VIKING SPORTS Basketball teams are busy in new year Page 3
ORCAS HAS TALENT Annual talent show returns for 10th year at Orcas Center Page 6
SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’
BUSINESS | New insurance agent opens office [6] NEWS | Body removed from house fire on Lopez [7] OPINION | Senator Ranker sets priorities for 2015 [11]
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
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WEDNESDAY, January 14, 2015 VOL. 48, NO. 2 75¢ islandssounder.com
New season of talent
County officials start new terms by SCOTT RASMUSSEN Journal editor
Orcas Center releases 2015 calendar of events – page 9. Above: The Bolshoi Ballet’s “Swan Lake.”
Deadlines are nothing new at the assessor’s office. But the responsibility for ensuring those deadlines are met is now in the hands of someone new. John Kulseth, an 11-year department veteran and former chief appraiser, took over the reins at the first of the year with the endorsement of his predecessor and nose to the grindstone, and knowing all too well that whatever changes he’d like to make will have to wait. At least until the first 60 days of 2015 have come and gone. “We have to calculate the levies for all the taxing district by Jan. 15,” said Kulseth, who began a first-ever foray as an elected official at the start of the year. “We can’t do that until we have all the property values and the final assessments are done. People can change the ‘nature’ of their property and make real estate transactions all the way through Dec. 31. And, there’s always a flurry of activity in December.” Property tax statements must be mailed by mid-February. The assessor’s office must first finish its task before the treasurer can get those statements in the mail. Newly elected Treasurer
Pot producer on San Juan closes down Owners of San Juan Sun Grown cite lawsuits and regulatory hurdles as reasons for demise by SCOTT RASMUSSEN Journal editor
At the height of production, San Juan Sun Grown had as many as 16 employees. Now, it has none. Besieged by lawsuits and faced with a new round of regulatory
hurdles, the embattled marijuana producer shut down “active operations” at its westside facility on San Juan Island in mid-December. Company owner David Rice said the cost of looming legal battles and weight of regulatory uncertainty proved too much for the
fledgling enterprise to overcome. “We are in the process of transition and have laid off our San Juan Island production staff,” he said. Meanwhile, the San Juan County Council on Monday held the first of two workshops in which it will gather information to consider whether to impose a sixmonth “emergency” moratorium on the processing of land-use and building permits for marijuanarelated facilities. The potential of
a moratorium follows an outcry by some islanders and concerns raised by several council members that local rules on agricultural uses are insufficient to safeguard against impacts of pot production's new frontier. The second workshop is slated for Jan. 26. In the meantime, applications for agricultural-use permits will continue to be evaluated under rules as they exist today, accord-
SEE POT, PAGE 3
Scott Rasmussen/staff photo
L-R: Milene Henley, Joan White, Ron Krebs, John Kulseth and Rhonda Pederson during the swear-in. Rhonda Pederson also inherited an assortment of deadlines to keep track of. She uses an electronic calendar and relies on her predecessors as well to remain mindful of the many tasks and dates that can’t be missed. A long-time county employee and former auditor’s office chief accountant, Pederson begins her first-ever elected tenure well-versed with fiscal operations and systems at work in the county
SEE COUNTY, PAGE 6
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