Lake Padden Park

Lake Padden Park
Lake Padden Park on a beautiful day!

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Thursday, June 3, 2010


WAKE'S annual Lake Padden Symposium

Kayakers around Bellingham are gearing up for this years annual WAKE Lake Padden symposium. WAKE, a non-profit social kayaking organization based in Bellingham, WA, stands for Whatcom association of kayak enthusiasts.

This event, which includes a potluck and paddling seminar, will take place on Saturday, June 23 this year. It will be taking place in the swimming area of Lake Padden.


All Bellingham residents welcome to sign up

Although you must be a WAKE member to participate in this event, non-members may come to Lake Padden on June 23 and join right there before the sessions begin. There is no qualifications to join WAKE, besides having to bring your own equipment. The membership fee for WAKE is $25 per household and is good for one calender year.

“I've never heard of WAKE before, but for $25 it sounds like something worth checking out,” says Bellingham resident Devin Gilmore.


Beginning kayakers welcome to participate

The symposium will include a morning session and afternoon session. The morning session will focus on forward stroke, and the afternoon session will focus on advanced stroke; the leaders of this symposium ask the kayakers to choose the class that fits their own skill level, and to only pick one.

There are a number of instructors that will be involved in these sessions. The four different parts that these instructors will focusing on will be; safety and rescue, intro to kayaking, forward stroke (A.M.), advanced stroke (p.m.), and bracing and edging. The schedule for the days events is the following:


9:00 a.m. The symposium begins with the instructors breaking into groups depending on what skill level people prefer. The instructors will go over what they will be covering in the next few hours

11:30 a.m. Morning session ends.


11:45 to 1 p.m. Lunch potluck.


1:00 p.m., same as morning, participants choose their classes.


3:00 p.m. classes end.


To sign up before June: fill out the membership form and liability waiver. Mail the form, the waiver, and a check to (written to WAKE):
WAKE, P.O. Box 1952, Bellingham, WA 98227.


On June 18, Lake Padden Golf Course will be hosting an even called the Mike Smith Memorial for the second time. The memorial has been put together by the golf course and Danny Evans who is a close friend to Mike Smith. Mike, who passed away a few years ago and was in the care of Hospice for his last few days.

He explains he approached Lake Padden Golf Course about the idea for a tournament and he found out they also were involved in supporting Hospice. They wanted to get involved as well as use their golf course.

I wanted to do something to honor Mike and all his friends at Lake Padden golf course, and since the owner of the company I work for, Mills Electric is active with Hospice it seemed like the right direction to go.”

For more information on how to register for the tournament go here, Or to donate directly to Whatcom Hospice

The current Samish neighborhood plan has a lot of plans to improve on the traffic circulation throughout the Samish neighborhood, but a lot of those plans have been put on hold because of the economy.


Samish Neighborhood Still wanting to make improvements


BELLINGHAM-- Although plans to install a bikeway along Samish Way from the I-5 overpass to padden park have been recommended as far back as the 1980 five year Samish plan, things are still looking the same. The updated Samish Neighborhood plan also addresses their goal to, “Work with the City and neighborhood to identify areas for trails and trail links that allow people to walk and bicycle safely from residential areas to the Lake Padden, commercial areas, and schools.” Although Samish way and surrounding roads are a spot with heavy auto traffic, they are also in the middle of a residential area with a lot of foot and bike traffic.


Samish Neighborhood President says to be patient.


There has been several posts on the Samish neighborhood website with concerns about safety when walking near the I-5 overpass. Samish neighborhood president Greg McCracken wants residents to know that their requests aren't being ignored there is just an economic barrier; they do plan on making improvements once they get the funding.


Neighborhood president looking for ways to improve for residents.


McCracken recognizes that the city's major issues have a large part to do with the lack of circulation of traffic, and narrow residential streets. “It is a residential road and was never meant for the heavy amount of traffic it receives, but it is an arterial road so we have no recourse to deal with it,” McCracken explains.


Residents express frustration with the narrow roads.


A post on the samishneighborhoodassociation.org forum read, “The stair steps are terrible. Today I passed two biked coming up the hill - on the narrow turning section. wish the city would have sign pointing out that the bike trail is on Padded Gorge trail, not the road. Traffic is way too fast.” The “stair steps” is a short name used by Bellingham residents given to the winding route along 36th, South, 37th, Harrison, 38th, Broad, 40th, and Wilkin Streets.

According to the 2008 Samish neighborhood plan, “The Stair Steps streets are currently classified as an arterial connection to provide a traffic circulation link between the Samish Neighborhood, Interstate-5, and commercial services in the southwestern portion of Bellingham.” Therefore, the stair steps cannot be tampered with by law.


Tuesday, May 18, 2010


A group at the Bellingham Community Baptist Church have been raising money to support their upcoming trip to "little Africa." This is an area in Harlem, New York that is home to over 150,000 West Africans. Most of these native Africans have been relocated to New York because of poor economic conditions, political prosecution, and various other causes.
The mission group meets weekly to discuss their trip, and to learn about the culture they will be entering. The mission team has been contacting 10 local business each to ask for donations for the trip, whether it be money or items for their silent auction they will be holding this June. There is also a link on their website that allows anyone to donate whenever they can.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Samish neighborhood residents frustrated Samish Way's dangerous feel, and hoping for some improvements soon.

Is Samish Way A Dangerous Way?

Anyone who has walked or driven down Samish Way has taken note of the large number of Motels and Inn's that line the road. Samish Way is one of the main roads taken by people living around this area, and for some it has been causing problems and unwanted detours.

Residents avoiding Samish Way

Why? According to resident Kelci Marx, “I just don't feel comfortable walking down Samish Way anymore after the past few times of being harassed by homeless drunk people.” This seems to be a common thought of people living in or around the Samish Neighborhood. Most of the residents believe a large reason for this is all of the inexpensive motels lining the road are drawing in lower income and sometimes homeless people who are staying there and are out roaming the streets at night. With the combinations of these motels and all of the fast food restaurants, this is no doubt an ideal spot for poor or even homeless people of Bellingham.

Large number of motels could be source of problem.

Emily Goronkin, a 20 year old Bellingham resident, lives near pizza pipeline explained that she was walking home last Tuesday night and was followed by two drunk men who were sitting outside of the Aloha Motel, she ended up calling for a ride home because they wouldn't leave her alone. She also says, “This definitely wasn't the first time this has happened, I usually just don't walk on the road at night.”

Although the Samish area has a large number of Students from Western, it also has a vast amount of family housing. Jennifer Leen, an expecting mother and resident in the Samish Neighborhood, is planning to move out of the Samish Neighborhood area and to somewhere she feels comfortable raising a child. “Don't get me wrong, I love it here, but it wouldn't be my ideal place to raise children,” She explained.

Samish residents hoping for change, and soon.

She also expressed that considering Samish Way is one of the first things you see when you are traveling to Western Washington University, she thinks it should be a better reflection of the true spirit of Bellingham, not a bunch of fast food restaurants and run down motels. “We shouldn't be having to worry about being scared to walk to the grocery store.” Leen exclaims.

There is no doubt that these Bellingham residents love living in Bellingham, but the look and feel of Samish way seems to be a common worry for these Samish Neighborhood residents. Marx adds, “I would love to see some improvement and make Samish Way a safer place, and even see more police on these streets keeping it safe for us residents.”