March 16 - 22, 2017
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Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
IN THIS
ISSUE
MyShan Dairy receives nonGMO certification, page 4
Port awards funding for city project
Blaine students medal in state Special Olympics, page 7
How to care for chicks, page 10
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Wings Over Water NW Birding Festival attracts a crowd
B y S t e fa n i e D o n a h u e
(See Port, page 2)
s A volunteer with the Sardis Raptor Center participates in a presentation during the Wings Over Water Northwest Birding Festival last weekend. The event brought bird experts and droves of enthusiasts to Blaine and Birch Bay March 10 – 12. See more photos on page 9 and on our website at thenorthernlight.com. Photo by Chuck Kinzer
Summer program will support kindergarteners By Oliver Lazenby One challenge that kindergarten teachers at Blaine Primary School face is how to educate kids with a broad range of abilities. Someone with several years of preschool experience may sit at the same table as someone with no school experience at all; some kids are ready for academic learning, while others don’t know to raise their hands to go to the bathroom, Blaine school district officials said. To shrink that gap, the district is starting a new summer program that aims to prepare
students for kindergarten. The program, called Bright K, will be taught during a sixweek period from July 10 to August 17. Class will go from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, and the district will provide lunch, supplies and transportation. “The vision for the program is to build relationships with families, have play-based learning activities and help kids become classroom ready,” said Blaine Primary School principal Nancy Bakarich. “The program will focus on skills like how to sit, how to play, how to win, how to lose: skills that some kids don’t come to kindergarten with.”
WTA route changes take effect this Sunday, March 19 Make sure you hop on the right bus this weekend – the Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA) is rolling out new routes and schedules this Sunday, March 19. The changes come out of a strategic plan approved by WTA’s board of directors last October. The plan added four new routes and made changes to 22 existing routes. The update includes an increase of service on weekdays through a new route 75 Blaine/Birch Bay – Bellingham. The route will replace the now eliminated 55 Blaine/ Birch Bay – Cordata and the 70X Blaine
– Bellingham/WWU routes. Route 75 will offer service Monday through Saturday, with increased service on weekdays from Birch Bay Square and the Ferndale Station to the Bellingham Station. WTA will no longer provide service from Blaine and Birch Bay to Grandview Industrial Park, Custer or Western Washington University. Connections to the Cordata Station will be available on route 27 at the Ferndale Station, which connects to route 75. In Custer, service has been eliminated on
Portal Way, between Birch Bay-Lynden Road and Grandview Road. For those wishing to learn more about the changes, WTA director of service development Rick Nicholson will visit the Blaine Senior Center at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, April 19 to answer questions. He’ll present an overview of the changes, discuss the current status of ridership and more. To get a full look at the approved route and scheduling changes, visit ridewta.com or call 360/676-7433 with questions.
In addition to introducing kids to a classroom environment, students will learn some basic math and literacy skills as well, she said. District officials are hoping to sign up about 45 kids for the pilot program this summer, which is about one-third of the kindergarten class. The kids will be separated into three classes of 15 students. The district plans to assess kids as part of the kindergarten enrollment process to find the children who would benefit most from (See School, page 13)
INSIDE
Last week, Blaine joined a handful of cities in Whatcom County to receive thousands of dollars in grant funding from the Port of Bellingham in support of economic development. The project funding comes from the Port of Bellingham’s small cities economic development program. On March 8, port staff announced $65,000 in funding for Blaine, Lynden, Ferndale and Everson – all cities agreed to match the funds to support economic development projects. “An important part of the port’s mission is to promote economic development throughout the region,” said port commission president Dan Robbins in a statement. “This program is a terrific resource for the smaller cities of Whatcom County to address local economic development needs.” The city of Blaine applied for the grant in mid-February and received $15,000. The grant will pay for the design of an access route on the west side of Peace Portal Drive south of Marine Drive. The goal is to eventually provide delivery and parking access to properties on that side of Peace Portal. “Consultation with property owners has identified lack of access as a key development hurdle for these properties,” read Blaine’s funding request letter. “Overcoming the access challenge will facilitate development. Due to the steep topography, vehicle access for deliveries and for on-site parking requires use of the easement.” Previously, the city was in talks with two property owners who have multiple assets near the existing easement and both expressed interest in using the new alley. In the request letter, mayor Harry Robinson said one of the owners is in the midst of designing a new mixed-use building while the other is in the early conceptual stages of a restaurant project.
Coming Up . . . . . 14 Classifieds . . . . . 11 Letters . . . . . . . . . 4 Police . . . . . . . . . 14 Sports . . . . . . . . . . 6 Tides . . . . . . . . . . 14
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