Popcorn and a beer
TUMBLING DOWN
Old Georgia-Pacific buildings razed to make way for Waterfront District development By Evan Marczynski evan@bbjtoday.com
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erched 90 feet in the air on the roof of a condemned former bleach plant at the site of the former Georgia-Pacific Tissue Mill, workers carefully pieced together scaffolding as they prepared to pull away three massive sections of the building. Such an immense demolition presents many challenges, but Brian Parberry, co-owner of SCRAP-IT, the Ferndale-based company undertaking the project, said one the largest issues for his crew members was simply keeping their footing as they worked to bring down the decrepit structure. “The roof was in such disrepair from all the caustic,” Parberry said. “The building was basically falling apart.” The Bleach Plant Building came down Feb. 15, the third demolition in a nearly $500,000 project SCRAP-IT is handling for the Port of Bellingham. The company has also dismantled the Pulp Storage Warehouse and the Pulp Screening Room on the landscape of the former mill site. The 9,916-square-foot bleach building was built in the late 1940s. Workers are now busy sorting through the rubble for items and material to reuse or recycle. Activity on the project should continue through March, according to the port. The site, now called the Waterfront District, is the center of a massive redevelopment plan and environmental cleanup effort
Year 20 No. 3 $2
MARCH 2012
SOLAR FLAIR, P.10
Pickford joins ranks of theaters allowing patrons to sip in seats
By Brian Corey bcorey@bbjtoday.com
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Major sections of the Bleach Plant Building were brought down Feb. 15, the third structure demolished at the site by the Ferndale-based SCRAP-IT company. Evan Marczynski PHOTOS
coordinated by the port and the city of Bellingham, along with the state Department of Ecology. All three buildings in the demolition project were found to be unsuitable for redevelopment. Project coordinators from
SCRAP-IT estimated about 90 percent of the building materials from the demolitions – including more than 3 million pounds of scrap metal from the structures and old equipment left inside of them – could be recycled or
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reused. After the bleach plant demolition, Parberry said they hadn’t yet figured out exactly how much material they had managed to salvage. He placed the final scrap metal figure in the 3-4 million pound range. “It’s pretty much what we figured,” Parberry said. Georgia-Pacific operated pulp, paper and chemical plants on the 137-acre industrial property for much of the 20th century. It began phasing out its operations on the site in 1999. The port acquired it in January 2005.
ickford Film Center moviegoer J.J. Janssen was ecstatic to be one of the first people walking into the theater’s screening of “The Big Lebowski”, beer in hand. Janssen, along with other Pickford members and film enthusiasts, have long wanted the opportunity to drink responsibly while enjoying a movie in the independent film center. Pickford’s directors have heard their calls. “We’re not trying to be a bar, and we aren’t trying to contribute to the world’s alcohol problems,” Michael Falter, the theater’s program director, said. “We are trying to get people out to spend an evening with the community.” The Pickford Film Center received approval from the Washington State Liquor Control Board to allow consumption of beer and wine in one of their two screening rooms in its downtown Bellingham theater, located at 1318 Bay St. The offerings debuted Feb. 17. Small movie theaters across the nation are competing with major corporations to offer movie buffs the best viewing experience. Serving alcohol is one way independent theater operators are trying to keep people out of
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