Sports
Playoff bound: Wolverines advance in baseball, golf; softball yet to come
Island Scene
Bueno Vista! Scenes from Opening Day Boat Parade page 9
www.sanjuanjournal.com
Guest Column
Even a young child may carry a burden, that’s when the PIP program steps in, helping them to succeed page 7
Journal
The 75¢ Wednesday, May 8, 2013 Vol. 106 Issue 19
of the San Juan Islands
www.sanjuanjournal.com
Town digs in, ‘shovel ready’
Dump hand off stymied by delay Path to privatization of transfer stations slowed by red tape
By Steve Wehrly Journal reporter
By Steve Wehrly Journal reporter
Eighteen months after voters rejected the County Council’s plan for financing solid waste disposal operations with a property tax parcel fee, glitches in negotiations and financing are causing frustration and impatience on all sides, as schedules slip and costs mount in the county’s ongoing effort to privatize solid waste and recycling operations on Orcas and San Juan islands. But county officials and future site operators insist progress is being made, and that privatized operation of the Orcas transfer station and the San Juan drop-box facility will occur “this summer” despite delays. Orcas Recycling Services has not made required state and federal tax payments for past operations and has not completed an operations plan, as required by the county, before a contract can be executed authorizing ORS to assume operating responsibility for the Orcas transfer station. The tax liability question arose when ORS hired part-time employees in recent years to help community volunteers with increased garbage and recycling flows.
Journal photo / Scott Rasmussen
With garden basket in hand, Lopez Island’s Marlia Starwater is overjoyed to be one of nearly two dozen door prize winners at OPALCO’s annual meeting, May 4, on the Elwha ferry.
Once a year, one of a kind Differences over broadband aired at OPALCO annual meeting, No. 76 By Scott Rasmussen Journal editor
Door prizes. Election results. Free lunch. A chance to mingle with friends from afar. A state of the union address; an annual shareholders report. As many as 300 people climbed onboard the Washington State Ferries’ Elwha for the 76th annual meeting of Orcas Power & Light Cooperative, Saturday, May 4, and they did so for a variety of reasons. But the chance to weigh in on the risks and rewards of the power cooperative’s broadband initiative, with coop executives on hand, was clearly on the mind of many. “Stay in the business your in,” Lopez Island’s Bosco Bailey cautioned. “Live within your means.”
Fellow Lopezian Naomi Aldort was more emphatic. “Some of us don’t want it, keep it the way it is,” she said. While the portion of the annual meeting set aside for the Q & A of the broadband initiative was only part of the program, it stands as one of the biggest investments the power cooperative has contemplated since its formation. Under the initiative, as it stands today, OPALCO would borrow roughly $34 million to build and expand its network of fiber-optic lines and transmission capability, and provide high-speed Internet access and telephone service to its members, at a cost of $90 a month to those who sign up for the new service, and $15 a month for those who don’t. Interest on the federal loan, offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Service, is expected to cost $10 million over the life of the 40-year loan. Though some remain skeptical, others maintain that better broadband delivered at higher and See ONce, Page 5
See Delay, Page 4
2011 Special Award; Second Place: General Excellence from the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association
The Town of Friday Harbor at its May 2 meeting ended the brouhaha with Gearhart Construction over who should pay for a sidewalk and stormwater drainage on Blair Street next to Gearhart’s “new Printonyx” and apartment project. Gearhart pays, but the local developer-builder only has to come up with about $23,000 for its portion, less than half what it would cost Gearhart to do the construction by itself, according to Town Administrator Duncan See Shovel, Page 2
Real Estate
in the
San Juan Islands May 2013
Properties Bought & Sold page 8
Nate Feder photo
Real Estate in the San Juan Islands
See inside for April’s real estate sales, listings and statistics.