From Stark:
If you stay in this business long enough, everything old becomes new, and vice versa.
It’s worth noting that back in 1981, port and railroad people made no mention of any existing right-of-way across the county on an east-west alignment to Cherry Point. They concluded that obtaining that right-of-way would be too difficult.
One might wonder: Why wasn’t such a seemingly logical link between the two parallel rail lines built decades ago? The answer seems to be that these two lines (Blaine-Bellingham-Everett via the coast, and Sumas-Burlington, via the South Fork-Highway 9 trajectory) were not built to form a coherent rail network. They were competing lines.
I’m going to oversimplify a bit here and get true rail history scholars a bit agitated, but it basically went like this: The coastal line originated as the Fairhaven & Southern, which was absorbed by Great Northern and later became part of the BNSF system. The Sumas route, a portion of it at least, was built by the Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad, which eventually joined the Milwaukee Road.
This BB&BC RR had tracks extending from Bellingham northeast through such places as Van Wyck and Goshen before joining up with the north-south line that linked Sumas to Sedro-Woolley and Burlington. The existence of that connection enabled Bellingham people to take the train to the first Northwest Washington Fair in Lynden in 2010.
But that link was abandoned when Milwaukee Road shut down. That leaves the Bellingham coastal route as the most direct rail connection to Cherry Point.
I doubt that we will ever be a major coal terminal. We are long down the list of first choices.
If all the ports along the coast pass on a coal terminal, we might have a shot. Just like 1981.
But I don’t see other ports not looking at the economic benefits of any new business. Communities are desperate for jobs and business, and they will compete for both.
The winner of the competition will have jobs, taxes, and a rising housing market.
The loser …. well …
PS; John you are getting old. An article yo wrote in 1981. I was in first grade.
If you want to see what the coal terminal will be all about just go to the ferry landing at Tswassen and look to the west. You will then know where the many coal trains that pass through here with our natural resources are unloading to be shipped to China. How could we be soooo stupid??
Well Princess, maybe someday you’ll be older, and wiser, too.
History repeats itself and so does fashion; mini-skirts and tube-tops may have looked pretty good on some of us in 1981, (certainly on me they did) but not so much in 2011.
I think this issue is becoming more complicated than what it needs to be, and to begin with some of the language should be changed to reflect what the “terminal” really is, which as a most astute reader over in the comments section discerned, nothing more than a coal dump.
Grace: I’m not sure we’re so far down the list as you say. The Cherry Point site has rail access, deep water near shore, and lots of acreage available. Of course, that has been the case since well before 1981 and nothing has happened yet.
That said, installing one of these terminals in an existing, busy port facility might be even more expensive than building it at a blank-slate site like the one Gateway Pacific owns at the end of Gulf Road.
There will only be a few jobs, the tax benefit will be offset by whatever bill the public gets stuck with for the infrastructure for this boondoggle and the housing market will be unaffected throughout the county, except of course close to the trains where the value and desireability will go down.
John, in the Herald around that time you’ve probably got a few letters to the editor I and my friends Jim & Edie Trotter, who moved here from near a transhipment port in Pennnsylvania and warned us off, wrote back then in opposition. I even have a copy of the Citizen Voice and the article they did…
My prediction this time….who knows……
Your rail history is a little simplified but mostly accurate:
The “Sumas Route” from Ballard to Sumas was built by the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern, a Burke/Gillman property which was ultimately acquired by the Northern Pacific (now part of BNSF); the remainder from Burlington to Sumas is the present-day BNSF connection. The Lynden branch WAS part of the BB&BC, but the Sumas-to-Lynden section is all that’s left of that entity still operating.
And MV Terminal (itself a remnant of the Interurban) is now all but defunct, operating only a few spurs in Mount Vernon.
Bring on the rail traffic! The Bellingham Subdivision is presently underutilized….
The seaside railroad’s days are numbered. Despite their superhuman scale, railroads come and go as we are reminded by the rotting trestle in Whatcom Falls Park, the Inter-Urban Trail, and Railroad Grade on Mt. Baker.
The US Navy forecasts that the sea level will rise as much as six feet by the end of the century (and we know forecasts generally are optimistic). That means it will become increasingly expensive to armor the tracks from the waves with rip rap, if there is enough rip rap in the world to protect the miles of exposed tracks.
The armoring of the railroad tracks damages the ecology of the coast. It disturbs the along shore flow of currents and increases erosion of adjacent properties. It replaces sandy, weedy shallows with a hard drop off.
Yesterday, in a press conference, the State Senate Transportation Committee discussed the budget, and talked about the high speed rail money coming for “the I-5 Corridor”. Planners for the high speed rail cannot ignore the potential sea level rise as a cost of that investment. It is hard to believe that we would be so short-sighted as to throw good money after bad on the obsolete seaside railway. (It was mentioned that Washington will share in the pot left on the table by the governors of Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida.)
