Letters to the Editor

The Editor:
We would like to thank all the people from St. Anne’s Church in Blaine and all those friends and family from Bellingham, Ferndale, and Blaine who so generously helped us when we lost most everything in the fire in San Diego. May God bless you all.
Joe, Magen, Lucas and Jessalyn Queen
San Diego
California

The Editor:
The Blaine Community Senior Center would like to thank the community for supporting our First Christmas Homemade Arts & Crafts Bazaar which was held on November 10.
Special thanks go to Bob Toms for playing the role of Santa Claus, and to McKinley Portrait Designs of Lynden for volunteering their time to take photographs. We appreciate very much the contributions to our success from the following local merchants: Bay Café at Birch Bay, Best Image Framing, Big Al’s Diner, Birch Bay Hair Care & Suite 101 Gallery, Blaine Bouquets, Blue Fish Restaurant, Bob’s Burgers & Brew, CJ’s Beach House Restaurant, Dirty Dog Wash, Horseshoe Building LLC, La Cantina, McKinley Portrait Designs, Little Caesar’s Pizza, Petal Attractions, Pacific Building Center, Seasons Fashions, Semiahmoo Resort, Shores Restaurant, Totally Chocolate, Trade Winds, and West Marine. 
We are looking forward to an even bigger and better bazaar next year, and hope you will all plan to support your local senior center, which provides activities and programs for seniors, including a daily lunch program, exercise programs, socializing, and hobby and learning opportunities.
Sharon Neem
Blaine

The Editor:
Election time has come and gone and if the past is any indication too many of the candidate’s signs will remain with us for too long a time.
But I would like you to call attention to many other signs – put up by people missing pets – the vast majority of these pets being cats. When I had a dog it had to be licensed and was kept fenced in or when out it was on a leash. This was to keep my dog safe.
Cat owners need no licenses and most see no need to restrict their pet’s movements, and so don’t seem to be concerned about protecting them.
Periodically the same houses have signs up for “free kittens,” the results of their pets “catting around.”
One early morning I saw two coyotes wandering south along the train tracks. Since their wild habitat is being developed and destroyed I imagined they were kind of delighted to find Blaine such a nice place for dining out on the owner-neglected cat population.
James Carmack
Blaine

The Editor:
Birch Bay might become a city. Birch Bay area citizens thank Lincoln Rutter of Blaine for his letter in the November 15 issue of The Northern Light, when he implied that Whatcom County executive Pete Kremen might have schemed to unfairly and disproportionately dump county development costs onto a possible new city of Birch Bay.
Mr. Rutter’s opinions are incorrect for three important reasons. First, his comments seem to suggest Birch Bay area citizens are unaware of the Birch Bay Incorporation Steering Committee’s constant communications informing all of us about the county’s intentions and a realistic understanding of representation for proper, proportionate, reasonable taxation.
We are constantly meeting to become fully aware. We are not unaware.
Second, his opinions from Blaine seem to imply that Birch Bay area citizens are actually headed toward an inevitable property tax “huge conflict based on faulty intelligence.”
We have already had enough of that from the administration in our national government, and we assuredly are not going to re-learn that lesson here.
Third, Mr. Rutter has seemed to say that a new Birch Bay city will bring taxation without representation; that Birch Bay city government will not legally hold Whatcom County government’s feet to the fire should the county attempt to pull off unfair and unjust taxation.
The truth is, this is the key point of Birch Bay incorporation in the first place: Birch Bay official citizen representation.
If Mr. Rutter, writing from Blaine, actually is focused instead on his view of his own city’s past experiences with county government, some Birch Bay citizens might feel he could help Blaine administration to renew their vigor in demanding greater compliance of Whatcom County to provisions of the Washington State Growth Management Act.
In our particular case, many Birch Bay area citizens would thank Mr. Rutter for his apparent comments on history, but we here are facing a positive future of direct representation and looking forward if necessary at times to holding the county accountable for what that administration might think it can do.
After all, the thought that cities cannot communicate and band citizens together to elect different, new members of county governments is unrealistic. And the tenet that incorporated cities cannot sue county government is unconstitutional.
Dennis B. Dickey
Birch Bay

The Editor:
Yesterday went very well.  It was a sunny day, and I think Bjarki really appreciated what a beautiful area this is. We had time to do a bit of sight-seeing – the Vigil, our harbor, etc. before the 3 p.m. gathering.
Thanks, in part, to the fact that the local paper, The Northern Light, put Bjarki’s photo on the front page, with a link to Rob Olason’s article inviting any who might be able to contribute to Bjarki’s research to attend, we had a very good turnout. 
Several people brought in old photos, programs, papers and other memorabilia. We all enjoyed Bjarki’s presentation very much – and we had a good social time afterwards. Norma Guttormsson came down from Vancouver, and Pauli DeHaan and Joan Thorsteinsson came over from Point Roberts. 
And we were pleased to welcome Norma Kruse, who will be 101 in February – she came to share memories of this Blaine area when she was young.
Today Bjarki is interviewing Leonard Breidfjord, who will be 91 in January. One of our members, John Sand, who is hosting Bjarki at his beach house in Birch Bay, will then take him to Blaine’s oldest store, Goff’s department store where the owner’s family has been keeping newspapers since the early years of the 20th century. I think he is finding this all very helpful.
The photos and article in The Northern Light had exactly the effect that we had hoped for. How else did Norma Kruse, among others, know about our event. Thank you for helping us out.
Diane Palmason,
Coordinator, Blaine Icelandic
Heritage Society

The Editor:
I am a resident of Blaine, a developer of shopping centers and an avid reader of The Northern Light. Keep up the good work! 
I noticed that you have received quite a few letters to the editor in favor of or against a Wal-Mart store in Blaine. Some of the writers believe it would attract shoppers (and hence tax revenues) from the Lower Mainland of B.C. 
You might want to inform the readers that Wal-Mart is currently under construction just north of the border in South Surrey right on Highway 99 (at 24th). Wal-Mart is building its largest prototype (215,000 sq. ft.).
Wal-Mart would not build another store in such close proximity and because of the substantial investment it is making in this new store Wal-Mart would ensure that the pricing at its new store would be competitive to anything south of the border.  
Jeffrey Rosen
Blaine

Letters Policy
The Northern Light welcomes letters to the editor; however, the opinions expressed are not those of the editor. Letters must include name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Letters must not exceed 350 words and may be edited or rejected for reasons of legality, length and good taste. Thank-you letters should be limited to 10 names. A fresh viewpoint on matters of general interest to local readers will increase the likelihood of publication. Writers should avoid personal invective. Unsigned letters will not be accepted for publication. Requests for withholding names will be considered on an individual basis. Only one letter per month from an individual correspondent will be published.

Please send your letter to:
225 Marine Drive, Blaine, WA 98230 or fax 360/332-2777.
E-mail:editor@thenorthernlight.com

Letters Policy

The Northern Light welcomes letters to the editor; however, the opinions expressed are not those of the editor. Letters must include name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Letters must not exceed 350 words and may be edited or rejected for reasons of legality, length and good taste. Thank you letters are limited to five individuals or groups. A fresh viewpoint on matters of general interest to local readers will increase the likelihood of publication. Writers should avoid personal invective. Unsigned letters will not be accepted for publication. Requests for withholding names will be considered on an individual basis. Only one letter per month from an individual correspondent will be published.

Please email letters to letters@thenorthernlight.com