INSIDE

Taxpayers pursue Lily Point park

By Pat Grubb

After failing to convince the local parks board to take the lead role in acquiring Lily Point as parkland, the Point Roberts Taxpayers Association has turned to Plan B.

Exactly what Plan B will turn out to be has not yet jelled. Among other things, the group needs a vehicle that will allow it to receive tax-free donations from the public. The taxpayers board considered two options at their regular meeting October 4.

Board chair Michael Rosser gave the board an overview of his discussions with the Whatcom Land Trust who, he said, had offered to provide administrative resources for the Lily Point endeavour. Rosser said the land trust would charge three percent of all receipts for that service, a sum that struck some members as high.

Sitting in the audience, however, were Larry and Aileen Crosetti. Board member Suzanne Rosser introduced them by saying “Larry Crosetti has offered to hand over their Resource Management Group (RMG) which has 501c (tax free) status. This is the group that Larry used to stop a golf course and fight city hall.” Fellow board member Mark Robbins said “I think it’s a marriage made in heaven for our purposes.”

Michael Rosser cautioned the board, saying “We should sleep on it. First, we need to decide what the name of our organization should be.” Referring to the group’s collective desire to get an entity up and running quickly, he talked about the advantage of an “unsullied” entity versus RMG that has baggage associated with it, suggesting it might be easier to get money for the first alternative.

Left unsaid was the fact that the group has been in negotiations with a landowner who was involved in the original proposal for a golf course at Lily Point. RMG was a major opponent to that project and forced the golf course consortium to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees before receiving county approval for the development. The project ultimately collapsed.

The group reserved decision on the funding vehicle despite board member John Hammell’s suggestion that “We can keep Larry’s ball rolling, there’s a spiritual aspect to it.”

“So this is Plan B,” said Michael Rosser.