Letters to The Editor: September 12-18, 2024

The Editor:

Regarding a recent need for a presentation by the port, the entire Blaine City Council can easily be found all together in one place at one time at our council meetings. Like fish in a barrel. Very often if a local agency has a presentation for city council, staff simply adds that presentation into the pre-agenda that can happen in the time leading to the 6 p.m. official council meeting agenda (example: 4:30 p.m. before a meeting). This happens very often. The rest of the week, our council members have differing commitments, work and travel that makes it difficult to get the group together.

Port of Bellingham representatives spent weeks trying to reinvent the wheel by trying to find a way to get Blaine council members to meet on some other day and time than the one we all committed to: second and fourth Monday evenings. As far as I know, one council member is a much needed medical professional who works 12-hour shifts, others own businesses and have various work out of town. As the old saying goes: It’s simpler for Muhammad to go to the mountain,than to try and get the mountain to come to Muhammad.

When the port staffer lamented that they couldn’t get RSVPs from many council members, I gave them the not-so-secret formula: Get staff to put you on our pre-agenda, and we’ll all be there and give you our full attention. My friend and colleague Ken Bell (we served together on the Whatcom County Charter Review Commission) amusingly retorted to not invite me, in part as response to my years of publicly calling him out for his high absenteeism in his role of port commissioner. (I believe that he had been working part time in Antarctica, missing many port meetings.)

I hope this clarifies the issue.

Richard May, Blaine council member

Blaine

The Editor:

OK, everyone has had their chance to point fingers and blame each other for the plight of the Plover. Letter writers and social media trolls have added their two cents about letting her rot on the spit, like that sad plywood boat out there now, a favorite for photographers. Maybe now we can put that all aside and get both sides to the table to figure out how to raise sufficient funds this time to meet our common interests: getting the Plover fully and properly repaired to U.S. Coast Guard standards and professionally operating again.

With the new keel, stem and many frames and planking already restored, the lion’s share of the cost of repair is (to use a bad pun) already sunk cost.If you need examples of how restoring a historic vessel in much worse shape than the Plover might be possible, see how westernflyer.org or sampsonboat.co.uk did it.

The city can start by waiving those ridiculous liquidated damages on Drayton Harbor Maritime, a nonprofit company with volunteer labor restoring an historic wooden boat, not a for-profit, hard money contractor doing repetitive standardized work. If they wanted that, they could have gone to a professional yard and paid maybe triple the cost. Or more.

Not only is the Plover part of Blaine’s historic maritime heritage, it is a platform of education and discovery, and maybe the only chance for some kid to ever be out on the water. For five bucks.

She’s one of a kind and an icon of Blaine, and deserves better.

Rick Beauregard

Blaine

The Editor:

As summer comes to an end, it would have been nice if The Northern Light had given more “light” to the strong efforts of Harpiar Gandhi and the Blaine Public Works Department this summer. They were seen all over Blaine working to improve the infrastructure and appearance of our community. Seems like I saw their trucks out there much more than any other city vehicles. Thank you!

City management however seems so focused on increasing building heights downtown for smalltime developer wannabes and selling off our community parking, that all else appears ignored.

Is there any code enforcement here? By whom? What about the single-family residence that has become a de facto office building? The city was informed of it in February, yet there’s still a “shingle” seen on the home giving the appearance of operating businesses. A long-time abandoned house burns down with prior complaints made of an open doorway. Was that cited? What did that fire cost the city? Was there an investigation? What’s happening with other vacant storefronts and homes?

The Plover had huge cost overruns. The city says it’s broke, why did it request such expenditures without audits first?

What about speed limits, crosswalks and stop signs becoming regularly disregarded without the previous levels of response? Such could increase revenues. Why do I still even bother warning visitors to beware when driving here? Why was a yellow “no parking” stripe painted on a curb corner in front of a property owned by a planning commissioner, yet not on any other corners where very much needed? Etc.

I don’t desire Big Brother here, but there is a growing sense of apathy, chaos and lawlessness happening in Blaine. Codes and laws are enacted to promote equity and equality, and to keep residents safe from injustice, injury, liability and loss.

How has Blaine been helped as the city backseats its codes and mandated business in its downtown development reverie? Allowing privilege and preference and ignoring code violations can result in variances and precedents and problems.

It’s time for Martin Street to start working like Yew Street.

Ray Leone

Blaine