Check out these 10 nerdy cakes, and then look over some amazing Super Mario cakes.

And of course, no post about geeky cakes would be complete without R2-D2.

When the going gets tough, the tough get … litigious?

Today, the County Council public works committee discussed ugly new budget projections that show Whatcom County may have to cancel most or all of the road projects it’s planning over the next six years because it won’t have the money.

I wrote a story for Tuesday’s A1 about the whole situation, but I wanted to include a detail here that didn’t make it into the story.

Facing trouble paying for road projects, County Council member Barbara Brenner suggested suing the state for not helping to pay to improve intersections on state routes. One example is the intersection of East Pole and Hannegan roads, where the county is widening the asphalt and installing a stop light to the tune of roughly $4.6 million. Pole Road is a state route, but the state Department of Transportation isn’t helping to pay for the project.

DOT officials have told me they, frankly, just don’t have the money for many new projects.

Brenner suggested filing a lawsuit against the DOT for not helping upgrade county-road-state route intersections. She really wants to improve the heavily traveled intersection of Birch Bay-Lynden Road (a county road) and Blaine Road (a state route). She wants to have a closed-door session to talk about the possibility.

County Road Engineer Joe Rutan said the county and state have an agreement addressing cost sharing on projects. There are issues to discuss. But, he said, the agreements goes both ways, and the county has a lot of roads that cross their routes.

I thought our recent story about population growth in the county was interesting.

The story reported that there was a net population increase of 2,700 people from April 2007 to April 2008 across Whatcom County. The figure represents the smallest growth in the county since 2003, just 1.4 percent. The growth rate was 2.1 percent between April 2006 and April 2007. Read the story here

All of this according to figures from the state’s Office of Financial Management, which is in charge of tracking population on the state on an annual basis in the years between U.S. Census collections.

The slowdown represents a lot of things, most especially the collapse of the housing market all along the West Coast. People can’t afford to sell and move at a time of dropping prices and are hunkering down in Los Angeles and Seattle and the other big cities waiting for the economy to turn around before trying to sell and move here.

In addition, a lot fewer people are buying homes as investments. It’s just not as lucrative as it was five years ago.

I consider that adjustment natural. Anyone who thought the 20-percent annual increases in home values that occurred five years ago was normal or average was fooling themselves.

But it’s also telling to me that no matter the economy, we continue to grow. That’s an important fact for government officials to consider when they are planning for the future. No matter the economy, unnaturally high five years ago or in a slump now, more people want to live in Whatcom County. I can see no evidence that trend is ever going to stop. I honestly can’t imagine any scenario in which people won’t be fleeing larger cities when they can afford to, to move to our quiet neck of the woods.

In my book this slight slowing should serve as impetus for local government to get caught up in their growth planning. Our county and cities are woefully behind, and because of that the tail is wagging the dog – people are moving to where it is easier or cheaper, not necessarily to the places that will serve our quality of life over the long-term.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this phenomenon. Do you think our growth will ever stall? Do you think the latest figures should change how we are approaching growth planning? Is our community doing the right things to protect itself as more population continues to stream in?

I’ve been trying to prepare for potential candidate forums for this election and I’m sad to say that the League of Women Voters of Bellingham/Whatcom County won’t be doing one, at least for the primary.

That’s too bad, because their last one (they did it with KGMI and the Whatcom Independent) I was able to live blog from the Whatcom County Courthouse. It was my first go at it and it was definitely a success, as I was able to keep track easily and people were refreshing the page over and over, seemingly interested in the tidbits I had to share.

Jo Morgan, 1st Vice President of the local LWV, checked into the forums for me and received a response back, which she forwarded to me, from Georgia MacGregor, the LWV Voters Service Chair:

Hi Jo,
Glad you had such a terrific trip. We have not planned any forums for the Primary. There have been some judicial candidates individual meetings, but there didn’t appear to be enough time, support or even possibly interest to justify the expense in renting space and publicity.

