REAL ESTATE Monthly special section inside this week’s edition
HIGH IN THE SKY Skater and BMX pros at the Retreat on Lopez Island Page 10
Real Estate in the
August 2013
Properties Bought & Sold page 19
Published the third Wednesday of each month by the Journal of the San Juan Islands, Islands’ Sounder and Islands’ Weekly
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Exceptional Waterfront Estate Lanny Carver • carver@sanjuanislands.com 360-378-2101 • Cell: 360-472-0922 www.lannycarver.com
COMMENTARY | A look inside the Doe Bay Festival [5] NEWS | San Juan restaurant catches on fire [6] ARTS | Caleb Klauder to perform at Orcas Center [9]
105 Spring Street, PO Box 100, Friday Harbor, WA 98250
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County San Juan Islands, Inc.
An Independently Owned and Operated Member of Coldwell Banker Residential Affiliates, Inc.
Exceptional Waterfront Custom Home. Sunny West side of San Juan Island with 180 + degree views of the Olympics, Haro Straits, Victoria Canada and Mt. Rainier. Wildlife, Whales and Sunsets in your front yard. Chefs kitchen, relaxing sun porch, Living area with fireplace & soaring beamed ceilings. Master Bedroom with spa inspired Master bath. French Doors to 55’ deck for outdoor living & dining on the water. Wine cellar, Sauna, media area, sport court. Separate Custom Guest house with the same amazing views. Two $1,695,000 acres 277+/- frontage. #236781
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WEDNESDAY, August 21, 2013 VOL. 46, NO. 34 75¢
Fun at the fair
Changes in county committees by STEVE WEHRLY Journal reporter
Cali BagbyStaff Photos
Colleen Smith Armstrong/Staff Photo
Did you take first place for your baby sheep or win a prize for a baked good during the San Juan County Fair last week? We want to know how islanders did at the fair. Give us a call at 3764500 or email your information and a photo to carmstrong@islandssounder. com. For more photos, see page 16. Top: Orcas Island friends share a shaved ice treat. Above: Border collie Cayenne performing a frisbee trick. Pictured at left: Gavin Guard competing in horse gaming.
A newly established policy that ushered in term limits to San Juan County’s numerous advisory committees could lead to a major overhaul of the Marine Resources Committee. Eight positions on the MRC will be appointed by the county council in the coming weeks and a new MRC coordinator will soon be announced. On July 30, Philip Green, Robin Hirsch and Chuck Schietinger were appointed to MRC positions 2, 1 and 4, respectively. The appointments were made without notice or prior naming of the candidates during the final agenda time, titled “County Manager Clerk Updates.” Other appointments, including three to the Veterans Advisory Board and one to the Agricultural Resources Committee, were on the agenda with names of the appointees. A week later, Councilman Rick Hughes gave the required notice of reconsideration of the July 30 appointments. The following day, citing “discomfort” with the summary procedure and with his own lack of familiarity with the candidates, Hughes moved for reconsideration. Hughes and Jarman voted to reconsider the Green, Hirsch and Schietinger appointments and scheduled another vote for Aug. 20 at the council meeting on Shaw Island. Hughes insists he has no specific problem with the three candidates and nobody in mind to nominate instead. “I just wanted to take the time to do my homework to make sure that we were getting the appropriate balance on the committee,” he said. “The council has made major changes in the appointment process for all the advisory committees and the MRC is one of the most important, so I just wanted to take the extra time to do it right.”
Councilman Bob Jarman made similar comments before voting with Hughes to reconsider the appointments. The local MRC, the first in the nation created under the Northwest Straits Initiative and one of seven local MRCs working under the aegis of, and with funding provided by, the Northwest Straits Commission, consists of 15 San Juan County residents chosen to bring a diversity of scientists, conservationists, sports and commercial fishermen and water-intensive business interests together to plan and administer a variety of programs and projects to restore the northern Puget Sound to ecological health. Council Chairman Jamie Stephens, who is council liaison to the MRC, voted against reconsideration, saying he did so because he had proposed the appointments on July 30, an abbrevi-
SEE MRC, PAGE 6
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