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SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
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WEDNESDAY, July 31, 2013 VOL. 46, NO. 31 75¢
Orcas Recycling Services’ contract moves forward by STEVE WEHRLY Journal reporter
Purple haze
Chris Teren/terenphotography.com
A view from Reboudt Road on San Juan Island revealed Northern Lights aglow over Orcas in mid-July.
After a few bumps in the road and some insistent communications to San Juan County council members from Orcas Recycling Services supporters, the contract for operating the Orcas Island transfer station was discussed, but not voted on, at the county council hearing on Monday, July 29. Absent a last-minute glitch, the council will schedule a public hearing with public testimony in August, followed by a council vote authorizing the contract to be signed and operations at the site to be turned over to ORS a few weeks later. “I don’t believe there will be any impediments to concluding the deal with ORS,” said Frank Mulcahy, the county’s Director of Public Works, which is the agency responsible for privatizing the county dump sites on Orcas and San Juan Islands. After a failed property tax par-
Concerns about a ‘possible’ arsonist grow Cali Bagby/Staff Photo
by CALI BAGBY
Left to right: Fire Chief Kevin O’Brien and Fire Marshal Paul Turner during the meeting.
Staff reporter
The crowd looked frustrated, concerned and maybe a bit afraid. A recent series of fires labeled suspicious in nature have left island residents wondering: is an arsonist in their midst? At a town meeting on Monday around 200 people voiced their concerns to local officials. “Maybe I’ve watched too many movies, but isn’t it possible that the person who did this is here?” said one woman. “I suggest we all make contact with the person sitting next to us and introduce ourselves.” The meeting held on July 22 at the Eastsound fire hall gave Fire Chief Kevin O’Brien, Fire Marshal Paul Turner and Undersheriff Bruce Distler a chance to answer community members’ questions, which ranged from topics of burglary to arson. The incidents raising concern are the Orcas Artworks and an Olga residential structure that were both set ablaze in the early morning
hours of July 19, as well as another early morning house fire with explosions in Olga’s Willis Lane neighborhood in June that has been classified as arson. O’Brien told the Sounder last week he can’t say if the three fires are related. The Artworks offers art and crafts from more than 40 local artisans. The co-op was established in 1981 and is owned and oper-
ated by the artists. The co-op shares its historic building, a renovated strawberry packing plant, with the James Hardman Gallery as well as Cafe Olga, owned by Bobby Olmsted and Bev Simko. It is expected that the building will take months to repair. The incidents are under investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Sheriff ’s Office, the San Juan County Fire Marshal’s Office and all three island fire departments. Hydrocarbon detection dogs were deployed at the scene of the fires last week and could help investigators conclude what type of substance was used to incite the flames. “I want answers, we all want answers,” said O’Brien at the meeting. “Believe me, I’m very frustrated. I feel your frustration.”
SEE FIRES, PAGE 6
cel fee in 2011, the six-person council decided to get the county out of the garbage and recycling business. Citizens on Lopez Island formed a statutory public waste disposal district in 2012 and are now operating the Lopez collection and recycling center, using funding provided by a property tax increase approved by Lopez voters. The county is now just concluding negotiations with Lautenbach Industries of Skagit County to operate the Friday Harbor-owned transfer station on Sutton Road on San Juan Island. A contract for operation of the Orcas Island transfer site was the subject of a hard-fought competition between Orcas Recycling Services and Cimarron Trucking. ORS is the parent non-profit company of The Exchange, a reuse and recycling center on Orcas that recently burned to the ground, but which is expected to be rebuilt and back in operation later this year or early next year.
SEE ORS, PAGE 3
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