The Editor:
Blaine Cub Scouts Pack 4025 would like to publicly thank everyone who helped host the District Regional Pinewood Derby!
We are thankful for Blaine-Birch Bay Park and Recreation District 2 for the grant which was allocated to Pack 4025. This generosity allowed the pack to purchase a new track which was used at the derby, recently hosted at the Blaine High School gymnasium.
A special thank you to Billy Brown for helping sponsor this event for scouts and to Mike Kent for also helping sponsor and announce the racers.
The pack appreciates those adults in the community who help programs that have few volunteers and resources to create opportunities for our youth. Cub scouts is an important prevention program that teaches our young boys values and knowledge that they will need to become leaders in their communities and country.
Pack 4025 welcomes new interested families to join. Please email blainecubscouts@gmail.com.
Erika Creydt, committee chair
Blaine
The Editor:
Thank you, Blaine City Council, for the striking new sign for the Blaine Community Center. It is a proud, bold announcement that we have really good facilities which serve the whole community.
The new entrance makes it much easier for locals and visitors alike to access the Blaine Senior Center, the Boys & Girls Club and the Community Center Pavilion. The reader board is perfect. What a change from the well-intentioned but amateurish hand-lettered sign. The new sign and entrance are an excellent example of our tax dollars being well used, to create an inspiring and active atmosphere in our small city.
I have participated in several events at the community center, but the problem was people didn’t know where it was. I cannot tell you how many people said they had difficulty finding the art show, or other event. The pavilion was hidden. Now it’s visible.
Well done! Let’s have more positive actions like this which combine to make us all proud to be part of the Blaine community.
Helen Worley
Blaine
The Editor:
My intent is not to offer solutions, as I do not have them, but rather to make you aware of the problem. Perhaps this will help continue the discussion that will lead to a solution.
Under the H-2A program, Washington state was host to over 18,000 guest farm laborers in 2017. This program allows U.S. farmers (usually large corporations due to the costs) to employ laborers from other countries to work for them on a temporary status.
Often people are subjected to sub-par working conditions, with little enforcement of the regulations. Workers come in search of better wages but are often abused and find themselves under the control of employers who oversee their visas, paychecks, housing, meals and transportation. Worker complaints threaten their security.
The program needs reform. Workers need the dignity given to skilled employees; they need their rights enforced without fear of retaliation. Former congressman Charles Rangel said the H-2A program is “the closest thing I’ve ever seen to slavery.”
As Whatcom County residents, we need to be aware that this situation exists in our county. Aside from demanding immigration reform, please offer to help these young men in case they need our assistance. After all, they are guests.
Naomi Murphy
Ferndale
The Editor:
In response to last week’s letter to the editor regarding the chamber of commerce proposal to establish a golf cart zone in Birch Bay. How is it that an unelected, self-selected, unaccountable body like the chamber of commerce in Birch Bay has become a de facto governing body?
It’s a serious question raised each summer as they’ve turned Birch Bay into a flea-market, complete with bouncy castles, beer gardens, and bad bands. But now golf carts on parade. Really?
I’m not sure how many of the nine directors actually live in Birch Bay and have to endure what residents are forced to accept, or how many are just cashing in?
Lyle Schrag
Blaine
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