BELLINGHAM - On my consumer protection blog, I regularly repeat the old cliché: If it’s too good to be true...

Well, how about oysters on the half shell for $3.95, or Ellensburg double lamb chop with macadamia coconut crust and star anise sauce for $7.95? Those and similar impossible bargains can be found on the menu at Café Culinaire, the restaurant staffed by the 55 students enrolled in Bellingham Technical College’s Culinary Arts Program. Nothing on the menu is more than $7.95.

In a way, it really IS too good to be true. The restaurant serves lunch only, just three days a week, Wednesday through Friday, and the term ends June 4. Seating is limited, and there is no wine. Perhaps BTC can add a sommelier training program in the not-too-distant
future.

BTC spokeswoman Marni Saling Mayer says 55 students are enrolled in the program, with another 96 on the waiting list. The school keeps café prices rock-bottom to insure that every lunch is packed, to give both chefs and servers training in providing a fine dining experience in a bustling environment. Student lab fees cover the cost of the ingredients, and the labor is, of course, free. In fact, the students are paying to be trained in the program.

On our recent visit, we would have handed out “A”s to everyone concerned.

We began our meal with the oysters-four nice-sized bivalves. Two were chilled, with an Asian mignonette sauce, and two hot with the classic chopped-spinach Rockefeller approach. They were both professional-grade, although I’ve never quite understood the whole oysters Rockefeller thing. I much preferred the chilled ones that let the seafood shine through.

Then it was on to curried-crusted Hawaiian ono on a bed of Asian greens with red ginger-soy vinaigrette, $3.95, and a salad of local field greens, Silver Springs goat gouda, Asian pears, smoked bacon, fennel seed lavosh, oven-dried tomatoes and hazelnut-cider vinaigrette, $2.95.

The ono preparation showcased this subtly-flavored, halibut-like fish on a bed of greens that were delightful in themselves. And the salad also sparkled. Baby greens and vinaigrette are almost a cliché in the better local restaurants, but the café’s version escaped the predictable with its clever combination of sweet, tart and earthy flavors.

The prices here do encourage overeating. We could not pass up smoked duck potstickers with orange-chili plum sauce, $3.95, before moving on to main dishes of braised Twisted S Ranch buffalo short ribs in spicy molasses mop sauce, $7.95, and brochette of Alaskan
weathervane scallops and halibut on fresh soba noodles with spicy Asian pesto.

The potstickers had a nicely-herbed filling with a well-balanced sauce, with enough peppery zing to enliven the dish without overpowering the more subtle flavors. The ribs, served rare, were surprisingly tender and juicy. The skewers of seafood were nicely-broiled. My companion thought the scallops were a bit overcooked, but they seemed fine to me. I didn’t think much of the heavy, earthy soba noodles, but the pureed carrots and paetzle that came with the ribs were treats in themselves and a perfect supporting cast for the ribs.

An earnest young chef came out of the kitchen to make sure his work was satisfactory.

P.S. If you don’t tip generously here, you should be ashamed of yourself.

We weren’t on the reservation list—our names had gotten lost somewhere along the way—but on a recent afternoon at the crowded Café Culinaire, an extra table was brought in for us, and space was made.

Although we had to loiter in the lobby for a few minutes, it was worth the wait. By the time my tablemate and I were seated by the hostess a short time later, a spotless tablecloth had been laid, candles were lit and a wide-mouthed wineglass with a pink rhododendron blossom was placed just so.

