Top ten 2001 – It was a year we’ll all remember, for things that happened to all of us as a nation, as a county and as an island

Top ten 2001 – It was a year we’ll all remember, for things that happened to all of us as a nation, as a county and as an island

Terrorist attacks unite islanders

The spirit that united islanders Sept. 11 still lingers.

There were tributes on the courthouse lawn. Flags flew at half-staff. Artists created memorials and civic leaders drafted letters of compassion. Fund-raisers appeared spontaneously and Red Cross officials couldn't keep pace with the outpouring of enthusiasm.

Candlelight vigils caressed the dark and at gatherings on every island people shared disbelief, honored the slain or talked about what's next.

From Shaw to San Juan, fire departments gathered in solemn respect while public-safety personnel honored fallen comrades, vicariously reminded that duty bears a risk.

Community leaders and elected officials faced a harsh reminder of the islands' fragile connection to the mainland. Stepped-up security at ports of entry and border crossing brought off-island travel to a near standstill.

Local sales shrank.

Perhaps like no other event in recent memory, the national tragedy of Sept. 11 and events that followed gave islanders opportunity to set aside differences, embrace a common bond and understand one another.

Medical Center in turmoil

It was a tumultuous time for Inter Island Medical Center, which began the year struggling over physician contracts.

Three doctors, Quinn Pauley, Burk Gossom and Paul Heiderscheidt, claimed they were being forced out by CEO Kathy Guy and the commissioners. The physicians disagreed about a productivity clause that Guy said was in keeping with the financial realities of rural health care centers of comparable size and scope. Guy was also looking to increase the number of in-clinic hours and on-call time. The doctors were paid $150,000, worked 39 to 41 weeks and were required to be on-call 72 days a year.

The commissioners agreed with Guy, and regarded the contract negotiations as a financial necessity. Commission President George Johnson said the district was operating with a $284,000 deficit to its line of credit, and the center needed to address it.

The resentment felt by islanders over the physicians leaving the center resulted in the November election of two new hospital board members, sheriff’s deputy Lyle Tarte and Friday Harbor Elementary School teacher Homer Smith, who replaced Polly White and John Geyman. James Patterson, who was appointed to the board to replace John Dunning, retained his seat.

The district has hired two new physicians, Michael Wingren and Greg Moran. The doctors will be paid a base salary of $110,000, with additional pay for maintaining full on-call schedules and incentive pay for seeing 22 patients a day.

The medical center is currently debt-free.

In the meantime, nurse practitioner Susan Hill, who left the clinic in October 2000, and Gossom opened a private practice in September, Heiderscheidt left San Juan Island to work elsewhere, and Pauley remains on-island, though no longer employed at the medical center.

Harbor Air’s financial fiasco

Harbor Air, the primary passenger airline between the San Juan Islands and Seattle, “flamed out” in 2001.

It was already apparent in 2000 that there were some financial problems at Harbor Air when the airline waited until the final minute to make a relatively small rental payment to the Port of Friday Harbor. The airline was hours away from being evicted when the check arrived.

By spring 2001, it was obvious that the financial problems at the airline ran deep. First, the airline was evicted from Sea-Tac International Airport because it owed the Port of Seattle $100,000 in back rent. Airline officials assured local port and business officials that there were simply some bookkeeping issues that needed to be resolved.

However, an investigation by a local newspaper revealed Harbor Air owed more than $1.2 million in back taxes, including $900,000 owed to the IRS for payroll taxes that were never paid to the federal government. Further investigation revealed that the airline also owed $450,000 as part of a court judgment in favor of an Oregon fuel vendor. Harbor Air also defaulted on a $300,000 property loan, and lost its ownership of the Oak Harbor Airport.

Finally, Harbor Air lost a contract to provide planes and pilots for Florida Air because pilots had not been paid. A Harbor Air plane was seized and the Department of Labor and Industries threatened to shut down the airline for not making worker’s compensation payments.

Harbor Air kept making assurances that new investors had been found and that the airline was solvent. However, in June, with very little warning, the airline stopped service. Employees did not receive their final checks. By the time it finally ceased service, Harbor Air owed at least $2.2 million in back taxes, court judgments and back rents.

Gravel pit to become a park

On Dec. 18, the San Juan County Commission and other agencies announce an agreement that will transform the former Friday Harbor Sand & Gravel site into a 64-acre multi-use recreational area. The agreement follows years of negotiation and involves numerous private and public agencies, including the San Juan Island School District.

Over 40 years, sand and gravel mining reduced a hill overlooking Griffin Bay into a sea-level pit. When redeveloped, the area will have ballfields, hiking trails, picnic areas and playgrounds.

LaFarge will donate 55 acres and do reclamation work, to be completed in fall 2003. San Juan County Public Works Department will purchase the remaining nine acres of waterfront property for $1.5 million.

