February 16 - 22, 2023
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IN THIS
ISSUE
New restaurant to open in Rustic Fork building, page 2
Local fisherman celebrates Bristol Bay protection
Blaine Middle School fire, page 5
Lodging tax revenue at second highest, page 6
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
BCT showcases “It Happened One Night”
By Ian Haupt
(See Bristol Bay, page 10)
s Blaine Community Theater presented the Lux Radio Theater version of “It Happened One Night” at Blaine Boating Center on February 11. The show was based on a 1934 romantic comedy about a reporter who follows a runaway heiress and ends up falling in love. Jazz guitarist Mike Bohnson and vocalist Kira Ann Bradshaw performed live music during the event. Photo by Ruth Lauman
Planning commission approves second public hearing on manufactured home parks By Grace McCarthy The Blaine Planning Commission approved a second public hearing on whether large manufactured home parks should be allowed in east Blaine. The public hearing is scheduled for the April 13 meeting. The commission voted 4-1 during its February 9 meeting to reopen the public hearing after the commission failed to reach a consensus on their recommendation for Blaine City Council. Some commissioners asked for a second public hearing because they wanted to discuss more research they
did after the December 8 hearing. About 20 audience members listened intently to the commissioners’ debate, which lasted over an hour. Remote participants, including commissioner Jessica Stone, were unable to join the meeting due to technical difficulties. The manufactured home park debate began last year when east Blaine developers Skip and Katie Jansen asked city staff to change the city’s zoning code to allow manufactured home parks in east Blaine planned unit developments (PUDs), which are five acres or larger. Currently, the city’s zoning
City council pauses east Blaine taxing district study, supports port grant application By Grace McCarthy Blaine City Council had an agenda-packed meeting on February 13 that resulted in council revising its legislative priorities, asking the city to pause a study on creating a taxing district in east Blaine and supporting the Port of Bellingham’s grant application for a feasibility study on a maritime research institute in Blaine Harbor.
Bell Road project letter State legislators from the 42nd district wrote a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg asking for support of the Bell Road overpass project. The letter, dated January 26, said the city of Blaine submitted a grant application for the project from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program. The city is working on the project’s 10
percent design phase and the RAISE funding would allow the city to immediately begin the preliminary engineering and environmental phase, according to the letter. A U.S. Department of Homeland Security railcar scanner is located near the Bell Road and Peace Portal Drive intersection, which causes traffic congestion as trains are scanned. In 2020, the city decided not to (See City, page 6)
code allows for manufactured homes in east Blaine in areas less than five acres. The city’s planned residential zone runs east of 15th Street to city limits and from the U.S./Canada border to H Street Road. The Jansens’ next development East Harbor Hills, where they are considering a manufactured home park, is still a ways out from having city council consider its approval. East Harbor Hills will be between The Ridge at Harbor Hills and Grandis Pond. (See Planning, page 3)
INSIDE
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), environmentalists and a Blaine Harbor fisherman celebrated the announcement of mining protections placed January 31 on Alaska’s Bristol Bay, which has one of the largest salmon runs in the world. The U.S. EPA approved permanent Clean Water Act protections on Bristol Bay, blocking Pebble Mine’s 12-year-long project proposal brought by Northern Dynasty Minerals. Pebble Mine threatened irreparable damage to the watershed, as it would have extracted gold, copper and molybdenum located in the headwaters of the Kvichak and Nushagak rivers, two of the eight major rivers that feed Bristol Bay. In 2011, Cantwell called on the EPA to block the Pebble Mine proposal if the agency found that the development would harm Bristol Bay salmon, which she called “economic lynchpins” for commercial fishermen in Alaska and Washington, according to a January 31 press release. The EPA reported in 2020 that more than 191 miles of streams and 4,614 acres of wetlands would be impacted during construction of the Pebble Mine, with 185 miles and 3,841 acres of wetlands permanently damaged or destroyed. Cantwell spoke on the Senate floor January 31 after the EPA announced its restriction of development in the watershed. “No company will ever be able to stick a mine on top of some of the best salmon habitat in the world,” Cantwell said in her floor speech. “Salmon fishermen from Alaska and from my home state of Washington will continue to earn their livelihoods from Bristol Bay salmon as they have for generations.” Blaine Harbor fisherman Kevin Haines, who has fished in Bristol Bay for almost every summer since 1996, said fishers have been fighting the mine since it was proposed. “It’s always been a threat. It wouldn’t have affected me in my lifetime, but for the up-and-comers and future generations
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