Tuesday, Mar 9 2010 - This year’s Count of Homeless Persons (PIT) in San Juan County recognized 79 persons as homeless.

Among the homeless, 29 were classified as unsheltered - living in tents, cars, boats (not equipped with facilities for living aboard) or staying in motels (with money from churches, etc.); and 50 people, including many children, were staying in temporary, unstable living arrangements either with friends or family members – a situation commonly referred to as “couch surfing”
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Wednesday, Mar 3 2010 - A new legal opinion from Prosecutor Randall Gaylord stunned the County Council and the County’s financially-troubled solid waste utility Tuesday.

In a briefing during the regular Council session, Gaylord said – in light of court cases – the option of assessing a flat solid waste utility fee on each parcel of land in the County should be “taken off the table.”

After several weeks of discussion, and at the urging of the County’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee, a majority of the Council had appeared willing to strongly consider a parcel fee to head off a growing financial crisis at the utility
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Tuesday, Feb 23 2010 - County Building Official Rene Beliveau reports there will be no need to hold an ADU permit lottery this year. With a total of 9 permits for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) available in 2010 and only 5 qualifying applications submitted before the lottery deadline each applicant will have the opportunity to submit plans and go through the permitting process.

Three of this year’s entries want permits for new construction and two wish to convert existing buildings to ADUs.

The four remaining permits may be considered for new construction or conversions and are available on a first-come, first-served basis
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Wednesday, Feb 17 2010 - San Juan County Community Services Manager Joyce Rupp was “the Guinea pig” for the County Council’s first attempt at live inter-island video conferencing.

Rupp presented the County Senior Services Annual report to the Council Tuesday via an inexpensive subscription video conferencing system called “WebEx.”

During the presentation to the Council, Rupp’s image was placed side-by-side on a projection screen with documents that highlighted the financial and performance details of her verbal report.

The video of her speaking trailed the audio by more than a second and the picture was considerably lower in quality than the video from the cameras in the Council’s hearing room; but both the Council and Rupp concluded that the overall result was far preferable to having her spend most of the day traveling between Orcas Island and Friday Harbor to make her 15 minute presentation.

Rupp’s report showed a dramatic drop-off in many types of services provided in 2009 compared to the period between 2006 and 2008. That, she said, was a direct result of budget cuts which reduced both staff and the number of days per week that services were provided
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Tuesday, Jan 5 2010 - The San Juan County Council today adopted an Ordinance banning food service businesses from using Styrofoam (expanded polystyrene) containers for take-out or eat-in packaging. The ordinance mirrors an ordinance passed last year by the Town of Friday Harbor and will take effect on the same date: April 22, 2010 – which is Earth Day.

Supporters of the ban point out that polystyrene does not biodegrade in landfills and it can leach carcinogenic chemicals.

San Juan Island resident Doris Estabrooks, initially raised the issue publicly in 2004 and has worked steadily to enlist community support, persuade local businesses to move stop using Styrofoam containers, as well as urging both the Town and County Councils to enact the ban
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Wednesday, Dec 23 2009 - The San Juan County Community Development and Planning Department (CDPD) has posted “fill-in and save” permit applications for building and land use permits on the County web site.

Unlike many on-line forms, the new forms can be saved with the data entered, if the user has the Microsoft Word™ word-processing program. Printable permit forms are still also available in “.pdf” format which may be opened and printed using no-cost software available from Adobe™ and others.

The new fill-in forms and printable forms are both available at CDPD’s permit applications web page
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Friday, Mar 12 2010 - The San Juan County Human Resources Department emailed notification to County employees Thursday, announcing that all workers may take up to 10 days of voluntary, unpaid furlough during 2010.

The approval of individual applications for furlough days will be dependent on the staffing needs of each department to maintain essential services.

The County Auditor’s most recent financial report shows a short fall of nearly $300,000 in the 2010 budget.

Thursday’s emailed announcement said the County and WSCCE – Local 1849 of AFSCME reached the agreement on furloughs, “In the interest of preserving jobs and maintaining public services for our community.”

The Union represents approximately 60% of the County’s employees, however all County employees are included in the voluntary furlough program.
 
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Friday, Feb 26 2010 - Governor's News Release) Gov. Chris Gregoire today announced the appointment of Don Eaton to the San Juan County Superior Court. Eaton now serves as a San Juan County Superior Court Commissioner, and replaces Judge John O. Linde, who passed away late last year.

“I was impressed with Don the moment I met him,” Gregoire said. “He has a history of being honest, fair and compassionate, and has the respect of his community and colleagues. He brings extensive legal experience to this position which will greatly serve the citizens of San Juan County.”

“It is a great honor to have been selected by the Governor of the state of Washington to serve the people of San Juan County as their next Superior Court Judge and I look forward to serving this community for many years to come,” said Eaton. “I am committed to providing fair and well reasoned decisions that are based on both common sense and the law as it is written.&rdquo
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Wednesday, Feb 17 2010 - The San Juan County Council adopted a resolution Tuesday to seek public participation and hire consultants to identify scientific research to use in the state-mandated process to update the County’s Critical Areas Ordinance.

The ordinance – which spells out protections for wetlands, fish and wildlife habitat, frequently flooded areas and geologically hazardous areas – is behind schedule. It was originally due to be completed in 2005, and then the deadline was extended to 2006.