I know we will be doing the Initiatives in the Fall. With the demise of the Indy we have lost a partner and sponsorship. Truly a blow. The parties I believe will certainly be doing a lot of activity for the Primary. The Top Two certainly changes the whole scheme.

At least one forum that we should be able to rely on is the Bill Mize Forum at the Rome Grange on the Mount Baker Highway. I have a call in to them to find out day and time (haven’t gotten a call back yet).

Meanwhile, the The League of Women Voters of Bellingham/Whatcom County will be participating in the Statewide Voter Registration day, July 18th. They will be at The Woods Coffee location at Railroad Ave. and Chestnut St. in downtown Bellingham from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The last day to register to vote is July 19 (one day after this voter drive) if you want to participate in the August primary.

Aluminum Chambered Boats announced Monday that it has hired Jim Moore as president and chief operating officer.

Moore will replace Tim Metz in that position. Metz will remain with the company, focusing on the company’s newly emerging Composite Ballistic Armor System.

Moore was the former president of Renaissance Marine Group, Weldcraft and Lund Boats, bringing nearly 35 years of industry experience to ACB.

Larry Wieber, founder and CEO of the company, said they hired Moore because of his track record and to help meet the company’s growth goals.

For the past three years I’ve kept a list of businesses that have closed in Whatcom County. It’s very unofficial because no agency I know of keeps track of such things. I do a lot of driving/checking around Whatcom County, because some don’t send out much notice before closing up shop.

Through the first half of 2008 there were 38 businesses on my closure list, which is already more than all of 2007, when there were 33. Of those 38 that have closed, 27 were small businesses that had local ownership, usually where the owner is behind the counter, running the business.

Here’s a list of the last few that I’ve noticed in recent weeks: The Edge (on Cornwall in Bellingham), Fantasia on Cornwall (a new cafe is expected to open there soon), Cigarettes Cheaper at Sunset Mall, Lowery Furniture on Meridian, The Whatcom Independent newspaper, 12 St. Shoes on Birch Bay Square and Stewart Title’s Fairhaven office. I’ve seen ads that Mud In Your Eye pottery shop in Fairhaven is having a retirement sale, but haven’t had a chance to talk to the owners there.

With a slowing U.S. economy, I would have thought there would have been more national retailers on the list, much like Mervyn’s and Toys R Us in previous years. Is this the kind of slowdown that’s hurting the small business more than big companies?

Also, if you see a business that just closed, let me know. It’s an unfortunate sign of the times when it’s hard to keep track of them all.

*Update 6* - All other updates are below but this is just to let you know that this passed out of the three-person Natural Resources Committee unanimously and will now have a public hearing on July 22.

Here’s my placeholder for the council committee meeting discussing the imposition of a new tax (they call it a fee) on property owners in the Birch Bay watershed.

It should be interesting to hear what people have to say today. Barbara Brenner was the only County Council member at the March 13, 2007 meeting to oppose the creation of the Birch Bay Watershed and Aquatic Resources Management District. It passed 6-1.

But now is the imposition of a new tax, something that the two conservative council members, Sam Crawford and Ward Nelson, will always scrutinize and don’t generally seem to be fond of. Count Brenner in that sometimes, too. In this, she may already be opposed, since she opposed the creation of the district that would collect this fee.

I’m walking to the courthouse right now.

*Update 1* - At the courthouse now. I just had a brief chat with Crawford as he was walking in with his motorcycle helmet in hand.

He said that one issue involved today should be that BP, which has the refinery in the new management district/watershed, wants to pay less than they apparently would under the county’s proposal.

That amount? $170,000, Crawford told me.

The amount BP thinks they should have to pay based on an independent analysis? $50,000.

Crawford said BP is arguing that, because they’re heavily regulated by the state Department of Ecology already they’ve done aggressive wetlands mitigation on their property already. That would mean they have “crystal clear” water coming off their property now.

Crawford told me BP will be here at the meeting to make their case with some handouts.

We shall wait and see.

More updates below the fold. They’re good. They’re good for you, builds character.

Read more! »

You may recall my blog from yesterday about the new noxious weeds public service announcement videos created by the county and posted on YouTube.

