SPORTS COVERAGE Football, volleyball and soccer stories Page 8
Nighttime adventures What do your dreams mean? Page 9
Sounder The Islands’
PEOPLE | School garden news, wedding notice. [2] PORT MAKES PURCHASE | Orcas Port buys 40 acres [3] SHERIFF’S LOG | Crime in San Juan County [7]
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
www.islandssounder.com
WEDNESDAY, September 19, 2012 • VOL. 45, NO. 38 • 75¢
Cimarron gains edge in Orcas trash tug-of-war
Love of old barns
Cimarron could handle garbage, bulk recycle; reuse services to be done by ORS by Steve Wehrly Journal Reporter
Cali Bagby/Staff Photo
Ray McBride with an original painting. The drawings are part of a calendar for the Orcas Island Historical Museum. by COLLEEN SMITH ARMSTRONG Editor and Publisher
Cobwebs dangle from the rafters and the smell of pressed apples cling to the air. The barn is ramshackle, but it’s a standing piece of island history. “Barns are like people: they have a certain smell, a certain presence,” said artist Ray McBride, whose long-ago dream of making his drawings into a calendar has come true. In the mid-1980s, McBride sketched and then water-colored 12 old barns on Orcas. It was more than just an art project for
See BARNS, Page 7
The council spent three hours discussing the future of Orcas Island’s transfer station and it resulted in a little headway. Two different entities will likely share the contract – each with its own area of service. Because the county wants out of the solid waste business, it put out a Request for Proposals this summer to operate the Orcas transfer station. Cimarron and Orcas Recycling both put in proposals. Cimarron currently hauls trash off island under contract with Waste Management. ORS is the local nonprofit operator of The Exchange re-use facility at the Orcas station. After some back and forth, the council decided that both Cimarron and Orcas Recycling should receive contracts to perform different services. After public works met with both entities, it became clear that Orcas Recycling wanted to handle the tipping floor, as it generates the bulk of the revenue from both garbage and recycling. ORS is also concerned that the public receive as many quality options and absorb as few costs as possible in future Orcas transfer station operations. “If garbage and recyclables are separated into two operations, the overall cost to the end user is significantly higher due to the need to pay for two managing bodies,” said ORS Director Mark DeTray in a letter to the editor. “Tip fees would need to be set
higher for recyclables, undermining any economic incentive to recycle.” To read the letter in its entirety, go to http://goo.gl/Z9D0H. Public works recommended to the council that the tipping floor be assigned to Cimarron, which would continue to transport all garbage and bulk recycling – the recycling that San Juan Sanitation collects at homes. Public works recommended that ORS should provide reuse, self-haul recycling, composting, construction material reclamation and resale, special waste handling (oil, batteries, antifreeze, appliances), “producer responsibility programs” such as e-waste and fluorescent light bulbs, and “community outreach services on Orcas to further the county’s longterm goals for reuse and waste reduction.” “I like the passion that Orcas Recycling brings to the table,” said Councilman Howie Rosenfeld during the hearing on Sept. 11. “Local control has lots of advantages and I think they will be much more likely to achieve our goals to reduce, reuse and recycle.” Rosenfeld tried to convince his colleagues to continue the hearing on Orcas Island at a council meeting already scheduled for October, but a majority of the council was ready to vote. The discussion and vote were prompted by Utility Manager Ed Hale’s recommendation that the county approve negotiation of contracts “to ensure transition of the site by the end of 2012.”
Honoring an islander by COLLEEN SMITH ARMSTRONG Editor and publisher
Ninety-year-old Fred Whitridge, who is a legend among nonprofit boards, brought the audience to tears as he accepted recognition from the Orcas Island Community Foundation for his leadership in philanthropy. The foundation honored him at its annual report to the community luncheon. Doug Bechtel, who helped introduced Whitridge, said he personified the saying: “I don’t want to be an officer, I want to be an enlisted man.” Whitridge was instrumental in the development and support of
many island organizations, including the San Juan Preservation Trust, OPAL Community Land Trust, Orcas Center, the library and OICF. In 2011, the foundation distributed $116,507 in endowment funds to eight organizations; $153,825 in donor advised funds; and $288,756 to community impact initiatives. Twenty-seven different organizations received grants that totaled $100,248. “We blow every other community foundation in Washington state out of the water. It’s incredible,” said OICF Director Hilary Canty.
See WASTE, Page 7
Sounder deadlines Advertising: Friday at noon Classified: Monday at noon Legals: Thursday at noon Editorial: Friday at noon
How to reach us
Colleen Smith Armstrong/Staff Photo
OICF president Diane Berreth, Fred Whitridge & director Hilary Canty.
Office: 376-4500 Fax: 376-4501 Advertising: advertising@ islandssounder.com Classified: 1-800-388-2527, classifieds@ soundpublishing.com Editor: editor@ islandssounder.com