As wait staff in starched white shirts and black ties hustled throughout the dining
room, we perused the menu and took in the action. The room was full, and the
food being brought out—which looked delicious and smelled even better—was
plentiful. One long table featured two women wearing celebratory crowns. In the
corner, an occasional flame rose up as the dessert chef prepared Bananas Foster
with a mix of liquor, butter, cinnamon and fruit.
A quick look at the prices on the menu reminded us that, although it felt like we were in a high-end restaurant,
we were actually at school. You see, Café Culinaire isn’t a permanent eatery, but a temporary dining experience
that sees the Bellingham Technical College’s Culinary Arts students taking part in one of the most important
“labs” in their training for six weeks each spring.
Under the supervision of chef instructors, the students not only prepare the dishes, but also utilize their
skills and training to work at each station of the busy restaurant—and beyond. This means that, on a different
day, the hostess who showed us to our table may well be the one laboring behind the scenes in the spacious
kitchen, and vice versa.
The training pays off, as each graduate leaves the program with a better understanding of what it takes to not
only feed patrons, but also to make sure their experience is pleasing on a variety of aesthetic levels.
Clean silverware and upbeat table service, however, will only take you so far where running a restaurant is
concerned. If the food’s no good, well, it’s hard to make it work.
I’m happy to report Café Culinaire is, for the most part, offering enticing edibles comparable to its “real”
counterparts. Although diners can pick and choose from the ala carte menu—$2.95-$3.95 for appetizers and
$6.25-$7.95 for entrees—the best deal by far is a three-course tasting menu (appetizer, entrée and dessert) for
a mere $10.95.
I started my culinary explorations with the Kaffir lime and ginger tempura San Juan Island spot prawns, which
were placed atop a Chinese long bean salad. Crunchy on the outside, the prawns were perfectly cooked and
still moist and buttery on the inside. I parted with half a sizeable prawn for tastes of my date’s three-soup
sampler, and we agreed the cream of wild mushroom came out on top.
Sticking with a seafood theme, I chose a brochette of Alaskan Weathervane scallops and halibut with spicy
Asian pesto and fresh soba noodles as my main course, while my companion went with the Ellensburg Double
lamb chops with macadamia-coconut crust. (Other intriguing items that could’ve made it to our table: Twisted
S. Ranch buffalo short ribs, blackberry marinated Draper Valley free range chicken breasts, Lummi Island cedar
plank roasted salmon, and spring vegetable risotto.)
As my friend shared her dreams from the night before—a lot of which included exotic journeys with her cat—
we dug into our entrees with zest. Again, the oceanic part of my meal was cooked to perfection; the seared
scallops and halibut practically melted in my mouth. I never got a bite of the lamb chops, as they disappeared
before I got a chance to ask (yes, I was tempted to gnaw on the bone)
When one of the “staff” came by to ask us how our meal was, though, I was compelled to tell him I’d been underwhelmed
by the soba noodles, which proved to be bland (not spicy) and were clumped together. He took it
in stride, and said he’d let that day’s chef know, and that they appreciated the feedback.
At the end of the meal, I learned a little something myself as I watched the guy in the back whip up my Bananas
Foster. He walked me through each step of preparation, then warned me to step back as he lit the concoction
on fire. Back at the table, I dug in. The dessert earned an A+, and, with that, school was over for the day.

WHEN THE most difficult decision you have to make during the course of the day is whether to order the Thai Dungeness crab cakes or the hazelnut-crusted Samish Bay oysters as an appetizer, you know you’ve got it good.

Recently, a coworker and I—who have stepped out for something to nosh on during the course of our workdays on so many occasions we’ve now officially become “ladies who lunch”—left the office on a blustery spring day for a repast at the Bellingham Technical College’s Cafe Culinaire.

As we passed nondescript building after nondescript building, each labeled with a different letter of the alphabet, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Eventually we came to the letter “G” and walked through the door. To the right was a bustling cafeteria full of earnest young students. To the left, a hostess stood at the ready, waiting to guide us down a mirrored hallway to our table for two.

Candles were lit. Flowers in small vases dotted ledges. Intricately folded linen napkins uncovered small, hand-folded cranes (or were they swans?). Silverware gleamed in the muted light. Servers stood at attention. Did we want lemon in our water glasses? Yes, we did. Would we care for coffee or soda or a house-made beverage? Not at this moment, thank you very much. Did we need more time to come to a decision? Just a few minutes, please.

While we perused the Pan-Asian Northwest menu, I realized the fully operational restaurant, which is intended to school culinary students on the ins and outs of working at, or running, an eatery of their own, isn’t just paying lip service to what it takes to make a good meal. From the first sip of water to the final bite of dessert, we were treated to, as my lunch partner pointed out, “an embarrassment of riches.”

