Superintendent Greg Baker will remain at the district until at least June 2029, Bellingham School Board decided Thursday night, June 11. 

Baker’s new contract was approved when the board voted on its consent agenda, where the board votes on a number of routine items such as minutes and contracts all at once. The contract was referenced in a nine-page document attached to an agenda item called “Personnel Recommendations,” in one line on the last page.

Under the updated contract, Baker will be employed as Bellingham superintendent for at least the next three years until June 30, 2029. His annual base salary will start at $316,718 in 2026-27, with inflationary adjustments over the next two years. Next year, he will work three fewer days than is typical and will see a reduction in pay accordingly. 

Baker will also receive 12 days of sick leave, 35 days of vacation annually, and an additional 15 days of vacation in 2026-27 “in recognition of his longevity in the position.” Baker has been Bellingham’s superintendent since 2010. 

Baker’s contract wasn’t immediately available to the public as part of the meeting materials. Cascadia Daily News requested the contract via a public records request, after being told that it’s a longstanding practice of human resources to not publish superintendent contracts in board materials.

At the meeting, the board conducted its annual review of Baker and spoke glowingly of his work.

School Board President Scott Ritchey said during the review he’s been “privileged to sit ringside as me and Greg have worked through so many difficult issues, one after the other after the other.” 

“I’ve seen you put in more hours than anybody could reasonably expect of any employee in any situation,” Ritchey said at the board meeting. “I’ve seen you do it with integrity, I’ve seen you do it with compassion. I’ve seen you do it with real heart and a deep, deep level of care for the community and the people that you’re serving.” 

Baker told CDN after the meeting that he’s “grateful” for every year he’s been working for the school district. 

“It’s an amazing district, an amazing community, and I never take it for granted,” Baker said. “I’m a parent, and I’m an employee, and I’m a citizen in this community. I’m grateful.” 

This new contract comes as Baker and the school district have faced increased public scrutiny in the wake of proposals to close two elementary schools in Bellingham. 

Ritchey wasn’t available to answer questions about the new contract, but school board director Douglas Benjamin said the board reviews the superintendent’s contract regularly (it was last amended in May 2024).

When asked about the placement of the new contract in the meeting materials, Benjamin said the board has long approved contract extensions in this manner. A review of school board materials by CDN found superintendent contracts approved in consent agenda, in a document titled personnel recommendations, as far back as 2011.

Before the meeting, board members review the contract and direct questions about it to the board president, Benjamin said. When they approved the contract on Thursday, all were well informed on it. He said they wouldn’t debate elements of this contract at a public meeting.

However, Benjamin said he understands from the public’s perspective how the contract renewal would “just be a line” in a document. He said he’s not sure the board is “conscious or aware” of the public’s interest in the contract. Benjamin will broach the issue with the board, he said.

Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.

For decades, Whatcom County has been talking about water. We know the problems well:

• Not enough water in summer for salmon, farms and communities;
• Too much water in winter, bringing damaging floods to rural areas.

Climate change continues to make both extremes worse. After many years of studies, meetings and planning processes, we remain stuck in a challenging business-as-usual approach that is not keeping pace with reality. What’s missing is not more study; it’s collaboration and implementation.

Solving our water supply-and-demand problems will require difficult tradeoff: between instream flows and out-of-stream uses; among farms, fish and our communities; and between present needs and future resilience. It will also require significant investment, regulatory approvals and a structured way for our community to come together to make decisions and act on them. It’s time to break the cycle of paralysis by analysis and get to on-the-ground projects and programs to solve these problems

Fortunately, we don’t have to invent this from scratch. Other regions in Washington have faced similar challenges and moved beyond planning into action. In central Washington, the state Department of Ecology’s Office of Columbia River enabled the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan, which brought together tribes, farmers, environmental groups and governments to secure more than $1 billion in state and federal funding for water supply, fish habitat and irrigation efficiency. In Southwest Washington, Ecology’s Office of Chehalis Basin enabled the Chehalis Basin Strategy, which created a basin-wide framework to reduce flood damage while restoring aquatic ecosystems.

