February 4 - 10, 2021
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Landowner seeks H Street annexation, page 2
Gill appointed to city council, page 5
Utility moratorium prevents shutoffs, page 6
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
City marks completion of Gateway stormwater pond Vaccine supply still not meeting demand By Grace McCarthy
(See Vaccine, page 3)
s Mayor Bonnie Onyon cuts the ribbon on the Gateway stormwater pond, located between Boblett Court and Pipeline Road. Courtesy photo
By Grace McCarthy The city of Blaine held a ribbon-cutting dedication for the Gateway stormwater pond project on January 13, officially putting the project into operation. City-contracted Stremler Gravel finished construction of the project in the fall and the state department of ecology certified the dam in December, mayor Bonnie Onyon said in her dedication speech. The city first discussed creating a large pond on the Gateway parcel after Blaine Municipal Airport was decommissioned in 2008, but the project was delayed due to the dearth of buyers of the property. The department of ecology requires stormwater management when developing municipal land for industrial use. Construction began in mid-2019 but in October 2019 was halted until May because of inclement weather, then completed in the fall, said Greg Burg, city public
works’ maintenance and operations manager. The project is designed as a controlled-flow pond, meaning it accumulates water and discharges it at the same rate as a natural forest. Through this process, the pond will treat and control runoff that collects pollution like oil and pesticides before flowing into larger bodies of water. Burg said the pond limits discharge into a tributary that leads to Cain Creek. The pond functions to improve water quality, reduce pollution and prevent flooding. Wetland plants were also added to the pond to pull metal and other pollutants from water, Burg said. “It’s totally awesome from an engineering point of view,” he said. “The pond functions exactly as designed, but when you look at it, it’s just a pond.” Expected completion was extended from May until September because of permitting and funding, Burg said.
Blaine border patrol detects human smuggling The U.S. Border Patrol caught three people after they allegedly illegally crossed the border into Blaine. On the morning of January 31, agents detected three people attempting to cross without inspection, CBP spokesperson Ja-
son Givens said in an email to The Northern Light. The three people were then picked up in a vehicle with a driver who was waiting on the U.S. side of the border. After a vehicle stop, a border patrol agent detained the individuals, all of whom were
Romanian citizens without U.S. citizenship, Givens reported. The driver was arrested for alleged human smuggling, Givens said. The vehicle was seized and the people caught were in the process of being deported, Givens said.
“It greatly allows you flexibility for the properties being served by it, it allows you a lot more usage types like industrial uses and parking lots,” Burg said. “This gives you a tremendous amount of [development] flexibility.” Burg said the one-third-mile path that surrounds the pond has added a community aspect to the project, located between Boblett Court and Pipeline Road. “We hadn’t even had acceptance of the project and people were already using the trail,” he said. “You can’t go out there and not find people on the trail.” During the dedication, Onyon thanked public works staff, former interim public works director Bob Hammond and city manager Michael Jones for their help making the project feasible.
INSIDE
The gap between Covid-19 vaccine supply and demand still exist, Whatcom County health officials said during a January 27 press conference. As of last Thursday, the number of vaccines delivered to Whatcom County is only enough to vaccinate 23 percent of the estimated 59,000 people currently eligible in the county, said Amy Hockenberry, Whatcom County Health Department’s vaccine planning lead. Vaccines are being administered statewide to people in Phase 1a, healthcare workers, and Phase 1b Tier 1, people who are 65 years or older and those 50 years old who live in multigenerational households. Hockenberry acknowledged difficulty in estimating people who qualify as living in multigenerational households, such as people who live with their grandparents. Hockenberry said she predicts the county will be administering the vaccine to the groups currently eligible until at least March. It’s been over a month since the first vaccines arrived in mid-December and county health department officials said they are still unable to predict the number of vaccines it will receive each week. “Vaccine allocations into the county are fluctuating from week to week, which makes planning quite difficult for everyone,” Hockenberry said. “As vaccine allocations are fluctuating in the county, they are also fluctuating in the state.” The health department doesn’t expect the state to help with mass vaccination clinics in Whatcom County, but is working with PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, Family Care Network, Sea Mar Community Health Center and Unity Care NW to create a mass vaccination clinic when the county has a vaccine supply enough to do so. “Even if we have all our plans in place and a location set up, that will still be dependent on supply,” Hockenberry said. “We’re looking at having plans in place in the next couple of weeks and be running by the end of February or early March. It could be sooner, or it could be later, based on supply.” Health department director Erika Laut-
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