FREE
Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay
March 24 - 30, 2016
HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
IN THIS
ISSUE
Track team looks to rebuild, page 6
Blaine woman named Mrs. Whatcom, page 8
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Pet Care special section, page 10
The C Shop opens for Easter
s Keith Alesse prepares a batch of chocolate Easter bunnies in the kitchen of The C Shop in Birch Bay.
Photo by Oliver Lazenby
Silver Reef aims to broaden appeal with new addition to hotel The last year has been full of change for the Silver Reef Hotel Casino Spa at 4876 Haxton Road in Ferndale. The hotel and casino underwent an overhaul of its employees and management, starting with a new CEO in April 2015, and opened a new hotel tower that allows it to market to a broader range of customers. The hotel’s new six-story tower opened
on November 20, doubling the number of rooms for a total of 205. The expansion was quick for the hotel, as its original tower is just 8 years old. To fill those new rooms amid the challenges of a lower Canadian dollar and a glut of new hotels nearby in Bellingham, the Silver Reef is working harder to attract business travelers. Its new hotel tower has conference rooms, breakout spaces and other meet-
ing spaces geared toward work groups sprinkled throughout the first floor. The sales team is partnering with other businesses to offer deals on activities such as golf and whale watching for business groups, said hotel sales manager Crystal King. According to King, the hotel is in a good location to take advantage of Seattle’s tech boom and a growing number of firms looking for destinations for busi-
CBP detains Missouri man for child porn warrant By Oliver Lazenby U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained a 32-year-old Missouri man with an active warrant for possessing child pornography on Monday, March 14 at the Peace Arch border crossing.
Officers discovered the warrant using the National Crime Information Center, a database for sharing information among law enforcement agencies, during a routine name check. Officers escorted the man into CBP custody and Whatcom County officers took the man
to Whatcom County Jail to await extradition, according to a press release from the CBP. “CBP officers are vigilant to arrest those who attempt to hide in far-away states, attempting to avoid punishment for their crimes,” said Ken Williams, CBP’s Blaine area port director.
ness retreats. “I believe people want to get out of Seattle. They want to go someplace else and that has to be our focus,” King said. “We’re trying to capture the corporate dollar.” More corporate clients would round (See Hotel, page 8)
INSIDE
By Oliver Lazenby
Letters . . . . . . . . . 4 Sports . . . . . . . . . . 6 Classifieds . . . . . 11 Police . . . . . . . . . 14 Coming Up . . . . . 14 Tides . . . . . . . . . . 14
TheNorthernLight.com TheNorthernLight
@TNLreporter
@PointRobertsPress