Now that we have (temporarily) wound up the trash collection/recycling matter, it is time to (temporarily) wind up the septic tank inspection system matter, with the hope that we can have some release from dealing with Whatcom County for awhile. The County, I am told, thinks we are a bunch of whiners up here, and we think they are indifferent to our concerns down there. So perhaps we could use the interval to establish ourselves as some kind of tea party organization: YOU DON'T HEAR US, is the slogan, I believe.
Last week, the County Council approved amendments that more or less put the previous inspection system on hold. But they have to revote on it next month because the amendments they voted on were not exactly the ones that were being proposed. You can imagine the embarrassment experienced when the item on the agenda was a draft version rather than the final version. So maybe next month they'll vote on the final version instead. But in any case, the essence of the change seems to be that they will eliminate the requirement for professional inspections. You will have to have the inspections still (the State requires them), but the state didn't require that you pay $250-$300 to a 'professional' to have that done.
Incidentally, to be a professional requires one to profess something. What septic tank inspectors profess would be a mystery to me. Additionally, professionals usually have codes of ethics, are required to act on behalf of their clients, have a large degree of self-regulation but also have extensive education requirements placed upon them. Physicians, nurses, dentists, and psychologists are professionals. Professional status, once lost, cannot be regained. I suspect that professional septic tank inspectors are not professionals.
Here's a link to the Bellingham Herald's article on this matter.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Trash: The (Momentary) Finale
Today, the WUTC down in Olympia posted its decision on the trash and recycling applications for Point Roberts. The Commission appears to be composed of three Commissioners, two of whom supported Mr. Gellatly's application, and one of whom supported neither application. That means that Gellatly has the contract, but the decision comes with qualification. And that is that Freedom 2000 must have the system up and running in 45 days.
The general view of the decision, which can be seen here and runs to 53 pages, is that this is a mess and that Wilkowski's operation has been in 'flagrant' violation of a number of laws governing this work, and that Gellatly has been somewhat slack himself in regards to state laws about trucking/registrations. However, it appeared to them that Gellatly has shown a willingness to become a law abider, whereas Wilkowski had, if anything, shown a deeper propensity for the other direction. The most flagrant of the Wilkowski violations appear to be his willingness to provide on-call services after he gave up his G certificate. Such actions represented knowing and intentional disregard of the laws under which he was permitted to operate in the Washington State trash collection world, although the actions might have been of considerable benefit to some Point Roberts' residents.
I would guess that that particular offense wouldn't have weighed too heavily with many of Pt. Roberts' residents, but the WUTC must of necessity look at things in a different light, be attentive to the letter of the law.
There are three paragraphs in the main opinion that I found particularly interesting. Paragraphs 69 and 70 both address the County's role in this general fiasco; paragraph 71 speaks to the considerable animosity that has been generated in Point Roberts itself, anger sufficient to split the social fabric. The WUTC commissioners think that Mr. Gellatly's first job will be to heal those wounds. Lucky Mr. Gellatly! I will be looking forward to his State of Point Roberts Trash speech soon.
In the dissenting opinion, the third commissioner doubts any of this is going to work because of the County's failure in the first place to address Pt. Roberts' uniqueness, or its failure to get some other already-established trash collection business to take on the problem of being us. Actually, Mr. Wilkowski pretty much supported this position himself in testimony before the Commission where he apparently argued that the WUTC should approve neither his application nor Gellatly's, which action would force the County to do something. This position was countered in the majority opinion on the grounds that the WUTC can't make the County do anything, although they acknowledged that it was doubtful that anybody could create an economically viable business plan for Pt. Roberts trash collection under the current circumstances.
And so we go on. Check back in about 45 days.
The general view of the decision, which can be seen here and runs to 53 pages, is that this is a mess and that Wilkowski's operation has been in 'flagrant' violation of a number of laws governing this work, and that Gellatly has been somewhat slack himself in regards to state laws about trucking/registrations. However, it appeared to them that Gellatly has shown a willingness to become a law abider, whereas Wilkowski had, if anything, shown a deeper propensity for the other direction. The most flagrant of the Wilkowski violations appear to be his willingness to provide on-call services after he gave up his G certificate. Such actions represented knowing and intentional disregard of the laws under which he was permitted to operate in the Washington State trash collection world, although the actions might have been of considerable benefit to some Point Roberts' residents.
I would guess that that particular offense wouldn't have weighed too heavily with many of Pt. Roberts' residents, but the WUTC must of necessity look at things in a different light, be attentive to the letter of the law.