The latest draft update, recommended after three years of work by County staff, consultants and a citizens advisory group, drew protests from critics who complained that the proposal was not properly based on scientific research proven applicable to the County’s unique geography and geology.

The Council’s action Tuesday sets in motion a multi-step process in which the public will be asked to submit scientific reports and articles to be considered with other research, by consultants engaged by the County. After the applicable research is selected, it will be used to analyze how the current ordinance should be updated
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Tuesday, Feb 9 2010 - The San Juan County Council will hear from a Department of Ecology (DOE) wetlands specialist at their Tuesday meeting to get the DOE’s view of what’s popularly known as the “tailored approach” to establishing land use buffers to protect wetlands.

This will be the second meeting in a row in which the Council has focused on some of the nuts and bolts issues involved in the state-mandated updating of County Code protecting “Critical Areas.” Those are defined as areas that are vital to the environment and quality of life in the County: They include critical aquifer recharge areas, fish and wildlife conservation areas, geologically hazardous areas, wetlands and frequently flooded areas. Of those five “Critical Areas,” only work on the critical aquifer recharge has been completed
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Monday, Feb 1 2010 - After being satisfied that online video of Council meetings is reliable and convenient for citizens to access, the San Juan County Council has directed its clerk to start keeping official “action” minutes rather than detailed minutes of Council discussions.

The new format for the minutes will include more concise information about votes and official actions of the Council, making video recordings the primary source for detailed information about the Council’s discussions, public hearings and deliberations.

The online service, provided through AV Capture All, headquartered in Olympia, Washington; makes several months’ worth of recorded Council meetings available via the County website (http://sanjuanco.com/Council/video.aspx)
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Wednesday, Jan 6 2010 - Beginning on January 7 and continuing through March 31, the San Juan County Council administrative office will pull the shades at 3 p.m. on Thursday and Fridays.

The Council staff will use the working hours during which the office is closed to index electronic files entered into a new document management system.

When implementation is complete, the document management system should make storing, retrieving and securing archived documents easier, less space intensive and less costly
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Wednesday, Mar 10 2010 - After much deliberation the San Juan County Council Tuesday authorized County staff to begin three steps toward raising money to keep the County’s solid waste utility afloat:

1) Prepare to sell bonds to pay down a portion of the utility’s rising debt and fund state-required capital improvements to its transfer stations.

2) Move forward with plans to the transfer the Utility’s interest in a tract of land on Beaverton Valley Road and a closed land fill on Lopez to the County’s Equipment Rental and Revolving fund, to produce some cash and reduce the Utility’s responsibility for debt.

3) Proceed with an ordinance establishing a $15 minimum charge for dropping off garbage at any of the County’s transfer stations
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Tuesday, Feb 23 2010 - San Juan County’s GIS Team has released its first set of Polaris Instructional Videos for its Polaris Mapping Application. The newly released instructional videos are intended to assist users in learning the tools and functionality of Polaris.

There are currently four videos that focus on navigation tools, search tools, the identify tool, and map contents. Each video is short, ranging from two to five minutes, and gives users instructions and tips on finding your way around Polaris.

The videos are hosted on YouTube and do not require special software other than an Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. Look for additional videos to be released in the future that focus on My Maps, measuring tool, mark-up tool, etc. You can view the videos and access the Polaris Property Search by clicking on Polaris Mapping Application on the County website or at https://www.sjcgis.org/
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Thursday, Feb 18 2010 - This month San Juan County has received its first shipment of printer and copier paper with 40% recycled content, as did the town of Friday Harbor and dozens of other businesses. The County’s switch from virgin paper to recycled paper has had a ripple affect as its vendor, Island Paper & Supply, is now providing the paper at reduced cost to all of its customers countywide.

Until San Juan County Pollution Prevention Specialist Brian Rader met with Lopez Island-based Island Paper & Supply owner Gerard Post van der Burg last year, the County was stuck in a familiar dilemma: it wanted to do the environmentally correct thing; but with budgets shaved to the bone, it couldn’t justify the additional cost of up to $6 per case to purchase high quality recycled paper for all County departments to use.

Post van der Burg was already enthusiastic about providing environmentally friendly products. Two years ago he worked with then County facilities manager Bud Sears; to switch the county to “Green Seal” certified cleaning supplies, and paper towels and toilet paper with high recycled paper content. Now he is selling those products to clients countywide
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Wednesday, Feb 3 2010 - (Public Works Dept.) Beginning on February 24th residents of Lopez Island will have access to the same commingled recycling system at their solid waste facility that serves other residents of the County.

Currently, recycled materials are brought to our Lopez facility and are separated into several different commodities. These separated commodities are stored at the solid waste facility in boxes called totes until there is enough material available to allow for baling.

After the material is baled and wrapped it continues to be stored until there are enough bales to fill the county flat-bed truck. Then the bales are loaded and hauled by county employees and equipment to a recycling broker on the mainland
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Monday, Feb 1 2010 - The Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board has ruled that last year’s revisions to the housing and land use elements of the County’s Comprehensive Plan “make adequate provisions for existing and projected needs of all economic segments of the community” as required by the state’s Growth Management Act (GMA).

In a decision dated January 27, the board rejected a petition filed by John Campbell of Orcas Island which raised questions about the adequacy of the housing element
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