First, decisions had to be made. The crab cakes ($5.95) won out over the oysters ($4.25), while my “date” chose the special of the day, a shitake/goat cheese strudel, as her starter. We could’ve opted for a smoked duck and orange salad ($5.25) or Palouse lentil ragout ($4.95), but alas, they’d have to wait for another day. For our main dishes, I went for the caramelized five-spiced duck breast with dried cherry jus lie ($12.95), while the lady across the table chose Korean braised Osso Buco ($11.95), otherwise known as veal. For dessert ($3.25), I selected the ginger sour cream cake served with carrot cake ice cream and she requested a trio of sorbets—mango, mixed berry and champagne rose.

For those who’ve ever dined at an upscale eatery, you’re likely aware by this point that the prices for these menu items is well below what you’d pay in a “real” fancy restaurant. And, as we’d chosen the $16.95 three-course tasting menu—which included a choice of appetizer, any entrée and dessert—the deal was even more screaming.

The real test, of course, was in the eating. I’m happy to report that my crab cakes, served with lemongrass aioli and citrus slaw, were savory and succulent without being overbearing. I finished every bite (and almost bit into our waiter when he tried to take the plate away when our entrees came). My duck was delish, but the melt-in-yourmouth veal I sampled from my tablemate’s plate made me wish I’d chosen that instead.

After we’d paid our bills—which came to about $22 per person, with tip—we were given a short tour of the large kitchen. A bustling crew in tall white hats were armed with knives, spoons, mixers and other tools of the trade. Even through the restaurant had emptied, everybody seemed to be incredibly busy. Then I remembered: this was their classroom, and they were in school.

Hilde Hetteger-Kormi, one of the instructors on duty that day, told us the students who’d served us in the restaurant were also chefs in training. Because they want the two-year program to produce well-rounded graduates, each student must spend time learning not only how to cook, but also how to run each and every section of the restaurant.

“Every chef needs to know the service part,” she explained. “If you don’t know how to run service, you lose it.”

Because Cafe Culinaire operates on a quarterly basis, only a few weeks remain to experience fine dining on a dime. Reservations are recommended, so plan ahead if you can.

“I would eat here again,” my coworker noted at one point during our leisurely meal. As a lady who lunches, I know I’ll be back someday, too.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY AMY KEPFERLE

Welding Rodeo: Watch The Sparks Fly

LASSOS WON’T be a necessity when the horn blows at the Bellingham Technical College Friday morning, but they probably wouldn’t hurt. For those taking part in the 8th annual Welding Rodeo, the high-pitched sound will signal teams that it’s time to run for the gigantic scrap pile in front of them in order to snatch up the pieces they want before other competitors get there first.

Once they’ve culled supplies from the mountains of donated metal, the 10 amateur teams—which consist of four people each—will head to their individual booths to spend the day using their various welding talents to create sculptures focusing on the theme of “Space.” At the end of the afternoon, prizes will be awarded and the finished pieces will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Come Saturday morning, the process will be repeated by 10 teams of professional welders.

For an event that started out as a one-day affair with five teams and a shoestring budget of about $400, the Welding Rodeo has morphed into a popular happening that has put Bellingham Technical College and its welding program on the map. These days, teams from near and far make their way to the BTC campus every May to participate, and members of the public show up in droves to both watch the pieces come together and bid on the finished works of art.

“I think they like to be around the sparks and the grinding and all the excitement,” says Jere Donnelly, a longtime welding instructor who has spearheaded the spring event along with colleague Don Anderson since its inception. She says they started the rodeo for a number of reasons: They wanted to bring attention to the two-year program, recruit those who might be interested in signing up and raise funds for scholarships for welding apprentices.

“If we didn’t have the students, we wouldn’t be able to pull it off,” Donnelly says. “They’re working to complete a goal, and I like to see them taking pride in what they’re doing.”

Another benefit to putting on the rodeo, Donnelly says, is allowing those who may be moving into careers in pipe welding and aluminum boat welding—among other things—to explore the artistic nature of their profession.

“We like to have fun with the metal,” Donnelly notes, “but, realistically, they have to make a living. There isn’t any money in art in this neck of the woods.” To help bring their visions together, teams are able to pick out four pieces in advance from the scrap pile that will be in their booth the day of the festivities.

