Bellingham Region & Whatcom County, Washington

6 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 BELL INGHAM REGION & WHATCOM COUNTY , WASHINGTON against each other in debates about curbing the spread of the virus, Whatcom County’s economic development leadership saw them as symbiotic and part of the same process. “We felt that they fed off of each other – that they were both important,” Goldberg affirms. “We worked with the ‘Safer. Stronger. Together.’ program to better coordinate efforts between stakeholders. We also promoted our businesses through the Think Local First initiative, a commitment to spending money locally to keep our small businesses thriving.” The Port of Bellingham also funded an emergency ferry service from Whatcom County to Point Roberts. Point Roberts, which is on the southern tip of the Tsawwassen peninsula, is a highly unusual geographic feature of Whatcom County known as a pene-exclave: land area of one country that is accessible only by traveling through that of another. Point Roberts can typically be reached from the rest of the county, and vice versa, by boat or via two border crossings and a 23-mile drive through Canada. The ferry allowed residents and other users to travel to the mainland for essential errands while the border was closed to non-essential travel during the pandemic. Bellingham’s manufacturing economy also had to get creative during the pandemic, particularly with ways of revving up local production to support ongoing healthcare needs. “We’ve got a pretty robust manufacturing sector up here, and they were lightning-quick to rally around and help,” offers Port of Bellingham Economic Development Project Manager John Michener. “We have one company that makes canvas. Another one makes aluminum tubing. And we come to find out that Seattle is in dire need of cots for an emergency hospital. We were able to organize those pieces and get these guys to start working together, creating in essence a hyperlocal supply chain to get these products very much needed at the time, all while building lasting relationships going forward.” Goldberg admits that resiliency and pivots are the hot issues right now but insists that Bellingham was ahead of the curve on touting resiliency. Research and Communications Consultant, Jennifer Noveck, echoes the sentiment and notes that resiliency efforts in Whatcom are ongoing. “Whatcom County suffered a flood in November 2021. We worked with our partners, including several members from a work group called ‘Team Whatcom’, which is a group of economic development service providers including Western Washington University’s SBDC, the Bellingham Regional Chamber, Whatcom Community Foundation, and several others, to ensure that businesses affected by the flood were supported locally and to advocate for state-level disaster funds for small business. We previously offered a disaster preparedness class in the fall of 2019, right before the pandemic hit. We will be offering new classes jointly with our local partners, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Columbia University’s National Center for