There are three paragraphs in the main opinion that I found particularly interesting. Paragraphs 69 and 70 both address the County's role in this general fiasco; paragraph 71 speaks to the considerable animosity that has been generated in Point Roberts itself, anger sufficient to split the social fabric. The WUTC commissioners think that Mr. Gellatly's first job will be to heal those wounds. Lucky Mr. Gellatly! I will be looking forward to his State of Point Roberts Trash speech soon.
In the dissenting opinion, the third commissioner doubts any of this is going to work because of the County's failure in the first place to address Pt. Roberts' uniqueness, or its failure to get some other already-established trash collection business to take on the problem of being us. Actually, Mr. Wilkowski pretty much supported this position himself in testimony before the Commission where he apparently argued that the WUTC should approve neither his application nor Gellatly's, which action would force the County to do something. This position was countered in the majority opinion on the grounds that the WUTC can't make the County do anything, although they acknowledged that it was doubtful that anybody could create an economically viable business plan for Pt. Roberts trash collection under the current circumstances.
And so we go on. Check back in about 45 days.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Dark Days
I wrote the other day about the fearsome wind storm we had last week. That is a part of Point Roberts that I don't usually think about, except when it is happening. Somehow, human that I am, I lose track of the risks while closely tracking the benefits of one choice or another. And then a day comes that reminds you exactly how negligent you have been about keeping track of the risks.
The picture above, which Ed took, in the late afternoon of a very cloudy and rainy day when there could have been a wind storm (although there wasn't) makes me realize why it's so easy to forget the difficult parts of Pt. Roberts when you are not in the difficult parts. These houses are far down on South Beach. They would appear (at least to me) to be too close to the water, too fragile in their construction, too likely to suffer damage of one kind or another if the wind and the ocean pick up. And yet, how beautiful they are. Risk seems a silly concept when you see them in this light.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Always With Us
Today was my 73rd birthday (Happy Birthday, Judy! Thanks so much!), and we went to lunch at Caffe Cappana, my favorite place to eat out here in Point Roberts. Now, that's not like saying that Patout's was my favorite place to eat out in Los Angeles, of course. The scale of choice here on the Point is pretty small, and two or three of the five possibilities are probably closed for the winter. But even if there were more choice, I'd still like Cappana a lot. It seems to me a quintessentially Point Roberts place. Plain, kind of homespun in its acute casualness, but with interesting and funky art pieces here and there. Currently a life-size, carved wooden figure with a Viking headdress, I think, stands at the counter. That's the Vikings from the olden days, not from the sports world.
The servers and cookerladies (as my daughter used to call them some 48 years ago) all look to me as if they had grown up next door or down the block and came in to work when they aren't in high school. They definitely don't look like big city girls. And they are terrific bakers, as well, with wonderful ranges of muffins and rolls and soups. And all that. Anyway, I like it a lot. And it's got wifi and you can use the computers in the back while you're there.
They've been trying to branch out a bit over recent times. There were some fancy dinners with many wines, and evening live-entertainment, but mostly it is a coffee place where you could easily go to play chess with whomever was around from morning till late afternoon. I don't think they have ever played music when I was there; the background kind of music. And that seems to me a good thing, because you go there to eat and drink something tasty and to talk to whomever is around or whomever you came with.
.
Most recently, however, they are trying to lure people in on the weekend evenings with dinner and a movie, and in service of that they have installed a large monitor above the fireplace. This is not a bad idea at all, I'd think, because now you can go and watch movies with whomever is around, as well. Although peoples' tendencies to talk during movies would probably discourage me from enjoying this new service. Better for me at home on my smaller monitor, but with no side conversations during the film. So fussy.
Today was the first time I'd seen the monitor. Unfortunately, it was playing CNN and since it was Sunday, it was talking heads CNN. Fareed Zakariah's teeth had never before seemed so imposing. The sound was off, so there wasn't a lot of distracting talk, but there were a lot of distracting pictures and words. I am one of those people who are compelled to read words if they are placed before me. I have had a birthday gift sitting in my living room for the past week which I finally had to cover with a cloth because it was wrapped in paper that said "Happy Hanukkah to You." But the only part of the message I could see (it was a small package) said 'NUKKAHTO,' and I got so tired of reading that meaningless phrase, that I was obliged to cover it up.
So, here were these words constantly moving around on the monitor, getting bigger, then smaller, changing, then stabilizing. And the scene required enormous multitasking even without hearing anything. I haven't seen TV in years so I hadn't realized how complex it has become. There's the interviewer in a box on the left, and in the middle box is the interviewee, and then there's a box with some photos of something happening, presumably what the two people are talking about, and then there's a crawl along the bottom about something that they are NOT talking about, or not yet, and there's a box that says what the next program is, and up at the top there are some other instructions. YIKES! This is way, way too much.
