February 24 - March 2, 2022
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Wings Over Water festival returns next month, page 4
FEMA deadline coming up, page 5
Blaine students offered outdoor program, page 10
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
City looks at two properties for affordable housing projects By Grace McCarthy
(See Housing, page 6)
s Whatcom County Library System owns Birch Bay Community Vogt Library and is now considering the next steps for the proposed Birch Bay library after Proposition 2 failed for a second time in the February special election. Photo by Grace McCarthy
WCLS brainstorming next steps for library By Grace McCarthy Whatcom County Library System (WCLS) is considering the next steps for the proposed Birch Bay Community Vogt Library after library supporters failed to garner enough votes to create a taxing district to pay for the library’s construction. Proposition 2, which was on the February 8 special election, would have created a Library Capital Facility Area (LCFA) that would have established a board of trustees to issue bonds for the remaining $4 million of the library’s $6.5
million construction. Property owners in the LCFA boundaries would have paid an estimated 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, which comes out to be about $38 annually for a $350,000 home. The ballot measure needed to have a 60-percent supermajority in support and 40 percent of voters from the November 2021 general election. The library vote failed 3 percent short of the supermajority, with 1,890 votes in favor and 1,426 votes, 43 percent, in opposition. The special election was further from reaching the supermajority than in No-
School board appoints Donald Leu as director By Ian Haupt The Blaine school board voted 4-0 to appoint Donald J. Leu as its fifth member at a special meeting February 16. Leu will be sworn in at the board’s regular meeting Monday, February 28. Leu will fill former board member Laura McKinney’s district 5 seat for two years. McKinney officially resigned December 14, 2021, after being recently reelected in the November 2021 election to another term as district 5 representative.
The board was required to appoint a representative living within in the district to fill the seat by Friday, March 4. As of the board’s recent redistricting, district 5 includes Semiahmoo, areas south of Blaine and north Birch Bay. Leu is professor emeritus and endowed chair in literacy and technology at the University of Connecticut, and directed the university’s New Literacies Research Lab in the Neag School of Education, according to the school’s website. He retired three years ago and moved to Blaine; he was born in Bell-
ingham. The school board interviewed two candidates, Leu and Paul L. Berg, in its special meeting last week. After over an hour in executive session to discuss the candidates, the board unanimously appointed Leu. Berg said he has been in education for 40 to 50 years and that he cares most about the kids. Leu said during his interview that he has always been passionate about education and (See School, page 6)
vember 2021, when the LCFA was first put on ballots. Last November, FOBBL was 26 votes away from creating the taxing district, with 59.3 percent in favor (2,145 votes) and 40.7 in opposition (1,473 votes). WCLS executive director Christine Perkins said the library system is still interested in helping Birch Bay bring a library to the community, but what that may look like is being discussed. “We haven’t honed into one particular (See Library, page 3)
INSIDE
Two Blaine locations could be the future sites for affordable housing through a community land trust. Blaine City Council discussed potential affordable housing options at the old city hall property and in the upcoming Harbor Hills neighborhood in east Blaine during council’s February 14 work-study session. Kulshan Community Land Trust executive director Dean Fearing and city manager Michael Jones presented to council the two potential projects that could help more working-class residents purchase homes. The projects could bring about 10 homes to east Blaine and about 10 smaller units to downtown, Jones said during the meeting. Kulshan is a Bellingham-based nonprofit that bridges the affordability gap for working class people to purchase a home. The nonprofit was started in 1999 when the area was seeing similar high costs in housing. How it works Essentially, Kulshan helps families earning low to moderate wages purchase a home by providing down payment assistance and, through Kulshan maintaining ownership of the land, the nonprofit helps the house stay affordable for future buyers. Kulshan sets a 1.5 percent annual increase in equity that allows homeowners to grow their equity while they pay off their mortgage principal. Kulshan homeowners are the same as regular homeowners; they pay property taxes and can do most anything else homeowners do to their land such as landscape and pass on the home to future generations, according to the Kulshan website. For example, a Kulshan home in Bellingham’s York neighborhood recently sold for $137,000 when it would typically sell for $500,000 in the normal housing market, Fearing said during the meeting. “The key piece is, we are preserving the
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