City council approves shoreline construction contract, among others

The latest news from Blaine City Council’s December 12 meeting.

The Blaine City Council meeting started with a presentation from the Working Waterfront Coalition of Whatcom County. Presenters Jim Kyle, Debbie Granger and Dan Tucker informed council on the coalition’s achievements, such as starting the new Northwest Maritime Apprenticeship Program, and Blaine-specific projects it has helped, including facilitating stakeholder meetings on the web locker building and sawtooth dock.

Drayton Harbor Oyster Company co-owner Mark Seymour followed the coalition’s presentation with a discussion on port and marine waterfront development and aquaculture ideas. Seymour told council there was potential to build an eco-tourism platform in Blaine, such as oyster farm and bird watching tours, or through a marine science center on Drayton Harbor. “This speaks back to getting people to stay in Blaine to have activities to pursue throughout the summer,” Seymour said. “We have willing individuals and partners and expertise to really pull this off but we need a bit more help and conversation to see what direction to go.”       

Council approved the city enter a construction contract for the Marine Park Shoreline Reconstruction project near Blaine Marine Park Playground and Lighthouse Point Water Reclamation Facility. In effort to stabilize the shoreline, the project will remove broken concrete and debris along 600 feet of the Blaine Marine Park shoreline, replacing it with sand and boulder materials. The project, which will also create beach pockets and headlands, will prevent erosion and create a safer shoreline, according to city documents. 

Whatcom County’s Premium Services Inc. bid $598,300 for the project, which was nearly $186,700 less than the project engineer estimated. The city received a $500,000 state grant to fund the project and the remaining amount is fully funded in the city budget.

Council moved voting on a tax-increment financing (TIF) study agreement for east Blaine from the consent agenda to an action item to allow councilmembers to discuss the item before approving it. The agreement was approved 6-0, with councilmember Rhyan Lopez absent.

TIF, which the state legislature passed in 2021, would allow the city to collect money from expected increases in property tax revenue from an east Blaine area to pay for public infrastructure, such as street, water and sewer. The city will pay Stowe Development and Strategies $50,000 for a study and recommendation report on using TIF financing. East Blaine developers Skip and Katie Jansen, of JIJ Corporation, and Ken Hertz, of Blossom Management, will contribute $25,000 each to the study, which will be formally accepted by council on January 9.

“We’re seeing reasons why it’s not developing,” interim city manager Dave Wilbrecht said. “It’s expensive and difficult to get utilities to these properties so this is a mechanism to help move those utilities forward.”

After council discussion on the downtown revitalization project, Wilbrecht told council he would bring back a revised plan focusing on safety issues in January. This came after council members questioned whether fully funding the proposed $620,000 downtown revitalization engineering design and construction contract would be the best use of city money. 

“We’re going to focus on the street, trees, sidewalks and curbs where there’s trip hazards and other problems and that’s the other package we’ll come back with,” Wilbrecht said. He said the city will try to bring back the plan with KPG Psomas, the company the city originally considered to do the engineering design services and construction oversight. Council was slated to approve the contract in September and has pushed the vote several times. 

Council unanimously approved a $80,000 feasibility study for the Bell Road grade separation project. David Evans and Associates will conduct the study to support future grant applications for designing and constructing an overpass grade separation at the Bell Road and Peace Portal Drive intersection, according to city documents. The study will look at preliminary design aspects, including the project’s cost estimates, schedule, traffic impacts and utility additions.