These efforts did not succeed because they held more meetings. They succeeded because they combined workgroups that represented a broad range of the community while also recognizing the need for formal, state-supported structures. This includes recognition of the co-management authority of those regions’ tribes and the state. These structures provide responsibility, authority and accountability to act and deliver results.

Whatcom County needs the same. So, we propose creation of an Office of the Nooksack. This office would serve as a dedicated, basin-wide entity responsible for turning plans into action and aligning the many interests that depend on the Nooksack River. Such an office is consistent with the governor’s recent announcement of a new program, Washington’s Water Future. This effort is “a statewide initiative to ensure Washington has an enduring supply of water for generations to come,” the governor’s office announced in early May.

This need not be another layer of bureaucracy. It would be a shift from fragmented responsibility to clear accountability. An Office of the Nooksack would:

• Develop and implement an integrated water strategy addressing summer shortages and winter flooding;
• Coordinate planning, engineering, regulatory approvals and funding across local, state, tribal and federal partners;
• Advance practical solutions, including water storage, floodplain restoration, new supplies and water-use efficiency; and
•  Provide a structured forum for negotiating durable, basin-wide agreements.

Modeled on the Yakima and Chehalis examples, the office would be supported by a small professional staff and guided by an advisory group representing tribes, agriculture, environmental interests, local governments and state agencies. This structure has proven effective at building consensus while maintaining momentum toward implementation.

This approach comes at a critical moment. Under state law, Washington already recognizes the importance of negotiated solutions alongside water-rights adjudication.

With a deadline for Nooksack adjudication claims of June 1, 2027, there is urgency to create a parallel process that encourages settlement rather than deepening conflict. Without such a framework, adjudication alone risks hardening positions and prolonging uncertainty. With an Office of the Nooksack, we would turn a legal process into a catalyst for collaboration and long-term solutions.

We recognize that creating a new office will require public investment and legislative action. It is likely to take several years before this new office is authorized, funded and staffed to produce results. But the alternative — continuing with fragmented efforts and little action — will cost far more in the long run, both economically and environmentally.

The experiences of Yakima and Chehalis show that when Washington state commits to a basin, resources follow, partnerships strengthen and progress occurs. The question is not whether we can act. It is whether we will.

We urge our local and state leaders to begin discussions now and bring forward legislation in 2027 to establish an Office of the Nooksack. The challenges we face are urgent, and so is the opportunity. It’s time to move from studying our water problems to solving them.

Fred Likkel is executive director of Whatcom Family Farmers. Eric Hirst is a retired energy-policy analyst and long-time environmental activist.

Bellingham Bells pitcher Lathan Haywood recently finished his junior season at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. The 6-foot, 200-pound right-hander transferred from Edmonds College after pitching for the Tritons the previous two years.

In two seasons at Edmonds College, Haywood pitched 140 innings with a 2.64 ERA and had a career record of 11-5 in 26 appearances.

In his first season at Stetson, Haywood threw for 19.1 innings in 12 games, where he tallied eight strikeouts and allowed 14 earned runs. Compared to his collegiate season, Haywood loves the Bellingham Bells experience because of the new connections he has made, the support system from management and the development of his game.

“The field alone says enough, but it is a family with this team,” Haywood said. “Everyone is close and gets along. We are all like brothers.”

The Bremerton native began playing baseball around 4 years of age because he wanted to follow his older brother’s footsteps. Haywood graduated from Olympic High School and is entering his third season with the Bells.

Haywood rejoins the Bells bullpen after pitching 13 innings for Bellingham last season and 22.1 innings in 2024. Haywood has seen his pitching develop each summer and learned a couple of other valuable lessons while playing for the Bells. 

