Blaine Confidential

Obituary writing intrigues me. Now and then I come across one that stands out. The paragraph below is excerpted from an obituary for Gloria May Louden, 1929-2023, in the San Juan Islander. Gloria Louden passed away peacefully the morning of May 14, 2023.  Gloria was born and raised in Friday Harbor and spent her life on the island.  She worked for Vic’s Drive In for 34 years and was well known for her potato salad.  She was loved by many and will be greatly missed.

The resolution against the new jail proposal as it now stands by Whatcom Democrats means the county government has two months to revise it and educate voters or watch it go down to defeat. The proposal is opposed on three key points: size, location, and funding mechanism. The current ballot measure set for November ignores the advice of consultants and stakeholders who called for remediation of existing facilities and using existing property tax revenue to do it, rather than taking half the sales tax monies from the cities for 30-year bonds.

Zetta Bracher, former chair of Whatcom Democrats, passed away August 13.  In the 1990s, Zetta Bracher and Paul de Armond engineered the new inclusive Whatcom Democrats that reached out to Lummi Nation and environmental organizations to make it what it is today. At a time when the Bellingham Herald was promoting bigots and criminals from the building and real estate industries, this takeover led by Zetta brought human rights activists into the party. 

Volunteerism is a tradition in Blaine, with Blaine Food Bank, Friends of Blaine Library, and Blaine Music Festival (Pacific Arts Association) serving as shining examples. Even Blaine City Council is a volunteer position paid a small stipend for attending meetings.  To revitalize volunteerism as current volunteers age, we need to recruit new younger residents. Toward that end, I suggest holding a volunteer fair at Blaine Community Center as part of a series of public information sessions to help newcomers become acquainted with our town. One project that holds promise is to start a Blaine civic improvement group to work with city hall on public engagement, starting with a visioning process to reimagine our civic center as a vibrant hub for cultural enrichment of residents and visitors alike, with a new library, affordable housing and arts center. To do this, we need to pull together.

Cain Creek greenway, that forms a forested backdrop to Blaine civic center, is in imminent danger of becoming a dead tree zone. A few of the trees are already dead, but many live conifers are covered in English ivy, which kills the trees.  RE-Sources environmental education recently organized students to remove ivy from trees in Larrabee State Park, and Whatcom Million Trees Project is doing the same in Bellingham city parks. Imagine how ugly it would be if Cain Creek and Lincoln Park were all dead trees.

Blaine's future depends on informing and involving Blaine residents in planning downtown revitalization, civic center redevelopment, and wellhead protection. These three projects are key to prosperity. I suggest holding three separate public information sessions at Blaine Community Center with representatives from Blaine Community Development Services and Whatcom County Library System on hand to answer questions about the state of our economy, new library plans, and city water supply protections.

Blaine is currently using reserves to cover revenue shortfalls. On course to municipal bankruptcy, I wonder if Blaine citizens will become involved in turning things around at city hall. The director of Community Development Services (CDS), who was responsible for the downtown zoning fiasco that allowed a church in the tourism retail area between the plazas, just resigned. That leaves CDS short of three key personnel, and our community without a rudder.  A major change at city hall is required if we want to prosper, and that can only come from Blaine citizens. Most cities have civic improvement groups involved with city hall to help officials from making costly mistakes. Indeed, that is why public participation is required under the Growth Management Act, so planners at city hall can solicit ideas from the community, not just paid staff and consultants.  While city hall gets an "F" for its handling of the downtown revitalization project, citizens of Blaine get an "F"