INSIDE

New slate heads up voters association

By Meg Olson

Acting Voters Association president Beverly Griffiths has officially moved into the top slot and narrowly managed to fill every seat on the association board.

At the March 19 annual general meeting of Point Roberts Registered Voters Association almost half those attending the meeting were speakers representing a variety of local projects and agencies.

Seven of the association’s nine board positions were vacant and members present at the meeting filled all of them by acclamation, there being only one volunteer or nominee for each seat. New board members are Mike Peters, Richard Lloyd, Pat Brady and Kathy Bravener. Stephen Linn and Sheelagh Oliver will stay on in their seats for another three years and Tom Hollett, who resigned as president only two months ago, accepted a nomination to a one-year spot on the board. Griffiths and Barb Matthews positions were not up for election.

“We’ve got our board all lined up,” said a happy Griffiths. She was chosen as association president and Lloyd will be vice-president.

Henry Rosenthal gave the audience an update on the Wellness Center clinic and made an appeal for donations to finish construction of the center at the Benson Road fire station in time for a summer opening.

“The major problem we are having currently is we are running rather short of cash,” he said. While a federal grant will subsidize the first few years of clinic operation, the local Pioneer Group has had to raise funds close to $80,000 in improvements to the fire station to turn the west end of the bingo hall into a medical facility. While they had a good start with $40,000 Ed Aydon raised collecting cans for over nine years, and community members and businesses have been generous with donations, Rosenthal said they still had $25,000 to go. “We’ve had donations as low as $6.30 and as high as $5,000 from Whidbey Telephone Company,” he said. “Every little bit helps with the costs of permitting, architects, attorneys. The community needs your help and it’s for all our benefit.”

Point Roberts Pier
Terrie LaPorte urged voters to approve the formation of a special recreation district and a new tax levy to maintain a pier at the foot of Gulf Road, should one be built. “It starts and ends with this group. The voters have the power to make this happen,” she said. Through two federal grants, a group operating through the local chamber of commerce has taken the project to the point where they are ready to apply for permits to build the pier. However, LaPorte said granting agencies won’t fund the project unless the community votes to maintain it once it’s built.

This November voters will need to approve the district and new levy or “this project dies,” LaPorte said. The new levy will cost owners of a $100,000 home $15 a year and will generate funds for liability insurance, maintenance, lighting and a repair reserve fund.

Point Roberts Community Van
Joan Roberts said that while the local community vans were now running local routes they would have to wait until the Whatcom Transportation Authority works out permitting issues with the Canadian government before venturing further afield. She said the program was now ready to go with 14 volunteer drivers and five ready to take the WTA orientation. The service now has its own email address where prospective riders can ask for more information or make reservations at ridethevan@hotmail.com.

Point Roberts Lighthouse
While the community shouldn’t expect a real lighthouse at Lighthouse park just yet, David Niles of the Point Roberts Lighthouse Society said the project was moving slowly but surely forward, concentrating now on raising funds to pay for engineering and construction, estimated to cost $175,000. “We are hoping if we raised half we will be in a position to apply for grants that require matching funds,” he said. The most recent donation to the cause was $1,400 from What’s the Point, the group that organizes the annual garden tour on the Point.

The preliminary design for the lighthouse is based on the Tennant Lake observation tower near Ferndale, Niles said, with the addition of an authentic lantern room on top, which would accommodate the coast guard light now perched on a metal structure at the park’s tip. “The coast guard is very happy with what we’re trying to do,” Niles said.

Point Roberts Water District
Dan Bourks from the water district said the comprehensive sewer plan would be available in April and outlined changes to improve circulation and disinfection of the local water system.

Point Roberts Fire District
Fire commissioner Jesse Lofquist explained why the fire department’s participation in North Whatcom Fire and Rescue Service was a good deal for local taxpayers.

“It’s hard if not impossible to cover the amount of responsibility we have with the dollars we have,” he said, explaining that consolidation eliminated duplication of administrative paperwork and allowed the department to focus on fighting fires and saving lives. “We end up getting a lot of professional services we didn’t have before, at this point at no added cost,” he said.

Whidbey Telephone Company
Past association president Tom Hollett, who resigned from the board earlier this year, briefed the membership on progress in discussions with Whidbey telephone to reduce rates for calling within the county. “We asked for a five cent flat rate and they agreed,” Hollett reported. “In the very near future our charge for calls to the county will drop from over 11 cents to five cents,” Hollett said.

Whidbey Telephone vice-president Julia DeMartini said the company met with voters association members February 20 to discuss options to reduce the price of calling to the county. She said they decided to put together a trial program of selling blocks of time to customers of Point Roberts Long Distance through which the effective rate calling to Whatcom County would be five or six cents.

Company legal counsel Rob Snyder said the proposed plan would be more fair than offering free local calling to the county to all Whidbey Telephone customers. “One of the drawbacks to extending area service is that it raises everyone’s rates when not everyone takes advantage of it,” he said. “It seems more equitable to offer blocks so people who need it pay for it.” He said the program should be available in two to three months.

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