Island Scene
Stage production rivals Spielberg film: ‘War Horse’, in HD
Sports Spring 2014 • Sports Preview
PAGE 13
Team photos, schedules, highlights; the Journal spring sports preview PAGES 9-12
Editorial
No easy fix, options muddled as controversy grows over Navy jet noise PAGE 7
Journal
The 75¢ Wednesday, March 19, 2014 Vol. 107 Issue 12
of the San Juan Islands
www.sanjuanjournal.com
Dissent Let’s play ball climbs over jet noise
Arrest elusive; reward grows
By Steve Wehrly
Journal staff report
Journal reporter
Grass roots opposition to noise from EA 18G “Growlers” is spreading to the San Juan Islands. The noise from thousands of engine tests and training runs by new EA 18G “Growlers” and other planes at Naval Air Station Whidbey and Outlying Landing Field Coupeville has generated two recent community meetings on Lopez and San Juan islands, and another meeting at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 15, at the Grange in Friday Harbor. At the meeting on Lopez last month, about 70 islanders complained that increased noise and number of missions impact their quality of life and property values. Leaders of Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve presented additional information about multiple health and hearing problems caused by the planes. Ebey’s Reserve is the location of OLF Coupeville. COER encouraged Lopezians to join their movement to have the “touch-and-go” training runs by the Growlers moved to other, less populated areas - such as the 1.1 million acre China Lake, Calif., naval weapons station in the Mojave Desert. The response from Lopez: organize a trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with senators Maria Cantwell and Patty See NOISE, Page 4
Journal photos / Scott Rassmussen
The spring sports season kicked off for Friday Harbor’s baseball and softball teams at home, March 15. The softball team, led by Caitlyn Domenech, won 12-2. The baseball team fell to Overlake; Casey Rothlisberger on the mound.
Monument: premium placed on partnerships By Scott Rasmussen
See ARREST, Page 3
Real Est ate Sa
National Monument manager Marcia deChadenedes is the star attraction at a ‘meet-andgreet’ in Friday Harbor, March 12.
Journal editor
The amount of acreage in the newly created San Juan Islands national monument totals just about 1,000. But that number itself does little justice to the character or landscape of the monument--the only one in Washington state, by the way. That’s because the monument is comprised of no fewer than 31 small islands and 40 different groups of rocks and reefs, some of which nearly disappear at high tide. It stretches from the northernmost corner
The case remains unresolved and active, but the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction for those responsible for a recent episode of vandalism in Friday Harbor is growing. With an additional $500 from Cask & Schooner restaurant and $200 from Roche Harbor, the reward fund reached $2,700 as of Monday, March 17, according to Friday Harbor Town Administrator Duncan Wilson. Other contributions include $500 from Rock Island Technology Solutions, $500 from the town,
in the
of San Juan County (Patos Island) to one of the southernmost (Iceberg Point), as well as from its westernmost (Turn Point) to beyond the county’s eastern border to include low-lying rocky features and the tip of several islands in Whatcom and Skagit counties. See MANAGEMENT, Page 4
2011 Special Award; Second Place: General Excellence from the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association
nds
March 201 4
Contributed
Journal photo / Scott Rasmussen
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photo
Publishe d the Journal of the San Juanthird Wednesday of each mon Islands, Islands’ th by the Sounder and Islan ds’ Weekly
Real Estate in the San Juan Islands
See inside for February’s real estate sales, listings and statistics.