Next time, I sit with my back to the TV, at the very least. But better would be if they turned it off when the movie isn't on. It felt more like being in a bar (albeit a very politically-oriented bar) than a coffee place. It didn't feel at all like chess would be happening: who could concentrate? And I kept losing the thread of the conversation with the people I had come with because of trying to keep up with all those words and pictures.
I eventually figured out that most of the people there were oblivious to the TV and what it was doing, what it was showing, what it was saying in words. Maybe the purpose of watching TV is so that it doesn't annoy you when you run into it, because the TV, like the poor, we apparently always have with us nowadays.
The servers and cookerladies (as my daughter used to call them some 48 years ago) all look to me as if they had grown up next door or down the block and came in to work when they aren't in high school. They definitely don't look like big city girls. And they are terrific bakers, as well, with wonderful ranges of muffins and rolls and soups. And all that. Anyway, I like it a lot. And it's got wifi and you can use the computers in the back while you're there.
They've been trying to branch out a bit over recent times. There were some fancy dinners with many wines, and evening live-entertainment, but mostly it is a coffee place where you could easily go to play chess with whomever was around from morning till late afternoon. I don't think they have ever played music when I was there; the background kind of music. And that seems to me a good thing, because you go there to eat and drink something tasty and to talk to whomever is around or whomever you came with.
.
Most recently, however, they are trying to lure people in on the weekend evenings with dinner and a movie, and in service of that they have installed a large monitor above the fireplace. This is not a bad idea at all, I'd think, because now you can go and watch movies with whomever is around, as well. Although peoples' tendencies to talk during movies would probably discourage me from enjoying this new service. Better for me at home on my smaller monitor, but with no side conversations during the film. So fussy.
Today was the first time I'd seen the monitor. Unfortunately, it was playing CNN and since it was Sunday, it was talking heads CNN. Fareed Zakariah's teeth had never before seemed so imposing. The sound was off, so there wasn't a lot of distracting talk, but there were a lot of distracting pictures and words. I am one of those people who are compelled to read words if they are placed before me. I have had a birthday gift sitting in my living room for the past week which I finally had to cover with a cloth because it was wrapped in paper that said "Happy Hanukkah to You." But the only part of the message I could see (it was a small package) said 'NUKKAHTO,' and I got so tired of reading that meaningless phrase, that I was obliged to cover it up.
So, here were these words constantly moving around on the monitor, getting bigger, then smaller, changing, then stabilizing. And the scene required enormous multitasking even without hearing anything. I haven't seen TV in years so I hadn't realized how complex it has become. There's the interviewer in a box on the left, and in the middle box is the interviewee, and then there's a box with some photos of something happening, presumably what the two people are talking about, and then there's a crawl along the bottom about something that they are NOT talking about, or not yet, and there's a box that says what the next program is, and up at the top there are some other instructions. YIKES! This is way, way too much.
Next time, I sit with my back to the TV, at the very least. But better would be if they turned it off when the movie isn't on. It felt more like being in a bar (albeit a very politically-oriented bar) than a coffee place. It didn't feel at all like chess would be happening: who could concentrate? And I kept losing the thread of the conversation with the people I had come with because of trying to keep up with all those words and pictures.
I eventually figured out that most of the people there were oblivious to the TV and what it was doing, what it was showing, what it was saying in words. Maybe the purpose of watching TV is so that it doesn't annoy you when you run into it, because the TV, like the poor, we apparently always have with us nowadays.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Winter Winds
Here on Point Roberts, we have the ocean on three sides and, although every ocean side is within easy walking distance, I rarely have much to do with the water parts. I live up in the middle in the middle of the trees. I am the kind of person who has a lot of fir and cedar branches everywhere when we have a big wind, as we did this week. If you are down very near the water, it is different. It is not the trees but the actual ocean you have to worry about.
This past Sunday night storm was one of the noisiest and frightening we've ever been here for. It sounded to me as if there was a jumbo jet constantly passing over us; to Ed, it sounded more like a train constantly going by, a steady sound that you heard underneath the sound of big gusts of wind through the trees. I don't know what it would sound like down by the ocean where you don't get the amplification from the trees. Of course, you get the crashing waves, and both the sound and sight of them in a big wind can be very fearsome. Fortunately, the Sunday night wind stopped on the Monday morning and the high tides did not lead to significant flooding because the wind's direction did not push the water toward the shore.