I poked some fun at the county for the title of their video, which sounds a bit more like videos, well, “Weed!” then it sounds like it’s about weeds, plural.

But one commenter wanted to know how much the county paid to produce the videos.

I got the answer.

From Laurel Baldwin, coordinator of the Whatcom County Noxious Weed Control Board (yes, there’s actually a governing body to combat weeds in this county):

Greetings,

There are three 30-second PSA’s and one 30-minute video in which the Noxious Weed Board has had a part in the production. All videos were produced by Black Dog Productions between 2003 and 2006, and the cost breakdown is as follows:

The “Knotweed!” PSA was done in cooperation with the City of Bellingham, as an in-kind contribution ($2,000.00) to a grant for the Noxious Weed Board from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 2003-2004.

“Weed!", the 30-minute video on aquatic weeds, and “Gill Man", the 30-second PSA were funded by a grant from the Department of Ecology and in an interlocal agreement with the City of Bellingham for a cost of $12,500.00, 2004-2005.

The “Spotted Knapweed” PSA was customized/voiced-over for Whatcom County from an Idaho-funded production at a cost of $1,000.00 in 2006.

The PSA’s are featured on the website of The Nature Conservancy, and two of them have been customized for several other agencies across the US (showing on public access and in movie theatres) with additional inquiries from Europe, South Africa, Australia, and Tasmania.

Please let me know of any additional information I can provide.

Regards,

Laurel Baldwin, Coordinator

======================================
Whatcom County Noxious Weed Control Board

Bolding is mine.

Hope this helps.

CitizenSteve over at Washington Outsiders did my work for me and offered up two more tests to see where you fall on the political spectrum. It was something I promised to do for people in the comments yesterday, because the other test was so black and white.

You can check out these two tests below:

The Political Compass (Steve liked this one best. I think I probably do, too, for it’s depth and also for the method at how it plots people better).

Beyond Red vs. Blue - Political Typology

I want to thank those of you who took part in the discussion in the last 24 hours on this blog about America and how it stands today.

I don’t think there is any way, no matter how much writers post here, that we will find an agreement about the state of America and whether it stands at one of its lowest points in history in terms of the freedom and independence.

But I personally agree with commenter “rainmann30,” who said:

This board shows why America is still healthy and vibrant.

That was the point of my original Independence Day column. Like rainmann, I look at the discussion that goes on in this community about everything from Iraq to Fairhaven Highlands to Lake Whatcom and see a healthy debate that could not take place in some cultures or countries in this world.

People can, and should, debate whether President Bush is a good or bad president and whether his actions or helped or harmed this nation today and in the long run. That debate is not just healthy, but incredibly necessary. It is important that those of us who live through this time leave a historical record for people hundreds of years from now to look back at and talk about.

I’m so glad to be part of helping create a platform for that discussion. It is the one true joy of doing this job.

Please feel free to continue the discussion on the blog today. And I’ll be back later in the day to talk about a more local issue: the latest figures that show growth slowing in the county and what that might mean to the future of Whatcom County.

And tonight they’ll introduce a resolution that would create monthly charges on property in that watershed, which spans from just outside of Ferndale on the West all the way over to Birch Bay. It won’t be voted on until July 22 at the earliest. Today is just discussion during a 9:30 a.m. committee meeting, which I’ll be at and live blogging.

The way it works is like this: depending on how much impervious surface area (stuff like concrete, where water can’t penetrate into the ground to be filtered but instead runs off and brings more pollutants along with it) one has on property, and depending on the overall size of the property, a designation of low, medium or high is given. Low would be a property with less impervious surface compared to the overall size whereas high would be a property with a lot of impervious surface covering much more of the area of the property.

Examples would be an average single-family residential home with a nice big yard compared to a condo with very little area that doesn’t have concrete pad on it.

The charges?

Those are monthly charges, and a property owner will receive their bill annually on their property tax bills. That means they’ll pay the first half in April and the second half in October.

The proposal includes exemptions for disabled residents and senior citizens.

