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Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay
April 2 - 8, 2015
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IN THIS
ISSUE
Birch Bay Road Race results, page 7
Birch Bay woman gets 43 years
Healthy food revelations, page 9
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Make your own rain barrel, page 10
Make way for Easter bunnies
By Steve Guntli Lesley Ann Villatoro, 29, who was convicted last month for driving her boyfriend to the scene of a grisly crime, was sentenced to 43 years in prison on March 24. The sentence was four years more than prosecutors were seeking. In May 2014, Villatoro drove her boyfriend, Chad Horne, 34, to a private home in Ferndale. Villatoro testified that she believed he was going to spend some time with a friend, and she was to wait in a nearby park with their twin daughters and young nephew. Horne forced his way into the home at gunpoint, attacked a 39-year-old mother of three, bound her hands with zip ties, slashed her throat and fired a single round from a .45 handgun at her. The bullet missed, and Horne fled the scene in the victim’s black Chevy Tahoe. Horne killed himself later that day after police ran the Tahoe off the road. The victim was able to make it to a neighbor’s house and survived the attack. Villatoro was found guilty of complicity in six felony charges: three counts of kidnapping in the first degree, one count of attempted murder in the first degree, one count of burglary in the first degree and one count of theft of a motor vehicle. Since a gun was used to commit each of these crimes, an additional firearms charge was tacked on to all of these. The minimum sentence for a guilty verdict with these charges would have been 30 years with no time off for good behavior, according to state law. Prosecutor Dave McEachran has said he believes another party hired Horne to commit the murder. He claimed Villatoro was in on the plan, and the couple was planning to flee together after the murder. Villatoro had purchased a duffel bag and a can of gasoline from Wal-Mart in Bellingham a few weeks before the crime. The duffel bag was used to store zip ties and weapons, and police believe the gasoline was intended to dispose of evidence after the fact. (See Trial, page 13)
Photo by Alyssa Pitcher
s A pair of tractor-riding chocolate bunnies await packaging at The C Shop in Birch Bay on March 30. According to co-owner Keith Alesse, farm-themed treats are selling out quickly this year.
West Drayton Harbor opens for diggers By Ian Ferguson For the first time in years, the public can now legally harvest clams, mussels and oysters in a section of western Drayton Harbor that has been closed to recreational shellfish harvesting for health reasons since 1999. The season opened April 1 and is scheduled to stay open through October 31 as long as levels of fecal coliform bacteria and shellfish biotoxins in the area remain low. For those working to improve water quality in the area, the opening is a good sign. “This is fantastic news,” said Julie Hirsch, a longtime advocate for improv-
ing local water quality. “It’s a sign that all the community efforts to fix the watershed are starting to bear fruit.” Hirsch is the president of Hirsch Consulting Services, LLC, which has worked with various agencies to improve water quality in Drayton Harbor, Semiahmoo Bay and Cain Creek since 1999. Drayton Harbor was downgraded to “prohibited” status for shellfish harvesting that year because fecal coliform bacteria counts reached unsafe levels for human contact and shellfish consumption. The land area draining into Drayton Harbor encompasses 53,102 acres of northwestern Whatcom County, including the Dakota Creek and California
Architect chosen for new high school By Ian Ferguson The Blaine school district will enter into contract negotiations with Zervas Group, the Bellingham-based architects chosen to design the new $45 million capital improvement project on the Blaine campus. The school board approved Zervas at a special board meeting March 30 after a three-week search. The district advertised a request for qualifications in Bellingham and Seattle newspapers in early March,
and seven firms responded with submissions by the March 19 deadline. Project manager Jim Kenoyer, superintendent Ron Spanjer and director of finance and operations Amber Porter reviewed the submissions, interviewed the firms and checked with references. They evaluated whether each firm had the resources and experience to take on the task, how it would handle particulars such as costs and scheduling and the relationships it had with engineering firms and
local contractors. After the review, two firms stood out: Zervas and Everett-based Dykeman. “Both firms put out terrific submittals, and both would have been well qualified, but we decided Zervas would be the best fit for our project,” Kenoyer said. One of the reasons Zervas stood out was its focus on keeping the cost of materials and supplies low, resulting in a lower (See Architect, page 3)
Creek watersheds. With so many potential sources of pollution, the process of cleaning up Drayton Harbor has been long and multi-faceted, with multiple community groups and government agencies working together. Progress came after the Blaine Public Works department made years long improvements to the municipal sewer and stormwater runoff systems, the Port of Bellingham installed pump-out facilities for boats at Blaine Harbor and the county health department worked to educate the public about septic system maintenance and healthy watershed habits. It’s been (See Shellfish, page 15)
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Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Coming Up . . . . . . . . . . 14 Tides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14