Natural Way Chiropractic is now employee owned
Ferndale baseball team manages transitions
Eight locations across Washington include Ferndale and Lynden. — Business, A2
Golden Eagles host Lynden at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 21. — Sports, B1
MARCH 20, 2024
SINCE 1885
FERNDALE, WASHINGTON • $1.50
Rep. Larsen secures $19.3M for north Whatcom projects
Above, Ferndale Kiwanis club members post American flags along Main Street. Below, Dennis Davenport, left, member of the George Washington Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, with longtime Ferndale Kiwanis Club member and flag service project coordinator Pete Harksell. (Photo courtesy Ferndale
Kiwanis Club)
A new Ferndale civic campus is envisioned on Main Street right next to where the current City Hall is. (Cal Bratt for the Record)
Ferndale Kiwanis Club honored by local Sons of the American Revolution Recognized for posting flags along Main Street By Bill Helm Editor
FERNDALE — On March 5, Ferndale Kiwanis Club was recognized for three decades of placing American flags along the city’s Main Street. The George Washington Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution presented Ferndale Kiwanis Club with a plaque for the occasion. SAR for short, Sons of the American Revolution is a national historical and educational nonprofit organization that promotes freedom, patriotism, respect for national symbols and the value of American citizenship. According to Kathy Young, president of the Ferndale Kiwanis Club, one of the many ways SAR promotes these values is by “recognizing outstanding displays of the American flag by individuals, corporations, businesses and civic and service organizations.” “Ferndale Kiwanis started a program where families can acknowledge their family members who served our country by purchasing a flag in their honor,” Young said. According to Young, the flag pole will have a plaque attached with an engraving of the veteran’s name and date of service as well as the branch they served in. “Two of our newest flags will fly on July 4 to honor two Revolutionary War patriots,” she said. Young explained that for more than 30 years, Ferndale Kiwanis Club has proudly displayed more than 150 flags along Main Street on nine different federal holidays. After the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, the flags were “placed and taken down each day, every day for three months.” According to Young, Pete Harksell is the “heart and soul of this program.” A Ferndale Kiwanis Club member since 1982, Harksell has been inSee Kiwanis on A3
New Ferndale civic campus, Lynden Bradley Road upgrading on list By Cal Bratt For the Tribune
WHATCOM — Second District Congressman Rep. Rick Larsen secured $19.3 million for 15 projects in northwest Washington in the fiscal year 2024 spending package that was approved by Congress March 6-8. These are projects that community leaders identified as critical to their communities, Larsen said. The earmarks are: • $1.6 million for City of Lynden safety improvements and multimodal access along Bradley Road between the campuses of Lynden High School and Lynden Middle School. This is a stretch of roadway that needs to be upgraded to full city standards after many years of steady residential growth and construction of a new middle school on the northeast side of the Lynden. • $1 million toward a new civic
campus for the City of Ferndale on Main Street including a new city hall, municipal court and public meeting space. The current City Hall at 2095 Main St. is a converted former bank building. Council meetings and municipal court are conducted in a separate Second Avenue annex that falls short of safety standards. • $8 million to Lummi Nation for a project to elevate Slater Road by 12 feet to reduce flooding and congestion challenges. The Slater stretch of 1,900 linear feet has been prone to Nooksack River flooding, which restricts access to the Lummi Reservation and its facilities. • $220,000 toward replacement of a water reservoir for Lake What-
com Water and Sewer District’s Division 7. The existing reservoir does not meet earthquake safety requirements. • $440,000 for a Rapid DNA System for the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office. This will enable local law enforcement agencies to better access DNA technology for identification of suspects or clearing of innocent persons. • $850,000 to Northwest Career & Technical Academy, based in Anacortes, to build a Whatcom Extension branch for workforce development skills and more career technical education for high school-aged students in Whatcom County. Other projects are in Skagit, Snohomish and Island counties.
Council hears from county health head No pressing business done in 75-minute meeting By Cal Bratt For the Record
FERNDALE — Beside approving payroll and meeting minutes, the Ferndale City Council had no business to act on at its Monday, March 18 meeting. Instead, the council heard for about 30 min-
utes from Erika Lautenbach, director of the Whatcom County Health and Community Services Department. The longer name indicates how much more than just health concerns are dealt with, Lautenbach said, and councilors expressed surprise at the breadth of the issues covered. Beside working on environmental and community health, the agency deals with poverty, homelessness and climate vulnerability areas as well, Lautenbach said. Half of a staff of 150 are
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on the human services side of things, she said. Also briefing on Ferndale private development projects in the works was Jesse Ashbaugh, city associate planner. Ashbaug honed in on the 25-acre Silver Hawk Mixed-Use Planned Unit Development proposed at 6276 LaBounty Road, which is still in progress through city hoops. But if it becomes reality, in four phases of construction, it will provide 286 housing units of different types with a business component at the front along LaBounty.
Some of the dwellings will be of the live-work style, meaning an area of about 515 square feet can be used for smallbusiness work such as accounting or hair styling, Ashbaugh noted. • Ferndale citizen Jun Jackson spoke during public comment, as she has before, castigating American involvement in the “atrocity” being inflicted on Palestinians in the five-month-old Gaza war. Jackson called it “war crimes” and “terrorism committed by Israel on our tax dollars.”
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