A most important happening will take place Sunday, November 7, when the Cordata Neighborhood’s first trail is dedicated in our new Cordata Park. The West Horton Rd. entrance is the place to be at 2 p.m. when City and County officials plus enormously pleased Cordatans participate in a dedicatory ceremony to be followed by a “first walk” along the 3,000 ft trail featuring two bridges, one of 96 feet positioned over a 21-foot ravine. Leading the walkers to a second ribbon cutting ceremony at the El Dorado Condominium Entrance adjacent to Cordata Parkway will be Mayor Dan Pike and 1st Ward Councilman Jack Weiss. This first phase of the Cordata Park Trail is part of a Northern Trail Plan that will connect future trails in Whatcom County.
With a $7.5 million expansion of the Bellingham International Airport terminal scheduled to begin early this month, it’s particularly timely that our November 9 speaker will be Director of Aviation Art Choat. In his current position since 2002, Choat will speak about present and future construction projects at the airport and update a vexing problem of particular concern to Cordatans: the Bakerview Overpass leading to the airport.
Tuesday’s 7 p.m. meeting will be at Birchwood Presbyterian Church, 400 Meadowbrook Ct. There will be no December meeting. Monthly sessions will resume January 11 when the featured speaker will be Shelly Zylstra, Planning Unit Director of Northwest Regional Council, who will inform us about home and community services available to seniors.
DisasterPrep, a new and regular feature of The Insider, makes its debut this month with the reminder that the time factor is of key importance in all preparedness considerations. Both police and fire departments have made it exceedingly clear that we are on our own during at least the first five days of a disaster. Faced with such a challenge, it becomes imperative that we learn a least the rudiments of preparation by becoming part of various satellite Neighborhood groups already established. We will publish stories of such organizations in future issues of this publication. Well on their way are Corona Court and Heronwood. Meanwhile, questions are being fielded by Julie Guy (738-8466).
Having completed an outstanding second season, Cordata Community Gardens participants have turned off the water, cleaned up garden debris, and planted some winter goodies while beginning the near-painful winter longing that eventually evolves into spring’s good graces and resumption of the joys of organic gardening. Similar to baseball’s Hot Stove League is a series of Community Garden Forums to be held starting December 8, from 5-8 p.m., at the Cordata Food Coop Store. The Community First! Project is held under the auspices of WSU Whatcom County Community Extension and funded locally by the Mary Redman Foundation. Among the subjects being considered for discussion are: ”Composting,” “Seed Saving/Storing,” “Inter-planting Veggies & Flowers,” and “Crop Rotation.”
Deadline Dash….Clay and Marilou Butler, southtown leaders of a consumer fireworks ban in Bellingham, have launched a blog. Those who want to be involved with the 340 folks already on board (your Neighborhood Association is in approval of their efforts) can link at http://freedomfromfireworks.blogspot.com. There’s also a primary e-mail address: freedomfromfireworksbham@gmail.com....With a decided lack of fast-food emporiums in Cordata, one wonders how the Dairy Queen on Cordata Parkway managed to get shut down for being $63,000 in the hole to the State Revenue Department? Dairy Queen stands almost alone in terms of adjacency to Whatcom Community College while DQ parking, adjacent to the WTA, couldn’t be more convenient…Our Community Reading Room Project is currently on hold as we continue to search for a location….Did anyone else get that déjà vu feeling while reading the Herald’s story about yet another possible location for a brand new library? If memory serves, that makes 23 possible spots examined by the well-intended who stumble around like Keystone Cops in a Mack Sennett comedy…..In spite of the economic turndown, the 16th annual Community Food Drive, a third week of October effort, produced a record 255,000 lbs of food and basic household items. That compares to last year’s then record of 220,000 lbs. Distribution is to Whatcom County food banks plus Project Hope in Lynden and Salvation Army in Bellingham….As the New Year approaches, it’s time to remind current and future members of our Neighborhood Association that $10 membership fees will be due in January. It’s not easy keeping the Association afloat and expenses like recently purchased meetings signage continue to pop up. Your board of directors thanks you in advance for accepting this responsibility….The Whatcom Community College Library will hold a book sale December 2 & 3 during library hours. Proceeds will buy supplies and books….If you wonder why you are seeing so many TV commercials of 15 seconds rather than the 30 seconds variety these days, the answer is blowing in the winds of our decreasing attention spans.
More later,
Bob Sanders
