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Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
GRADUATION SPECIAL Inside this edition Salutatorian Friday Harbor High School
Valedictorian Spring Street International School
Salutatorian Spring Street International School
Student Speaker Skagit Valley College
Co-Valedictorian Orcas High School
Co-Valedictorian Orcas High School
Salutatorian Orcas High School
Temporary fix for Skagit I-5 bridge
Afternoon snack
by STEVE WEHRLY Journal reporter
Tom Averna photo
Like pieces for a gigantic erector set, thousands of steel beams, connectors, supports and fasteners have already arrived and are being assembled into a temporary bridge. The structure will replace the collapsed I-5 bridge over the Skagit River in Mount Vernon. According to Bill Killeen, president of Acrow Corporation of America, the manufacturer of the bridge, about 20 truckloads of the silvery-gray hot-dipped galvanized steel were on site or on the way to Mount Vernon last week. Acrow construction specialists from Tampa, Fla., Vancouver, B.C. and Camas, Wash., were also en route. “We’ve built thousands of bridges around the world over
Girls give it their all at state play-offs by COLLEEN SMITH ARMSTRONG Editor/Publisher
The Lady Vikings softball team traveled to Yakima over Memorial Day weekend to compete in the 2B Bi-District Tournament. After heavy rains cancelled the games on Friday, the girls took on the Dayton Bulldogs on Saturday morning in the Gateway Sports Complex. Orcas lost the game 5-2. Aliviah Garcia hit a double in the bottom of the fifth inning to bring in Emma Minnis, who hit a double before that, scoring the team’s first run. The game was 5-1 at that point. In the bottom of the seventh, Shelbi Rogers hit a single and then Lana Bronn hit a single that brought Rogers in to home. The Vikings loaded the bases but Dayton got them on three outs and no other runs came in. Pitcher Garcia had 10 strike-outs. “Dayton went on to do pretty well in the tournament – they are good team,” said Coach Scott Harris. “They took advantage of some of our errors.” In the afternoon, they took on the Adna Pirates, losing 8-2.
Co-Valedictorian Friday Harbor High School
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WEDNESDAY, June 5, 2013 VOL. 46, NO. 23 75¢
This photo of a Steller sea lion with an octopus was taken over Memorial Day weekend.
Co-Valedictorian Friday Harbor High School
the past 60 years, many of them under emergency conditions,” said Killeen, who noted that he personally worked with an Acrow Bridge team rebuilding more than 60 bridges around Mount St. Helens, in the aftermath of the 1980 eruption. The northern section of the bridge fell into the Skagit River, May 23, when a southbound Mullen Trucking Company truck hauling a large container for mining equipment clipped one or more load-bearing supporting struts as it crossed the bridge. The over-height truck was accompanied by a pilot car with a vertical measuring pole which, according to witnesses, also struck the bridge in front of the truck following behind. The company is still investigating the incident. Three people were rescued from two vehicles that plunged into the water along with the bridge. All three were unharmed and released from local hospitals. Killeen said his company started loading trucks at marshaling yards near Acrow’s Parsippany,
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Colleen Smith Armstrong/Staff photos
Above: Vikings Emma Minnis (l) and Lana Bronn (r) during the game against Adna in the state play-offs in Yakima. Right: Alenna Garcia reaches high to catch the ball. Overall, the girls hit the ball well. Harris says Most Valuable Player goes to Bronn for her incredible throws. She also had a double and an RBI. Garcia went two for three with a double; Alicia Susol went two for three with an RBI; Katie Holley also went two
for three; and Kirsten Fowler had a double. “We hung tough and we had our moments,” Harris said. “We started off with errors right out of the gate and then it settled down. To Adna’s credit, they came out hitting the ball hard. We had to
adjust to the power of their bat. Once we got used to that, we played a pretty sound game.” The team then headed back to Orcas, just in time for prom on Sunday. The tournament marked the final games for seniors Garcia, Bronn, Fowler and Jessi Gudgell.
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