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Wolverines battle for league titles; playoffs near
The past is never far from reach... History Lives Here.
Museum or gallery? Change in course at the top creates uncertainty over identity of artistic endeavor
Journal
The 75¢ Wednesday, May 6, 2015 Vol. 108 Issue 18
Big win for new Rec levy
Lawsuit aims at Growlers
Voters endorse Island Rec levy in a landslide, nearly 70 percent
By Janis Reid
Whidbey News-Times Staff Reporter
By Scott Rasmussen Journal editor
By the end of the week the margin of victory had only gotten wider. Voters on San Juan Island gave their park and recreation district and high school sports program a decisive embrace, approving a new six-year property tax levy that’s more than twice what it is today by a whopping 69 percent. A total of 2,691 ballots were counted in the early results of the April 28 election, an initial turnout of 47 percent. By the end of the week, the turnout rose to 52 percent and the margin of approval had risen by another percentage point. In the end, 2,073 voters favored Island Rec’s levy request, more than double the 915 ballots cast against it. A handful of ballots will be counted May 11 and the election certified May 12. Results of the election were greeted with a collective sigh of relief at the headquarters of Island Rec, which needed a 60 percent or better margin of approval. “We couldn’t be happier,” Island Rec Commission Chairman Bill Cumming said. “We’re very appreciative with what happened with the voters and with their support for our activities, and delighted and very happy that all our hard work and the hard work of the campaign committee paid off.” See LEVY, Page 2
Journal photo/Scott Rasmussen
The crew of Friday Harbor Labs’ Centennial, wave to the crowd at Spring Street Landing in the 2015 Opening Day Boat Parade, sponsored by SJI Yacht Club, May 3. Visit SanJuanJournal.com for a slideshow of the day’s event.
Derailed by disaster at home
A citizens’ group that filed a lawsuit in 2013 has filed an additional action to force the Navy to stop flying the EA-18G Growlers over Coupeville. The Citizen’s of Ebey’s Reserve, or COER, filed a motion Monday in Federal Court asking a judge to rule that the aircraft be forced to stop using Outlying Field Coupeville until the Navy completes an Environmental Impact Statement. “The EIS isn’t going to be done until 2017,” said COER board member and attorney Ken Pickard Tuesday. “We’re being irreparably injured every time they fly. We’re not going to wait.” See GROWLERS, Page 4
Nepal hospital boss raises funds while struggling to get home By Scott Rasmussen Journal editor
Skies were crystal clear and the sun shined bright late last week on San Juan Island. What might have been an ideal day-trip to Friday Harbor was anything but for Shyam Rupakheti and wife Bimala, who could do little else but worry about the disaster of unimaginable proportions that waited back home. “We’re worried about our family and worried about the hospital, and worried for the future of our country,” said Rupakheti, chief administrator of a hospital on the outskirts of Katmandu and the only orthopedic medical facility in the country of Nepal. “This earthquake has put us 50 years back from where we were.” Parents of two adult daughters and 12-year-
Journal photo/Scott Rasmussen
From left; Shyam Rupakheti and wife Bimala, with Dr. Stephen Miller, ready to board a ferry for Anacortes.
old son, the couple had only been in the U.S. for only a few days, as part of a pre-arranged, monthlong vocational exchange for Rupakheti, when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal shortly before noon Saturday, April 25. They found out that their children were okay and were See HOME, Page 4
Winner of six 1st place awards in Washington Newspaper Publishers Association 2014 BNC, 17 in all
Attention Class of 2015: Your senior memory (150 word max) and senior photo are due by May 15th. Please submit your entries to Kathryn Sherman ksherman@sanjuanjournal.com