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Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay
May 21 - 27, 2015
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PeaceHealth workers stage walkout, page 3
School district offering free vaccinations at one-day clinic
Closure for a missing Vietnam vet, page 8
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Blaine and Birch Bay faves opening for summer, page 10
Going for a spin
By Steve Guntli In an effort to combat low vaccination numbers, the Blaine school district is offering free vaccinations on Wednesday, May 27. The school district is partnering with the Whatcom County Health Department and the Western Washington University school of nursing to run the vaccine clinic. The clinic will be held from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Blaine Middle School cafeteria. School district nurses Margaret Gibson and Jodi Greene want to target incoming kindergarteners and sixth graders, as well as any remaining students who are still out of compliance with the school’s vaccination policy. The event will also be open to school district staff and people in the community without access to healthcare. The clinic will offer vaccines for MMR, Tdap, Varicella, HepB and polio.Gibson hopes the clinic will encourage people to get vaccinated. “We’ve historically had difficulty in Blaine with people taking exemptions for vaccinations,” she said. “But the fact is vaccines are safe and they work. We’re hoping to change the dialogue and provide education to the community.” Blaine traditionally has lower vaccination rates than the state average. In the 20102011 school year, more than 10 percent of parents of incoming kindergarteners requested non-medical, non-religious vaccine exemptions for their children, according to the Washington State Department of Health. The state average during that same period was 5.8 percent. According to Gibson, those numbers have been steadily decreasing since 2011, when the state legislature mandated a (See Vaccines, page 3)
s Four-year-old Charley Bakker, l., clutches her stuffed animal as Ava Freeman, 9, points out how high the Ferris Wheel has taken them during the carnival at the Blaine airportgrounds on May 15. See more photos on page 15.
Photo by Alyssa Pitcher
State study finds hazardous toxins at Blaine Marina site By Steve Guntli The Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) has identified some potentially hazardous chemicals at Blaine Marina, Inc. and is asking for public input going forward. The DOE and the Port of Bellingham have completed a joint investigation into contamination at the Blaine Mari-
na cleanup site. The first draft of the report, called a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) has concluded that high levels of potentially harmful chemicals exist in and around the site. Cris Matthews, a hydrogeologist with the DOE, is the site manager for the project. His team has been working on the study for the last three years. The crew evaluated the environmental features
Health officials seek parents’ help in E. coli investigation By Steve Guntli Local, state and federal health agencies are reaching out to local parents to determine the source of the recent E. coli outbreak. The Whatcom County Health Department has partnered with the Washington State Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get to the bottom of the outbreak, which has affected more than 50 people, mostly
young children. Investigators are working to find the source of the outbreak. Health officials believe the bacteria originated at the Milk Makers Festival at the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds in Lynden on April 21. More than 1,300 primary school students from Blaine, Bellingham, Ferndale, Lynden and Nooksack school districts visited the festival on a field trip between April 21 and 23. Representatives of the three agencies are
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reaching out to parents of children who attended the festival to complete a short survey of their child’s activities. The affected school districts sent out emails to parents with maps of the festival, which show stations for petting zoos, hay mazes and a calf station. Investigators are calling parents on evenings and weekends to conduct the survey and determine a pattern for infected and (See E. coli, page 3)
of the site and developed options for a cleanup.DOE found traces of petroleum, metals, volatile organic compounds and naphthalene in the groundwater and soil. Long-term exposure to some chemical elements of petroleum, such as benzene, could cause cancer, according to Matthews. Investigators believe most of these (See Marina, page 2)
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I-5 exIt 262 Hovander Park Ferndale WeSt Special guest performance by Adults $15 • Massed Pipe Bands • Highland & Country Dancing WIcKed tInKeRS Child/Seern/oioverr $601)0 • Ale & Wine Gardens (6 and ov Sunday at 10am • Athletic Competition • 5K Fun Run • Predators of the Heart – wildlife show • Car Show • Camel Safari FREE PARKING •
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