“I’ve learned about controlling what you can control, focusing on your goals and what you want to work towards, and not to worry about external noise,” Haywood said. “I am trying to have fun and enjoy the simplicity of this game and the memories I make.”

Before Haywood enters his senior year at Stetson, he wants to provide some guidance for the younger Bells players this season. He hopes to provide a team-friendly atmosphere and demonstrate the Bellingham program is about more than baseball.

“We want to make a positive impact for the younger kids asking for autographs and representing a community,” Haywood said.

Haywood’s goal for the summer is to compete at his best and repeat as West Coast League champions.  

“I want to enjoy the last little bit of this game I have,” Haywood said.

Nick Zeller-Singh is CDN's sports editor; reach him at nickzellersingh@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 104.

Western Washington University’s Board of Trustees passed a $239.7 million budget, as the university continues to narrow the gap between expenses and revenues through significant cuts over the last few years. 

The budget includes $7.5 million in reductions that had been approved in last year’s biennial budget, including $5 million in cuts to instruction, $2 million in faculty retirement (the university has provided incentives to faculty to retire), and cuts to the WWU Everett program and redundant software. 

Reductions in instruction were spread out among the colleges. Joyce Lopes, the university’s vice-president of business and financial affairs, said part of the effort is “better aligning” class offerings to Western’s current enrollment, which is down from before the pandemic. 

The new cuts this year include a 0.5% across-the-board reduction, and holding all vacant positions for two months before a new hire starts. 

About $3.9 million in expenses is factored into this year’s budget, because some reductions approved last year yielded fewer savings than planned, said Faye Gallant, associate vice president of strategy, management and budget. 

“If we had taken those reductions as deeply as we had originally planned we would have compromised the academic mission or the ability to deliver some services,” Gallant told Cascadia Daily News. “It’s a correction, really, for what we discovered during the year.” 

The budget includes $100.4 million in tuition revenue. First-year enrollment will be up from last year, but Provost Brad Johnson told the board total confirmations for new students is 2,900, short of the university’s goal of enrolling 3,200 new first-year students next year. The university has about 1,000 transfer confirmations, also short of the 1,200 goal. 

Johnson said the next few months will be focused on making sure that all who have confirmed do enroll and working to increase the total confirmation number. 

One new source of revenue this year is the planned sale of a property on San Juan Island that the board approved as surplus in 2024. The university expects to make $1.37 million from that sale. 

It hasn’t been a simple process, as the women who donated the property to the university in 1996 explicitly said the university could not sell the property if it was no longer using it, and should transfer it to a land preservation nonprofit on San Juan Island. The donor died in 2010.

Lopes said two preservation entities in Island County said they were not interested in the property because it’s in the middle of a residential area. She said it’s been a long process to identify others who might be interested in or have claim to the property, and give “appropriate notice” to the county and other agencies. 

The proceeds of the sale will be left in the university’s reserves for a couple of years and then put into an endowment to support research at Shannon Point Marine Center. 

A focus for Western over the next several years will be building back its reserves. The university has pulled from its reserves to manage budget deficits in past years but aims to restore it to 10% of its annual budget. 

Gallant said the next two years look “tough” when it comes to state funding. A memo from the Governor’s Office last week warned agencies to prepare for a significant revenue shortfall. 

“[We’re] trying to focus on both the balance of decisions we make today that protect reserves and put us on a path to rebuild them without damaging our ability to serve a greater proportion of Washingtonians in the future,” Gallant said.

Lopes noted a positive trend in Western’s gap between expenses and revenues. In FY23, Western had a $13.6 million gap, in FY24 it was $8.6 million and in FY25 it was $1.7 million.

One of Western’s biggest financial challenges is that the state only funds 51% of employee costs, leaving Western to cover the rest. (Before the 2008 recession, the state covered 100% of these costs.) If that split gets adjusted next Legislative session, that would help, Lopes said. 

