November 2019
IN THIS
ISSUE
www.AllPointBulletin.com
Park receives FEMA money, page 7
Candidates look for your vote
Nick Kiniski honored for rescue, page 10
ECRWSS PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 14
FREE
County library system turns 75, page 17
Point Roberts, WA 98281 Postal Patron Local
Dunking for apples ...
B y P a t G r u bb
At the beginning of October, the All Point Bulletin asked general election candidates running in contested county and local races to submit a candidate statement. Following are candidate responses for Point Roberts Park and Recreation District, Whatcom County Executive and Whatcom County Council. Statements from candidates for other contested races may be found at allpointbulletin.com. Not all candidates responded to the request. Point Roberts Park and Recreation District Bennett Blaustein 64 years old and retired I have served one full term as a commissioner on the Point Roberts Park and Recreation District It has been my pleasure to become part of this community and work with many of the wonderful people and groups that make Point Roberts unique. The park district has seen massive increases in the use of the community center and Baker Field over the past four years going from an average of 27 hours per week of use to 37 hours per week. I hope to continue helping groups and individuals from our community so we can maximize utilization of our park district assets through a balanced and equitable approach that allows us to increase our recreational activities while helping to preserve historical assets and open space for future generations. The highlights of my term as park commissioner included running daily operations for the park district for a large portion of my current term before training our program and operations manager. I am proud of providing a trail maintenance program including the creation of the Enchanted Forest Trail. Revamping over 2,000 feet of new trails to replace damaged or seasonally flooded trails. Operating the community center with the help of many volunteers as a shelter during our disas(See Candidates, page 6)
s The third annual Apple Harvest Festival, sponsored by Point Roberts Circle of Care, brought lots of apple activities to the community center on September 28 and 29. More photos on page 18.
Photo by Louise Mugar
County admin costs take big cut of TBD funds B y P a t G r u bb A Point Roberts Garden Club request to renew its funding of Tyee Drive garden maintenance using transportation benefit district (TBD) funds hit a major bump in the road at the last Point Roberts Community Advisory Committee (PRCAC) meeting on October 17. Club members were surprised to learn that the county had charged $4,500 to administer the payout of $8,920 for the
maintenance work. Members were incredulous that the county would charge that much for a contract that only generated one invoice a month over the gardening season. Club president Scott Hackleman told PRCAC board members that the club’s request was being placed on county council’s agenda in November for consideration and suggested it would be a good opportunity to bring concerns about county administration charges to council members’
Local health clinic receives the first of the flu vaccines B y P a t G r u bb The folks at the local clinic have received the first of this year’s allotment of flu vaccine for Point Roberts. According to hospital district superintendent Barb Wayland, the clinic received the vaccine for young children aged three years and younger on October 23 and expect vaccines for older children, adults and seniors shortly. Families with young children can call the clinic at 360/945-2580 to schedule.
The clinic will not be charging for immunizations regardless of age, said Wayland. Individuals with immunization coverage should bring their insurance cards but there will be no co-pay. Speaking at the hospital district’s regular meeting on October 8, clinic provider Dr. Sean Bozorgzadeh had assured commissioners that a flu clinic would be offered once the vaccines arrived. “We feel strongly about taking care of our community, so we’ll make it easy for
people to get vaccinated,” Bozorgzdeh declared emphatically. In other district news, Wayland reported that close to 25 people had attended a medical insurance update meeting held on October 7 to discuss options following Kaiser Permanente’s refusal to cover Point Roberts clinic patients. Kaiser has been pulling back on coverage since it took over Group Health in 2017 and has limited the number of doctors and clinics in its (See Clinic, page 2)
attention. PRCAC board member David Gellatly said he had discussed the issue of administrative costs with county executive Jack Louws earlier in the year and would follow up with him. In a subsequent email exchange with Louws on October 21, Gellatly provided him with the county public works costing for 2018 and 2019. For 2018, the main(See PRCAC, page 13)
Online
allpointbulletin.com facebook.com/allpointbulletin
Inside
Church ............................................. 18 Classifieds ......................................... 16 Coming Up ....................................... 14 Opinion ............................................... 4 Seniors ............................................. 17 Sheriffs ............................................. 17 Tides ................................................. 13