The Editor:
Following the Plover’s final run this season at the end of the month, the city of Blaine must honor its obligation to ensure safe haven and proper stewardship for this historic vessel, which is the last remaining Drayton Harbor passenger ferry, a legacy going back 150 years. Further, the 82-year-old former Alaska Packers Association cannery launch holds historic significance equal to that of the Peace Arch, according to the U.S. National Parks Service.
The city is required to provide proper stewardship. At a minimum it would mean — while the venerable wooden ferry is awaiting its future — that the Plover be kept in its boathouse, its hull protected from drying out, and its wood kept above the waterline.
It must be protected from the ravages of the dry rot fungus caused by fresh rainwater should it be left outside and subject to the region’s wet winter weather.
Additionally, given the city’s $44 million budget, it would seem the city should be able to pay the estimated $1,000 liability insurance required to indemnify the Port of Bellingham Blaine Harbor Marina during the ferry’s winter lay-up. Paying this insurance will ensure the necessary stewardship for this historic property while efforts continue to secure its future operations.
Richard Sturgill
Blaine
Director Drayton Harbor Maritime and former manager of the Plover
The Editor:
I grew up in Nashville in the ’50s and ’60s so I had a bird’s-eye view of Dolly Parton’s early career. It was clear from the beginning that she would become an icon. My admiration for her grew as her philanthropy became more public.
She was certainly a national treasure.
I wonder how American society could produce someone as talented, kind, generous and supportive of people of all persuasions as Dolly was and, during the same time period, produce the mean-spirited, vindictive, shallow, selfish liar who disdains his fellow humans as our current chief executive and the rest of the billionaire class.
Michael Tomlinson
Blaine
