This week on the Compass we take you inside the cheese production facility at Mount Townsend Creamery on its last day of operation, and we talk with the employees and Creamery co-founder Ryan Trail about the sad end of an institution that was until very recently considered perhaps the brightest light of the local food economy.

(First airdate: January 29, 2020) Cris introduces the 2020 Community Read Author, John Larison and his book Whiskey When We're Dry. Says the Seattle Times: "A smooth yet bracing Western yarn that both celebrates and subverts the romance of the Old West through more complex contemporary perspectives."

We've survived another January! Yay! Let's celebrate with a Tossed Salad of all things good for you to enjoy, brought to you by Phil Andrus:
1:00 - Al Bergstein “Olympic Peninsula Environmental News”
1:30 - Trever Meade, banjo with punch
2:00 - Andrea Lawson, Visions in Motion 2020
2:15 - Kathleen Dudley re 5G
2:30 - Judith-Kate Friedman
3:30 - Maryann Tapiro and students
4:30 - Don White reading

(First airdate: January 29, 2020) Host Mary Robson talks with Darrell Smith of Western Wildlife Outreach about coyotes and their predatory place in our society.

(First airdate: January 28, 2020) LISTENING TO THE BEAT AT RAINSHADOW. Our Town host Maryanne McNellis interviews Everett Moran, founder of Rainshadow Recordings. Everett is from Texas and his family is in the oil business. One of his grandfather’s wells is still producing after 83 years. But music is in Everett’s blood. As a young man he toured the country with acts such as Kenny Loggins. The “kid” loved being on the bus with the band, setting up and tearing down sets. and waking up in a different city. But he ended up back in Oklahoma, in management at the family’s oil company for many years. Although he always played in a band outside of his work in the oil business, it was a divorce and a new love that convinced him to return to the world of sound. He leases space at Fort Worden for Rainshadow Recordings. Although the studio is relatively new, he hopes to make it a ‘destination studio’ for groups outside of the area.

While continuing their long and active careers, dancers and choreographers Bill Evans and Don Halquist have chosen Port Townsend as their home. Recently, Evans, Halquist and Claire Porter, renown comedic dance and movement artist, showcased part of Porter’s repertoire to sold-out audiences at Key City Public Theater. We caught up with all three performers between rehearsals for opening night, and talked about their performing lives and the works they have created, both as solo and ensemble artists.

Then we speak with Justine Gonzalez Berg of the Housing Solutions Network, a recent initiative of the Jefferson Community Foundation that addresses the need for more community engagement on the issue of affordable and available housing in our county. This is an important conversation that has increased over the last several years. Justine discusses HSN’s efforts to bring people into the fabric of a larger community dialogue needed to explore solutions to this crisis.