“The deficit is decreasing year over year, and we will continue working at it until we get there, with our North Star always in mind, which is to make sure our students are having the academic experience they deserve, and that they have access to the classes and the programs that are meaningful to them,” Lopes said.

The board also approved the university’s capital budget request to the state for the 2027-29 biennium. It’s requesting $73 million for design and construction of the new Poulsbo instructional facility, $25 million for preservation of facilities, $11 million for academic facilities renewal and $20 million for its heating conversion project. 

Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.

An event venue in Bellingham may have been the first women’s clubhouse built in the state. 

Broadway Hall, as it’s now named, was once the clubhouse for the Aftermath Club, one of the oldest women’s clubs in Washington. It was constructed in 1904 in distinctive Italian Villa style at 1300 Broadway. 

According to the National Register of Historic Places submission, a group of women from New Whatcom (one of the four towns that eventually merged to create the City of Bellingham) started the Aftermath Reading Circle in November 1895 as a literary and social club. 

“The membership consisted primarily of women who had raised their families and felt the need for a cultural stimulus outside the home,” the submission said. “Over the years the group has conducted regular educational programs, in addition to actively participating in community affairs.” 

The club members also raised money to build a new YMCA in town, and “offered an annual prize of $25 for the town’s ‘most improved lawn,’” according to the City of Bellingham’s website.  

After the building was constructed, club members used it for meetings and rented it to other groups for meetings, teas and receptions. The ballroom was described in the submission as “one of the best ballrooms in the city,” where dances there were “an important part of the town’s social life for many decades.” 

The hall is now owned by Rob Westford, who also owns Westford Funeral Home & Cremation Service. Members of the public can now rent out the hall for weddings, celebrations of life, and other events. 

WTD is published online Mondays and in print Fridays. Have a suggestion for a "What's the Deal With?" inquiry? Email us at newstips@cascadiadaily.com.

Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.

State Route 20, the North Cascades Highway, fully reopened Sunday, June 14 — the latest opening of the seasonal highway since 1974 — following road repairs due to flooding in December 2025.

In mid-May, WSDOT set an opening date of June 25, but announced June 8 that repairs were ahead of schedule and the highway would open June 19.

Though repairs are now complete, travelers should be aware of workers removing equipment from the area in the next few days, according to a June 14 news release from WSDOT. Drivers should also look out for wildlife, who will likely take “a while to transition” to the reopening.

The scenic route winds across the easternmost reaches of Skagit and Whatcom counties, through North Cascades National Park and into the Methow Valley. Because of major damage from the 2025 floods and a rockslide in March, the highway has remained closed to vehicles and recreation long past the seasonal reopening that usually happens in April or May after the road has been cleared of snow. 

After repairs were completed at a rockslide site near Diablo Lake, the westside closure point moved four miles east to Ross Dam Trailhead (milepost 134) on May 30, restoring access to some recreational destinations in the North Cascades. 

On the six-mile stretch between Canyon Creek Trailhead and Granite Creek, Sedro-Woolley’s Trimaxx Construction Inc. has been rebuilding embankments and collapsed roadway, repairing ditch lines and guardrails and replacing culverts.

VANCOUVER, B.C. — They came thousands strong, draped in shimmering green-and-gold jerseys, spreading jubilation across Vancouver’s dense downtown corridor hours before the men’s World Cup made its Cascadian debut.

The men, women and children from Down Under left an oversized imprint before, during and after the Group D opener on Saturday night, June 13, at BC Place. 

Now it’s Seattle’s turn to experience the Yellow Wall after Australia’s momentous upset of talented Turkey, 2-0, in an aesthetically pleasing matchup gripped by the magnetic atmosphere from a sold-out crowd of 52,497 fans.

The stunning outcome in Vancouver, British Columbia, amplifies the importance of Friday’s midday game in Seattle when the U.S. faces upstart Australia in what could determine how the rest of the World Cup is received in the United States.

But on one night in Vancouver, the result was an unqualified success by the sheer force of Australia and its faithful, some who flew 8,000 miles, clutching expensive tickets, to invest in their “Socceroos.”  

