Due to bad weather, the Birchwood Neighborhood Association meeting on Tuesday, January 17th, from 6:30-8:00 at Shuksan Middle School is cancelled.  We will be rescheduling the meeting in February or March.   At the rescheduled meeting we will have the Bellingham School District Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, and architects discuss plans for the Birchwood Elementary remodel. 

We will also have election of Board members.  Anyone who has lived in Bellingham for a year and is a resident of Birchwood Neighborhood or owns a business in the Neighborhood is eligible to run for a Board position.  A Board member’s term of office is three years.  The Board meets once a month.  Please contact Becky Schlotterback, rebecca.schlotterback@comcast.net  if you are interested or have questions.

Donations from Birchwood Neighborhood Association members and Whatcom Educational Credit Union have funded the portable toilet in Birchwood Park through September.   We plan to fund it again May-September 2012.  If you would like to contribute, please send donations to:

Rebecca Schlotterback, BNA Treasurer, 2611 Lafayette, Bellingham, WA 98225.  

Stephen Trinkaus, owner of Terra Organica at the Public Market on Cornwall Ave., has generously offered match your donations for the portable toilet. 

Thank you all for your support!

Kulshan Community Land Trust staff would like to hear from people who are interested in, or concerned about, KulshanCLT’s proposal to build new, small, energy-efficient homes for homeownership on approximately two acres at W. Indiana and Lafayette Streets? 

KulshanCLT wants everyone to have accurate information and wants anyone who is interested to become involved in future discussions and meetings that KulshanCLT will be hosting. Meeting dates will be announced through the Birchwood Neighborhood Association website and by other means. 

As you will understand, many Birchwood residents, but not all residents, had a chance to participate in the prior KulshanCLT’s meetings with neighborhood residents in 2009 and 2010, which included the informal KulshanCLT meetings in fall 2009, the City of Bellingham Hearing Examiner process in early 2010, and regular Birchwood Neighborhood Association meetings when Paul Schissler provided updates from KulshanCLT.

Site planning with neighborhood involvement will begin in 2011, with informal meetings where everyone will be invited to participate. In the meantime, for anyone who has questions, KulshanCLT staff would like to hear and answer those questions. Also, KulshanCLT staff would like to hear all concerns, suggestions or ideas that anyone would like to share.

KulshanCLT staff will be willing to meet with neighborhood residents and others, if that would be helpful. Please call or email to set up a time to meet with KulshanCLT staff or to learn more about the development.  KulshanCLT can be reached at (360) 671-5600 and at 215 W. Holly St., Suite H-20 in downtown Bellingham. Also, feel free to contact project manager Paul Schissler at PaulSchissler@KulshanCLT.org and (360) 671-5600 extension 102, or Executive Director Dean Fearing at DeanFearing@KulshanCLT.org and extension 106.

More information is also available at the Birchwood Neighborhood Association website at http://www.birchwoodneighborhood.org/  and at the City of Bellingham’s website at www.cob.org by searching on the word Kulshan.

KulshanCLT asks that you please help dispel rumors and circulate accurate information about KulshanCLT by encouraging anyone with questions to contact KulshanCLT (contact info above.)  On behalf of the members, staff and board of KulshanCLT, thank you for helping to make a great neighborhood, Birchwood, an even better neighborhood by participating in civil society.

Click on the linkss below to see the results from the Birchwood Neighborhood Surveys.  The Random Sample survey was sent to 600 people.  325 people responded.  The Volunteer survey was open to anyone who wished to complete it. 

Random Sample Survey Results: http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=6Wfjr1ZtWrc0mkQz2oSZNTBdP3mUkDgJvyXosksir2s_3d

Volunteer Survey Results: http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=JgGue_2bi9T6iMEH9fNsNG3YDG2n4CsD8AhGWJg8La5vk_3d

If you would like to take the Birchwood Neighborhood survey, click on the link below:

Volunteer Survey Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=mU7YZ807kTJtCnDV9MLmpg_3d_3d .