January 14 - 20, 2016
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Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
IN THIS
ISSUE
Changes at Semiahmoo Shores, page 2
Ridnour gives hoops to school, page 7
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Health and Wellness special section, page 9
Low oil prices Powerball mania delay Blaine harbor cleanup projects By Steve Guntli
(See Marina, page 2)
s Customers line up to purchase tickets for the $1.5 billion Powerball drawing at Hill’s Chevron on Peace Portal Drive. Chevron employees said the store has been selling tickets nonstop as thousands of Canadians cross the border for their chance to win the all-time highest prize. The Shell station on H Street has reported $60,000 in Powerball ticket sales this week alone. Photo by Steve Guntli
City, port to hold public meeting on pier road repairs By Steve Guntli The city of Blaine and the Port of Bellingham will give the public a chance to weigh in on the future of the road leading to the Blaine pier. On Tuesday, January 19, the city and port will hold a public meeting to present the new design for the pier road at
the end of Marine Drive and field questions from the public. The pier road has been in disrepair since the mid 1990s, but was finally closed to vehicle traffic after heavy machinery installing pilings revealed serious structural flaws. Pedestrians can still access the pier on foot. The port and Blaine’s public works de-
Performer brings history of civil rights to Blaine By Steve Guntli Gary Giles has been performing since he was barely old enough to walk, and his talent has taken him around the globe. Now, he’s ready to share what he calls the most important work he’s ever done with the Blaine and Birch Bay community. “We Shall Not Sleep: The Story of Our Ancestors” is a one-man multimedia performance, written by and starring Giles.
Giles will portray three prominent figures from the history of the civil rights movement: Frederick Douglass, the statesman and abolitionist; William Still, who started the Underground Railroad; and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The show will debut at 4 p.m. on Sunday, January 17 at the Blaine United Church of Christ, 885 4th Street. Giles originally wrote the show to perform for inmates in Pennsylvania correctional facilities.
“I wanted those young men, many of whom are black, to get a sense of all of our shared history,” Giles said. From there, the performance evolved from one man alone on a stage to a multimedia presentation with music, video and audio effects that encapsulate the history of the civil rights movement. In writing the show, Giles spent hours researching (See Giles, page 10)
partment had previously entered into an interlocal agreement to fix the pier in 2015 and hired the design firm Reid Middleton to come up with some alternative designs. The city will be presenting three of these for feedback on Tuesday. The choices under consideration range (See Pier, page 3)
INSIDE
Two environmental improvement projects in Blaine Marina have been put on hold until the state can drum up more funds. The Port of Bellingham, which has oversight over the cleanups at Blaine Marina and Westman Marine as well as several other projects in Bellingham, announced the projects would be losing funding due to a loss of tax revenue from crude oil. The state allocated $28 million to go towards cleanup projects in Bellingham and Blaine, but due to the price of crude oil, $14 million of that amount may be lost. The projects have been put on hold until state legislators find more money or the price of oil increases. The projects were to be funded by grants from the state’s toxic cleanup programs. One grant, the Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), draws its funds from a .7 percent tax placed on hazardous material, such as crude oil, that enters the state. Since crude oil is currently valued at $34 a barrel, nearly half its value as of June 2015, the funding the port was counting on to complete the cleanups has drastically shrunk. The loss of MTCA funds will affect projects like the Blaine Marina cleanups and an overhaul of the Harris Avenue shipyard in Fairhaven, but not projects that are already underway, such as the Whatcom Waterway cleanup. The Washington State Department of Ecology identified hazardous chemicals near Blaine over the course of a three-year study that concluded May 2015. Blaine Marina, Inc. served as a marine refueling station for nearly 50 years, and researchers found several potentially toxic chemicals in the water and soil near the site. Researchers believe most of the hazardous materials in the soil were left there after an accidental fuel release in the summer of 1990. Researchers also found evidence of chemical contamination at Westman Marine on the south end of Blaine Harbor in
Letters . . . . . . . . . 4 Sports . . . . . . . . . . 6 Classifieds . . . . . 11 Police . . . . . . . . . 15 Coming Up . . . . . 15 Tides . . . . . . . . . . 15
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