A few hundred people short ...

A debate on the benefits of incorporation of Point Roberts ended prematurely, at least for remote participants, when the Zoom remote meeting timed out an hour after it began. A plan to have attendees take a vote before and after the debate to determine their interest in incorporation also died an early death after the difficulty of holding a vote on Zoom was deemed unworkable.

The debate was between local proponent PJ Minter and opponent Arthur Reber and took place at the community center on February 17. The main obstacle to incorporating is a state law that requires a minimum population of 1,500 residents before a town can become incorporated. While the present population of the Point isn’t precisely known, the 2020 U.S. Census listed its population at 1,191.

Addressing the need to attract new residents, Minter said, “We can advertise to the population of the United States. There are 300 million people who live over there, we can tell the people who is right for Point Roberts – you need to be kind of a frontier, outlaw-type of person. So we can tell America, this town is looking for its freedom, come help us build a new community, one that we define, one that we get to say this is the community that we want and these are the people that we need for it.”

In response, Reber said, “I’ve been here for 20 years now … Metaphorically speaking, Point Roberts is the Pillsbury Dough Boy, that little giggling ball of dough. Finger comes in, presses, it makes an indentation, it giggles back out. Nothing changes. The community resists because they kind of like it the way it is.” Reber pointed out that it is the U.S. Census population figures that determines eligibility for incorporation and the next one is just five years away.

“Duals who live in Canada don’t count, duals who live here count. Basically, we are talking about individuals who are essentially full-time [residents], and I have no idea whether we’ll be able to make that count.”

The meeting ended with a decision to approach the county to ask if they would fund a feasibility study similar to what the county has done with the Birch Bay community.