SPRING SPORTS Vikings gear up for spring athletics Pages 10 & 11
UW PROF To speak at the school Page 13
REAL ESTATE SECTION Monthly special section inside this edition
SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
www.islandssounder.com
WEDNESDAY, March 13, 2013 VOL. 46, NO. 11 75¢
Benefit for mission trip to L.A. ‘Hope for L.A.’ concert to fund student project by COLLEEN SMITH ARMSTRONG Editor/Publisher
For those who missed Orcas Has Talent last month, many of the performers are getting back on stage for an encore session. A group of local students are traveling to Los Angeles on a mission trip, and an upcoming benefit concert will help raise funds for their projects in an impoverished neighborhood. “It’s a really good group going,” said Orcas High School senior Lana Bronn. “They’ve all got the right attitude. The heart of the trip is going to be great.” The concert will be on Saturday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Church. Featured performers are ALLmost Canadian, Kellen Comrie, Cali Bagby, Yuko Horikawa, Matthew the Magician, KT Laslo, the M&Ms, Madi Jane West and Conrad Wrobel. Admission is by donation.
An ocean rescue
Lopez Island captain saves man and his vessel by CALI BAGBY Staff reporter
Bronn said. This time the students, who attend both the public school and Orcas Christian School, will be traveling to a more urban setting: Los Angeles. Youth Pastor Scott Harris will lead the group in the
It’s amazing what you don’t see when at sea. In its vastness people can be lost forever. It’s also amazing what you do see, according to long-time shipmaster Thomas Crawford. He has witnessed everything from remnants of the Fukushima nuclear disaster to slow-moving grey whales to a refrigerator so long discarded that its doors are encrusted with barnacles. Sometimes you are lucky enough to find another seaman in distress and you are able to save a life, and sometimes you are
SEE CONCERT, PAGE 6
SEE RESCUE, PAGE 6
Colleen Smith Armstrong/Staff Photo
The Gathering youth group led by Scott Harris, many of whom will be going to Los Angeles for a mission trip. “I am really excited to hear more from the musicians from Orcas Has Talent,” said Bagby, who is an opera singer as well as a reporter at the Sounder. “I still get very nervous when I perform, but it’s great to have these events that represent something bigger than me.” Orcas Island Community
Church takes high school kids on a mission trip every other year during spring break. Last time it was in Kentucky, where the students worked on construction projects and led programs with children in a rural community. “It’s the polar opposite from here. It was an amazing trip,”
County clears ‘growth’ hurdle by STEVE WEHRLY Journal reporter
Twenty-one years after it all began, San Juan County received a letter of congratulations from Washington State Growth Management Services for “completion of the comprehensive plan and development regulations update process.” That letter, dated Feb. 5, signifies that the county is “in compliance” with Growth Management Act requirements and that the county was to complete a series of updates to its comprehensive plan and development regulations no later than Dec. 1, 2005. “In compliance” means that the county will not have money withheld under a variety of sanctions and funding restrictions imposed on non-compliant counties. The main funding sources not available to the county were loans or grants from the Centennial Clean Water Fund and the Public Works Trust Fund.
Applications for grants or loans from either of those two funds might include matching funds for relocation of Cattle Point Road, planning money for connecting Pear Point Road to Turn Point Road, stormwater improvements throughout the county, various road signage and guardrail improvements on all islands, and several million dollars needed for improvements to Orcas Road, and for replacing the Deer Harbor Bridge on Orcas, both of which are part of the $12.7 million six-year county transportation improvement program. Councilman Rich Peterson thought the compliance letter was “good news,” but cautioned that “there might not be any state money left” after four years of state budget problems. In fact, in 2010, because of severe budget shortfalls, the Legislature transferred the entire Public Works Trust Fund to the state general fund. (The fund does get replenished, sometimes by federal appropriations.)
Additional sanctions that might have been imposed by the state include withholding from a non-compliant county a share of various taxes, such as the motor vehicle excise tax, the transportation improvement account and the sales and use tax. These were never applied to San Juan County, and are rarely used. The most important updates were the ordinances passed by the county council in late 2012. The Critical Areas Ordinances now being reviewed by the Growth Management Hearings Board after five individuals and organizations filed “Petitions for Review” seeking to overturn various parts of the update. Other GMA requirements include updated county laws and regulations dealing with shoreline management programs, the transportation element of the Comprehensive Plan, and development regulations. The transportation element and the shoreline management program are both currently in the review and preparation process, but are fully compliant with state requirements, for now. While it is possible, and perhaps likely,
SEE GMA, PAGE 6
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