Stuart Island Airpark Association Annual Meeting 2022

Hello to all our island friends,

Another year has rolled by and it’s that time again for the Annual Meeting on Sunday May 28 at 10:00am at the community hangar.  We are really looking forward to seeing everyone’s smiling faces this year as we are emerging from the past couple years of the chaos of the pandemic. We have a lot of exciting and significant things to talk about as a community and want everyone’s input to keep the island community evolving as you all want it to be. 

Some of the issues we will want to discuss include:

Wildfire has been and continues to grow as a risk to our island, our homes and potentially even our lives. It could become the most negative thing to happen to our island and deserves our attention to planning and trying to mitigate as much of the risk as we can. With our now inclusion into the San Juan Fire district we are getting a new wildfire response rig from the fire department that will be parked ultimately in the community hangar.  It should be present by the time of the meeting.  It is a $35,000 UTV with a water tank, pump, backboard and carrier, radio interface directly with first responder departments. There will also be support supplies and equipment that will come with it. For our needs, it is an excellent addition and will come with the opportunity for training and maintenance from the department. 

A more coordinated and likely effective EMS response for medical emergencies is in process.  In mid-May the sheriffs office, San Juan EMS and Northwest Airlift will be visiting all of Stuart doing an onsite inspection of various landing zones for boat and helicopter evacuation. Earlier this year we had a meeting with those agencies and have created a more formalized plan to improve emergency responses. You will notice a few more address sign posts along the roads and we encourage everyone to get one so when time is of the essence and you need a rapid response you can be found easier. 

The Reid Harbor boat ramp process is ongoing. As we all know that ramp is a major lifeline to our island community and each of us rely on the continued functionality and use of the ramp.   We are now into the project three years and there have been many advances and many challenges.  At this point, we have done every required legal step to secure a permit to repair the ramp. There has been a significant cost to complying with these steps. The good news is that in the final critical assessment report there is no biologic nor cultural reason for the ramp project not to be completed.  The actual permit is in process but is continually slowed by a variety of governmental reasons part of which is related to the pandemic and partly from procedural rules. I recently met with an independent attorney to evaluate how we might be able to move this project to our required completion.  We also have been given the opportunity to acquire the property the ramp occupies as a gift from Nels Strandberg, the property owner.  This gracious gift from Nels will give us not only the security of having the ramp in 100% community control but may afford us with different options on how to proceed.  

There has been the addition of a new owner of an adjacent property to our defined airpark community that would like to be included into the group.  As we all know the community has a bit of a checkered history of who is in and who is outside depending on how the property was sold and when.  There have been times in the past when this led to opinionated discussions. For those who see the undivided interest category on your property taxes you are paying into the property taxes on the community property.  As a group we have the ability to decide how we want to respond to requests like this.  There are good reasons to consider how to be a good neighbor on a small island.

There have been some issues in Prevost Harbor surrounding the community dock, floats and mooring buoys.  There has been a focus by some of the regulatory agencies regarding what is legal and what is illegal. There is nothing that I am aware of that is imminent but a discussion of  how we are managing what we have there now and how to keep utilizing it to all our advantages is warranted.  

There was a concern raised last fall about hunting on community property. For the winter the board made a decision to post no hunting signs until the group could decide at the annual meeting if hunting will be allowed.  There are county and state rules that apply and will likely be part of the conversation.

The usual maintenance of the roads, runway and burn pile which take more effort to take care of than some may realize. We unfortunately had the big tree at the west end of the community hangar fall over during a really wet period of time during the winter. Through the efforts of several including Vince Brotherton and George Renquist we have a stack of split wood from the tree that will be auctioned off for the ramp project. The budget will need to be approved and election of any new officers.   We have a few events, including a musical evening arranged by Mark Green coming up this summer that will be a lot of fun and makes the island experience all the more memorable. 

I can truly say I am looking forward to seeing each and every one of you.  There is only one Stuart and we have all worked hard and arranged our lives to have such a unique and special place we all call home. 

Hoping to see you all at the annual meeting. If there are other issues we should talk about bring them up. If you can’t make it and want your voice heard, reach to any of us and let us know what you are thinking.

Best regards,

Rhys Spoor, Board President

Board members

Bill Shivers

Randy Thompson

Danette Carroll

Kipp Carroll

Jason Douglass