Bellingham dentist Kurt Swanson didn’t travel as far with his wife and their three children, who play for the Whatcom Rangers FC.

With family and friends, Swanson was part of a 13-fan contingent from Whatcom County with no serious allegiance to either team. They didn’t need the connection to join the Australian parade to the stadium under a plume of smoke bombs.

“I’ve seen that in other World Cups,” said Swanson, a soccer aficionado witnessing his seventh tournament. “I had my face painted by Swiss fans in Brazil, marching to matches. I just didn’t know if we’d see that here.”

Vancouver seemed awash in World Cup fervor, with hundreds of Brazilians congregating in bars in the afternoon to watch the Canarinha draw Morocco. As the Swansons departed on Sunday morning, they saw hundreds more German fans at bars and restaurants attuned to their team’s whalloping of lowly Curacao 7-1. 

“This is exactly how you want to feel at a World Cup,” Swanson said. “There are people from all over the world.”

Swanson was worried that the tournament co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States would lack the same spontaneity as others he had attended.

What transpired in the first of 13 World Cup games in Vancouver and Seattle felt like a cleansing of a painful year for leaders of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body.

Their bloated 48-team tournament, advertised as the biggest sporting spectacle in history, left regular folk shaking their heads in frustration over otherworldly ticket prices, overcharging for transportation, parking and other money-grabbing opportunities unbecoming of a so-called nonprofit organization.  

The tournament began with circumspection because of U.S. immigration policies promoted by President Donald Trump, which singled out Iranians, Haitians and a Somali referee.

Locally, many residents worry about border waits to and from Vancouver as well as increased traffic on Interstate 5 through Bellingham. Cascadia Daily News reporters had short wait times on both sides of the border. All U.S. Customs and Border Protection stations at the Peace Arch entry port were open after 1 a.m. Sunday morning. 

While concerns remain over the White House’s policies, Canada provided the warm welcome FIFA President Gianni Infantino has promised for the past year.

Inside BC Place, renamed Vancouver Stadium per FIFA policy, Infantino sat with Turkish sports executives as fans from both countries displayed unabashed affection.

The chanting began before Australian forward Mohamed Toure kicked off at 9 p.m. First up was a sing-along to the classic Men at Work’s “Down Under.” Red and white-clad Turks countered with singing, chanting and whistling at ear-splitting levels.

Not even the most cynical critic of FIFA could help but get swept up in the wave of energy from fans, who afterward spilled into the downtown streets to continue the celebration.

“I was happy to see all the countries to have support,” Swanson said. “I thought it might be a lot of spectators just from Vancouver and just not a lot of country pride.”

Matt Hill and Karlee Debrincat from Cairns, Australia, but working in Alberta, took a camping van from Banff to follow their team.

Hill, 29, was pleasantly surprised by how many compatriots attended the game.

“It’s a big ask to go from Australia to Canada,” he said. “It’s a lot of money. Not everybody can do that.” 

The ski resort workers won’t follow the Aussies to Seattle because of ticket prices. (Resale tickets for the Seattle game have risen dramatically in the last three days, according to TicketData.com.)

Just before heading into the stadium, Hill said the event was more of a celebratory gathering than the possibility of winning.

“Honestly, you’ve got what you want in your heart, and you’ve got what’s realistic,” he said.

It turns out Hill’s heart was rewarded with a performance that mythmakers love.

Turkey fielded stars like Real Madrid midfielder Arda Guler, Inter Milan midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu and Juventus forward Kenan Yildiz.

The Turks held possession for 72% of the game and outshot Australia 30-9. Their star midfielders overran the Aussies in the center of the pitch but could never crack the Yellow Wall.

No one was bigger than Patrick Beach, a Melbourne City FC goalkeeper who made eight saves in only his third appearance for the national team.

“This is all you think about as a kid,” Beach said.