Two years ago, it was much worse because the wind was pushing the water and there was lots of flooding. And lots of damage. Could, doubtless will, happen again. But even despite the speed of the winds, we had very little tree branch shedding at our house. There was one 8-foot or so branch, maybe 3-inches in diameter that came down right next to the car, but not on it; on it could have caused some damage. The branch was big and heavy, but not too heavy for me to move it back to the downed branches pile. And other than that, there were only small fir and cedar pieces (lots of them), very small pieces, all over the yards. In the big winds a couple of years ago, two of our neighbors had large, severed tree branches shoot down through their roofs like javelins, a performance requiring considerable repair in the one case and a new roof in the other. So we are glad this week, in a week when we are hearing a lot about natural disaster, not to have had one, even on a small scale.
This past Sunday night storm was one of the noisiest and frightening we've ever been here for. It sounded to me as if there was a jumbo jet constantly passing over us; to Ed, it sounded more like a train constantly going by, a steady sound that you heard underneath the sound of big gusts of wind through the trees. I don't know what it would sound like down by the ocean where you don't get the amplification from the trees. Of course, you get the crashing waves, and both the sound and sight of them in a big wind can be very fearsome. Fortunately, the Sunday night wind stopped on the Monday morning and the high tides did not lead to significant flooding because the wind's direction did not push the water toward the shore.
Two years ago, it was much worse because the wind was pushing the water and there was lots of flooding. And lots of damage. Could, doubtless will, happen again. But even despite the speed of the winds, we had very little tree branch shedding at our house. There was one 8-foot or so branch, maybe 3-inches in diameter that came down right next to the car, but not on it; on it could have caused some damage. The branch was big and heavy, but not too heavy for me to move it back to the downed branches pile. And other than that, there were only small fir and cedar pieces (lots of them), very small pieces, all over the yards. In the big winds a couple of years ago, two of our neighbors had large, severed tree branches shoot down through their roofs like javelins, a performance requiring considerable repair in the one case and a new roof in the other. So we are glad this week, in a week when we are hearing a lot about natural disaster, not to have had one, even on a small scale.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Library Matters
The Point Interface management put up a nice reminder today about leaving only magazines at the library's magazine exchange cart. And I didn't even request the post, although I'm grateful for it. Two Saturdays ago, there was a real plethora (singular? plural?) of catalogs amidst the magazines, but this past Saturday when I stopped by, there was not a single catalog. There also weren't very many magazines, so I don't know whether that means that everybody is scooping them up as quickly as they appear or that people have stopped bringing them in to exchange.
There is a note on the library door that says something to the effect of people not leaving reading donations without talking to the librarians. BUT, it is not necessary to talk to the librarians to leave magazines on the magazine exchange cart. But, you don't want to leave books without talking to them about that.
So far, the magazine exchange seems to be working well, and that speaks well for all of us as good citizens!
There is a note on the library door that says something to the effect of people not leaving reading donations without talking to the librarians. BUT, it is not necessary to talk to the librarians to leave magazines on the magazine exchange cart. But, you don't want to leave books without talking to them about that.
So far, the magazine exchange seems to be working well, and that speaks well for all of us as good citizens!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Well, What Do We Think?
This is about trash collection, and is a brief update. The WUTC asked that all the exhibits and information and witness lists with respect to the two applicants for the Point Roberts trash collection problem be turned over by January 15. Included in that information are summaries of public comments with respect to both applicants.
With respect to Point Refuse and Recycling (Wilkowski), there were 55 comments in total, with 37 supporting this company, 16 opposing it, and 2 uncertain. With respect to Freedom 2000 (Gellatly), there were 18 comments in total, with 9 supporting the company, 2 opposing it, and 7 undecided.
It's not clear to me how they came by these counts since any given letter did not necessarily address simply one company or the other. Many of the letters from the public mentioned/discussed/analyzed both companies, so I don't know whether such a letter would be included in the Wilkowski totals or the Gellatly totals, or counted in both (e.g., if the writer specifically supported Wilkowski and opposed Gellatly, or vice versa). There is no explanation within the memorandum as to how these counts were made.
As well, there is no entry on the website indicating when the WUTC expects to meet on this.
With respect to Point Refuse and Recycling (Wilkowski), there were 55 comments in total, with 37 supporting this company, 16 opposing it, and 2 uncertain. With respect to Freedom 2000 (Gellatly), there were 18 comments in total, with 9 supporting the company, 2 opposing it, and 7 undecided.
It's not clear to me how they came by these counts since any given letter did not necessarily address simply one company or the other. Many of the letters from the public mentioned/discussed/analyzed both companies, so I don't know whether such a letter would be included in the Wilkowski totals or the Gellatly totals, or counted in both (e.g., if the writer specifically supported Wilkowski and opposed Gellatly, or vice versa). There is no explanation within the memorandum as to how these counts were made.
As well, there is no entry on the website indicating when the WUTC expects to meet on this.
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