Fall Sports Preview Sneak peaks, schedules, team photos, and more page 9-12
Island Scene
A piano, a bassoon, and a chamber full of ‘Soul’ page 13
Editorial
The landscape of healthcare is about to change on San Juan Island; here’s your chance to be informed page 7
Journal
The 75¢ Wednesday, September 12, 2012 Vol. 105 Issue 37
of the San Juan Islands
www.sanjuanjournal.com
Town preps for repair
Ferries, Bird’s eye view oil spills tops on priority Council’s wish list hinges on funding from state, feds
By Steve Wehrly Journal reporter
By Steve Wehrly Journal reporter
Hope springs eternal at the San Juan County Council that the Washington Legislature and the U.S. Congress can help. The County Council has drafted state and federal legislative priorities to send to Olympia and Washington DC. Councilwoman Lovel Pratt, who serves on the Washington Association of Counties Legislative Steering Committee, spearheads the priorities effort. The priorities have undergone several drafts in response to council discussions and public testimony. Final council action on the recommendations will probably occur in October. The council’s first federal legislative priority for 2013 is directed at oil spill prevention and response, partly in reaction to present and future increases in shipments from British Columbia ports of “bitumen” derived from the oil sands of Alberta. Shipments are expected to grow every year for many years, and the heavy, tarry bitumen is especially problematic in the Salish Sea because it sinks — a potential disaster should a spill occur. The issue of bitumen transporSee Priorities, Page4
Journal photo / Scott Rasmussen
A male California Quail keeps close watch for intruders as the rest of the covey forages for food, near Cattle Point and Golf Course roads.
Three teens injured in crash Two-hour ordeal to ‘extricate’ 18-year-old trapped in wreckage By Scott Rasmussen Journal editor
An 18-year-old San Juan Island man was flown to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries following a single-car collision, Friday, near the intersection of Bailer Hill and False Bay roads. The 18-year-old was one of three teens traveling in a 4-door Acura sedan, driven by an 18-year-old, at the time of the crash, which occurred at about 10 p.m., about 1/4 mile west of Bailer Hill Road. The car was traveling at a high-rate of speed when the driver lost control and, after swerving back-andforth across the road, slammed into a tree, according to Sheriff Rob Nou. “They were driving well in excess of the posted 25 mph speed,” said Nou, adding the preliminary inves-
tigation indicates that alcohol and possibly drugs played a role in the collision. “The one positive note in all this is that all three were wearing seat belts.” The driver and a 17-year-old passenger, in the backseat at the time of the crash, were initially treated at the medical center in Friday Harbor. The driver was then flown to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bellingham for treatment and later released. The 17-year-old passenger was released from the medical center. Nou said that the 18-year-old in the front passenger seat ended up pinned against the dashboard when the Acura struck the tree. The car struck the tree with such force that the tree “protruded into the front passenger seat,” he said, trapping the young man inside. It took two hours before emergency responders were able to remove the injured man from the wreckage, he said. As of Monday, Nou said the crash remains under investigation and that no arrests have been made. He declined to identify the three young men involved in the collision.
2011 Special Award; Second Place: General Excellence from the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association
The Spring Street water transmission line failure is temporarily fixed and parking has been reopened on the south side of the street between the Second Street and First Street, Town Administrator Duncan Wilson reported at the Sept. 6 Town Council meeting. At the meeting, Mayor Carrie Lacher and each member of the council personally thanked Utilities Superintendent Mike Wilks and “the crew that worked all night” to restore water service See repair, Page 4
REAL ESTATE in the
SEPTEMBER 2012
San Juan Islands
Properties Bought & Sold…page 9
Real Estate in the San Juan Islands
See inside for August’s real estate sales, listings and statistics.