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Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay
August 13 - 19, 2020
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IN THIS
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Helicopter hauls 200 logs to Terrell Creek, page 5
Birch Bay berm will resume soon, page 6
Blaine senior jumps from plane on birthday, page 8
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Local crabbing season delayed a week
Blaine school board votes 4-1 for virtual start By Grace McCarthy
(See School, page 13)
EXPERIENCE THE
! N FU
s Bill Baron tosses a crab pot baited with chicken off the pier at Blaine Harbor’s Jorgensen Pier in August 2018. WDFW delayed the opening of the 2020 recreational crabbing season until August 20. Read more on page 3. Photo by Mathew Roland
County launches mobile Covid-19 testing program By Ian Haupt Whatcom County launched a low-barrier, mobile Covid-19 testing program August 10, according to the Whatcom County Health Department. The program will not be accepting registrations this week due to an already full queue of people who have contacted the health department needing low-barrier testing. The department will provide details on how to register once more details are finalized. The initial launch will run as a field test with fully operational mobile testing expected to be available throughout the county within two weeks. Testing locations will include at least one site in each of the seven school districts in Whatcom County, according to the department. The mobile testing model will use an online scheduling system that allows users to register for an appointment.
This new model is an effort by the Whatcom County Health Department and Whatcom Unified Command (WUC) to reduce wait times for low-barrier testing as well as to expand the number of testing locations. At the county’s pilot project last month, some people experienced wait times up to three hours. Mobile registration will offer shorter and more predictable wait times, possibly only 5-15 minutes and will allow for up to 320 individuals to be tested each day, the health department said. Low-barrier testing means individuals do not need a referral from their healthcare provider before making an appointment so anyone will be able to get tested for free at the mobile site. Other information about the mobile testing model: • Testing will be provided Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays throughout Whatcom County.
• Users will also be notified when their results are available and can access them through an online portal within minutes of the test being processed. It will still take 24-72 hours from the time of testing for (See Testing, page 3)
Letters . . . . . . . . . 4 Active Seniors . . . 8 Classifieds . . . . . 11 Coming Up . . . . . 14 Police . . . . . . . . . 14
INSIDE
Less than a month before the 202021 school year begins, the Blaine school board voted during an August 8 special meeting to start the academic year with remote learning. The reversal of the district’s plans to teach classes in a hybrid model with the option for online-only classes followed an August 4 recommendation from the Whatcom County Health Department to county superintendents to start the year online. “The work that we’re looking at, not just this year but for the next few years, is a collaborative approach that is going to take everybody working together to get over this hill,” Blaine school district superintendent Christopher Granger said in an August 5 special board meeting discussing the proposed plans. “It’s not going to be solved this year. It’s going to be a challenge and we need to work together to make that happen.” Granger advocated for the district to follow the health department’s guidelines, reasoning that if Covid-19 cases rise in the schools, the impact could ripple through the community. Granger said it was as important to him to meet families’ needs as it was to meet staff needs, and he wanted to respect teachers’ contracts. When he sent a July survey to teachers asking how they felt returning to in-person learning, Granger said only three were concerned. But as the August 26 start date neared last week, one-third of teachers said they were concerned. With that new data, Granger worried about having enough teachers for in-person learning. The district’s previous plans for a hybrid model, where students split into two groups that alternate between in-person and remote classes, will not be wasted, Granger said. He plans to use this model when the district is ready to phase students in to buildings. About 85 percent of Washington schools will begin fall with remote learning, Granger said in an August 11 community meeting, noting that not all school boards had decided on their plans for the year. The six other school districts in Whatcom County are beginning classes online, with Lynden being the last to announce a decision on August 9. The Blaine school district’s plan aligns
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