BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – In a recent public meeting, the Bellingham City Council voted on two predominant topics in Bellingham.

In a unanimous decision, Bellingham’s City Council has voted to rejoin Whatcom County’s interlocal drug task force. The interlocal task force aims to build a case for prosecuting distributors rather than users. The Bellingham Police Department withdrew from the force in 2020 because of critical staffing shortages.

Over $320,000 from a Department of Justice grant will go into adding two Bellingham Police personnel to the task force.

Bellingham’s Police Chief Rebecca Mertzig has hopes for the task force’s efforts with the addition of the personnel.

“Adding two personnel to their ranks is just going to be a force multiplier, right?” Chief Mertzig said during the committee meeting on Monday, July 1. “You can only hold so many cases. You have to prioritize your cases and having an extra couple of people in there would have, I imagine, a significant impact.”

Mertzig also spoke on why they are rejoining the task force.

“Ironically, a lot of their cases were already in our city so I felt very guilty on a month-to-month basis of not contributing personnel when most of their cases were being done inside our city limits.”

Whatcom County’s Prosecuting Attorney Eric Richey added the county would support Bellingham’s needs in enforcement as part of the agreement.

In the same meeting, the Bellingham City Council approved several projects for the city’s downtown beautification endeavor.

The council approved nearly $350,000 to fund seven proposals in this the first round of approval with plans for more projects on the way.

Three larger projects will receive $250,000 in funding from Bellingham’s lodging tax that comes from hotel stays. Creative nonprofit Paper Whale received the funds to would build interactive installations in empty storefronts, activate alleyways and paint a mural under the I-5 overpass at Lakeway. Another $97,000 will go toward four smaller projects that would paint murals throughout the city and create activities for people to do while in downtown.

In total, 43 proposals were submitted in just the single month the application was open. Councilmember Hollie Huthman said that was “a lot” of proposals during the Community and Economic Development meeting Monday afternoon. She added how the high volume is encouraging.

“It means there’s a lot of people out there excited to do things that make Bellingham more fun and interesting and attractive to tourists,” Huthman said.

The city plans to implement the projects within the next year. Another opportunity to apply will be available this fall, and applicants are encouraged to resubmit any proposal not chosen during the first round.