With today being the first day of October that means that it’s almost time for Deming’s Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest is a Bavarian festival held annually at the Deming Log Show Grounds. The dates for this years festival are October 10th-11th.

I have attended the festival for the past several years and have really grown to enjoy it. The entertainers include the Polkatones, Syl’s Ya Sure Ya Betcha Band and the Rogen Bogen Dancers. It’s great fun to come out and enjoy the folk dancing, singing and activities. You will be amazed just how talented the dancers are and in awe by there wonderful Bavarian Costumes.

Several Bavarian foods are on hand including the traditional german potatoes, brats and more! Breakfest is served Saturday and Sunday morning from 7:30am to 11:00am and then the doors open for the at 12pm and close at 12am.

Admission to Deming’s Oktoberfest is $9 with advance tickets and $11 at the door. 21 and older only please.  Camping is available for a $15 a night fee. To reach the Deming Log Show Grounds head out the Mt. Baker Hwy approx 12 miles east of Bellingham. Take a left on the Cedarville Rd, the log show ground are 1 mile up the road on the left hand side. Car parking is free.

Also please note that the Oktoberfest is a fund raiser for the “Busted Up Loggers Fund.” The fund goes to help injured loggers from Whatcom County and their families in their times of need. Tons of volunteer energy and time goes into this events and it’s well worth it, so come on out support our community, dance, sing, eat and have a great time!

Trying to take full advantage of some of the last “warm” days of this year we took a drive up some logging road on Washington State DNR land to enjoy the stunning views of Mt. Baker and the foothills that surrounds it.

This particular picture was taken from Sumas Mountian. 

 

Beautiful Mt. Baker

Just another reason why I feel so lucky to be able to call Whatcom County my home!

If you are still holding onto unused Lummi Island ferry punchcards that expired on June 1st, you have a limited time to exchange them for credit toward new cards.  With the summer car and driver rate up to $10 per trip, purchase of a new 10 trip punch card at $72 will save you $2.80 per trip, and purchase of a 25 trip punch card at $160 will save $3.60 per trip.  It’s worth stopping at the 2nd floor of 322 N Commercial St (across from the library lawn). . . or call 360-676-6876 and they will tell you how to exchange your old cards by mail.  The deadline for exchange is August 29th. Â

For those of you who live out in the County or who travel that way; the Everson-Goshen Rd is under repair this week.  The area around the Smith Rd interesection is being repaved.  Work on the road will take place between September 10th- Sept. 14th between the hours 7:00am to 7:00pm.

Take if from me if you can find an alternate way around take it!  I sat in the back up this morning for at least 15 minutes….

 Happy Driving!

Whatcom County Council this week defended their decision to put the new community center on the donated land in Balfour Village as opposed to the land across the street from Kendall Elementary School. The land opposite the school at Kendall Road and Mt. Baker Highway was favored by most because they felt that it was the most central location. However, the land in Balfour Village was donated.

Although the county council listened to residents, at the end of the day it came down to money. With the land being donated and water and sewer already on the property, it will save the county approximately $2 million. Economically, the land in Balfour Village just made sense.

I feel a bit bad for the people of that area since there was such high support for the elementary school location. However, the reality is that is $2 million more that can be put into the community center and it’s services.

In a unanimous vote, the Whatcom County council selected the less popular of two potential sites for a new community center. 3.7 acres across the street from the elementary school at the intersection of Kendall Rd and Mount Baker Highway was favored by residents for its easy access to all of the east county communities. However, the Whatcom County Council chose 6.2 acres within the new development Balfour Village instead.

Balfour Village developers offered the land to the community for free, while the other property was approximately $250,000. It is also a large piece of land and comes with water and sewer. County officials said they chose this land because it was free, had utilities, more land and was within walking distance to thousands of homes.

Supporters of the other location were shocked and some mentioned pursuing the land anyways.

The community center will have health classes, an early childhood center, library, college classes and senior services. East County residents currently have to drive into Bellingham to receive these services.

Eastern Whatcom County - For most Bellingham residents, it is a few small towns on the way to Mt. Baker. However, this area is growing faster than most. Kendall, Paradise, Maple Falls, Peaceful Valley, Glacier and Deming all have growing residential areas, but services out there are very limited. Currently, the closest boys and girls club is in Bellingham.

The residents of these towns and the Whatcom County Council want to change that. They are working towards a community center that would have health services, youth and senior activities, a library, job training, a food bank, and adult and distance education. There are two location options available: at the intersection of Mt. Baker Hwy and Kendall Rd across from the elementary school, or in a new housing development on Kendall Rd. The land for the latter option is being offered for free from Marble Falls who are developing 767 homes as well as a commercial center including a grocery store, public services, a sheriff substation and transit hub.

While the first option, at Mt. Baker Hwy and Kendall Rd would cost $258,525 to buy the land, it’s more central location appeals to those living in other towns. The project is expected to cost $5.5 million to build with funding coming from state grants and the economic development fund from Whatcom County.

Chapter 3 One of Kendall area water district’s commissioners may be losing her job. A 57-page complaint has been filed with the county auditor stating that Jutta Ahmed does not even live in Paradise Lakes, but rather lives in Vancouver, BC. Her voter registration has an address on Chestnut Drive, but the phone number listed is a BC number. 

The complaint includes evidence such as sworn statements and photographs to prove that Ahmed lives in Vancouver. If the complaint is affirmed, she will lose her position. History 

For those of you who haven’t been following the story, here is a recap for you. Since Ahmed was elected as a commissioner in November, meetings started to get quite heated. Her husband, Mohamed Ahmed, started to come to the meetings and video tape them. This led to meetings becoming even more heated (apparently a few punches were even thrown!) and racial slurs. 

The Ahmeds then filed a harassment complaint with the county and the meetings were temporarily moved to Bellingham where they were held in a lawyers office. Jutta Ahmed has not attended any meetings since leaving the remaining two commissioners, Gordon Travis and Linda Largent, deadlocked over several issues. Ahmed’s husband, who answered the BC phone number from the voter registration card, says that his wife is too afraid to attend the meetings. 

Through all this, the water district has not been in a great financial position. In spite of that, they decided to drop their rates earlier this year. The decision was revoked because it would have lead to them loosing $10,000 a month.  Furthermore, a state audit last year criticized the water district for spending over $400,000 on contracts without formal approval. Finally, to top it all off, the area is in need of some major work on the infrastructure of the water system. PS - if you would like to read chapters one and two, under categories, click on east county and scroll down to the two previous posts.

48 new homes will be built in Nooksack starting this spring. The Village at Nooksack is being built by Himalaya Homes Inc. of Snohomish County on land that they recently purchased for $3,762,500.

It will be interesting to see the development of smaller towns such as Everson, Nooksack and Sumas as Bellingham continues to grow. As prices and densities increase in Bellingham, many people may start to look further out in the county to find newer homes, on reasonable size lots that are affordable.

Highway 9 will be closed for approximately 3 weeks to repair a cracked section of the road. Vehicles are being re-routed to the I-5 via the Mt. Baker Highway in Bellingham and Highway 20 near Burlington.

Colacurcio Brothers Construction won the bid for the work and will be digging out the unstable soil beneath the road and replacing it with rock. The project has an estimated cost of $500,000.