Bite-Sized Bits of News From Around Whatcom County

Everything’s changed at Photoworld Digital except Dan Downing, its owner for 26 years. The Bellingham store recently moved from Meridian Village to Barkley Village, across the breezeway from Bob’s Burgers & Brew, and changed its name from Photoworld to Photoworld Digital. Downing has installed an Agfa D-lab.1 digital processing lab, which he said is the only one in Washington that provides one-hour processing of digital media and film and can create prints as large as 8 inches by 12 inches.

The digital lab automatically enhances images by eliminating dust marks and scratches and by adjusting the contrast, color tone and sharpness. “It’s light years ahead of what’s in stores now,” Downing said. For photographers who want to make their own digital enhancements, the lab’s automatic corrections can be disabled, he added.

The digital processing lab accepts digital images from all sources including CDs, PC cards, memory sticks and Smart Media cards. Digital images also can be e-mailed to the store. The lab can digitally process and print 35 mm film in one hour and has a scanner for creating digital images from prints. For more information, call 734-3100.

Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) and Boundary Bay Brewery are working together on the second annual summer art exhibit and barbecue fundraiser for NSEA’s school programs. The event is Salmon at the Bay: Celebrating Salmon through Art and Music.

Over 50 local artists will exhibit art celebrating salmon, streams and aquatic habitats. Artwork will be displayed from August 2 to September 20, 2004. A salmon barbeque will also be held at Boundary Bay Brewery’s outdoor garden, on September 16, 2004, from 5-8 p.m. LaPush, Bellingham’s Original Raw Funk and Soul Orchestra, will also play on September 16 at 9 p.m. Tickets for the BBQ can be purchased at the Bellingham Food Co-op, Village Books or NSEA. For information, contact Wendy Scherrer at NSEA, 360-715-0283 x108 or wscherrer@n-sea.org.

Anyone who would like to learn more about stopping the cycle of illiteracy in Whatcom County is invited to stop in for information and refreshments at the Whatcom Literacy Council’s Open House on September 9.

Based on national statistics, it’s estimated that 30,000 adults in Whatcom County may be functionally illiterate. This means that these adults may not be able to fill out job applications, read product labels, open bank accounts, read to their children, use computers or do many other daily activities that we take for granted. Statistics show children of parents with poor literacy skills will most likely lack these skills as well. As of July 1 the Literacy Council had 60 students waiting for tutors so they can improve these critical life skills.

The staff and board members of the Whatcom Literacy Council will be there, ready to answer questions and share their interest in supporting adult tutoring. Interested persons may sign up for training at this time. Thursday, September 9, 7–8:30 p.m. at Bellingham Technical College, Building G. For more information call 647-3264, visit 230 W. Kellogg Road, Room 203, or see our Web site at http://www.whatcomliteracy.org.

For the past 90 years the Mountaineers organization has been a major force in the Northwest for promoting leadership in outdoor skills training and conservation activism. They are presenting this seminar program on most weekends throughout the year to share knowledge, skills and love of the outdoors with their Bellingham neighbors. For more information call 391-1105 or visit the Mountaineers Web site at http://bellinghammountaineers.org.

Upcoming seminar topics include: backpacking skills, understanding GPS, backcountry navigation, bivouac with style, cross-country skiing, ice axe arrest, outdoor photography, snowshoeing, rock climbing, and much more.

Whatcom County is in the process of drafting a plan for future growth in the Birch Bay area. The current proposal would allow the rural areas of Birch Point and Point Whitehorn to become urban. 1000 Friends of Washington are recommending that the Whatcom County Council remove Point Whitehorn and Birch Point from the urban growth area because these areas contain steep slopes, have shorelines that support a tremendous variety of marine waterfowl and herring habitat and drain directly into Puget Sound.

Ask the County Council to shrink the Urban Growth Boundary for Birch Bay and remove Point Whitehorn, Birch Point and the extensive wetlands from the Birch Bay UGA. Other points to make are:

•Protect Birch Bay and Puget Sound water quality by limiting urban growth on the marine shoreline.

•Protect steep slopes and environmentally sensitive areas and remove Birch Point and Point Whitehorn from the Urban Growth Area. Approximately 75 percent of the sand and sediment that maintain the Birch Bay beaches comes from Pt. Whitehorn. Developing Point Whitehorn at urban densities increases the likelihood that these sediments will be stopped and the beaches will erode.

•To include Pt. Whitehorn and Birch Point in the UGA will adversely affect some of the most important herring spawning areas in the North Puget Sound. Herring are important food sources for salmon and should be protected from urban growth.

•Preserve our rural character, protect important wetlands and stop sprawl by shrinking the UGA to exclude large wetland areas.

•Prepare a plan to equitably pay for the public facilities and services needed to serve the urban growth area so Whatcom County taxpayers will not end up having to foot the bill. Spend our tax dollars wisely. Growth is expensive. Locate it where the infrastructure already exists, not in rural areas.

—From 1000 Friends of Washington

Purchase a Peace Bond to support the Nonviolent Peaceforce, the world’s first “peace army” comprised of trained civilians who apply nonviolent strategies to protect human rights, deter violence and create space for local peacemakers to carry out their work. The Peaceforce is now in Sri Lanka, and you can support its work with the purchase of $10 Peace Bonds, available at the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center. Upon maturity the bearer will see a large international team trained for nonviolent conflict intervention around the world. Visit http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org.

Here are three opportunities to do voter registration: 1) By yourself: carry voter registration forms in your car or backpack. Forms are available at libraries, post offices, the peace center and the County Auditor’s office. Ask people you run into if they’re registered and help them fill out the form if they’re not. Keep the forms and send them in yourself; 2) Work with members of the League of Women Voters on Friday, Aug. 6, Friday Sept. 3rd and/or Saturday, Sept. 4—contact Jo Morgan at weavermorgan@comcast.net; 3) Work to register voters with Jobs with Justice folks (who also focus on universal health care)—call Leni Surdi at 714-8999.

Volunteer two hours or three hours for Whatcom Watch in August. We’re looking for people to staff our table at this year’s Community Food Co-Op annual picnic on Sunday, August 15, from noon to 6 p.m. in Boulevard Park. Can you take a two-hour shift? Our noon to two shift is covered. Contact Sally Hewitt at editor@whatcomwatch or call 599-2090. §