There are various mechanisms for appeal but one has to prove, using a professional surveyors information (you’d have to hire this person), that you have less impervious surface than the county thinks. They’ve done a lot of work already, according to their documents, to analyze each property. The average single-family residential property has about 4,000 square feet of impervious surface on it, and so that’s the basis for the charges.

The charges are designed to pay for stormwater enchancement projects in the watershed area. The first six projects, through 2014, are estimated to cost about $3.45 million, but that’s not a hard figure, said County Planner Kraig Olason.

Other components and costs include educational programs and administration of the new funds.

We’ve had plenty to chat about on this first day back from my vacation. 40th Legislative District candidates who are bringing in heaps of money, a former candidate getting a snazzy job, local MoveOn’ers protesing McCain, my lack of salmon catching in Alaska.

It’s all in a days work, but isn’t it just the most fun?

I agree.

We’ll be back here tomorrow. Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel. I’ll also probably live blog a committee meeting in the morning where Whatcom County Council members will discuss the imposition of a new tax on property owners in the Birch Bay watershed, which spans all the way from basically right outside of Ferndale on the west down to Birch Bay.

Some residents are up in arms about the proposal, especially those closer to Ferndale who don’t think they should have to pay. Well, at this point, the County Council already created the subzone that allows for governance and imposition of the new taxes (they term them “fees"). So now the issue is whether or not the council agrees with the proposed new taxes and how those new taxes will be spent (millions for capital improvements and educational campaigns but also a hefty chunk for administration of the program).

I’m also starting a new venture tomorrow. My wife and I both bought bus passes and I’m seeing how it works out. With gas so expensive I can save bunches of cash – between $120 and $160 per month – by not buying as much gas. I’ll just have to take more time trying to get to interviews I have to travel more. And I’ll still be using my car on days I have night meetings. Should be an interesting adventure, but I think it will work out nicely. Reporters in larger cities, like New York, don’t generally have cars and seem to do just fine. So can a reporter in Bellingham, Wash., I think.

See you tomorrow.

Dear Candidates for Elective Office,

Please, for the love of all that’s holy, provide me with information on your campaign events as early as possible. A week in advance is best.

When you send me information on an event at 5:31 p.m. the day before the event, it won’t make it into the newspaper. Because it’s a print product. And I have deadlines.

Mark Flanders campaign is the most recent guilty party, but several other campaigns have provided late information.

I issued a warning about getting information to me in advance previously on the blog, right here.

It would really help me – and I think you too, Candidates for Elective Office – if you heeded this advice.

Help me help you.

Love,
Sam

Mark Flanders event information for tomorrow at the Blue Horse Gallery is below the fold.

Read more! »

From the Whatcom County MoveOn.org supporters:

National Events Highlight John McCain’s Close Friendship with Big Oil, and Question His Commitment To Energy Independence and Lower Gas Prices,

Bellingham— On Wednesday, July 9th, MoveOn members in Bellingham and elsewhere will hold rallies for an “oil-free president” to call attention to John McCain’s close ties to the oil industry. The events will highlight Senator McCain’s history of protecting oil company profits at a time when consumers need real solutions to rising gas prices. This event is one of several hundred around the country. The National Day of Action takes place as gas prices have spiked to an all-time high, and oil companies are coming off a year of record profits.

Read more! »

Stephanie Kountouros, the former Whatcom for Obama coordinator (she handed over the reigns of the group, not sure if she’s back doing that at this point) who also had a brief stint as a Democratic candidate for the 40th Legislative District Senate seat of retiring Sen. Harriet Spanel, has been hired by Planned Parenthood.

She provided this press release to me today:

Bellingham, WA — Stephanie Kountouros has been hired by Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood for the position of Public Policy Coordinator. She takes the place of Christina Carr who has been accepted into the medical program at Harvard.

Stephanie’s experience includes radio-television and social service work with domestic violence, people living with AIDS, chemical dependency and mental health as well as child survivors of abuse and street youth.

