Island Guardian

Thursday, October 26th

San Juan Island Annual Roadside Cleanup

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( Rotarian Jack McKenna helps Matt Pranger pick a roadway to clean of litter)

SJI Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary, and Soroptimist clubs have organized a roadside cleanup, and are asking for volunteers to help pickup litter next to county roads. The idea is simple and creative: volunteers mark on a SJI road map a section of the road they will pickup trash from, put it in a bag, and then call SJC Public Works, who will swing by and pickup and dispose of the bag. The program runs from now unit the end of the month.

The map, and all of the materials one needs to do the job, can be found at a table next to the door at the Market Place grocery store in Friday Harbor. The table is manned by service club members and Public Works, who will assist in citizens in locating and marking sections of the road they agree to cleanup, and will provide them with gloves, bags and instructions -Oh, and also a certificate for free popcorn from the Popcorn Lady. Stop by the table and see if you would like to help. Good excise and a good deed, is a good idea.

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Tuesday, October 24th

5th Annual Dessert Night and Membership Meeting

The San Juan Community Home Trust will host its 5th Annual Membership Meeting and Dessert Night on Tuesday, October 24th at 7 pm, in the Gubelman Room of the San Juan Community Theater.

The meeting will feature desserts, photographs from the Salal Neighborhood, and a presentation by Executive Director Nancy DeVaux on the organization's "Successes, Challenges and Opportunities."

The annual meeting of the members will follow, which will include an election by the membership of new and returning members of the Board of Directors. Returning board members on the slate of candidates include Peter Kilpatrick, Larry Soll, Roger Salquist and Kristine Odle. Candidates new to the board are Susan Corning, Art Timmons and Emily Wolf. Bios of the candidates will be available at the meeting, or by calling the Home Trust Office at 378-5541.

The event will provide an opportunity for the community to learn more about the Community Land Trust model of permanently affordable home ownership, as well as the Home Trust's work and accomplishments over the last year. It will also be the Home Trust's opportunity to thank the community for all of its support towards building San Juan Island's first and only permanently affordable homes, in the Salal Neighborhood.

Everyone is welcome!

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Tuesday, October 3rd

New Group Want To Hear From The Community

ig_sjRIDESHARE_Logo-1 (44k image) Liza Michaelson recently returned to San Juan Island from a trip to South America, and found she enjoyed the experience of hitch hiking, and the knowledge that one less car on the road had to be a good thing. Why not encourage that in San Juan County? "It was easy and delightful," she said, "and got me wondering how to encourage other islanders to give it a try." What if there was a way to share rides in some sort of program that would allow confidence that the car, and the driver, were safe, and that the "hitch-hiker" was also "safe"?
As is often the case with good ideas, other people had similar ideas, and with a little research, Liza found that a excellent model existed in San Geronimo Valley California, where 4000 people live 25 miles north of San Francisco.
Liza and others have now organized a group called SJ Ride Share to test out community reaction to the idea, and have cited the California example as to what could be done in SJ county to encourage ride sharing. If it is possible to have a safe program of ride sharing in Californian for over a decade, San Juan County should be a snap.

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