Dream for new synagogue becoming a reality

Congregation Beth Israel has been waiting years for its new synagogue. Their dream is getting closer to coming true.

Congregation Beth Israel is preparing to start on the next step toward their dream of a new synagogue.

Beth Israel will be begin blasting the site where the foundation for the synagogue will be built within the next three weeks, said Dan Raas, member of Beth Israel’s New Synagogue Task Force. The current synagogue, built in 1924, is located at 2200 Broadway in Bellingham.

The new synagogue will be built southeast of the dead end of San Juan Boulevard, according to the conditional use permit for the property. The synagogue will be 25,000 square feet, according to the permit.

Congregation Beth Israel has been eagerly awaiting the new synagogue, said Diane Garmo, a life-long member of the congregation.

The congregation has outgrown the current synagogue, said Raas.

The congregation has grown from about 65 members to about 210 members in the last 30 years, said Raas.

Members are actually measured by family unit, so one “member” could be up to eight people, according to Congregation President Jeff Jaffe.

“The building is next to worn out,” Raas said. “We need to find a new home.”

The congregation hopes to use the new synagogue for at least 50 years, he said. They expect their membership to grow, he said.

Beth Israel secures the location

Beth Israel bought about 20 acres of land at the location, Raas said. They traded about 3 acres to the city in exchange for not having to pay some of the road assessments for San Juan Boulevard, he said.

The city is going to use the 3 acres for a neighborhood park, according to Raas.

Beth Israel secured the conditional use permit for the land in July 2007.

All of the money for the land and construction comes from donations the congregation receives, Jaffe said.

Raas explained that the property for the new synagogue is just outside the City of Bellingham limits, in land owned by Whatcom County.

So far, Beth Israel has cleared seven acres and built a storm water retention pond to make sure rainwater does not run off the property into neighbors’ yards, Raas said.

Blasting is the next step in constructing the synagogue. After the blasting is complete, the foundation for the synagogue can begin to be built, Raas said.

Construction on the foundation should begin this summer, he said.

Beth Israel is not sure how long the project will take to complete, it all depends on donations and weather circumstances, Jaffe said.

Neighbors are welcoming

At first, the synagogue was a controversial topic with new neighbors because the landscape of uninterrupted woods would soon be dramatically changed, according to Laurel Cook, member of the Puget Neighborhood Board of Directors. But now neighbors are pleased that the synagogue is being built because it means the land won’t be developed into multiple houses, she said.

There will be less traffic and a more positive impact for the neighborhood with the synagogue being constructed rather than developing the land for more houses, said Mary Chaney, president of the Puget Neighborhood Association.

Blasting is somewhat worrying to neighbors, but the company doing the blasting, McCallum Rock Drilling Inc., is very reputable, Cook said.

Beth Israel will place seismographs, machines that measure shake in the ground, on the properties of the closest neighbors while blasting to make sure their property does not shake, according to Raas.

Beth Israel alerted the neighborhood of the upcoming blasting in a letter to the Puget Neighborhood Association, Chaney said.

“I think they’ll be a wonderful neighbor,” Chaney said.

Beth Israel gets involved in the community

Congregation Beth Israel is very involved within the community, said Linda Hirsh, chair of the Social Action Committee.

They respect the idea of “mitzvah,” a commandment that basically means repair the world, Hirsh said.

The congregation participates in a number of local volunteer organizations including Whatcom Volunteer Center, Bellingham Food Bank, Friendly Visitors and Whatcom County Humane Society, said Hirsh.

Beth Israel is also a member of the Interfaith Coalition, a Bellingham group that unites different religions and performs volunteer work for the community, said Debbie Raas, co-chair of the Social Action Committee.

The Interfaith Coalition owns a severe weather shelter for homeless members of the community as well as houses where homeless families can stay for up to two years, Debbie Raas said.

Beth Israel also has been putting on an event in May called Mitzvah Day for the past three years, Hirsh said. Mitzvah Day consists of volunteers from the congregation gardening on the farm for the food bank, doing trail and stream restoration with Bellingham Parks Department, and sewing outerwear and blankets with the Whatcom Volunteer Center, she said.

For any questions or concerns about the new synagogue or construction, contact Whatcom County or Congregation Beth Israel at 360-733-8890.