Beach had help from all of his teammates in a defensive bunker to thwart wave after wave of Turkish attacks. Harry Souttar, a 6-foot-7 center back, seemed to be in the middle of most of the clampdowns.

But most Australian fans are focused on a 20-year-old Burundian refugee born in Tanzania and arriving in Adelaide, Australia, at 3 months old.

Nestory Irankunda’s opening goal in the 27th minute on a counterattack ignited a thunderous roar from fans eager for just such a moment to unfold. 

Irankunda, who plays for Watford FC in the English second division, collected a pass with poise, kept his balance while skirting around two defenders and sent a right-foot shot into the net.

“Absolute limbs, wasn’t it?” Beach said. “Seeing the whole crowd jump up with yellow and green.”

In the second half, Turkey pounded the defense in search of an equalizer before losing its momentum when unheralded Connor Metcalf secured the victory in the 75th minute on a turnover.

He ran to the edge of the box and blasted a hard ball inside the bottom right corner. The goal set off a four-minute rendition of the Spanish soccer chant, “Ole, Ole, Ole.”  

The result was an exclamation point to Turkish captain Hakan Calhanoglu, who said the previous day his team would “dominate” Australia.

Irankunda said the words gave the Aussies extra motivation.

“We don’t like to hear people talk about us like that because we’re a great team,” he said. “People underestimate us a lot, and we showed them today that we can play.”

The U.S. men’s team might take note.

Elliott Almond, a veteran soccer reporter who has covered 14 Olympics, writes about World Cup 2026 for CDN in Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.; elliottalmond4@gmail.com.

Race to Alaska, a legendary engineless watercraft race, starts at 5 a.m. this Sunday, June 14 in Port Townsend and doesn’t end until the final team staggers into port at Ketchikan, Alaska, 750 miles and untold weeks later. Of the 70 teams attempting the challenge, seven hail from Bellingham.   

Known in the sailing community as R2AK, Race to Alaska was started by the Port Townsend nonprofit Northwest Maritime in 2015. The race was run annually through 2024, aside from a COVID-19 hiatus, but last year, Northwest Maritime switched R2AK to a biennial event. The race now takes turns with the Washington 360, or WA360, a shorter but still ambitious 360-mile adventure race throughout the Salish Sea. 

Team Salish Seasters is Bellingham’s only all-female team. After a successful showing at the 2025 WA360, Captain Melanie Lyons decided to take the R2AK plunge. She’s the boat owner, problem-solver and logistics mastermind behind the team.  

“Getting this off the ground has been a huge lift,” Lyons said. “It’s like a part-time job.” 

Lyons, who learned to sail in 2021 and immediately fell in love with the sport, assembled her team, tapping her adventure friend Anya Voloshin, a fish biologist who bought her own sailboat with friends in 2020; Audrey Taylor, who grew up sailing with family on the coast of Maine and has sailed across the Pacific Ocean with her husband and daughter; and Anna Withington, a data analyst from Portland, Oregon, who primarily races on the Columbia River. 

Lyons said each team member brings her own strengths to the table. They’ve spent a lot of time on the water, training together and learning to cooperate, communicate and support each other.

The Salish Seasters will pilot Wild Card, a 1978 Santa Cruz 27. The 27-foot vessel has already traveled the R2AK course twice, most recently in 2024 with Sail Like a Mother, a three-woman Bellingham team. 

“The boat knows the way,” Lyons said. “Wild Card is up to the task, so it’s really up to us to make good choices.” 

Fortunately, the other Bellingham teams and the greater community are encouraging and supportive of the effort. 

Those teams are Ménage à Deux, Old Farts, S.O.B. (Ship Of Brothers), She’s Just a ‘lil Scurvy, Yes! and Makika Masala. Lyons said one of the best parts of preparing for R2AK is connecting with the other Bellingham teams; texting the group chat, figuring out transport logistics, swapping equipment and knowledge, and hosting the send-off party, in Lyons’ case. 

