SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
WEDNESDAY, March 18, 2015 VOL. 48, NO. 11 75¢ islandssounder.com
Real Estate in the
San Juan Islands March 2015
Published the third Wednesday of each month by the Journal of the San Juan Islands, Islands’ Sounder and Islands’ Weekly
Contributed photo
Inside this edition PO Box 171 Eastsound, WA 98245 360.376.2145 www.orcasislandrealty.com
Tranquil Water Views
Remarkable Waterfront Living
Perchance to dream Serene & private location with water views close to Eastsound Village. Exquisitely crafted 3 bed/2.5 ba home & roomy guest house on 3+ ac. Views over Judd Cove & East Sound. Beautifully designed, finely crafted, simply lovely. Garage & carport. Established gardens throughout the grounds.
$850,000
MLS# 688388
Ideal low bank setting on Obstruction Pass with two cove beaches, about 700’ of frontage, a private point and a level lawn flowing down to your beaches with tidelands included. Two tax parcels, boat ramp from lower garage, Doe Bay water membership plus private well, gated entrance, security system, separate guest accommodations on lower level with kitchen. 2002 remodel included new roof, wiring, plumbing, heating and septic.
$1,590,000
MLS# 731745
Fourth annual Orcas Island Shakespeare Festival is coming to town Brent Ramenofsky
Kathryn Sherman photo
by CALI BAGBY Assistant Editor
Colleen Armstrong photo
Kelly Toombs (in wig) & Andy Martin performing at last year’s talent night.
William Shakespeare has been dead for nearly 400 years and still his stories inspire current generations. “Shakespeare is difficult, and many of his references are obscure to us today,” said Tom Fiscus, a local actor and organizer for the upcoming Shakespeare Festival. “However, many of the story lines, even though set centuries (even millennia) ago, resonate today. Greed, lust, jealousy, love, deceit, power all play just as well today.” Fiscus is one of the volunteers making this year’s Shakespeare Festival a reality. Sponsored by the Orcas Chamber of Commerce, it will be held April 7 to 11. See page seven for a full schedule of events. The festivities include local talent expressing interpretations of the Bard’s various works during a community performance night. There will be two chances dur-
ing the week to see “Unexpected Shakespeare,” improv by Seattle’s Unexpected Productions, and “Who Doth Inhabit the Primary Position,” directed by Fiscus and performed by Peter Vinson and Kelly Toombs. “I think the beauty and power of Shakespeare’s words draw many to challenge themselves to find and express the emotions boiling
Islanders weigh in on reservations by MEREDITH M. GRIFFITH Contributor
At a public outreach meeting on Orcas last Friday, Washington State Ferries representatives made a bold claim: they are committed to a wait time of 30 minutes or less for vehicle traffic with reservations arriving to board ferries. “When you hit the back of that line, look at your watch,” said reservations manager Dwight Hutchinson. “Write down the time. Then note when you are staged for your boat. If it’s over 30 minutes, give me a call.” The presenters emphasized that this spring and summer will involve an ongoing process of careful calculations, observation, specific customer feedback and continually reworking processes and staffing to improve the system. “We’re here to listen to you,” said Brian Churchwell, vehicle reservations system program manager, promising to relay residents’ concerns to the appropriate management. “It’s your lifeline. We get it.”
Why reservations? The reservations system was mandated by the state legislature as a way to serve increased
demand by more fully utilizing existing terminal and vessel capacity instead of building bigger terminals and boats. Hutchinson said islanders saw reservations as a more attractive option than charging higher fees for peakdemand travel times, which could disproportionately affect lower-income households. It launched on Jan. 5, 2015.
Missing the boat Many attendees expressed concerns that people with reservations could miss their boat despite arriving early, if high traffic causes the road to back up far beyond the ferry booths. Churchwell told the Sounder, “On the Saturday of President’s weekend WSF did have longer lines, but as far as we know, everyone got on their reserved sailing. No one missed their reserved sailing. We had two sailings depart late to make sure we got all reservation holders. Someone in the audience said their friend saw he was going to miss his sailing and left. But we never received a call or report of this.” Despite that event, Hutchinson said WSF has made significant progress on this front. He recalled an infamous day for islanders: July 3,
2008, when the ferry lines backed up all the way to the Anacortes Safeway. He said that on July 3, 2014, there were just as many travelers as that day in 2008, but due to newly implemented efficiency measures, the wait time to get through the toll booths was never more than half an hour long. Attendees also asked for a special designated lane for locals or reservation holders in order to move traffic through the booths more quickly. WSF is looking at adding Good To Go electronic tolling system as an acceptable form of payment sometime in the next five years, but it wouldn’t be able to operate like the highway hot lanes due to the need to calculate the fare based on the number of passengers in the vehicle along with the vehicle size. For safety reasons, the U.S. Coast Guard requires exact passenger counts for all sailings, as well as in-person inspection of each vehicle boarding the ferries. But WSF presenters said they are working on several solutions for summer and holidays already, including opening more tollbooths, adding staff outside the booths with hand-held wireless devices to process incoming reser-
SEE WSF, PAGE 6
Harvey Olsan
Lisa Botiller
Mary Clure
Victoria Shaner
Locally Owned and Operated
Marty Zier
Asya Eberle
in his characters,” said Fiscus. “It is performing poetry.” Unlike previous years, a whole cast of organizers have led festival efforts rather than one artistic director. The willing parties are Michell Marshall, Meg Massey, Julie Remington, Colleen Smith Armstrong, Bill Patterson, Cheryl Kummer, Cat Gilliam, Carla Stanley, Susan Gudgell, Kim Morgan and Lance Evans. “All have great input,” said Marshall. One vital part of the festival is to make sure hundreds of local participants are dressed in the fashions of the age. This is Massey’s second year costuming locals to look the part of the era, and Becky Vinson is making a number of fantastic outfits. Massey has researched the style and look of clothes during the time of the bard. “I want them to be as authentic as possible,” said Massey, who has been making costumes for years. “I think people feel better when they are dressed authenti-
SEE SHAKESPEARE, PAGE 7
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