December 2 - 8, 2021
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Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
IN THIS
ISSUE
Final November election results, page 3
Birch Bay library to appear on February ballots
May to run for state legislature, page 5
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Lt. Leslee Smith honored for NWFR service, page 7
‘Tis the season in Semiahmoo
By Grace McCarthy
(See Library, page 2)
s Semiahmoo Resort rang in the holiday season with its annual tree lighting ceremony November 24. Community members and resort guests enjoyed hot beverages and caroling to start the resort’s Winterfest activities. Photo by Ruth Lauman
County continues to address flooding events By Grace McCarthy Whatcom County officials continue to address severe flooding that occurred in mid-November, offering more assistance to impacted residents as more heavy rainfall came over Thanksgiving weekend. At their November 23 meeting, Whatcom County council members unanimously voted to allocate $500,000 in emergency flood aid, in addition to $250,000 of emergency aid they approved in a special November 17 meeting. County councilmembers planned to allocate more aid in coming county council meetings. County public works director Jon Hutchings said during the council’s No-
vember 23 committee of the whole meeting that snow could impact the timeline of repairing county roads this winter. “Some of these road repairs could very easily last until next summer and some of the less important ones are probably over a year or two out. But those are things that are less critical,” Hutchings said. The public works department is defining critical infrastructure repairs, in order, as those where damage obstructs emergency vehicle access to homes; damage that could cause serious injury to drivers; and damage that causes a delay to emergency services and drivers on bridges and roads; and damage that could worsen by another storm, according to a post-flooding dam-
State data shows most unvaccinated school employees obtained religious exemptions By Ian Haupt Data submitted to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) shows nearly 10 percent of public school employees received a religious Covid-19 vaccine exemption while less than 1 percent were granted a medical exemption. The data was collected October 19-25, after governor Jay Inslee’s vaccine mandate went into effect on October 18.
According to the OSPI data, 89.1 percent of Washington’s K-12 workforce is fully vaccinated. Of the remaining 10.9 percent, 9.7 received a religious exemption and 0.7 received a medical exemption. Half of one percent of school employees had initiated vaccination but were not yet fully vaccinated, and 0.3 percent were unvaccinated and hadn’t received an exemption. The Blaine school district and Whatcom County as a whole came in slightly ahead
of the state numbers, both with 90 percent of employees fully vaccinated, according to the data. In Whatcom County, that put Blaine with a higher vaccination rate than most districts. Only the Bellingham school district had a higher vaccination rate, with 96 percent fully vaccinated. Both Blaine and Meridian school districts staff were 90 percent (See School, page 15)
age assessment report present to county council. Public works estimates it will be at least two months before it’s able to work on non-critical infrastructure repairs. “We do our best to make these impacts predictable by defining where we intend for water to go, but at this scale of flood, no matter of flood control will protect us as a flood-control engineering solution all by itself,” Hutchings said. John Gargett, deputy director of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management, told council the county identified 17 homes at The Glen At Maple Falls RV park as being too (See County, page 6)
INSIDE
A narrow vote against the Birch Bay library in the November 2 election brought supporters back to the drawing board, this time placing the ballot measure in a special election on February 8, 2022. Proposition 2021-14, intended to fund construction of the future Birch Bay Vogt Community Library through a Birch Bay library capital facility area tax (LCFA), didn’t receive enough votes in the November election. To pass, the LCFA needed to be voted on by 40 percent of voters from the November 2020 election and needed a 60-percent supermajority; it received 59.3 percent in support. The library only needed 26 more votes to pass, according to a Whatcom County Library System (WCLS) statement. It reached the 40 percent threshold of November 2020 voters. For the February election, it will need 40 percent of voters in this year’s November election as well as a supermajority in favor. The capital facility area would raise taxes by 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. Property owners of a $350,000 home would pay $38 annually, according to WCLS. If the ballot measure isn’t passed in February, WCLS says it’s at risk of losing a $2 million state appropriation it received in 2019 for the expected $6.5 million building. WCLS received an extension through the state’s 2021-23 budget after the appropriation was slated to expire last June. In the weeks leading up to the election, Friends of Birch Bay Library (FOBBL), a grassroots group supporting construction of the Birch Bay Drive property, waved signs in support of Proposition 14 along busy Birch Bay and Blaine streets. “This is a huge thing for our community,” FOBBL president Dianne Marrs-Smith said. “We’re super close. We need everyone who’s supporting the library to show up in February and vote.” FOBBL is planning upcoming events to encourage community support from a book
Coming Up . . . . . 14 Classifieds . . . . . 11 Letters . . . . . . . . . 4 Police . . . . . . . . . 14 Tides . . . . . . . . . . 14
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