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Fishaut: Port funds could be better spent

Absurd spending redux: $30,000 to install a rather bizarre piece that, despite its Indigenous artisanship, looks more like a giant tourist trinket than anything in the actual canon of Native Peoples’ heritage?

Lee Brooks: No public input before gift of Lummi Totem accepted by Port of Friday Harbor

Friday Harbor Port Commissioners, Victoria Compton and Gibb Black, decided to pay $30,000 for a Whale sculpture to be placed on the Spring Street Landing, something they had not actually even seen! The vote was not announced and came as a complete surprise. Nobody on San Juan Island was even asked about spending this money or given the opportunity to be involved in their choice.

Ingrid Gabriel: Down Doggie

March 13: Continuing on with our series of Seniors Gone Wild and our deep dive into aging hijinks, today we explore the potential of Creaky Yoga. Full disclosure, I had a mild aversion to the Western version of yoga practice. My skepticism regarding yoga began in the now-old-new-age as it blossomed into popular culture like an invasive species. I found the sort of show-offi-ness and monetizing of an ancient spiritual practice designed to prepare one for meditation, disingenuous, to say the least. Also, I couldn’t actually DO yoga since it’s uncomfortable and I didn’t make any progress at all in the two classes I took.

Mooring Buoys What is the Delay?

For many years, the County, Native American Tribes and State agencies preferred and approved the permits for the installation of mooring buoys versus docks or anchorage. The buoys have much less impact to eel grass and other marine plants versus anchorage. This premise cannot be argued; if you have ever pulled your anchor in our waters, you know that it comes up regularly with seaweed, mud and eel grass.

Dustrude: Proposed Zylstra Trail a wondrous possibility

To the editor:

I see a hiking and biking trail from town to Zylstra Lake as a wondrous possibility for everyone who lives here or visits here. Accessing nearly every existing walking trail on the island requires a car ride. The lone exception is the marvelous perimeter trail at Linde Community Park, at least for town residents.

Mike Vouri: England’s Royals: A History of Troublesome Heirs and Spares

There’s nothing like a royal sibling rivalry to start tongues wagging by the town pump or emblazon the literature in the supermarket checkout stand. These days the buzz is all about Prince Harry Windsor’s sensational autobiography, “Spare,” a public rumination by an  aggrieved younger brother that happens to be an old true story that plows generations into Britain’s past, even to the murky depths of Saxon England.

A Henry (Harry) and William in our time. Their squabbles are nothing new under the royal reigns.

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EDITORIAL: San Juan County Council's sloppy approach to Open Public Meetings Act is inexcusable

San Juan County Council's careless approach to observing the Open Public Meeting Act is upsetting and a disservice to the residents of San Juan County. 

Yesterday, February 7, 2023 San Juan County Council held a regular meeting on February 7, 2023 without any public notice of the agenda or the meeting itself.  No agenda was available through the county website. No notice of the meeting itself was published. As of Wednesday, February 8, information about the agenda was still not available on sanjuanco.com