March 5 - 11, 2015 HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
IN THIS
ISSUE
Birch Bay twins start charity, page 13
Health and Wellness special section, pages 18-19
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Daylight Saving Time begins March 8
Blaine welcomes math championship Northwest Birding Festival Special pull-out Section
Three apply for district 2 county council seat By Ian Ferguson Three candidates hoping to replace former Whatcom County Council member Sam Crawford made their case to sitting council members who will be making an appointment shortly. Crawford resigned his seat on council effective March 1 for work-related reasons, and the remaining council members will decide who gets to replace him for the remainder of his term, which ends in November. The three candidates who applied for his vacant seat presented statements to the council at its March 3 regular meeting. Crawford was a conservative voice representing district 2 on the council for more than 15 years until his January resignation announcement. Jim Cozad, Kathy Kershner and Satpal Sidhu are vying to be his replacement for the remainder of his term. Kershner served on the Whatcom County Council for four years and was council chair for two years. Sidhu is a business owner and engineer by training who recently ran for the 42nd district state representative position. Although he lost to Republican Luanne Van Werven, Sidhu fared better than most Democrats in the election, garnering 44.3 percent of the vote. Cozad was a teacher and coach at Sehome High School, and has long been active in the Opportunity Council and Interfaith Coalition, primarily working to help homeless and disadvantaged families in Whatcom County. (See Council, page 2)
s Blaine math teacher Christy Wood announces the winners of the Whatcom County Math Championship on February 28. Students came to Blaine from throughout the county to compete. Blaine will also host the statewide math championship on March 28. Photo by Jeff Callender
Telescope Beach renovations underway By Steve Guntli City construction crews are busy making improvements to Telescope Beach in Marine Park. The Marine Park shoreline reconstruction and naturalization pilot project is a clean-up of the Marine
Park beach between the shelter and tree headlands. Alex Wenger, Blaine deputy community planner, said the project would restore the beach and allow for easier access to the waterfront. The project received a $50,000 grant from the Washington Department of Ecology’s (DOE) Terry Husseman ac-
Alaska Airlines reducing flights out of Bellingham By Steve Guntli Alaska Airlines is cutting summer flights to Las Vegas and Honolulu from its regular service out of Bellingham International Airport (BIA). Beginning June 6, the airline will fly to
See us at the Home SHow! Booth 326 Tracy Booth, Founder Locally Owned & Operated, Serving Whatcom County
those locations on a seasonal basis. Outside of the winter season, Alaska will only offer six flights a day out of BIA, five to Seattle and one to Portland, Oregon. The announcement marks the second time in a month an airline has reduced flights out of BIA. In early February, Fron-
count. The account was set up to fund projects with fees collected for water (See Beach, page 13)
Online
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Inside
tier Airlines announced it would no longer offer seasonal direct flights to Denver, Colorado. According to Bobbie Egan, a spokesperson for Alaska, the airline is cutting the routes due to a decreased demand during (See BIA, page 13)
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Coming Up . . . . . . . . . . 17 Tides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
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