Sheriff Elfo on Birch Bay Incorporation

The good sheriff was applauded warmly at the Birch Bay Steering Committee last Wednesday evening for resisting the County Executive’s budget reduction that would have cut the neighborhood deputy who serves 40 hours a week in the community. Then he was asked about the incorporation feasibility study that would use the tax money from Birch Bay that now goes to the county for law enforcement. Sheriff Elfo explained that he had advised the consultant he could provide enough officers for coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the same tax dollars.

This possibility represents the, “Mosquito Lake Road factor.” The sheriff’s services are spread throughout the rural areas of Whatcom County. He needs to provide the same coverage for Mosquito Lake Road and other remote areas with few residents as provided to Birch Bay Drive.

The officers in the city of Birch Bay, while employees of the Sheriff’s Department, would wear uniforms and drive cars with Birch Bay identification. The practice is well established in other counties in Washington.

Those who say security is their greatest concern are glad for the 40-hours-a-week deputy coverage and wish there were more; they see the sheriff’s explanation as a dramatic argument for incorporation.

The next meeting of “Exploreincorp-BB,” the forum that discusses the subject, will be Monday, October 13, at 7 o’clock at the Community Bible Church on Jackson Road. The participants who get and give the most from and to these meetings have read the feasibility study and done their homework – see birchbayinfo.org, click on Incorporation.

Kathy Berg Coming on Strong

The leader of the Birch Bay Steering Committee, who also has started “ExploreIncorpBB” promoting incorporation, demonstrated the strongest advocacy in our experience with her when speaking to the Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon on Tuesday, September 16.

Kathy Berg was robust, enthusiastic and, as usual, articulate. In addition to arguing that it is time for Birch Bay to become a city, she challenged Council members to get behind the drive to join the Blaine Chamber and other groups to establish a scenic byway (see byways.org) that would wind along the water through Blaine, Birch Bay and Bellingham, connecting to Chuckanut Drive.

The following Thursday, Tara Nelson gave the concept a boost with a front-page article in the Northern Light. But the next week, two letters to the editor threw cold water on the idea.

We are curious to see how members of the Birch Bay Chamber will react. This could be a real boon to business along Birch Bay Drive. But does the Chamber have the muscle to make it happen versus folks who argue there’s too much traffic already?

Time for this blog to change gears

While we will continue to address community issues, for the next month we will be concentrating on the state and national elections. We were drafted to work for Obama, re-election of Gov. Chris Gregoire, and Mark Flanders, state legislator for district 42 in our precinct, No. 109, that extends along the Bay from Harborview and Lynden Roads to Bay Road; the eastern border runs north and south between Blaine and Kickerville Roads.






We've been assigned 11 "turfs" within the precinct. Already we have eight turf captains and we are looking for more. The immediate challenge is to get every qualified person registered to vote – by mail or online at www.secstate.wa.gov.elections/2008/aspx by October 4, or new registrants in person at the court house in Bellingham by October 20. On this we are non-partisan – we’re glad to help those who are inclined to vote for McCain.

A Forum, Not a Crusade

The “ExploreIncorp-BB” process that Kathy Berg and her cohorts are conducting to work toward making Birch Bay a city held its second meeting last Monday, with emphasis on civility and openness to contrary opinions. Nonetheless, the small group is emphasizing information, particularly the consultants’ report on incorporation feasibility. Many of the participants bring the report in ring binders that they consult during the discussions. In her e-mails inviting participants, Berg emphasizes the availability of information at http://www.birchbayinfo.org/

So it is remarkable that naysayers show up willing to contest on the basis of unsubantiated perceptions. What is remarkable is that the most vocal are coming from Birch Bay Village, the upscale, gated community where astuteness would be expected. One woman, attending for the second time, was adamant that the feasibility study’s information that costs of personnel and services could be provided for the same tax dollars, as now paid to the county, could not be accurate. And she didn’t give up when confronted with facts from the study.

More remarkable is that she wasn’t driven from the meeting with ridicule. Berg is adamant that all voices should be heard. She is encouraging debate and patience with conflicting opinions, apparently recognizing that reaching agreement will be a time-consuming process. As we’ve noted before, she seems to be awaiting unexpected tipping points.

One might be an accident at the cumbersome bend on Birch Point Drive near the entrance to Birch Bay Village that causes so many complaints. Some are calling this “Dead Man’s Curve.” Not wishing to suggest a tragedy, we think a better name is “Pete’s Folly”, personifying anger toward county management.
Many of the ‘pros’ for incorporation discussed at these meetings can be summarized as local control – over development and police protection. Birch Bay Village, with its own security service and a building review process, has control over those issues, but that stupid curve makes clear that the Village isn’t an island with complete control.

A ‘con’ argument is that Birch Bay doesn’t have people who could run a successful government. “It would be like Blaine,” they say. The easy retort is: “Compare water and sewer. Birch Bay’s is free of debt and well operated; Blaine’s is deep in the red and polluting Drayton Harbor.”

It is easy to visualize a future city council discussing issues responsibly. We are especially impressed with Doug Robertson. Having spent 26 years as a fireman, now working in construction, he is well informed on local government issues. And most impressive is his demeanor. Like a St. Bernard, he maintains calm when the terriers start barking.

As for those who say Kathy Berg isn’t executive material, we say come and watch. We’ve been observing her for five years and we’re catching on to her sagacity. While she wouldn’t use a big word like that, this modest soul is up to the challenge.

Come, yourself, and observe – and participate.

The next meeting is Monday, September 8 at 7 o’clock in the Birch Bay Bible Community Church on Jackson Road.

Mystical Interlude

Almost every day we tell each other how happy we are that we decided to live in Birch Bay. How, when we couldn’t get a house on the beach or on the ridge, we settled for a cottage on Terrell Creek where we are happy with a view of the bay and the wildlife that entertains us on the creek.

Once in a while there is something special like the nesting gulls on the roof of the cottage across the creek, whose chicks are now walking about the steep roof and testing their wings – soon they will be flying.

We were watching them from our deck last Sunday evening when a rubber raft appeared in the stream. Unlike kayakers who padded vigorously, the occupant was mostly drifting. The combination of blacks in the pink raft was stunning When the boat turned we saw that she was writing. After watching a while Al got up courage to call out: “Novel or short story?”

Rather than be perturbed, she smiled, and before long she was reading to us. Here is a segment from her journal:

“I had some thoughts about humans and their experience of love while I was driving today. The gift of love is the act of feeling it. This is the only love we experience. It is our own love. So why do we place so much on whether or not we are loved? Where did this confusion come from? It is so simple. And we may take solace in knowing that we may love something or someone whether or not we are with them or they love us back or they want us or don’t or whatever.

“The only love for us is the love we get to experience for another. And that has nothing to do with attachment or reciprocal feelings or anything whatsoever! With this knowledge comes the responsibility to allow others to love us. We may have the ability to offer that – or make it somehow easier for being a genuine person in the world and being able to invite love. This may help others to have an experience of love that they may otherwise not have. The duty comes with this knowledge of love.”

Her name is Shannon Maddox. She has been coming to Birch Bay for 33 years, first to visit her grandparents. "I miss my grandparents very much and the wonderful memories of my Grandma teaching me to gamble with her while we played cards and she drank wine, and my Grandpa’s quiet strength as he took us to the beach to play and build castles. And of course the C-Shop where we were always buying candy with coins that my Grandpa would save for us in a sock drawer. They are some of the best parts of what makes me who I am today."

Shannon now lives in Seattle where she works with people who are homeless and well as in a psychiatric hospital. In September she begins three years of graduate school.