December 1 - 7, 2016
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Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
IN THIS
ISSUE
Borderite girls basketball celebrates a win, page 6
DOE fines Nature’s Path $22,000
How to spend the holidays in downtown Blaine, page 8-9
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
EMS levy narrowly passes, page 15
Local cooks bake hundreds of Thanksgiving pies
B y S t e fa n i e D o n a h u e
(See Ecology, page 5)
s Eight church congregations and a girl scouts troop made more than 400 pies for the Community Assistance Program’s Thanksgiving baskets program for families in need. The pies were mostly pumpkin, apple and pecan.
Photo by Oliver Lazenby
Blunt ceremonial knife allowed in Blaine schools By Oliver Lazenby Sikh students at Blaine schools are allowed to carry ceremonial Sikh knives, called kirpans, school officials told parents at a November 28 school board meeting. A handful of parents had attended the meeting to express concerns about the religious
symbol, which is allowed in schools across the country. The issue came up after some students at Blaine Primary School noticed another student carrying a kirpan, said school district superintendent Ron Spanjer. A kirpan can be a variety of sheathed knife-like items, from long daggers to sym-
Blaine City Council approves 1 percent property tax increase In a 6–0 vote, Blaine City Council approved to increase the regular property tax by 1 percent for the coming year. The vote, taken November 28, has been discussed at council meetings since October. In all, city staff expect the increase will generate just over $10,700 in revenue, in addition to higher receipts resulting from new construction and property improvements. Homeowners with a property valued at $250,000, for example, should expect to
see their property tax increase by $3.52 as a result of the hike. Blaine receives an average 11 percent of the total property tax per year, said city of Blaine finance director Jeff Lazenby. The rest is allocated to the state, county and other public agencies. In Blaine, 56 percent of property tax revenue is allocated to the city’s street capital bond, 18 percent to the general fund, 14 percent funds street improvement projects and 12 percent pays for street operations.
In other tax news, Whatcom County Council’s November 22 approval of a 1 percent tax increase was vetoed by county executive Jack Louws one week later. Council had voted 5–2 in favor of the increase with only Barbara Brenner and Rud Browne in opposition. As the increase was part of the county budget approved by council on November 22, the budget itself was vetoed as well. The (See Tax, page 5)
bolic replicas that cannot be removed from their sheaths. It is one of five ceremonial items Sikhs – followers of a monotheistic religion originating in the Punjab region of Asia – must carry at all times. The kirpan that raised the issue had dull (See School, page 5)
INSIDE
The Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) imposed a $22,000 fine against organic food manufacturer Nature’s Path following a reported series of water quality permit violations at its facility in Blaine. The DOE issued the fine and an order to comply with permit requirements after the company racked up 39 permit violations between November 2014 and October 2016. The DOE delivered a formal warning in December 2015 and on November 15 fined Nature’s Path for eight violations of discharging acidic wastewater into Blaine’s water treatment system. “Commitment to the environment and sustainability is a priority at Nature’s Path,” said Nature’s Path vice president of operations Peter Dierx in a written statement. “Our Blaine plant is a designated zero waste facility and up until we began using the city of Blaine’s treatment plant, we hauled our wastewater to generate clean, renewable biogas.” Headquartered in Richmond, Nature’s Path manufactures its products in two locations in the US, including its facility in Blaine at 2220 Natures Path Way. The company treats its wastewater through Blaine’s Lighthouse Point Water Reclamation Facility, which processes more than 500,000 gallons of domestic sewage on a daily basis. In a statement released November 22, Nature’s Path announced that it plans to appeal the fine to the state’s pollution control hearing board, claiming the pH monitoring probe Nature’s Path used to monitor wastewater was providing inaccurate data. “We believe the past numbers we reported to the city are inaccurate and that our past pH levels were in fact aligned with the city’s guidelines,” Dierx said.
Coming Up . . . . . 14 Classifieds . . . . . 11 Police . . . . . . . . . 14 Sports . . . . . . . . . . 6 Tides . . . . . . . . . . 14
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