Letters to The Editor: August 25-31, 2022

The Editor:

I have always been befuddled by the arithmetic skills of Blaine City Council regardless of who was on it. It has been stated that the city can’t decide what to do with the property where the old town hall stood – whether to build a new police station or sell it. I doubt if the city could sell the property for enough money to both buy a new site and build a new station. If one owns a property, half the job of building is done. Something doesn’t add up.

With regard to the repair of Yew Avenue, it was reported that it would seemingly be a mountain of a job to repair a molehill. The project does not appear to be of high enough priority to warrant a substantial investment. The city should not give false hopes of a repair in two years but just close the route now as it has wanted from time to time in the past. Yew Avenue could easily be turned into a walking or biking trail at a minimal cost.

Richard Mollette

Custer

The Editor:

It appears that Whatcom County will do nothing to fix the drainage ditch along the 8500 block of Semiahmoo Drive again this year.

The ditch has a fairly flat gradient. Water drains very slowly, it stagnates in the ditch all winter-every winter. During the November 2021 storm the ditch overflowed and sent water coursing across the lots of the 20 homes along the street. My basement flooded; I’m sure others received worse damage.

There are things the county could do to fix the drainage problem. They could alter the ditch gradient to promote more rapid runoff. They could widen the ditch to facilitate a faster flow rate. They could remove or replace the half dozen undersized (and clogged) culverts that have no traffic over them.

At the very least the county could remove all the logs and weeds that have been accumulating for the last four or five years. The county has cleaned the ditches to the north of us (toward the golf course) and to the south of us (toward Birch Bay). Why have we been neglected?

I do not want to experience another flood this winter. 

Bill James

Blaine