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New Puget Plan takes next step

The Bellingham Planning and Development Commission recommended the new Puget Neighborhood Plan to the Bellingham City Council in a meeting May 13.

Next, the Bellingham City Council will consider the plan, taking into account the fact that the Planning Commission recommended it for adoption.

The re-write of the 15-year-old neighborhood plan has been in the works for three years, said Mary Chaney, president of the Puget Neighborhood Association.

The amendments to the old plan include revisions to the sections on open space, transportation and public utilities and services.

One of the main proposals is for small neighborhood parks with playgrounds and picnic areas.

The transportation updates focus on identifying safety problem areas in the neighborhood, especially Lakeway Drive. The four goals of options, accessibility, safety and connectivity sum up the transportation policies, said Chaney in her speech to the Planning Commission.

The City Council meeting will be held within the next couple of months, said Chaney.

Puget Neighborhood Plan: http://sites.google.com/site/pugetneighborhood/document-center

Puget Neighborhood Association: http://sites.google.com/site/pugetneighborhood/Home

Bellingham Planning and Development Commission: http://www.cob.org/government/public/boards-commissions/planning.aspx

Bellingham City Council: http://www.cob.org/government/council/index.aspx

“Walking School Bus” causes controversy

The decision to possibly eliminate a school bus angers parents.

Bellingham School District is considering eliminating a bus route from Carl Cozier Elementary School after the district built a walking bridge so that students can walk to school, said Kim Brown, Transportation Options coordinator for the city.

Eliminating a bus route to save money was a big part of the decision to add boardwalks, bike lanes, and streetlights to Fraser Street, said Freeman Anthony, the project engineer.

According to state laws, if students live within one mile of their school and a safe walking route exists, the district is not required to provide a bus for the students, said Brown.

The bus route that would be eliminated serves Regency Park Apartments on Fraser Street. The bus picks up about 40 students from kindergarten to fifth grade from the apartment complex and brings them to Carl Cozier, said Breanna Ramsey, a parent of two children, who lives at Regency Park.

Many of the parents at Regency Park with children that attend Carl Cozier are against the idea of eliminating the bus route, said Karla Anderson, a parent from Regency Park.

“We gotta have the bus,” said Megan Kycek, whose child attends Carl Cozier. “This is ridiculous.”

Parents are against eliminating the bus route

Anderson said that she loves the new boardwalks and that they were needed for safer access to main roads, but that she does not feel comfortable with her children walking to school.

Stacie Jensen, a parent from Regency Park, said that she is concerned for the safety of the children if they walk to school. There are a lot of questionable people in the woods, she said.

“Who knows if somebody’s not gonna come by and snag them?” Jensen said.

Alysha Vaughn, a fifth grade Carl Cozier student said that she would not want to walk to school everyday. A man hiding in the woods took pictures of her friend as she walked down Fraser Street, Alysha said.

Ramsey and Kycek both agree that walking to school would be good exercise for the kids, but it would not be safe.

It would be different if the kids were in middle school, but elementary school is too young to walk alone to school, the parents said.

A large portion of the apartments in the complex are low-income housing, and the tenants do not have transportation to drive their kids to school in bad weather or if they are worried about their children walking, Jensen said.

“We can’t even get a job if we’re unemployed, without the bus,” Kycek said, explaining that they would have to walk their children to and from school and wouldn’t have time to go to work.

If the bus route is eliminated, a meeting would be held during the fall to talk with parents about the idea of a “walking school bus,” Brown said. A walking school bus is when a large group of students walk together to school.

An arrangement in which parent chaperones walk with the children to increase safety will be set up at the meeting, Brown said.

Anderson said she doesn’t think having parent chaperones would work because everyone has very different schedules.

It might help if the school sent adults to accompany the students to school, Anderson said.

Anderson, Kycek, and Jensen are considering starting a petition for the school board to keep the bus route.

School district determined to make route safe

If the school district can prove a safe walking route, they are not required to provide a bus for students who live within one mile, said Brown.

The school district has not decided whether or not to eliminate the bus route, said Brett Greenwood, business and finance manager for the district.

The district must prove that a safe walking route is provided, including trails and paths through any woods, and making sure that students will not have to cross any roads with double yellow lines.

The school district will do its assessing during the summer, and make a decision at that time, said Greenwood.

