole for the rest of year,” Rosenfeld said. “At this point, we have a choice. And I want to fund these positions … In the priority of things, this rises to the top. If we have to take this from the cash balance, so be it.” Nou told the council about recent savings in his department and said he could continue to look for reductions. Despite boat repairs and a lengthy homicide investigation on San Juan Island, the department came in $44,500 under budget. A deputy on Orcas quit last November and the position has yet to be filled, which is a savings around $6,000 a month. He hopes to fill that vacancy by April 1. See Reprieve, Page 4
Charles Dalton plants blueberries, hazelnuts, apples and pears because perennials are easier to maintain. The plants have not been a problem – permits, the county and wetlands are what Dalton says have been making his dream farm a nightmare. Dalton shares a four-acre property with another islander on Orcas Island, and said his troubles started because he made a mistake when he built a barn and a shed without a permit. Since that time, he has faced citizen complaints and county enforcement action over possible construction in wetlands on the property. Dalton, owner of the Kitchen restaurant in Eastsound, recently appeared in a film produced by the Citizen Action Network, entitled “San Juan County regulations are not friendly towards a small organic farmer,” in which he details the last two years and his frustrations with the Friends of the San Juans organization, San Juan County and the state Department of Ecology. As of Monday, the video had been viewed by 2,560 people on YouTube. One comment on the Youtube site, written by a “Mr. Avocats,” claims Dalton’s buildings are not getting permitted because “his neighbor (a New York financier or some such on a multimillion dollar waterfront parcel) has ‘friends’ in high places, and so the war goes on.” He goes on to accuse Friends of the San Juans of “protecting the 1 percent, not the 99 percent,” a reference to the Occupy
2011 Special Award; Second Place: General Excellence from the Washington Newpaper Publishers Association
movement. Dalton said he was reported to the county by Friends about two years ago for not having proper permits for his buildings. But the issue, according to Friends, is not about farming as the video suggests, but about following the rules and getting construction permits before developing. Friends last week released a statement saying that its executive director, Stephanie Buffum, filed a complaint with the county after receiving calls concerned about the construction of a freshwater well in a stream, with muddy water entering into the East Sound bay, and that three structures – a house, barn and
See wetlands, Page 4
Elections Go to www. sanjuanjournal.com for Tuesday’s election results.