September 8 - 14, 2022
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Run with the Chums is back for 10th year, page 5
Borderites start off sports season, page 6
Semiahmoo has a new executive chef, page 7
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Growing Birch The Plover ends summer voyages Bay community awaits school By Cameron Sires
(See Birch Bay, page 3)
s The Plover passenger ferry sailed its last voyage of the season on September 5, giving two young sisters an unforgettable experience to captain the boat. Sisters Kadence and Kalies Stuart (above) became “captains for a day,” taking turns steering the Plover over the watchful eye and assistance of Plover captain Mark Moder. Photo by Ruth Lauman
New athletic director has roots in local sports By Ian Haupt Chas Kok played as a wide receiver for Lynden High School in Jay Dodd’s first game as head coach of Blaine High School football. At Blaine, the Lions won 14-0. Taking the Blaine athletic director job in July, Chas has returned to the position of boss. (Last season, coach Dodd notched the record for most games won by a coach in school history. Phil Claymore held it for 46 years at 70 victories.) Chas grew up in Lynden and played foot-
ball, basketball and baseball for the Lions. He went on to play college basketball at multiple schools. He played basketball and baseball at Skagit Valley College for two years, then played basketball for a year at Simon Fraser University before they went to Division II. He transferred to Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. where he played for two more years and assistant coached for two years after graduating. He received his bachelor’s degree in teaching from Thompson Rivers. Chas then coached Burlington-Edison High School’s boys basketball team for five
One person dead in Sweet Road house fire By Grace McCarthy The Whatcom County sheriff’s office and fire marshal’s office are investigating a September 2 fire on Sweet Road that left one person dead. First responders received a call at 2:49 a.m. on September 2 about a house in the 4300 block of Sweet Road that was involved in flames, North Whatcom Fire and Rescue (NWFR) chief Jason Van der Veen said. NWFR, Whatcom County Fire District 7 and Bellingham
Fire Department crews responded to the scene and found the home about 60-80 percent involved in flames. Seeing two cars in the driveway and no occupants outside of the home, Van der Veen said crews aggressively searched inside of the home and found one victim deceased. Firefighters had the fire under control within 20 minutes but it took a couple of hours to fully extinguish, Van der Veen said. The home was around a 1,500-square-foot, one-story manufactured home.
The WCSO and fire marshal’s office are now investigating the fire. WCSO spokesperson Deb Slater declined to comment during the ongoing investigation. “It was a tragedy,” Van der Veen said. “A loss of life is hard on the crews but they did a great job, despite the outcome. I’m proud of them.” This is the first fire fatality in 2022 within NWFR’s service area, which runs from north of Bellingham to the U.S./ Canada border and Birch Bay to just east of Lynden.
years while teaching middle school math and physical education. He said he also helped out with the football team. As Blaine’s new athletic director, Chas said he hopes to have a wider impact on more students and focus on character building. “Especially in a small school district, you can have an impact on, not just the high school, but you can have an impact on middle school, you can have an impact on elementary,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is a wider net that I can cast’ in regards to (See Kok, page 7)
INSIDE
Birch Bay school advocates have continuously asked the Blaine school district board of directors for an elementary school in the area since the early 2000s. Progress may soon be made as school district officials say they’re looking to find property by the end of the year, but building the school would likely wait for higher enrollment and available funding. These requests from the community have crescendoed into demands as the Birch Bay population grows and the progress toward a school, sports fields or other after-school amenities have yet to begin. Birch Bay gained 1,700 new residents in the last decade, reaching a population of 10,115, almost doubling the Blaine population of 5,884, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. Doralee Booth is an active Birch Bay community member, county liaison for the Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce and retired paraprofessional of 15 years. With direction from Whatcom County, she recalled when she and 22 community members – two representatives for 11 neighborhoods – developed a community comprehensive plan in the early 2000s. The plan included a chapter on public schools and highlighted the absence of a school in Birch Bay. “We began to think that this was an equity issue, that our neighborhoods, our community should have an elementary school,” Booth said. “We woke up during this process and said, ‘Why is this?’” Booth said she and the other advocates kept nudging Blaine school district about buying property for a future Birch Bay school. In 2014, the Blaine school district board of directors promised the Birch Bay community to identify a property for a future school. Since this promise, the optimism of a new school has faded for some. In an email sent to the Birch Bay community last November, Booth wrote, “The Birch Bay community heavily funds and
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