June 25 - July 1, 2020
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County tourism board offers guidance, page 3
Al fresco dining on the plazas, page 6
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Help clean the beaches after the 4th, page 8
Statewide mask mandate starts Friday B y G r a c e M c C a rt h y
s Blaine resident Aidan Button, l., and his fiancé, Canadian Sherri Brake, play a board game together at Peace Arch State Park on Thursday, June 18. They had visited each other at the park nearly every day until B.C. closed the provincial park later that day.
Photo by Kyra Planetz
Loved ones separated by B.C.’s Peace Arch Park closure By Kyra Planetz As the sun began to set at Peace Arch Park on June 18, dozens of American residents gathered with their Canadian friends and families to eat, play games or just chat. It was a somber yet heartfelt scene as loved ones clung to each remaining moment before saying a close goodbye for the foreseeable future. For many with loved ones across the border, the re-opening of Peace Arch Park in mid-May had been a godsend. With the border closure extended to July 21, meeting at the park allowed separated families, partners and friends to reunite. But amid safety and traffic concerns due to Covid-19, B.C. officials announced they would shut down the Canadian side of the park, effective June 18 at 8 p.m. The Canadian side, Peace Arch Provincial Park, had been overwhelmed with visitors since it re-opened on May 14, ac-
cording to a press release from the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. David Karn, a spokesperson for the ministry, said the average attendance at the park in peak months is 500 vehicles. On Sunday, June 14, the vehicle count was nearly 1,000, according to Karn. Visitors have been parking illegally in the Canadian parking lot and along access roads, as well as setting up enclosed tents in the park, adding to “physical distancing and surveillance concerns,” Karn said. But according to Blaine immigration attorney Len Saunders, the provincial government’s claims of overcrowding in the park weren’t true. Saunders, who has visited Peace Arch Park several times a week throughout the past month, said neither the park nor the Canadian parking lot were ever overflowing with visitors. “It was very well done, people were being mindful. There weren’t parties going
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on. Yes, you’d see some people having picnics and barbecues, but that’s what the park has been for, for many years,” Saunders said. (See Peace Arch, page 7)
INSIDE
A statewide mandate that requires people who are in public and cannot distance more than six feet to wear cloth face coverings will go into effect on Friday, June 26. The public health order, a legal requirement subject to a misdemeanor, was announced by governor Jay Inslee in a press conference on Tuesday, June 23. “As necessary economic activity increases and more people are out in their communities, it is imperative that we adopt further measures to protect us all,” Inslee said in the June 23 press conference. Washington State Department of Health (WSDH) secretary John Wiesman signed the order on June 23. According to the WSDH, a face covering is defined as fabric that covers both the mouth and nose. People who are exempt from wearing a face mask include those two-years-old or younger, people with disabilities that prevent them from comfortably wearing face coverings or communicating while wearing a mask, people with respiratory conditions and people who have been told by a medical, legal or behavioral health professional they are exempt, according to a WSDH release. People do not need to wear a mask when exercising outdoors with “plenty of space,” eating in public or while in the car. Face mask coverings help provide a barrier to prevent potential Covid-19 respiratory droplets from traveling through the air, according to the CDC. The mandatory face mask requirement comes after Yakima County was mandated to wear facial coverings as the county experiences the state’s second-highest number of Covid-19 cases at 6,435 cases, overwhelming hospital capacity and requiring the transport of patients outside the county. “This is something that we saw in New York, it is something we saw in Italy and it is something that we are seeing in Yakima County today,” Inslee said. “And we do not want to see that condition spread across the state of Washington.” As of June 22, Whatcom County had 521 cases of Covid-19 with 52 hospitalizations and 40 deaths. Of the 15,684 tests done in the county, 3.3 percent have been positive. Washington had 29,386 cases with 4,067 hospitalizations and 1,284 deaths.
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