February 4 - 10, 2016
FREE
Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
IN THIS
ISSUE
Sheriff Elfo comments on jail, page 5
Health and Wellness special section, pages 8-9
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Meet Pastime Tavern’s new owners, page 10
Transparency vote split on party lines By Steve Guntli
(See State, page 2)
s Mount Baker looms over the horizon on January 25.
Photo by Ruth Lauman
Drayton Harbor Oyster Co. teams with Blaine brewery By Oliver Lazenby Drayton Harbor Oyster Company opened its retail store on Tuesday, February 2, after a three-month commercial shellfish harvest closure. But already on Monday morning, people were walking into the shop at 677 Peace Portal Drive, in Blaine, looking for oysters fresh from the harbor. “There you go, you got people who are wanting to eat oysters at 10:30 in the morning,” said owner Mark Seymour after one would-be customer dropped by. “I don’t even do that.”
Although the oysters that Mark and his dad Steve farm a few hundred feet from the store are the main attraction, Drayton Harbor Oyster Company has an extra draw for its second season: a liquor license. The store, a retail outlet for the farm that sells fresh oysters and oyster stew, will also serve beer and wine this year. To start with, Seymour is stocking cans of beer from Bellingham’s Kulshan Brewing Co., and a selection of French white and red wines, he said. But soon, the Drayton Harbor Oyster Company will be the primary outlet for Blaine’s only commercial brewery, Atwood Ales.
Open house planned for Birch Bay berm project B y I a n F e r g u so n Anyone interested in the future of the Birch Bay shoreline will want to attend the third open house for the Birch Bay Drive and Pedestrian Facility Project. The open house is on Saturday, February 6 at the Birch Bay Bible Community Church from 10 a.m. to noon. Presented by the Whatcom County Pub-
lic Works Department and a consultant team from Environmental Science Associates, the open house will include a presentation on the berm project and an opportunity for community input. Some of the items to be presented include the project construction schedule, night work, drainage upgrades, right of way negotiations, environmental permitting, and how the Americans with Disabilities Act
relates to the project. The Birch Bay Drive and Pedestrian Facility Project is a county project to build a soft shore roadway protection berm with a pedestrian pathway and drainage upgrades. The project extends from Lora Lane in the south to Cedar Drive in the north. Construction is slated to begin this fall. Flooding and erosion have been issues (See Berm, page 2)
The new brewery, a family operation headed by Josh Smith, will start producing beer on a family farm southeast of Blaine this month. The brewery won’t have a taproom, but its beer will be available at Drayton Harbor Oyster Company and a few other places in Whatcom County in late March or early April, Smith said. The brewer and the oyster farmer will work closely: Smith will tend bar at the restaurant/store and the two will visit and learn about each other’s operation so that they will be able to explain how things (See Oysters, page 12)
INSIDE
The attorney general approved a bill to increase government transparency, but the bill has encountered surprising opposition along party lines. On January 27, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson agave his seal of approval of House Bill 2353, an update of the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), after it was passed out of the house state government committee. The legislation would update penalties for knowing violations of the act, which requires that, with limited exceptions, any meeting of a governing body be open to the public. The penalty for violating the act has been raised from $100 to $500, and there will be a penalty of $1,000 for repeat knowing violations. The bill was sponsored by committee chair Sam Hunt (D-Olympia) and supported by fellow Democrat representatives. “It is essential that our elected officials understand and follow the Open Meetings Act,” Hunt said. “One should not be slapped on the wrist for knowingly violating the open meetings provisions. This law has been with us since 1971, and this bill, for the first time since it was originally approved by the legislature, updates to 2016 levels the penalty for knowingly violating the Open Public Meetings Act.” The bill was approved by a 4–3 vote that split along party lines. Hunt and three Democrat members of the committee voted in favor, while the three Republican committee members, including Luanne Van Werven (R-Lynden), voted in opposition. Van Werven said she voted against the measure because there wasn’t sufficient evidence of a correlation between higher fines and fewer violations of OPMA. “I felt that it was a solution looking for a problem,” she said. “There were very few instances over the years of fines being assessed and, looking at other states, we couldn’t find any data suggesting that a higher fine would lead to fewer violations.” Van Werven said she was also concerned
Letters . . . . . . . . . 4 Sports . . . . . . . . . . 6 Classifieds . . . . . 11 Police . . . . . . . . . 14 Coming Up . . . . . 14 Tides . . . . . . . . . . 14
TheNorthernLight.com TheNorthernLight
@TNLreporter
@PointRobertsPress