Stephanie formed and coordinated Whatcom for Obama, a grassroots organization that increased support and visibility for the presidential candidate. Most recently, she ran for state senate in the Fortieth Legislative District. Stephanie received her Masters of Social Work on June 12, 2008 and is excited to bring her combined media, political and social justice focus to this position.

Kountouros dropped out of the race for the 40th after not being receiving the nomination or the endorsement of the 40th District Democrats in recent weeks and months. She told me she is still active in the party.

She travels next week to D.C. for a Planned Parenthood policy conference until July 23.

Western Washington University’s Vice President for External Affairs recently stepped down from his position to return to Montana for personal and family reasons.

Robert Frazier, who started at WWU in 2005, has helped the university with waterfront planning and acting as a legislative liaison.

Sherry Burkey, WWU’s director of Government Relations, will serve as the interim vice president of external affairs until a permanent replacement is selected.

Before coming to WWU, Frazier worked in multiple administrative positions at University of Montana.

This is a fairly black and white test from the Spokesman-Review but it’s still interesting, nonetheless. Though the questions are fairly strict, the quiz shows that you can still be slightly more conservative or liberal on one issue but still align with the overall values of one of the parties or one philosophy.

Check it out, right here.

Cross-posted from Huckleberries Online.

Q: What’s the quiz say about you?

40th LD state Senate candidate Kevin Ranker (top left) has been endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice of America and also received endorsements from the Service Employees International Union local 925 and 775. The 925 is based in Seattle and has a branch office in Bellingham, while the 775 is out of Federal Way.

Ranker’s campaign is also touting the fact that they’re now ahead in fundraising, with more than $46,000 in contributions. However, I also got a press release from Democrat Ken Henderson, who is boasting that he’s now at more than $48,000 in campaign contributions.

Henderson (bottom left) also announced three more union endorsements, including one from the Washington State Labor Council (he had already been endorsed by the Northwest Washington Labor Council).

When it comes to contributions and endorsements, these guys are definitely ahead of the pack. Democrat Hue Beattie is refusing any type of political action committee money and only wants donations from small donors. He lists $995 in named cash contributions and small contributors (unnamed donations). Democrat Paul Gonzales lists $2,875. Both Beattie and Gonzales haven’t updated their electronic Public Disclosure Commission reports since May, the last time they were due. The next reports are due July 29 (a nifty birthday present for me!). Candidates, however, can update any time they’d like, which Henderson, Ranker and Republican Steve Van Luven have done.

Van Luven has raised $13,575, according to his reports that were last updated June 30.

You can read the press releases from Ranker and Henderson below the fold.

Read more! »

The state Department of Transportation says within the next few weeks crews will restripe the intersection of Mount Baker Highway and Britton Road to create a left-turn lane.

But there won’t be enough room to create a right-turn-only lane, according to the DOT.

The project will also create a left-turn refuge for drivers making a left from Britton onto the highway. They’ll also extend the no-passing zone near there.

Many people asked the DOT about that intersection during a recent open house to talk about Mount Baker Highway improvements. Click here to see my past article on the improvements, and click here to see my past blog post on it.

The DOT will let us know when they know what the work schedule is for the highway and Britton.

Here’s an interesting report from NBC News, but it’s message, that high oil prices are increasing the costs of road-construction projects, won’t come as a surprise to many of you.

Click here to see the report. Thanks for Frank Abart, director of Whatcom County Public Works, for sending this over to me.

According to the report, the cost of asphalt has increased 70 percent in the last five years.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, a nonprofit that advocates for improvements to the nation’s roadways, sent out a press release bragging that the group’s executive director, John Horsley, was quoted in the broadcast saying, “We’re experiencing the perfect storm in terms of maintaining the nation’s highways.”

Locally, some jurisdictions have decided to borrow at once and do a bunch of road projects, before they get more expensive. Lynden has done this over the past several years, just about maxing out the amount it could borrow but getting the projects done for a lot less than they would now cost.

It’s also affecting Whatcom County government, which is seeing decreased revenues and increased project costs. Soon, the County Council will start looking at which projects to do and which to nix or hold off on.