December 13 - 19, 2012 HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
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Boys & Girls Club offers holiday hours, page 5
City chops 2013 BTAC tourism grant funding
Christmas worship service schedule, page 5
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Borderites shine at tournament, page 6
Blaine takes third at Battle at the Border
By Brandy Kiger Tourist season is generally accompanied by festivals for the city of Blaine, with events such as Wings over Water, the Old Fashioned 4th of July and Drayton Harbor Days drawing visitors from far and wide. But in 2013, these iconic events have to surmount a major deficit in their budgets before the show can go on. The fallout from the closure of the Semiahmoo Resort has been tough for Blaine. Facing a significant loss of tax revenue from the resort, the city has been exploring ways to keep its budget in the black. Since city officials don’t want to bank on the possibility of the resort reopening in the near future, it means cuts all around. One area hit especially hard by those cuts has been the Blaine Tourism Advisory Committee’s (BTAC) grant program. Each year, the committee currently led by Blaine city council member Ken Oplinger reviews grant applications for tourism-related events that help bring visitors into the community, and hopefully convince them to stay awhile. “The committee advises the city council how the funds should be distributed,” Oplinger said. “The announcement of Semiahmoo’s closure came out after BTAC had already made funding recommendations for 2013.” What this means is that the city has had to do an about-face and send letters to the award grantees and tell them their promised funding was no longer available. “All we had left in the reserves was $82,000,” Oplinger said. Each year the city typically spends around $190,000, which not only pays for the BTAC grants, but also the visitor information center and tourism marketing. “It’s unfortunate,” said Christina Alexander, director of the Peace Arch Park International Sculpture Exhibition. “We’ve already sent out our call for art and people are turning in their entries for next year.” In its 16th year, the exhibition is primarily supported through (See BTAC, page 15)
s Junior Kyle Gonzalez, l., muscles his opponent Malik Messiah to the floor in their 106-pound matchup. On December 8 and 9, Blaine hosted the annual Battle at the Border wrestling tournament, where 22 teams from across the state faced off in a grueling two-day event. For the full story, see page 6.
Photo by Janell Kortlever
City plans retrofits and upgrades to reduce energy costs By Brandy Kiger A little goes a long way when it comes to saving energy. But for a city the size of Blaine, it takes a bit more than just switching to LED lightbulbs to effect real change. To discover how the city can cut costs and be greener and more energy-efficient in the coming years, Blaine has partnered with Johnson Controls, a company that specializes in energy optimization. The firm analyzed the city’s energy usages and determined improvements that they believe will lower energy usage citywide. “We want to make sure we’re using just the energy that’s needed,” Ravyn Whitewolf, public works director said. “We hope to reduce our power consumption as a city and bring us back down to a level we can sustain.” In a presentation to city council on November 25, Matt Emlen of Johnson Controls
explained the methods that his company had found for the city to reduce its energy expenses through their program, including replacing aging equipment and establishing building control systems that will better regulate heating and air condition usage. Johnson Controls has worked with the city of Bellingham on a similar, larger-scale energy conservation project in 2011. The upgrades and retrofits will be the responsibility of Johnson Controls. The costs of the upgrades and retrofits will be paid for by the city, which expects to see a payback through the projected savings in coming years. Payment to Johnson Controls is conditional on the city reaching the energy savings that the firm has projected for each project. “If they say new streetlights will pay for themselves in five years, and after one year it looks like it won’t happen, then they are responsible for that cost,” White-
Blaine City Council unanimously approves 2013 budget By Brandy Kiger After weeks of deliberation and many difficult decisions regarding the coming year, Blaine City Council members finally approved the 2013 city budget on December 10. Facing a shortfall of more than $535,000 in revenue due to the closure of the Semiahmoo Resort, the city’s largest hotel/motel tax provider, the 2013 budget is a thin resemblance of its former self. With expenditures for the city expected to increase by 7
percent in 2013 and revenues expected to decrease by 5 percent, allocations for city services have been significantly reduced to address the lack of funds, and city officials have carefully whittled away at expenditures to make ends meet. Budget cuts include significant decreases in funding for the senior’s center, the Boys & Girls Club, street maintenance, court services and the information technology program, among others. It will also require the city to lay off several city employees and leave two open
police officer positions vacant. “We’ve put a lot of work into the budget and we’ve had numerous study sessions,” finance director Jeffrey Lazenby said of the process. In order to increase revenues, the city opted to increase the levy increase by 3 percent and have upped the cost of a business license from $65 to $75. Council held public hearings to discuss the budget on November 13 and 26. The proposed budget of $31,951,716 was approved 7-0.
wolf said. “Once the debt is paid off, you’re ahead of the game in achieving savings,” Emlen told council members, adding, “If we fail, we as the service provider will owe you, and have to write you a check for the shortfall.” Whitewolf hopes to use energy conservation bonds and acquire a Department of Commerce energy grant to help finance the improvements upfront. “When I heard that there was a Department of Commerce [energy] grant that had money set aside for small cities, I saw it as a great opportunity,” she said. The energy efficiency grant program awards small cities up to $500,000 to make retrofits and improvements that will lower energy costs across the board. To be eligible for the project, an investment grade audit of the city’s facilities was required. (See Energy, page 15)
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Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Coming Up . . . . . . . . . . 14 Tides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14