Letters to the Editor – January

The Editor:

I stood on the stage at our Winter Holiday Program and as I got ready to speak, I had an emotional wave come over me. Looking out at the sea of faces who were in attendance to see the children’s hard work was so meaningful to me.

As I stood there, I could hardly communicate the quote that I had prepared by Coretta Scott King, “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” From the bottom of my heart, thank you for supporting our students.

Some of our families are not surrounded by those of their own immediate families. Our small community becomes the support system for these families, and we are so incredibly thankful that our community of Point Roberts supports our school children. In 2019 we have had such amazing support from our community.

To our community, thank you for attending our Hot Diggity Jog Fun Run. Thank you for volunteering your time to help us with our Fun Run and Winter Program. Thank you for hosting our students at library time and for preparing amazing activities for them.

Thank you for keeping Baker Field mowed for weekly soccer practice and games. Thank you for canceling your monthly taxpayers meeting to support our children’s performance. Thank you for donating items for our raffles.

Thank you for volunteering at our school to help the students learn to play soccer, read, play music, create art and learn about the world around them through beach and nature walks. Thank you for buying chocolate, raffle tickets, pancake breakfast and silent auction items from us.

Thank you for dropping off gifts of art supplies and magazine subscriptions.

Thank you for creating a place in the world where children can grow up and know they are loved and cared about by a community of people who want to see them go out, do amazing things and make an impact on our world!

With much gratitude,

Jessie Hettinga, M.S. ED

Point Roberts primary school teacher

The Editor and Whatcom County Council:

For more than 25 years I have self-hauled my household trash to the Point Roberts transfer station. In all that time, I have never spent more than $20 annually to dispose of my waste.

Starting January 2019, Whatcom County added $212.64 to my annual taxes of $845.93 to pay for curbside pick-up. This amounts to a 25 percent increase in my tax bill.

I am a part-time resident in Point Roberts and so far, this year, I have not generated enough trash to fill one can. It is now December and I have not put out any trash to be picked up. Last year it cost me $20 and this year $212.64 and I may end up self-hauling anyway since I may not be here on collection day.

You have cost me 10 times as much to dump my trash and made a possible millionaire out of Cando Recycling and Disposal.

Please return to the previous system and raise the per-pound rate so that Cando earns a decent return on its investment. The present system is blatantly unfair to the vast majority of property owners in Point Roberts.

Larry Talson

Point Roberts

The Editor:

When I moved to White Rock 17 years ago, I was fortunate to have a view of Boundary Bay. Recently, I have often seen hundreds of gulls, ducks and mergansers join five to six dozen seals in attacking schools of fish (salmon or herring?) around the White Rock pier. I had never noticed this before.

During the summer, I observed gray whales for the first time. At dusk last fall, I saw thousands of gulls and flocks of crows simultaneously fly eastward for hours. It was amazing! Several years ago my wife and I spotted two pelicans, apparently blown north by strong winds, struggling in the bay; only one survived.

It makes me wonder about the environment. All it takes is one oil tanker disaster to destroy all of this. Bearing in mind the storm that damaged the White Rock pier last December, it is an accident waiting to happen.

The province of Alberta seems more concerned with jobs, which they will probably get when the federally owned Liberal pipeline satisfies the conservative gluttony for oil with daily tankers.

During the past several years, two more rail lines were laid south of Blaine to carry hundreds of coal cars pulled by six locomotives, at noon and night, through the Blaine and White Rock waterfronts. The wildfires of B.C. and Alberta the last few years and the recent Brazilian, Californian and Australian fires have left their mark on the global environment.

It also makes me think of the White Rock urban environment, which has been in a rapid process of change. The plethora of cranes foreboding high rises in White Rock center have grown like weeds thanks to the previous city council.

I think a plaque identifying the former mayor and councilors should be posted on city hall so that we remember in perpetuity how they so drastically and permanently changed the panorama of our city by the sea.

I realize that change is inevitable as our population grows, but how and at what cost? Considering the reality of climate change, our natural and urban environments are increasingly becoming at risk

Albert Leering

White Rock, B.C.