Local orcas declared endangered by Canada

San Juan Islands’ killer whales were declared endangered by Canadian officials Nov. 18. The Southern resident J, K and L pods had been listed as threatened by Canadian authorities.

The listing does not trigger protection through the U.S. Endangered Species Act. But local whale advocates hope Canada’s decision pressures the National Marine Fisheries Service to declare the orcas endangered.

A panel of Canadian scientists determined that the Southern residents and their Northern neighbors are separate species. They relied heavily on data collected by the San Juan Island-based Center for Whale Research.

County faces tough choices over cuts

Nearly a decade of steady growth came to a screeching halt as county revenue took a plunge in 2001 and forced the County Commission to respond with a patchwork of solutions to bolster the 2002 budget.

The $30.1 million county budget reflected a 1 percent increase from the previous year but the increase was not fueled by expanding revenue.

On the contrary, the commission sliced services by $487,000, raised fees for services roughly 10 percent, shifted money from roads, and boosted property taxes 18 percent by tapping previously un-levied taxes — “banked dollars” — to fill the drop in revenue. A drastic drop in local sales-tax receipts prompted the decline in county revenue. Local sales began to suffer when the stock market crashed in spring, but nose-dived with the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Although commissioners were unable to reach unanimous agreement on how to plug an anticipated $1.5 million budgetary black-hole, the trio agreed that the painful exercise will be repeated in the next few years, at least.

Consolidating departments and hiring a county administrator were ideas that gained favor during the budget debate. Commissioners did agree, however, that finances will force county government to change its operation.

Meth lab; massive coke bust

There had long been rumors, for the most part unsubstantiated, that there were methamphetamine labs hidden away on isolated properties on the islands.

In 2001, some credence was given to those rumors, as the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office made its first-ever bust of a meth lab set up in a trailer hidden in a barn on a rural property between Friday Harbor and Roche Harbor.

Three people were arrested and convicted, and one person was sent to prison.

The chemicals used for manufacturing methamphetamine are highly toxic and a state Department of Ecology crew had to clean them up. The damage to the property was listed in the tens of thousands of dollars.

The meth lab was not the only major drug news of the year. While pot smuggling busts have actually become somewhat commonplace in the San Juans, the Sheriff’s Office also busted a major cocaine smuggling operation this autumn on Orcas Island.

More than 27 pounds of cocaine worth $1 million was seized, and three Canadian nationals were arrested and remanded to federal custody for prosecution.

Seniors battle over center’s use

On a gorgeous day in April, the long-awaited Mullis Senior and Community Center opened.

Then the trouble really started.

San Juan Island seniors, whose social activities had for years been relegated to a leaky, poorly equipped building, were now treated to a clean, bright, well-appointed space.

Unfortunately, the seniors quickly became polarized over issues involving the center, including a rumored “takeover” of the facility by a group within the governing Senior Advisory Committee, the resignation of facility manager Susan Schirmer and Senior Services Coordinator Arnell Haws, a much loved champion of island seniors whom many felt was being ousted.

At issue was Schirmer’s task of marketing of the center to outside groups, especially for-profit organizations. Seniors said they felt the center was not theirs, and that they were being shoehorned in whenever the facility wasn’t being used for some paying event.

In the aftermath, several members of the advisory committee resigned, and an election was held.

The new committee, headed by Georgia Baciu, seems to have turned a corner. Landscaping, facilities management, fund-raising are all proceeding, and seniors report less strife among the members.

County is growing fast

San Juan County grew by 40 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to the U.S. Census.

In 2000, there were 14,077 people living in San Juan County. Among Washington’s counties, San Juan ranked 32nd of 39. But San Juan ranked 12th in population density, with 71.5 people per square mile.

Elections kept islanders on edge

If only they had been horse races, a camera would have quickly determined the winner.

But no. Two election races on San Juan Island took nearly one month to resolve. With respective candidates separated by the narrowest of marginsµ after the Nov. 6 general election and the count of absentee ballots, state law required recount of both — one by hand. The winner would be determined by the toss of a coin if the respective candidates were tied following the recount.

The coin was not needed. Howie Rosenfeld took a seat on the Friday Harbor Town Council after edging Wally Gillette by two votes. Each candidate had 263 votes prior to the recount. Gillette lost one and Rosenfeld gained one during the recount. The two-vote victory was the tightest local election that officials could recall.

After general election and absentee votes had been counted, nine votes separated school board candidates Robert Mancuso and Bryn Barnard. Following the recount — done by machine — Mancuso picked up three votes and the uncontested victory.

Election officials noted numerous ballots for each race were returned with no mark at all. On many ballots, the school board race appeared on the back of the ballot.

The county Canvass Board rejected several ballots because signatures no longer matched those that were on file.

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