Piece by piece: A guest editorial

Point Roberts is a wonderful, unique place to call home, but in some respects it is struggling. The border and seasonality of good weather are challenges to an economy that depends on visitors to support local businesses and services. In addition to cheaper beer, milk, cheese and gas, Point Roberts offers a scenic, wooded environment, first class marina and golf course and set of four county parks at each corner. Lily Point may be the “crown jewel” of our parks, preserved for nature and passive recreational use, but Lighthouse Marine Park is the main tourist destination, with its campground, picnic tables, barbecues, boardwalk, orca education center, whale watching, fishing pier and small boat launch ramp.

Well, we used to have those amenities at Lighthouse Marine Park; but they are slipping away, piece by piece. The boardwalk, which used to be expansive and hosted an annual arts and music festival, has been reduced by about 75 percent as part of a “deal” to repair it at an “affordable” cost both in terms of replacement and future maintenance. The orca center was dismantled with the “excess” boardwalk. The whale-watching tower was removed years ago (presumably for safety reasons) without any announcement or explanation to the community, let alone plans to replace it. The old wooden floating dock, which served as a fishing pier for campers, visitors and residents and made launching boats from the adjacent ramp easier and safer, finally needed to be replaced following the 2008 season, after 16 years of faithful service – a reasonable and expected life expectancy for such a facility. An article in the January 2010 All Point Bulletin recalled:

“For nearly 36 years, visitors and members of the Point Roberts community have enjoyed the use of a floating dock next to the public boat ramp at Lighthouse Marine Park. Warm summer days saw as many as 200 boats launched from the site, and local boaters tied up to go ashore, while children and adults fished from the dock. The activity was so entertaining that many people brought lawn chairs to watch the all-day comings and goings of fishermen, crabbers and pleasure boaters. No longer.”

Local contractors begged the county to let them patch up the old dock, but county parks and recreation officials said, “No. That’s not the way to do public works. We need proper design engineering, competitive bidding, and proper contracting to replace the old dock with a new and improved dock.”

Unfortunately, county parks had never funded depreciation of capital assets and had no plan to replace the Lighthouse Park dock even though everyone knew that it was approaching the end of its useful life. County parks depends on grants from the state to fund capital projects and it took six long years to get our “new and improved” dock. Parks staff were quick to point out that, technically, the floating dock and adjacent boat ramp were unrelated. But somehow, in the absence of the dock, less attention was given to removing gravel and debris to keep the ramp usable.

The new and improved dock was supposed to be more stable than the old one, but the opposite was immediately clear to anyone who ventured out to the end. In any case, it only lasted a couple of months. It had to be removed, repaired and strengthened and we eventually got a couple of years out of it before it failed again, in 2018. Now we have learned that in the county’s opinion, there is no point in repeatedly spending large sums of money on repairs every year. The design was inadequate from the beginning, and the county plans to find some use for our dock elsewhere, perhaps on some calm lake. The dock is probably a lost cause, but why is abandoning this cherished amenity the solution instead of starting over to plan and fund a dock or a fixed pier that can survive the surf conditions at Lighthouse Park?

The “new and improved” boardwalk looks great, but it’s tiny compared to what we had before; the tables are no longer sheltered from the wind, making it far less usable throughout the year. Also gone are the electric outlets that allowed users (like the Wackie Walkers) to plug in their coffee pots or other appliances.

The biggest loss is something that could have been rather than something that went away: A proper lighthouse in Lighthouse Marine Park. About 10 years ago, a group of lighthouse enthusiasts known as the Point Roberts Lighthouse Society, came up with a beautiful octagonal design for a working lighthouse that would also serve as a marine observation platform and multipurpose facility for lectures, gatherings, weddings, etc. It was to be attached to the existing boardwalk, take advantage of the existing washrooms, connected by a wheel chair accessible ramp. The U.S. Coast Guard approved the plan to move its light to the new facility.

The basic plan was for the Lighthouse Society to raise the money needed for construction and for the county to then incorporate it into Lighthouse Park, accepting ownership and responsibility for the new facility in perpetuity. Initially, the proposal met with enthusiastic support from the county, but gradually that support waned, even as the Lighthouse Society obtained a pledge of $500,000 – if not enough to cover all construction costs, surely enough to attract additional grant funding to bridge the gap. But county parks was way too busy to assist on grant writing for a lighthouse and finally the county executive admitted that he opposed adding any new park facilities that would incur future maintenance costs and liabilities. Lighthouses are huge, iconic tourist attractions all over the world. The Point Roberts Lighthouse would have been a game changer for our tourist economy, bringing many visitors who would patronize local businesses.

At Lily Point Marine Park, the county has chosen to abandon the northern entrance (off Cedar Point Road) rather than spend the money on a solution to erosion that made the old trail unsafe. The Point Roberts Conservation Society (PRCS), which was an active partner in raising support and money to acquire the property that became Lily Point Marine Park, begged the county to acquire the lot at the end of Cedar Point Road, as part of the northern entrance. PRCS also lobbied to build a trail or stairway to the beach near the northern entrance so that park visitors could enjoy a loop hike along both the highlands and beach portions of the park. The response was that it would be too expensive (no doubt an engineering challenge but not impossible). When erosion cut the northern entrance trail, the county’s response was not to find a solution but to close the entrance.

Maple Beach is also a county park (on the ocean side of the sea wall). County parks has rebuffed all requests to develop it, at least minimally, for public enjoyment. There are no washrooms (not even a port-a-potty), no drinking faucet, no doggie poop bag dispenser, and no trash cans. Why can’t county parks provide these basic, minimal services to make Maple Beach Park more enjoyable to visitors and residents alike?

At Lighthouse Marine Park and elsewhere, we have seen our county park amenities chipped away, piece by piece, through lack of vision and support from the county. This is a trend that ought to be reversed.

I am encouraged that the Point Roberts Community Advisory Committee (PRCAC) plans to take up this matter with the county executive and Whatcom County Council. There will be a change in county leadership in 2020, and I am hopeful that the next county executive will be more imaginative.

(Mark Robbins is chair of the Point Roberts Taxpayers Association)