April 2023
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New public works honcho, page 3
Concerns raised over park district expenses
Sowing seeds of change, page 7
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Update on the internet front, page 8
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Spring has arrived ...
By Erin Kelly The manner by which the Point Roberts Parks and Recreation District commissioners have been approving expenditures came under fire at their recent monthly meeting on March 13. Local resident Allison Calder expressed concern over the way recent spending decisions had been made by the board. “In the bylaws, it is stated that any program and activity that is sponsored by the parks district must come before the parks board for approval before being implemented. We are having events where the expenditures are not being approved by the board beforehand and the community and the taxpayers are not being informed of,” she said. Calder was specifically referring to the recent Valentine’s Day dance, which carried an $800 price tag. Former parks board chair Bennett Blaustein added, “One of the things that the current board hasn’t been doing is, when you have been scheduling events, you haven’t been budgeting for those events, they’ve been coming up at the last minute. You have to schedule your events a couple of months out. You set a budget: you bring it up at one meeting, approve it at the next meeting, and then it is set to go. But you’re doing this stuff between meetings without having any oversight at all.” Agreeing that both Calder and Blaustein had raised “valid points,” commissioner Michael Cressey pointed out that the next planned event, the spring dance, is scheduled for April 15, and noted that the April meeting would not allow the board to budget ahead for the dance. He expressed support for the event, saying that dances “keep the fabric of the community together.” Board chair Mitch Friedman emphasized the need to provide recreational events for the public and suggested costs could be lowered by partnering with businesses or non-profits to help carry the financial load. Friedman did not explain how such partnering would result in lower costs. Historically, non-profit entities on the Point have (See Parks, page 6)
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WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN
s You know spring has arrived when the cover of the All Point Bulletin features Point Roberts’ Ladybug Nursery owner, Darlene Gibbs, hard at work raising the flowers, vegetables and plants that will soon grace local gardens. Photo by Louise Mugar
CBSA opens up NEXUS offices By Grace McCarthy Canadian and U.S. government officials announced March 20 that NEXUS enrollment centers will reopen at eight Canadian airports within the next month. The announcement from the Canada Border Services Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection comes after more than 350,000 applicants have experienced interview backlogs over the past year. This will be the first time Canadian enrollment centers have reopened since the pandemic, nearly a year after U.S. enrollment centers reopened last April. The Vancouver International Airport NEXUS center will reopen on April 3.
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Other NEXUS centers will soon reopen at the following cities: Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. The centers in Halifax and Winnipeg reopened March 27. Applicants have three options to complete their interviews. They can either have a joint interview at a U.S. enrollment center; interview at a Canadian land enrollment center and then interview separately at a U.S. enrollment center on the U.S./Canada border; or air travelers can do a two-step process where U.S. and Canadian border agents will conduct interviews separately. For more NEXUS information, visit bit.ly/3zl4yIs.
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Church ............................................. 10 Classifieds ......................................... 12 Coming Up ....................................... 12 Crossings .......................................... 13 Library Picks..................................... 13 Obituaries ......................................... 11 Opinion ............................................... 4 Sheriffs ............................................. 13 Tides ................................................. 13
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