December 5 - 11, 2024
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IN THIS
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Borderite winter sports preview, page 6
Active Seniors page 8
Holiday Harbor Lights and Luminary Walk, page 10, 15
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Blaine Food Bank The lights are on! welcomes new director amid increased demand By Nolan Baker
(See Food Bank, page 3)
s The annual Blaine Harbor Holiday Lights tree lighting ceremony took place on November 30. Crowds came out for the event and festival that filled downtown, along with the inaugural Luminary Walk and Night Market. Photos on pages 10 and 15. Photo by Ruth Lauman
County Council approves biennial budget, enacts propety tax hike By Nolan Baker Whatcom County Council approved the 2025-26 biennial budget in a 4-3 vote on November 19, increasing the tax bill for property owners by roughly 2.7 percent in unincorporated parts of the county, and one percent in cities. Following more than two and a half hours of public testimony, mostly railing against the proposed budget and tax increase, council voted 4-3 to enact the budget, with Todd Donavan, Kaylee Galloway, Barry Buchanan and Jon Scanlon voting to adopt, and Tyler Byrd, Mark Stremler and Ben Elenbaas voting against. Under the budget, property taxes for someone living in a $650,000 home in unincorporated Whatcom County would
increase by $134 per year, a 2.7 percent increase. For a property of the same value in a city, the increase would be $45, around one percent. Many speakers cited an 11.4 percent overall increase to their property tax bill, a misunderstanding of the increase that was repeatedly shared online. That 11.4 percent figure represents how much of the county’s portion of the tax bill will increase for unincorporated properties, not a total increase of how much a homeowner would see on their tax bill. County council and executive Satpal Sidhu repeatedly cited “banked capacity,” tax dollars that the county could have taken in previous years but chose not to, as a (See Budget, page 3)
INSIDE
The Blaine Food Bank (BFB) appointed Lisa Dobbin as its new director in mid-November, replacing long-time director Sally Church to lead the local charity organization. Dobbin has volunteered for BFB for the past two years since moving to Blaine, and has worked with food security and animal welfare charities for years in her native Washington and previous home in Arizona. Dobbin, who is replacing longtime director Sally Church after her retirement from three decades leading BFB, said she is excited to take on the mantle of director of the crucial lifeline for so many local families. “There’s a huge need in the community,” Dobbin said. “We never know why another person is struggling and I want to help be a part of finding solutions so that we don’t see children going to bed hungry.” The food bank has seen not only a drastic increase in the number of people coming for fresh produce, milk, protein and other staple goods in recent years, but also a steep decline in the funding it gets both from governments and donations. In the past year, due to budget constraints, the city of Blaine cut $50,000 in annual funding that BFB used to purchase fresh milk. State and federal grants for the food bank from pandemic-era relief funds are also slated to run out by the end of this year, Dobbin said. Combine the drop in funding with what Dobbin said was a 143 percent increase in traffic at the food bank since 2019 – compared to a 59 percent increase at food banks statewide in the same timeframe – BFB is forced to find new sources of revenue to keep apace. One of those new sources was “Catoberfest,” a local festival hosted by Beach Cat Brewing at Blaine Marine Park in September that raised $21,000 for BFB, according to former director Church. Serving a weekly average of over 700 families means that those funds go quickly, and BFB is always looking for new sources of revenue, donations or anything to help out, Dobbin said. “When people get lined up to wait to go
Coming Up . . . . . 14 Classifieds . . 11, 12 Letters . . . . . . 4, 13 Police . . . . . . . . . 14 Sports . . . . . . . . 6, 7 Tides . . . . . . . . . . 14
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