Letters to The Editor: June 12-18, 2025

The Editor:

While Blaine suffers from diminished travel and visits by our Canadian friends, we as U.S. citizens are just starting to feel the consequences of recent decisions that are affecting all of us.

Many are upset about the DOGE cuts but assume, “This doesn’t affect me.” Think again. Since the 1980s, all newborns have been tested for hearing loss – now at risk. Up to two percent of babies have hearing loss; without early testing, crucial support for speech and reading could be missed.

You could get swimmer’s itch from untested lakes, take drugs with unsafe dosages, or be shorted on food weight and quality. Consumer protections – once routine – are vanishing. That means less oversight of groceries, housing safety and building materials.

Our “swamp” government has quietly ensured safe food, clean water, reliable transit and national parks. We take these safeguards for granted. Even the wealthiest will feel the impact, though they push for permanent tax break. Meanwhile, the rest of us – families, workers, communities – are left exposed.

What’s being dismantled isn’t bureaucracy; it’s the invisible infrastructure of daily life. We need those national protections back.

Donna Starr

Blaine

The Editor:

Recently I was asked the question, how can Blaine address the decreased number of Canadians crossing the border? My response was to be patient. Canadians will again return as too many in our community (including me) have ties to Canada. Yet the more I consider the question, the more I see that even with the tariffs and the ridiculous 51st state thing aside, that Blaine could have done more to keep Canadians coming here … and it can still lead the way in bringing Canadians back. It’s not by our posting signs saying “We’ve Missed You” but by our Community Development Services having vision.

Blaine city hall and council for some time now have been solely possessed with (primarily) building housing on every empty lot within Blaine for the one-and-done sales tax revenue. Soon there will be no lots left for that revenue, or quite importantly, for businesses to be built. Imagine with the airport property if we’d instead reached out to Canadian companies to open a U.S. location there. Seemed a great place for London Drugs or a small Canadian Tire. Perhaps a White Spot or Milestones? Mike Hill, did you even consider asking Tim Horton’s? Don’t anyone say you asked without proving it first. Get your heads out of the sand city management, pursue pragmatism and vision.

We have a market of millions living to our north. They often drive past Blaine because we haven’t given them what they want. They are telling us now that they want to buy Canadian. There’s your answer Blaine – give them just that while also finding ongoing sales tax revenue. Building condos on the west side of Peace Portal and obstructing our water vistas won’t bring such regular revenue – or visitors. Bringing Canadian content businesses to our community can bring in both.

We have an election coming up in which three city council seats are to be contested. It is city council that our city manager Mike Harmon has continually said gives direction to this community. Let’s vote wisely then for vision in the upcoming primary and general elections.

Ray Leone

Blaine

The Editor:

I live in Blaine and I am appalled at the story in last week’s issue of The Northern Light (“‘Like a jail cell’: Family of six detained at Blaine border facility for more than three weeks” by Troy Brynelson/Oregon Public Broadcasting) about a family of six being held in a one room windowless cell for three weeks by Customs and Border Protection. The current regime in the White House is known for its cruelty and harsh behavior in its treatment of people, but I expected and hoped that our local CBP employees would treat people with respect and human decency. Obviously, I was wrong.

I hold the acting director, Bonnie Arellano, responsible for this action and I would like a response from her concerning her justification for this decision and action. I don’t expect to get it.

I hope other Blaine residents who are also outraged about this behavior by CBP, will speak out and demand more human behavior from the CBP in the future.

Rene Laventure

Blaine

The Editor:

I’m writing this letter to get the attention of the Blaine City Council and their constituents asking the Blaine city manager Mike Harmon to reconsider purchasing the historic Plover’s boathouse from Drayton Harbor Maritime (DHM).

DHM is the former operator and manager of the historic Plover ferry. The asking price for the boathouse is the same price of $15,000 DHM had paid for it 26 years ago.

Prior to what might be considered by some a “hostile takeover” by the city when it took over the management and operation of the Plover, which is one of three properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Blaine, the ferry was kept out of the Pacific Northwest’s inclement weather being berthed in covered moorage in Boat House No. 25 at the Blaine Harbor Marina.

Although it’s not legally mandatory, the National Park Service recommends historic wooden vessels such as the Plover be berthed under covered moorage if possible. Realizing the Plover’s historic significance, DHM took the NPS recommendation to heart back in 1999 by raising funds to purchase a boathouse. This effort was accomplished by creating the Plover Swim Event where participants would get pledges from the community to swim across the channel between Blaine Harbor and Semiahmoo. After several years of effort, the funding goal was met and DHM purchased the much-needed boathouse.

Since 1999 and up until 2023 when the Plover was taken out of the water for mandatory U.S. Coast Guard repairs, the boathouse had provided the ferry protection from the PNW’s winter weather for 24 years, as a constituent of proper stewardship the 81 year-old wooden historic Plover deserves.

Lastly, since DHM no longer has the contract to manage and operate the ferry, it can no longer afford to pay the monthly moorage now required and has reluctantly put the boathouse up for sale. In the best interest of the Plover, I hope the city reconsiders and purchases the boathouse before it’s sold and lost forever.

Richard C. Sturgill

Former senior Plover captain

Blaine