Islands' Sounder, February 20, 2013

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SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’

Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County

CROSSROADS LECTURE SERIES Read about speakers on page 9 www.islandssounder.com

WEDNESDAY, February 20, 2013  VOL. 46, NO. 8  75¢

Four council candidates on to general election

by SCOTT RASMUSSEN Journal editor

With a convincing victory in the Feb. 12 primary, former Councilwoman Lovel Pratt emerged as front-runner in the race for the District 1 county council position with 2,758 votes, outpacing council incumbent Bob Jarman, who finished second in the three-way contest, by 937 votes. Jarman, who unseated Pratt three months ago in the November election, collected 1,821 of the 5,692 District 1 primary votes, or 32 percent of ballots cast, leaving Friday Harbor businessman and council incumbent Marc Forlenza, at 19.5 percent, as oddman-out in the three-way primary. As the top two vote-getters, Jarman and Pratt will

advance to the April 23 general election. “I feel I had a pretty good showing countywide,” Pratt said. “It really is a county-wide campaign and I’m going to continue to do that.” Voter turnout totaled 52 percent for the county-wide primary, with 50 ballots remaining to be counted, at the time of this writing, according to county election officials. Jarman, who trailed Pratt in nearly all of the 19 county voting precincts, knows there’s ground to make up in order to claim the reconfigured council post in April’s general election. Jarman campaign manager, wife Susan Jarman, said that the candidate, who two weeks ago had a heart valve replaced at

Contributed photos

From left to right: Candidates Lisa Byers, Rick Hughes, Lovel Pratt and Bob Jarman. Bellingham’s St. Joseph’s Hospital, expects to spend this week on the telephone, raising money and expanding the campaign, “especially on Lopez, Shaw and Orcas.” “He’s happy with the results and looking forward to campaigning,” Susan Jarman said. “We will focus on mainstream islanders, middle-of-the-road voters.” The local electoral landscape is drastically different than it was just three months ago. The Feb. 12 primary election follows on the heels of November’s voter-approved changes to the county charter, which reduced the size of the county council from six elected

officials to three, redrew the council legislative districts from six to three as well, and instituted county-wide elections for each of the three newly created council posts. In addition, changes to the charter turned those three council offices into fulltime positions, with responsibility for both county legislative duties and its day-to-day management. The three full-time council members will earn $75,000 a year, plus benefits. In the District 2 primary, which, like the

Orcas woman shares her story of survival by CALI BAGBY

Contributed photo

Staff reporter

She remembers seeing the deer, swerving off the road and feeling the car roll downhill. When it stopped, she unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled herself from the wreckage. She remembers crawling on her elbows and forearms until she felt gravel beneath her body. She reached in her coat pocket and found her cell phone not knowing if she had enough service coverage to call 911. When a voice came through on the other line she was started crying saying, “I’m on Orcas Island, the car went downhill, off the side of the road.” She remembers the

Left: Kerrissa Thorson-Shaepe

helicopter’s blades spinning and feeling rain on her face. “I’m so glad to be alive and to

be able to kiss my children and see my husband,” said Kerrissa Thorson-Shaepe choking back tears as she sat in her hospital bed while nurses cleaned a wound sustained from the accident. Thorson-Shaepe, 36, a long-time Orcas Island resident, is recovering from multiple injuries after a single-car rollover near the intersection of Buckhorn and Raccoon Point Roads on Feb. 3. She said she was driving to get snacks after the power went out during the third quarter of the Super Bowl. When a deer jumped into the

road she swerved – narrowly missing the creature, but sending her car plunging downhill, through a clump of bushes and trees before crashing into a pump house, where her vehicle rolled onto its side and came to a stop. That’s when she pulled herself from the wreck and called for help. “The paramedics and EMS guys are awesome and if I could I would give them all a great big hug,” Thorson-Shaepe said. “For so many reasons I could have not lived. I am so lucky to have all of my fingers and toes and no head trauma and no significant back damage.” Her injuries include a broken

SEE SURVIVAL, PAGE 3

SEE ELECTION, PAGE 3

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