Guest Column 7pm
Letters
Celebration doesn’t end with diplomas, it gets better
Sure, feeding raptors, wildlife in plain sight causes a stir, and there’s an accident waiting to happen PAGE 6
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Journal
The 75¢ Wednesday, June 25, 2014 Vol. 107 Issue 26
of the San Juan Islands
www.sanjuanjournal.com
Program debut marked by ‘demo’ FH hosts first-ever boat ‘Turn-In’ demolition By Scott Rasmussen Journal editor
Journal photo / Scott Rasmussen
One of five San Juan Center graduates, Regina Penwell receives a handshake and associate’s degree from Skagit Valley College President Thomas Denker at the college’s 2014 commencement ceremony June 18, at San Juan Center.
Each course on its own Road less traveled leads to degree for five SVC graduates
By Scott Rasmussen Journal Editor
Life would “truly” begin once she had a college degree in hand. That’s what Catalina Kohring used to believe. But over the course of a 30-month odyssey through Skagit Valley College’s halls of academia, she realized life wasn’t on hold, that it was happening all around her, all the time, and that those who say the only predictable thing about life is its unpredictability appear to know what they’re talking about. Bound for a four-year univer-
sity in the fall, associates’ degree in tow, life is destined to change for the Class Speaker of the 2014 San Juan Center’s commencement ceremony, but Khoring, in pursuit of a master’s degree early childhood education, won’t be waiting for a start to the good ol’ days. They’ve been with her all the time. “The good news is that we’re in the good ol’ days right now.” Khoring assured her fellow graduates and assembly of family, friends, faculty, college officials gathered for the June 18 celebration. The curtain dropped on San Juan Island’s graduation season with the commencement ceremony at San Juan Center. Though small in number, Skagit Valley College President Dr. Thomas Keegan noted the graduating class, five in all, are
“rich in background and in diversity.” As such, he said they embody the diversity and complexity of the college’s greater student body, with more than 9,000 students attending classes in this most recent academic year. Those students represent all walks of life, age and ethnicity, Keegan added. San Juan Island’s Wilson Schubert and Kohring, of Lopez, are the youngest of the class. Regina Penwell, who earned an associates degree in accounting, graduating with honors, and Cady Davies, at 57, represent the other end of the spectrum of lifelong learning, while Maia Yip has a place in between the bookends of her classmates. What they all now hopefully share, according to Jennifer Brennock, selected to deliver the See OWN, Page 4
A new twist to a long-standing state pollution prevention program made a hearty debut last week on the waterfront of Friday Harbor. By all accounts, it proved a smashing success. Ken Norris wasn’t going stick around to witness the lift-off from start to finish, however, because for him, the launch of the derelict vessel removal program’s newest feature, the “turnin” option, signaled a most bittersweet goodbye. “It’s a mixed blessing to have the state take care of it for me,” Norris said of the fate of the 28-foot wooden boat that for the better part of 20 years had been homesweet-home and the embodiment of a cherished dream. His means to maintain the boat slipped away in the fallout from a severe leg injury several years ago and, ultimately, orders by his doctor to abandon ship. “I couldn’t have done it any other way,” he said. Managed by the Washington Department of Natural Resources, in partnership with local government entities, like counties, cities and publicly owned port districts, the Derelict Vessel Removal Program has had its own share of ups and downs since it was first founded in 2002. In San Juan County, for example, the program collapsed when budget-wary county officials opted against setting aside $10,000 or so—the local “match” required by DNR for removal and demolition costs—in the wake of the recent economic recession.
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Under the program, the state, through DNR, covers 90 percent of the cost associated with removal, transport, demolition and disposal of boats, and docks and floats, that have fallen into disrepair and that have either been abandoned or are in imminent threat of sinking. Dozens of boats in local waters had been identified as “derelict” and candidates for removal at that time. Then, about three years ago, San Juan Island’s Marc Forlenza, as then-commander of the Friday Harbor Power Squadron, raised $6,500 from boaters and other private sources as a would-be part of the matching fund, which former local program coordinator and Public Works employee Joanruth See ‘DEMO’, Page 4
Through the lens Check out thrills and spills of the SJI Marathon in a photo slideshow at sanjuanjournal.com