The school district’s main purpose is making sure that kids have access to school and are able to arrive on time, said Tanya Rowe, director of communications and community relations for the school district.

The district keeps in mind that students have different situations and schedules, Rowe added.

David Bailey, manager of the school district’s Transportation Department, is in charge of assessing the safety hazards.

Mary Anderson, a parent with a child at Carl Cozier, recently moved from Regency Park, and helped work on the project.

“It’s a great project especially for the people that live in that complex,” she said.

Now people from the complex have safer access to main roads, she said.

Washington State Department of Transportation grant adds to neighborhood

The grant that paid for the additions to Fraser Street is a Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Grant from the Washington State Department of Transportation, said Brown, who wrote the grant proposal.

The grant was for $885,560, most of which was for engineering improvements, said Brown.

Construction on the area began in the summer of 2009, and finished in December, said Anthony.

A walking bridge was added down the street, along with bike lanes, streetlights, and a boardwalk system, said Anthony. The boardwalks operate like sidewalks, but are actually supported with steel pipes so that they are suspended over the ground, which is a wetland, said Anthony.

The project cost about $640,000 to complete, said Anthony.

Part of the funds from the grant are allocated to be used for educational programs about safe walking and biking at Carl Cozier, Brown said.

For any questions or concerns, contact the Transportation Department at 360-676-6456.

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New gas station to open at Fred Meyer

A new gas station will open at Lakeway Fred Meyer this summer.
Fred Meyer on Lakeway Drive will open a gas station this summer to add to its one-stop shopping experience, according to Fred Meyer spokeswoman Melinda Merrill.

The gas station will cost about a million dollars to build, Merrill said.

Anna VanZanden, a Fred Meyer customer, is excited about the Lakeway Fred Meyer gas station, because it means that she can shop and get gas closer to home.

VanZanden said that Bakerview Fred Meyer in northern Bellingham, which has a gas station, is an extra 10 minutes away for her. When the Lakeway gas station is put in she can leave her kids in the car for less time, she said.

Fred Meyer gives a discount of 3 cents per gallon to customers that have a Rewards Card, according to the Fred Meyer website. Every time a customer with a Rewards Card spends $100 at the store, they receive a discount of 10 cents per gallon the next time they get gas, the website said.

Breanna Weber, an employee at Lakeway Fred Meyer, said she thinks the gas station will increase business. Many people drive to the Bakerview location so they can get groceries and use their rewards on gas at the same time, Weber said.

Gas station to use all new equipment

Merrill said that although gas tanks are still in the ground from a previous station in the same place, Fred Meyer will be putting in all new tanks.

There will room for eight cars to pump gas, according to Merrill. The new pumps and tanks will be “state of the art,” she said.

The gas station is part of an initiative Fred Meyer has to add gas stations, Merrill said.

“We know from talking to our customers that it’s something they want,” she said.

The new gas station was planned to open in May or June but the opening date has been pushed back to mid or late summer because of a few land-use details, according to Merrill.

In general, adding a gas station to a Fred Meyer does not create new jobs, but one or two people may be hired, Merrill said.

Bakerview experiences traffic jams

The Bakerview Fred Meyer store opened at the same time as its gas station in 2003. The gas station often gets backed up, said employee Larry Sharp.

Carol Bliss, another employee at the Bakerview store, said that she sometimes wonders where people learned to drive because of the traffic jams that occur at the gas station. She often gets stuck trying to drive near the station, she said.

Fred Meyer made sure they had an adequate amount of space and parking before moving forward with the Lakeway gas station, Merrill said.

Cole Rogers, an attendant at the Bakerview gas station said that the gas station often has a line. Rogers said he thinks that the Lakeway station will have the same problem. Bliss said that she doesn’t think the Bakerview store will see a decrease in customers.

“It might affect the gas but I don’t think it’s going to affect the store’s inside,” she said.

Discount Tire will see a busier parking lot

Discount Tire, a tire shop that shares its parking lot with Lakeway Fred Meyer, expects to have a busier parking lot once the gas station opens, said employee Ricky Hugo.

"I’m not a real big fan of it,” he said.

Rod Hayes, store manager of Discount Tire, said that he is glad that Fred Meyer is filling the vacant hole in the parking lot, which Hayes said looked “trashy.”

Discount Tire will get more exposure when the gas station opens, Hayes said.

