April 8 - 14, 2021
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ISSUE
Family Care Network gets new provider, page 4
All Washington adults eligible for vaccine April 15
Farmers market starts this weekend, page 5
Blaine sailer awarded national honor, page 8
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Easter at Peace Arch State Park
By Grace McCarthy
(See Covid-19, page 3)
s The Soltani and Taghvaei cousins play with their Easter eggs at Peace Arch Park on April 4. The Soltani family lives in Bellingham and the Taghvaei family lives in Vancouver. See more Easter photos on page 15. Photo by Sienna Boucher
Whatcom County Council places a moratorium on licensing outdoor cannabis growth for 6 months By Ian Haupt Whatcom County resident Mark Ambler works on his small cannabis farm named after his first-born daughter seven days a week. Ambler, his wife and two daughters live off the $25,000 he makes a year from growing and selling cannabis. With plans to expand Breeze Trees outdoors, Ambler hoped Whatcom County Council would think twice before implementing a moratorium restricting outdoor cannabis growing. “This ban would keep me and my daughters from expanding our poverty level income business,” Ambler said during the public hearing portion of the April 6 regular council meeting.
But Ambler and his daughters will have to wait. Ambler and other growers hoping to expand their businesses will have to wait at least six months while the county’s planning commission sorts out zoning codes set in 2015. In a regular meeting April 6, county council voted 6-1, with councilmember Ben Elenbaas opposed, to place a sixmonth ban on accepting new applications or changes to current outdoor marijuana-growing operations. This action comes after complaints from rural residents who live near grow farms have complained about the light pollution, smell and noise these operations can create.
Sidhu gives his first State of County address County executive Satpal Sidhu gave his first State of the County address at the April 6 Whatcom County Council meeting, outlining the tumultuous year since he took office in January 2020 and providing a hopeful outlook into the future. In 2020, Sidhu recounted everything from the Super Bowl floods last February that caused more than $4 million of damage to Nooksack and Sumas properties, to declaring a local emergency in response to the pandemic and ending the year with the Custer train derailment.
“I have found, in this first year of learning that the job is not without challenges and frustrations, but I remain positive about our collective future,” Sidhu said. Border communities Sidhu promised to continue to advocate for the U.S./Canada border to reopen for Point Roberts residents. He said he would like to see the border open this summer and hopefully in time for the Peace Arch centennial in September. “I would like to recognize the special sacrifices made by some of our communi-
ty members,” Sidhu said. “I want to commend the residents of Point Roberts for the resilience and patience they have shown during the Covid-19 pandemic.” Affordable housing Sidhu spoke about how the county is working to address the lack of affordable housing. The county executive said he is working with city governments to use funds from the Economic Development Initiative program, 1406 and 1590 to cre(See Speech, page 16)
The moratorium will prevent any current growers from expanding their operations and anyone wishing to start growing cannabis outdoors from obtaining a permit. The county planning commission will use the six months to rewrite the county zoning codes to account for such issues brought forward by residents. Elenbaas, who has a neighbor who runs a grow farm, has opposed the ordinance since it was introduced March 18. “I’m just not interested in putting more regulation on an already incredibly regulated farming endeavor,” he said in a March 18 committee of the whole meeting. (See Cannabis, page 3)
Coming Up . . . . . 14 Classifieds . . . . . 11 Letters . . . . . . . . . 4 Police . . . . . . . . . 14 Sports . . . . . . . . . . 6 Tides . . . . . . . . . . 14
INSIDE
Governor Jay Inslee has announced that all adults in Washington would be eligible for the Covid-19 vaccination starting Thursday, April 15. The governor’s office said in a March 31 statement that eligibility expansion is partly driven by the recent increase in Covid-19 cases statewide. “We must do everything possible to ensure that we can keep cases down,” Inslee said during a media conference. “We have concerns about the trends we are seeing across the state and we must be cautious. Opening up full eligibility will be one tool to help in the fight against the virus.” The state is currently vaccinating people up to tiers 3-4 in Phase 1b. This means people 16 or older with two or more underlying conditions, those 60 years and older, people working or living in congregate living facilities, high-risk essential workers, K-12 educators and childcare providers, pregnant women, people 50 years and older living in multigenerational households and healthcare workers, according to the health department. Following Inslee’s announcement, President Joe Biden said April 6 that all adults in the U.S. would be eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, April 19. The previous date for all people in the U.S. eligible for the vaccine – those 16 years old and up – was May 1. A spokesperson for the Whatcom County Health Department said in an email to The Northern Light that vaccine providers in the county have the capacity to administer 20,000 vaccine doses weekly, but the supply is not yet meeting the capacity. The estimated 20,000 doses does not include chain pharmacies, which receive vaccines through a federal pipeline and not the state Department of Health (DOH), so the capacity is likely higher, the health department said. Preliminary health department data shows 6,840 vaccine doses were expected to arrive in Whatcom County for the week
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