Sports
On your mark: Wolverines shine in home meet PAGE 16
Island Scene
Spring fling: San Juan Singers: songs & the silver screen PAGE 9
Editorial
Ten percent voter turnout won’t cut it in this board of directors election; get informed, and vote PAGE 7
Journal
The 75¢ Wednesday, April 9, 2014 Vol. 107 Issue 15
of the San Juan Islands
www.sanjuanjournal.com
State drags on pot permits 17 vie for single FH marijuana outlet; lottery will decide By Steve Wehrly Journal reporter
San Juan County residents and visitors can now legally puff on a joint, but you won’t be able to buy it here (unless you have a medical marijuana prescription) until at least July of this year. T h e Wash i ng ton State Liquor Control Board, which regulates all aspects of non-medical marijuana production, processing and sales under Initiative 502, has yet to license any retail marijuana stores in San Juan County. At least one marijuana production license has been issued in Spokane to a medical marijuana purveyor named Sam Greene, but no licenses of any kind have been issued here. Three marijuana retailer licenses have been allocated to San Juan County, one each for San Juan, Lopez and Orcas islands. Producer/grower applications and processor applications are not limited by regulation. Seventeen of those applications See PERMITS, Page 4
San Juan hit by measles outbreak By Scott Rasmussen Journal editor Contributed image / Port of FH
A revised design for replacement of the Spring Street Landing Building features a pitched roof and outdoor decks.
New look for Waterfront Revised design for Spring Street Landing Building is just the start By Steve Wehrly Journal reporter
Ten million dollars, maybe more, and 10 years, possibly more, will work a transformation of the Friday Harbor waterfront not seen since the harbor’s canneries, lumber mills, warehouses and wharfs eventually succumbed to fire or age. In late 2013, the Port of Friday Harbor drew together a team of planners, landscape architects and maritime engineers to provide a conceptual design and longterm plan for the waterfront. Makers architecture and urban design, J.A. Brennan landscape architects and Moffatt and Nichol engineers put in several hundred hours of public outreach and private consulting to fashion the Port of Friday Harbor Waterfront Master Plan. Port Director Marylin O’Connor maintained that the master plan process should meld with the Spring Street Landing building design process. “The process gave us a chance to analyze the problems and opportunities we see along the waterfront and get some new ideas from the public,” O’Conner said. “It’s an outline that will give general guidance over the next ten years or so.” The 30-page “draft for public comment” cost about $70,000 and is on the Port web-
site at www.portfridayharbor.org/wp-content/ uploads/2012/04/Master-Plan-3-11-2014.pdf. The result is a three-phase conceptual design with 19 listed projects, including four major structures. Port Commission Chairman Mike Ahrenius is pleased with the result, but cautions: “… nothing is in concrete. It’s an appropriate plan, it’s our vision for the future, but it’s only a snapshot in time. Realistically, by the time we get there, some of it will be different.” Construction includes the Spring Street Landing building replacement and the bulkhead replacement in “near-term projects” during the first two or three years; a parking deck on top of the present upper parking lot, a mixed-use building and a performance space and pavilion in “mid-term projects” over the second three years; and a new marina services building to replace the Port offices among “long-term projects” during the final five or six years. The mixed-use building, west of the present traffic circle, will probably use the plans and land originally intended for use by the Customs and Border Patrol. Other projects include extensive landscaping, pathways and sidewalks, a main pier overlook, a new yacht club entry court, and terraced seating in front of the performance space. How will all this be paid for? The recent insurance settlement for the former SSL building will pay about half of the new building cost, but all other master plan costs must be paid for by the Port from operating revenue, See WATERFRONT, Page 4
2011 Special Award; Second Place: General Excellence from the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association
Because it is so highly contagious, even a single case of measles is considered an outbreak by the Center for Disease Control. So, San Juan Island, home to four confirmed cases in less than two weeks, is, by definition, in the midst of an “outbreak.” But for better or worse, the island is not alone, as similar or more widespread outbreaks have occurred recently in New York City and on the campus of Ohio State University, in Columbus. See OUTBREAK, Page 2
Home and Garden
The 2014 edition of the Home and Garden is available in this edition.