Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Finally Showing Her Hand

Many who watched the progress of the Birch Bay Steering Committee have wondered why no drive was mounted for incorporation once the consultants’ positive report was completed. Kathy Berg, the chair of the committee, said the time wasn’t right, and maintained public neutrality, although some suspected she was for Birch Bay becoming a city.

As we were writing an article for the January issue of the Cascadia Weekly about the lack of enthusiasm for incorporation, Berg told us, “The tipping point will come when something happens that gets folks pissed off.” (A few days later when we asked if she could live with that quote, her answer was, “That’s what I said.”)

At the Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting on July 15, Berg and her long-time cohort, Doralee Booth, said they are angry now because the Whatcom County government -- particularly Pete Kremen, the county executive, and his adjutant Dewey Desler -- is reneging on promises to pay for Birch Bay road improvements this year. The reason given is that the county is out of money. But, as one chamber member at the meeting called out, “They can fix a dip on Slater Road that floods twice a year to make sure gamblers can get to the casino!”

Berg and Booth are particularly incensed about cancellation of a $400,000 engineering study for development of the berm along Birch Bay Drive that has been waiting since first proposed in the 1970s by Wolf Bauer, whose vision of a more welcoming beach and walking promenade is well remembered.

So Berg has called a meeting, not of the Steering Committee, rather of “some members of the Birch Bay UGA community wishing to explore incorporation.” The meeting is next Monday, August 4, at (where else?) the Birch Bay Community Bible Church on Jackson Road. At 7 o’clock.

Many see incorporation as a giant challenge that Berg & Booth can’t be expected to achieve. Isn’t that what they said about George Washington?

Monday, July 14, 2008

Think Local

Think Local, Buy Local, Be Local
My Customer is My Community

These are the Sustainable Connections headlines on the Cost Cutter/Food Pavilion plastic bags.

Some of the steps are:
1. Support other community businesses and strengthen our local community.
2. Create more jobs. Locally owned businesses create most jobs in a community.
3. Invest in the community. Local businesses are owned by people that live here.
4. Provide more choices. Local businesses select products based on their customers needs.

Friends and neighbors depend on each other. Think Local First!

One blazing example of how we all can BE more local comes from the International Mall at 1733 H Street in Blaine. The new management there, Phillips Edison & Company, recently leased space to The Dollar Tree, a national chain of discount stores. Their location is two doors down from the Dollar Plus store operated by Sukhwant Singh Gill for the past 13 years. The Dollar Tree is bright, shiny and new. It can probably offer a variety of goods at a very good price (we won't be shopping there, so we won't know). Nevertheless, Gill has been steadfastly providing rock-bottom prices on a wide array of goods from gift-wrap to spices, from hand-tools to knick-knacks, from sox and underwear to sponges and tin foil for residents and visitors consistently for those 13 years.

Gill left India in 1993 to seek a better life for his family. He spent four months searching for work. As a practicing Sikh, he kept his beard and turban. That may have been a handicap, but finally, with the help of two Sikh friends, he got a job at a nursing home. He proved to be a very competent nurse’s aide; his wife got work in the nursing home’s laundry. They saved and saved and, with loans from friends and relatives, eventually got the Dollar Plus stores in Blaine and Lynden. “I wanted to have my own business and prove that the turban guy is okay,” says Gill.

Now, all his efforts are threatened by the buying power and glitz of a national chain. The only hope for him is a loyal following of customers who believe in him and in the principles of Think Local First!