CNA September 2017- June 2018 revisited.
Our Board of Directors would like to give you a review of our busy year. We felt it would be useful to highlight its meetings of this past year.
In our meeting that kicked off the monthly meetings in
September 2017
,
our guest speaker was Greg Winters, Executive Director of the Opportunity Council. Mr. Winters spoke of his agency’s 50years of a broad scope of services that address immediate needs (food, emergency, shelter, eviction protection) to longer-term programs that promote self-sufficiency in our community.
For the
October
meeting, we hosted a “Meet the Candidates Night.” Each of the candidates running for an elected position for County Council District 2, County Council At-Large, Port of Bellingham District 1 and 2, two positions for the Bellingham City Council At-Large, and the Meridian School District were given an opportunity to briefly speak, seeking our support, and helping us decide who would be best qualified to represent us in city and county government.
In
November
, we had two speakers, Karen Bade from Bellingham Technical College and Karla Koplizer from Whatcom Community College talk about the Washington State Running Start program. This program is intended to provide students in grades 11 and 12 a program option consisting of attendance at certain institutions of higher education and simultaneous earning of high school and college/university credit.
No meeting was held in
December
(as is the norm due to the holiday season) in December
Your CNA started
January
of 2018 off with guest speaker and new Bellingham Chief of Police, David Doll. Also, the 1
st
Ward District (includes the Cordata Neighborhood) City Councilwoman April Barker spoke to the meeting attendees.
February
the invited guest speaker was Addie H. Candib, Community Engagement Manager of the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center. Unfortunately she was unable to attend. However, your CNA Board of Directors conducted a Town Hall meeting with the panel being made up by members of the board. Also, new Board member Pat Lynam was introduced. Cordata neighborhood residents expressed their concerns about traffic in the area and new development underway.
For
March
, a full agenda of speakers including John Gargett, Deputy Director, Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office, and Mr. Gargett spoke about his global experience with disaster and recovery. He also spoke about Tsunamis and how one would affect our Whatcom County. The new officers of your Cordata Neighborhood Association were announced.
In
April,
our guest and only speaker was Bellingham Mayor Kelli Linville. Mayor Linville gave us an update as to what is going on in Bellingham from a city government viewpoint, discussing such topics as library concerns for the Cordata neighborhood, jail update , homelessness problem in Bellingham and traffic congestion.
In
May,
we had speaker, Rick Sepler, the Director of Planning for the City of Bellingham. Mr. Sepler oversees all building plans and permits in the city. He also, answered many questions from the audience on how the city will deal with the large number of housing and commercial units that are in the works in the north end (the Cordata Neighborhood.)