Pretty sure the first Lynden Fair was in 1910, not 2010. I would have loved to take a train there last year, though.
Is Cherry Point a deep water port?
With a 500 yard pier and conveyor belt it is.
Ask yourself what kind of job you’d have at the Coal Dump.
Then ask yourself what it would pay.
You won’t find any answers from the PR staff so you are free to make up any wage you want.
How desperate are we for a job that we’d sacrifice our standard of living to get one.
Desperation makes for stupid choices.
Hi. This post was totally fascinating, particularly because I was searching for info on this matter last night.
Citizen – Actually, the staff for SSA Marine and Craig Cole have said the job salaries would likely be in the $68,000 range, according to a recent presentation to the Ferndale City Council. I believe that’s before benefits. The estimate for salary and benefits combined would be about $90,000 per year. SSA Marine and various local unions have all said the jobs will be unionized.
You can read the City Council meeting minutes from March 21 for the full presentation breakdown plus a Q&A with residents that attended the meeting from both in and out of Ferndale to have their say and get some early answers on questions.
http://www.cityofferndale.org/council/Minutes/2011/CouncilMinutes03.21.2011.pdf
Very first Lynden fair was 1911: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/08/18/1576881/through-100-years-northwest-washington.html#storylink=misearch
Although, technically, there were a few fairs I believe in the 1904-1905 range that were much smaller. That organization sort of died out (they were more like street fairs in town) and then in 1911 the fair organization was officially created and they had their first fair that fall.
I spent a lot of time looking at very interesting microfilm on those first fairs for the centennial celebration The Herald wrote about last year. It’s absolutely fascinating to see how the fair has changed over the years (and, also, not changed).
$90,0000. a year means high tech and very few of them. But I think that estimate is ludicrous compared to the salaries of similar jobs elsewhere. Even if it was the 40 or so jobs at $90,000 before taxes, that is not enough for what we are giving up. Plus my money is on that bunko information being just so much BS.
On March 21 Ferndale Council Meeting all present council members voted anonymously for a resolution to support Coal Terminal, based sole on a presentation by the developer on a previous council meeting… curiously underreported current event…
Taylor was there…
Can’t recall any public discussion about that important endorsement, no public, town hall meeting in any form, besides that one, poorly advertised if at all, presentation by the developer at a council meeting, in the council chamber/ municipal court building, the size of a large living room of some single family home, where not much public can attend anyhow…: so council voted to endorse the project.
Ferndale supports the new terminal.
Of course, subject council meeting wasn’t held on March 21, but last Monday…first Monday in April, the 4 th… is that important? Relatively little.
It wasn’t anonymous at all. They had a public vote to ask staff to draw up a resolution supporting the project, Art. You’re are blatantly wrong, and it would appear purposefully so. That’s very disappointing.
Meanwhile – it’s absolutely no secret that the Ferndale City Council meets on the first and third of every month and we publish the agenda on the city’s website usually Wednesday or Thursday prior to the Monday meeting. That’s faster than the other small cities in Whatcom County and we’re very proud of that. It comes out around the same timeframe as the Bellingham City Council and Whatcom County Council agendas, which are part of governments that have 600-800 staff members. We have 70.
You’re also wrong as to when the resolution itself was approved.
There was a hearing on that during the April 4 council meeting, with no presentation from SSA at that meeting, and where multiple members of the public spoke in favor of the project including your son, who you sat next to during the meeting.
Mayor Jensen also pulled the resolution, which was very standard, from the consent agenda onto the regular agenda to give the public the opportunity to speak to it more thoroughly and they spoke about it directly during that agenda item’s consideration during the meeting.
So let’s be clear. There was a presentation by SSA Marine at the March 21 meeting, which was advertised and the agenda came out five days prior to the meeting. At that meeting, the council asked staff to author a resolution in support. Two weeks later, so the public was clearly very aware that they’d ask for consideration of a resolution (during a unanimous vote, again, not anonymous), the council had another hearing specific to the resolution with not one comment against the project, and they had a roll call vote, meaning each council member publicly said yes or no to the resolution.
It passed unanimously, with Councilmember Zimmerman absent.
That is reflected in the meeting minutes as it is reflected in the council follow-up agenda, which was authored the day after the meeting, sent out to the agenda packet distribution e-mail list (which anyone can join via the council’s webpage) and was also placed on the council’s section of the website.
Shaun – The information came from both SSA Marine as well as union members in the audience. I can’t speak to the accuracy of the info, just that it has been provided, which is what appeared to be citizen’s concern. You might consider phoning up Northwest Washington Labor Council President Dave Warren to get his take. He was that March 21 meeting, which happened to be a full crowd.