Islands' Sounder, December 05, 2012

Page 1

HOLIDAY COOKING Vegetarian cooking club sprouts up Page 11

YOUNG MUSICIANS Trio of school concerts coming this month Page 9

SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’

PEOPLE | News about community members. [2] LETTERS | Commentary from islanders. [4&5] FISCAL FUTURE | Rep. Rick Larsen weighs in [8]

Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County

www.islandssounder.com

WEDNESDAY, December 5, 2012  VOL. 45, NO. 49  75¢

Santa’s workshop

by COLLEEN SMITH ARMSTRONG Editor/Publisher

Even the little girls want their own truck. Crafty volunteers of the Kiwanis Club spend nearly three months hunkered down in George Garrels’ cozy wood shop, building toy trucks for holiday Santa events. While they are intended for the young boys of Orcas Island, girls want in on the action too. “We also collect stuffed animals for the kids and a lot of times, the girls say, ‘I want a toy truck instead!’’” Garrels said. “So we always make some extra.” Around 120 handmade toys will pass through the wood shop every season. The tradition started in 1996 and the number of toys has grown from an initial 50 items. Garrels goes to island construction sites and picks up wood scraps to use for the toys. With painted wheels and a branding of “Handcrafted by Orcas Kiwanis Club,” the trucks are made with love and care. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s really a lot of fun,” Garrels said. The toys – and stuffed animals – fill Santa’s bag for the Tree Lighting event on Dec. 7. Kiwanis members also drop them off at Children’s House and Kaleidoscope. “The kids’ eyes light up when they see the toys,” Garrels said. “It’s really wonderful.”

by STEVE WERHLY Journal reporter

Eastsound Sewer and Water District hopes to have a new ‘re-use’ process implemented by next fall Staff reporter

When the toilet flushes, most of us leave the room, thinking little of what happens next. For the staff of the Eastsound Sewer and Water District, what goes through the pipes is paramount. That’s why they are working on a plan to not only reduce cost for waste

The cost of recycling at the San Juan Island and Orcas Island dropboxes could be going up, to $3 per garbage can, if the county council accepts a recommendation by the Department of Public Works. If approved, the new fee would replace the current charge of $5 per cubic yard, which equals up to six 32-gallon cans of commingled recycling. Utility Manager Ed Hale and Public Works Department Director Frank Mulcahy presented the new fee to the council on Nov. 27. The fee will pay for an anticipated increase in hauling and disposal costs until the private companies selected to operate the San Juan and Orcas transfer stations take over facilities sometime next

Cali Bagby/Staff Photos

Kiwanis volunteers Lynn Richards (far back), Bud McKee (middle) and Bob Foulk are hard at work crafting trucks in George Garrels’ toy-making workshop. Every year, they create around 120 toys, pictured at right, for island kids. They will be distributed this Friday at the tree lighting event in the Village Green, which starts at 4 p.m.

Turning waste into soil by CALI BAGBY

Fees for recycling to spike?

treatment, but to go the next step – transforming human waste into soil. “The main reason we started thinking of the idea was because it’s very expensive to throw away waste. We’ve been looking for alternatives to get rid of waste and not just put it in a ‘dumpster,’” said Roy Light, Eastsound Sewer and

SEE RECYCLING, PAGE 6

Sounder deadlines Water District superintendent. It was an idea that started six years ago and now Light predicts will be a reality within a year. Construction is slated for next fall. The district is planning on using the “screw-press” process through the company FKC, which has more than 4,000 operations worldwide. Light said it essentially presses water out, leaving solids that are safely processed into usable soil. “They actually call it a soil amendment because it has high fertilizer value,” he said. Light added that there is always some reluctance in the community to re-using human waste, but the process produces a class A biosolid and kills all pathogens. There will also be extensive testing before the product is released to the public to ensure its safety.

Class A biosolids are mandated as an unregulated substance by the Department of Ecology, meaning that the sewer district can give the soil away for free to the public, which is the sewer district’s plan. They will even have a machine that will load it into your truck, said Light. According to DOE, biosolids are a primarily organic, semi-solid product resulting from the wastewater treatment process and are a valuable commodity because they have physical qualities and nutrients that make them good soil amendments and fertilizers. “It doesn’t look or smell like you think it would,” Light said. Most wastewater plants recycle the liquid portion of human waste, but the sludge left over, called bio-

SEE WASTE, PAGE 6

Display advertising: Friday at noon Classified advertising: Monday at noon Legal advertising: Thursday at noon Press releases, Letters: Friday at 3 p.m.

How to reach us Office: 376-4500 Fax: 376-4501 Advertising: advertising@ islandssounder.com Classified: 1-800-388-2527, classifieds@ soundpublishing.com Editor: editor@ islandssounder.com


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.