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Ingrid Gabriel: Li’l Pappy

Feb 27, 2023 - These days, I go to bed with an air hose sticking out of the top of my head courtesy of my new best friend. Li’l Pappy is a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine whose presence allows me to sleep somewhere within a social group (think campsite or hotel room or small principality) without meeting resentful stares and bleary-eyed companions the following morning.

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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. 

Tide Bites: Searching for Sea Squirts by Megan Powers

INTRODUCTION by Dr. Megan Dethier, FHL Director

Most people are aware of the concept of invasive species – plants or animals that don’t “belong” in a given area and end up disrupting the local ecology in many ways. Eastern grey squirrels, tansy ragwort, and spurge laurel are all problems on various San Juan County islands, and of course there are infamous invasives in other parts of the U.S. such as kudzu and even certain earthworms.

Merri Ann Simonson's Real Estate Update: 2022 volume was $380,610,000 compared to 2021's $567,862,152

As noted below we had a correction in our market relating to dollar volume and number of transactions during 2022. We returned to a much more balanced approach with transaction negotiations during the last half of the year.

In reviewing the year-end results for 2022 the sales dollar volume for the real estate market in San Juan County per the Northwest Multiple Listing Service was $380,610,000 which reflects a decrease in volume of 33% as compared to 2021 when the volume was $567,862,152. The County closed 375 transactions which is a 43.5% decrease from last year. The average number of transactions per month was 31 compared to 55 last year.