Construction in the parking lot will be ongoing until mid or late summer.

Shrine Circus Dances Through Bellingham

A circus to benefit sick children juggled and twirled its way through Bellingham last weekend.

Elephant rides and face painting greeted Bellingham families the weekend of Friday, April 16, to Sunday, April 18, at the Nile Shrine Circus held at the Bellingham Sportsplex.
The circus, which is a nationwide event, raises funds to support Shriners Hospitals for Children. These hospitals operate solely on donation, no payment is necessary for treatment.
In the current economic recession, Bellingham families are still willing to bring their children to a circus for a worthy cause. About 3,000 tickets were sold for the seven performances, said circus Chairman Chuck Cook.
The circus earned about $15,000 in Bellingham, Cook said.
The Nile Shrine circus travels to roughly 120 cities every year, but this was its first trip to Bellingham. Cheyla Petravich, office manager of the Sportsplex, said that she received four to five calls about the circus every day the week before it arrived.
Before the three-ring circus began, boys and girls could get their face painted or go down a giant inflatable slide for $5, or ride an elephant or pony for $8.
The circus began with a performer riding a motorcycle on a suspended wire with two female acrobats hanging below him.
Olivia Coppinger, 5, said she liked the comedic performer called Mr. Otto the best. He did tricks on a diving board before jumping onto a trampoline, which he pretended was a swimming pool.
A three-person group called The Flying Wallendas did high wire tricks including riding a bike across a tightrope. Their youngest member, Briana Phelps, is 11 years old, making her the youngest professional high wire girl in the world.
Meimei Findley, 8, said her favorite part was when Royal Bengal and Siberian tigers performed by jumping through hoops and around barriers.
Three performing elephants finished out the show to many gasps of delight from the younger members of the audience.

Circus "gets in your blood"
The troupe that performed in Bellingham last weekend is called Circus Spectacular. Timothy Tegge, ringmaster of the troupe, said that the troupe primarily performs in Shrine circuses.
Circus Spectacular is based in Florida, Tegge said. Tegge has been performing in circuses since he was 3 years old and said that Circus Spectacular is one of the best companies he has ever worked for.
Dressed in a tuxedo with a pink shirt, red bowtie, and green glittery eye shadow, Tegge said he loves performing in circuses.
“It gets in your blood—you either love it or you hate it,” he said.

Shriners support unhealthy children
The circus was sponsored by the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, commonly known as The Shriners. They began hosting circuses in 1906 and have clubs all around the nation.
The Shriners own and support 22 children’s hospitals, according to Bill Barquist, Director of the Northwest Shrine Club. The hospitals are spread out over the continental U.S., plus one each in Montreal, Mexico City, and Honolulu, Barquist said.
Treatment in the hospitals is completely free. Patients may donate if they can and wish to.
It costs $22 million per day to run the hospital system, Barquist said. The Shriners host many annual fundraisers to support the hospitals including a California concert series, and a national college football game, according to the Shriners Hospitals for Children’s website.
With so many Americans without healthcare, any donations to the hospitals will help them continue to provide free healthcare for children. Barquist, who was a Shrine patient for 14 years as a child, said he credits the hospitals for his quality of life.
"I would never have been able to walk without the Shrine,” Barquist said.
Many members from Bellingham’s chapter of the Nile Shrine attended the circus and gave away two bicycles, one to a girl and one to a boy. Every child from ages 5 to 12 was eligible to win a bicycle.
Colby Coppinger, a 7-year-old Bellingham resident, said his favorite part of the circus was when he won the orange boy’s bike. He named his bike “Flamey.”

Sportsplex offers activities for locals
The venue for the circus, the Bellingham Sportsplex, is located at 1225 Civic Field Way and is a local attraction for sports and activities. The Sportsplex offers public ice-skating and indoor soccer courts, as well as figure skating and hockey lessons, and supports an adult indoor soccer league.
Indoor soccer was shut down while the circus performed, but the Sportsplex kept the ice-skating rink open for its normal schedule, said Cheyla Petravich, office manager of the Sportsplex.
The Sportsplex normally keeps the skating rink open when events take place, said Petravich.
To learn more or donate to Shriner’s Hospitals for Children, visit http://www.shrinershq.org/Hospitals/Main/ or call 1-800-241-GIFT.
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