Letters to the Editor — Nov. 2, 2022 | Community

A response to the Lynden Tribune’s Oct. 26 special reports on the Homestead lawsuit:

Homestead residents agreed to a contract called the master declaration of covenants for Homestead, a planned residential community, when they bought property at Homestead.

The declaration section 3.3 requires Homestead property owners to pay a maintenance fee to the owner of the golf course (the declarant) for reimbursement of costs and expenses for maintaining the common open space.

The common open space currently includes around eight acres of land, the majority of which is the 6.35-acre Homestead Park.

“Maintenance also includes maintenance of entry signs and landscape, mailbox surrounds, street light electrical power bills, and maintenance of lights not maintained by the City of Lynden.”

Section 2.3 of the declaration clearly states that “the term common open space” as used herein does not and shall not include the golf course …”.

Homestead Golf Course is a private for-profit business, just like the Steakhouse Nine restaurant and Homestead Fitness. Despite what Mr. Scholten and Mayor Korthuis believe, nowhere in the declaration does it require, state, or obligate Homestead residents to subsidize the Homestead Golf Course, or any other private business for that matter.  

While most everyone agrees, plaintiffs and attorneys alike, that the Homestead Golf Course would be better off with a local owner, Homestead residents should have a choice whether or not they subsidize a private business and should not be forced to do so.

If Mr. Scholten, Mayor Korthuis, and other Lynden residents believe that the Homestead Golf Course is a “huge asset to the whole community,” then maybe the whole community should find a way to pay for “bringing back the 18-hole golf course, from years of neglect to proper condition,” rather than placing it on the backs of the Homestead residents.

Letter: Lynden Lions to hold veterans celebration

Over the past month plus, we’ve seen many letters to the editor filled with politics. Well, take a break.

I would like to express my pride in being a member of our Lynden Lions Club. As most of you know we have many projects that are all aimed at giving back to our communities and the world. That’s our mission.

Since we started serving Lynden in 1976, our community has grown. Anyone new to the area may not know that one of our annual projects is our celebration of veterans, past and present.

This year will be our 24th. It began with an idea from one of our cherished members who has now gone on before us.

We’ve kept that tradition alive since then with our annual veterans dinners. Even during the past two years we were still able to provide our vets with takeout meals to keep the tradition alive.  

This year, sorry to say, due to circumstances beyond our control, we will not be able to offer the dinners. That does not mean we’re forgetting our vets.

We will hold a celebration of our veterans at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at Judson Hall (Old Middle School on Main). The evening will be filled with much appreciation and recognition to anyone who served and protected our freedoms of our great nation. A dessert social will follow our program.

All veterans, please call (360) 220-3492 or (360) 815-5657 and register your name, military branch, number of years served, so we can include you in our evening roll call. 

All ages are invited. Families, friends and neighbors, at no charge. Show your thanks by supporting those who are sometimes taken for granted. Come join us to keep this tradition alive.

Letter: Children deserve a ‘better plan’

A recent letter writer suggested the promoters of the so-called healthy kids’ property tax levy suffer from a “lack of imagination” in their approach to the dearth of quality childcare facilities in Whatcom County. I concur with that opinion. 

The United States provided universal childcare during World War II, instead of thinking so provincially, with an illiberal and narrow viewpoint.

During WWII, mothers entered the workforce out of necessity because the men were sent off to war. If our country could provide universal childcare over 70 years ago, why did our local Prop 5 proponents design an aspirational ballot initiative that falls so far short?

One of the crown jewels of the child service centers in WWII was set up by an employer, the Kaiser Company, at its shipyards in Portland, Oregon.

Designed and scaled to children’s needs, Kaiser offered childcare 24 hours a day (to accommodate night-shift workers), a highly trained staff, a curriculum planned by leading early childhood experts, and even a cooked-food service for weary parents picking up their children after an arduous shift.

It strikes me that Proposition 5 could be described as elitist and, if passed, will result in even more societal division in our county because it relies on property taxes.

I read the entire Prop 5 ordinance and I believe it telegraphs assumptions that low-income parents are not capable of providing quality care to their children.

I did extensive searches and I cannot find a single jurisdiction in the United States that has implemented a property tax levy to pay for childcare for children from 0-5 years.

Read the entire ordinance before you cast your vote. It is so vague, full of far-reaching promises that cannot possibly be met. Vote no for this 10-year tax levy. Our kids deserve a better plan.

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