September 18 - 24, 2025
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Boutique opens in Borderites enter week downtown Blaine, page 2 two of fall sports, page 6
Whatcom County outlines 20-year growth proposal for Birch Bay
U.S./Canada remembrance of September 11, page 15
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
‘Catoberfest’ raises glasses and food bank funds
By Grace McCarthy
(See Birch Bay, page 8)
s Beach Cat Brewing’s ‘Catoberfest’ gathered a crowd to Blaine Marine Park for its Bavarian-style fundraiser for Blaine Food Bank on September 13. See more photos on page 11. Photo by Ruth Lauman
Meet Dan Chaplik, Blaine’s interim superintendent By Grace McCarthy Blaine interim superintendent Dan Chaplik has come into the new school year with a list of goals he wants to accomplish during his one-year term, including making sure student voices are part of the conversation. Chaplik, who started his career as a Blaine teacher and most recently worked as superintendent of Sultan school district, sat down with The Northern Light to discuss what he envisioned for the new year and what he wanted Blaine families to know about their local education. This article has been edited for clarity and brevity. How does it feel to come back to Blaine? Having an opportunity to come back to the school district where I started 32 years ago is a blessing. It’s a full circle situation where I get to return to a school district and community that made a big impression on me. Since I was here, I’ve worked in five school districts and been a superintendent for the last 20 years. What made you want to come back to Blaine? I had positive memories of being here
and it being a community that was supportive of students and a culture centered around student learning. What are your top priorities for the school year? Connect the school district to our students and community, and develop a sense of belonging for all of our students so that they feel connected to the schools and our staff. I want our group of educators to create great experiences and growth opportunities for students. I want to get involved in various aspects of the community to understand what has and hasn’t worked. Open doors that may have felt closed before. A simple thing we did is open the front door of the district office. You don’t have to key card your way in. I want a sense of openness and connection to the schools, and I want every student to know that in the Blaine school district, every student matters. How are you working to accomplish those priorities? District office staff is going to spend time with the principals to make sure everyone knows the school district’s goals, and I’m taking district staff who don’t normally work directly with students into classrooms. I’m looking at creating task forces around important
issues in the community. I’d like to focus on the budget, financial planning, transparency, creating quality education programs and increasing our career and technical education (CTE) offerings. There’s a lot to tap into in this community to make sure students are learning about the trades and have opportunities to seek routes other than just college. What could the task forces look like? We could look at our educational offerings. As I mentioned, one of my goals (See Chaplik, page 7)
INSIDE
County planning staff presented their proposal for directing growth in Birch Bay for the next 20 years during a September 11 Whatcom County Planning Commission meeting. The plan, which would not increase the size of the Birch Bay urban growth area (UGA), includes several zoning changes that staff say will improve growth through 2045. The Birch Bay UGA proposal is part of the decennial comprehensive plan that will chart out the next 20 years of growth. The county and its cities are required to submit their plans to the state by the end of the year. UGAs are designated areas where future growth is encouraged to mitigate urban sprawl. The Thursday evening planning commission meeting at the Northwest Annex building had presentations and hearings on the Birch Bay, Sumas, Everson, Nooksack and Columbia Valley UGAs. A handful of Birch Bay residents used the Birch Bay hearing to voice their concern on the city of Blaine’s proposal to de-annex east Blaine and swap its UGA near Semiahmoo. Blaine UGA revision A presentation on the Blaine UGA proposal was agendized, but the city withdrew it to fix a typo in its land capacity analysis. Blaine planning director Alex Wenger said the changes would not impact the UGA boundaries or projected population densities. Wenger said the city needed to recalculate the amount of development that may occur with current zoning because analysis from Whatcom County and previous planning staff overestimated the potential allowable development under current zoning. Blaine planning staff is working to revise that figure to show how the city is growing, which reduced the city’s previous estimate for total development capacity. Wenger said the city has an overall surplus of land and ample capacity for growth. Wenger is expected to present the updated Blaine UGA proposal to the Whatcom County Planning Commission during its Thursday, October 9 meeting. A public hearing will occur immediately after the presentation. Birch Bay UGA proposal Whatcom County senior planner Matt Aamot told meeting attendees that the Birch Bay proposal would not change the UGA boundaries. The county wants to make the following changes to the Birch Bay UGA: • Rezone 13 acres to general commercial that is currently a go-kart track parcel on Birch Bay-Lynden Road and the land just
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