“The teams take care of each other,” she said. “The race organizers really foster this community within the race.” 

Also representing the northwest corner of Washington is Sedro-Woolley solo racer Doug Shoup of Team Perseverance. 

The Race to Alaska starts on Sunday with a 40-mile sprint across open water from Port Townsend to Victoria, British Columbia. Called “the Proving Ground,” the first stage is a qualifier for the full race, or a shorter stand-alone event, and teams have only 36 hours to complete it. From there, the full race restarts at noon on Wednesday, June 17. R2AK follows no set route — teams need to hit only two specific waypoints, Seymour Narrows and Bella Bella, on their way to Ketchikan. 

Teams must be self-supported and wind- and human-powered, meaning they can sail, row, paddle or pedal, but they can’t use a motor, nor can they receive pre-arranged or private support.  

Race organizers promise sailors will “cut through true wilderness, past logging towns and empty shorelines, through orca country, grizzly country and currents that can run over 20 knots.” The winning team gets $10,000 and the second-place team scores a set of steak knives. Sponsors offer cash prizes for “side bets”; this year’s side bets include first finisher with a craft under 20 feet long and the first-ever solo female finisher. 

But not everyone will make it. The sweep boat, nicknamed the “Grim Sweeper,” stalks the racers and collects those who have taken too long to travel the course.

In 2024, the winners finished the Victoria to Ketchikan leg in 5 days, 3 hours and 36 minutes. The last team to land in Ketchikan did so in 18 days, 2 hours and 41 minutes. 

Lyons said the Salish Seasters are definitely not trying to win or even travel in the lead pack. “Our priority is to focus on making good choices. We’re not going to go through any conditions just to finish sooner. Our goal is to press hard but also to stay safe and find that balance.” 

The organizers say the first-place finisher is the “least interesting” thing about the race, a sentiment that Lyons loves. 

“A lot of races have a ton of rules and ratings that get very technical,” she said. “But in this race, teams are doing super interesting stuff. Every team has a different craft so everyone is on their own journey — I cannot imagine being a solo sea kayaker. For the majority of us, this is not about racing, it’s about doing it.”  

Read more about each team and track the race once it starts at r2ak.com.

Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 107.

Commuters heading south from Bellingham on Interstate 5 will be diverted onto a two-lane bypass road along Chuckanut Creek (milepost 247) starting Monday, June 15 as Washington State Department of Transportation crews install a new fish passage.

The bypass road will be used through September for southbound traffic, according to a WSDOT news release. A portion of the road uses a section of Old Samish Road, which has been closed to traffic since late April and will remain closed through the rest of the year. Eventually, northbound interstate traffic in the same area will be moved to another temporary two-lane bypass.

For commuters, both southbound lanes of the interstate will shift onto the bypass road starting at 8 p.m. Monday. Drivers should expect rolling slowdowns and lane reductions until the lane shift is finished by 5 a.m. Tuesday, June 16.

Speed limits will be reduced to 50 mph in the construction zone while the bypass is in use.

During the construction work, crews will excavate the roadbed, remove the old culvert, install a new fish-passable structure and rebuild the permanent southbound interstate lanes.

The entire fish passage project near Lake Samish includes the removal of 17 fish barriers.

People can learn more about the project on WSDOT’s project page.

Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.

After nearly an hour, power was restored to downtown Bellingham and adjacent neighborhoods on Saturday, June 13.

More than 4,200 Puget Sound Energy customers were impacted by the outage that was reported just after 8:45 a.m., according to the utility company. Power was mostly restored by 10 a.m. Some spots of downtown remain without power.

A Cascadia Daily News reporter walked into the paper’s downtown office to find the entire building’s power out. Sweet Bay Cafe is also reporting the outage.

The outage included downtown, the Lettered Streets and Sunnyland neighborhoods and a portion of the Sehome neighborhood.

PSE has not released the cause of the outage yet.

Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.