If you live in the selected area of south Bellingham where the new park district will be formed, then you received your ballot in the mail this past week.  If you did not receive a ballot already then you are not in the proposed park district.   Also, if you are in the park district and the proposal passes, you will be taxed even if you vote no.  This has been a question from some. 

I urge you to scan the comments as well as the articles.  Some comments are from very knowledgeable people who provide perspective and facts that are sometimes more valuable than the article they are commenting under.  At some point, we will hopefully each learn enough to make a decision and fill out our ballot.  This site is trying to provide you with enough opinions so you can easily pick and choose what you want to read. 

I particularly want to thank commenters for providing us with their views.  Some have either never commented here before or have rarely done so.  NWCitizen requires every person to use their real name and we verify every person's identity before enabling them to comment.  There are now over 200 verified commenters.  Not allowing anonymous comments leads to far fewer comments, but a higher level of dialogue.  The whole point of this website is to help us learn of public processes and have a community discussion of issues.

Over the past week, there have been the highest levels of readers checking this website in the 17 years it has existed.  As I write this Saturday noon, almost 3,000 have checked it since midnight, and 18,000 visits were made in the past 7 days - of course many making multiple visits.  It kicks me back to realizing my role is to try and present a fair forum. 

I will continue to post articles and comments on this issue right up to Feb 12.  If you want to delay voting and learn more, this park district discussion will continue for another 10 days.