ENA President’s Message

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.
This next year will should be a very pivotal one for the future of Edgemoor. After 2 plus years, there is finally movement on Horizon Bank’s plans to develop their 739 unit Fairhaven Highlands project on Chuckanut Ridge. The City of Bellingham has required that an Environmental Impact Study be done on the project. This EIS will help determine what is environmentally feasible on that property. The first stage of the EIS will be to determine the scope of the study. To help educate and prepare Neighborhoods that will be directly affected by this development, the CSN will be having a meeting January 7th – 7:00 at the Fairhaven Library’s Fire Place room. A city sponsored Public meeting will be held on Jan 16 at the county courthouse to allow for people to verbally comment on what should be included in the scope of the EIS. Written comment will be accepted until Jan 23rd. After the scoping, the contractors that have been hired to do the EIS will create a Draft EIS, which will be open to public comment after it is released (March?). Needless to say this project will have significant impact on Edgemoor and weather you are for or against this project; everyone should try and become involved in this process.
As for the ENA, we are looking forward to another busy year. One of the main focuses will be continuing to work on the Edgemoor Neighborhood Plan update which we hope to have ready and submitted to the city well before the December 1st deadline. After the fantastic participation in our Neighborhood Survey (Results on the ENA website) the Neighborhood Plan Update committee has taken the initiative to get our plan updated to better reflect the desires of the neighborhood. Participation by all is encouraged and desired. There will be opportunities to help work on, comment on and ad input to the update through out the year.
The ENA will be holding elections for officers at the next General Meeting. The position of Treasurer needs to be filled as Lois would like to focus on Neighborhood Disaster Preparedness. Lois has been our treasurer since the ENA’s inception and has done a great job – thanks Lois. Anyone interested in the treasurer position, or part of any ENA committee should let any of the board members know so you can be included. Even if you do not want to be an officer in the ENA, your participation at meetings and committees is vital to the effectiveness of the ENA.
I look forward to a great 2008 and hopefully will see you at the various ENA meetings and functions.
Thank You
Brad Rose
President, Edgemoor Neighborhood Association