Guest Column
Myths abound; Wolf Hollow sets the record straight
Sports
State champ overcomes hard fall to claim crown PAGE 16
PAGE 7
Letters
Beset by junk mail blues; right or wrong, bishops call the shots at PIMC; new OPALCO rates right on track PAGE 6
Journal
The 75¢ Wednesday, June 3, 2015 Vol. 108 Issue 22
Shortfall prompts electrical rate hike Co-op to tackle $600K drop with surcharge Journal staff report
Journal photo / Scott Rasmussen
The view from the summit of 710-foot tall Mount Grant stretches out to Mount Baker and the Cascade Range to the east, to Mount Rainier to the south, and southwest to the Olympics Mountains.
Preserve with a view, road Promise of Mt Grant preserve unveiled at campaign kick off By Scott Rasmussen Journal editor
A thin haze lingered out on the horizon that obscured all but the snow-capped peaks of two of the northern Cascades tallest mountains. Even so, the promise of Mount Grant was clearly visible to many of those assembled on its summit for the May 31 kick-off of a fundraising campaign aimed directly at making its auto-accessible peak and the 141 acres of woodlands that surround it the newest publicly owned nature preserve in San Juan County. “There’s just too many superlatives,” Cal Ryan said of the view from atop the 710-foot-tall peak. A San Juan Island resident of 34 years, Ryan, accompanied by wife Mary Karen and son Bobby, and friends, made a first-ever foray to the summit of what long has been a privately owned mountaintop and forested woodlands to see for himself what all the talk was about.
“It’s one of the last places where we can make a big impact.” — Land Bank Director Lincoln Bormann,
“I’ve never seen the island from this view,” said Ryan, while spying the family’s San Juan Valley farm out in the distance, far below. Like the Ryans, more and more islanders have become familiar with the unique setting that is Mount Grant, formerly known as Lawson’s Ridge, since the San Juan Preservation Trust and the Land Bank joined forces on a plan to purchase and preserve the property, and then plunked down a $1 million down payment in mid-March on a pending $3 million purchase. Flanked by Trout Lake to the south and Lawson’s Pond to the north, Mount Grant sits in between Cady Mountain and Mount Dallas. It’s only a smidge smaller than both and its craggily summit offers expansive views in all directions for as far as the eye can see. Its peak has been a beckon for clandestine hikers over the years and a series of hiking tails through See ROAD, Page 4
Orcas Power & Light Cooperative will add a surcharge onto electrical bills beginning in July, a financial tool that is expected to help the Co-op make up ground on a shortfall in projected revenue of $600,000 so far this year. The amount of the pending surcharge, approved in concept last week by the OPALCO board of directors, has yet to be determined and could fluctuate monthly, according to a press release circulated by the Co-op following a May 28 meeting of the board and Co-op management. Record-warm temperatures in 2015 and a resulting lower than anticipated rate of electrical consumption by Co-op members were cited for the shortfall. “The revenue shortfall is due to lower than projected sales of kilowatt hours because of record warm temperatures this year,” the Co-op said in the press release. The surcharge follows on the heels of a $10.30 increase in the co-op “base rate,” aka facility charge, that went into effect in February. Individual utility bills were expected to rise by 9-12 percent as a result. That increase was instituted by the Co-op, in part, to help make up for a $1.4 million shortfall in revenue in 2014. It has also cited a need to generate additional revenue to pay for infrastructure improvements, like the pending $15 million replacement of the underwater power cable connecting Lopez and San Juan islands. The Co-op 2015 budget called for a 12-percent increase in revenue over last year’s mark. OPALCO’s financial forecast
Winner of six 1st place awards in Washington Newspaper Publishers Association 2014 BNC, 17 in all
calls for a similar facility charge increase in each of the next five years. “The Board has a fiscal responsibility to keep the Co-op in the black,” Board President Jim Lett said in the press release. “The surcharge will meet that need as we further evaluate and research longer-term rate solutions to address the changing landscape.” At Co-op headquarters, warmer than normal temperatures are only part of the changing landscape. The member-owned power cooperative recently acquired Friday Harbor-based Rock Island Communications, a long-established local provider of internet services, under a partnership intended to help provide local See HIKE, Page 4
Graduation Special
The Class of 2015 shares memories, future plans, dreams; Commencement schedule inside.