Since the Welding Rodeo made its debut eight years ago, the program it supports has grown by leaps and bounds. About 150 students are currently enrolled, and the building that now houses them is quadruple the size of its predecessor (and is still bursting at the welded seams).

“The college has seen a lot of value in the event, so they have really been supporting us,” Donnelly says. “It’s made our lives a lot less stressful.”

“If you want something, just go out there and get it,” she said.

“It’s not difficult ... and in the end you’re going to have a great career.”

The scholarship program was established in February 2008 after the Ferndale area refinery donated $50,000 to the college to increase interest in programs related to jobs at refineries. In all, there will be four full-ride scholarships awarded to Lummi Nation students, with the scholarship covering tuition, books and material fees.

Misanes heard about the scholarship program last year while she was thinking about where she would go to school and how she and her family would be able to afford it. She originally thought about entering the dental program, but once she heard about the instrumentation program, she was intrigued by the math applications.

Only two weeks into the quarter, Misanes is impressed with how much she’s learned about electricity. She hasn’t started any of the instrumentation classes, but she knows she will have plenty of opportunity to practice her skills before being released into the job market.

“At colleges like this everything is hands on, which I like,” she said. “That’s how I learn.”

Once she gets settled into her school routine, Misanes hopes to give presentations about the program and scholarship to fellow tribal members, encouraging them to take advantage of the free school opportunity.

“I was glad to get the scholarship through Lummi so that I can help the community more,” she said.

BELLINGHAM - Bellingham Technical College student Lacie Misanes is adamant about people working hard and doing whatever it takes to reach their goals, no matter how lofty they are.

And she should know. The 19-year-old is the first person in her family to attend any type of college, and she’s doing it on BTC’s first full-ride scholarship.

Misanes, who started school this quarter, is the first recipient of a ConocoPhillips scholarship that was established for Lummis who are interested in the instrumentation and control and process technology degree programs.

And while Misanes hopes her enrollment in the instrumentation and control program helps her get a good job after graduation, she mostly hopes that fellow tribal members will be inspired by her schooling and follow suit.

1955: Bellingham School District buys five acres on Lindberg Avenue for a vocational school after running evening classes for years out of the Sehome elementary school on High Street.

SEPT. 4, 1957: Bellingham Technical School opens its doors, after construction costs of $561,980, almost half of which was provided by the state Legislature.

APRIL 13, 1958: Bellingham Technical School is dedicated with 20 instructors for 16 programs and 336 students. James E. Bowen is director.

1961: Bellingham Technical School is renamed Bellingham Technical Institute. Raymond Smith is named director.

APRIL 1967: The Community College Act passes the Legislature, turning almost all vocational and trade schools and junior colleges into community colleges. Only five vocationaltechnical schools remain in the state, including Bellingham Technical Institute.

1970S: Bellingham Technical Institute is renamed Bellingham Vocational-Technical Institute. Campus expands with 10 new buildings.

1972: Lawrence Belka is named director of Bellingham Vocational-Technical Institute.

1982: Desmond McArdle is named director. 1984: Lengthy discussions about merging Whatcom Community College and Bellingham Vocational-Technical Institute end, to the pleasure of its employees.

1987: Bellingham Vocational-Technical Institute celebrates its 30th birthday, with 40 programs and 17,447 students.

MAY 1991: The governor approves the Community and Technical College Act, putting the five vocational-technical schools under the jurisdiction of the college system, rather than local school districts.

SEPTEMBER 1991: Bellingham Vocational- Technical Institute becomes Bellingham Technical College.

MAY 1996: Bellingham Technical College begins offering associate degrees for graduates in 18 programs.

2001: Gerald Pumphrey is named president of Bellingham Technical College.

2003: Haskell Center, the first of several new state-of-the-art buildings, opens. School receives state Center of Excellence designation for the Process and Control Technology programs.

2004: The Northwest Technology Center opens. The building will be renamed the Desmond P. McArdle Center on Saturday, May 17.

2006: Desmond McArdle is named interim president after Gerald Pumphrey leaves for a job at South Puget Sound Community College.

2007: The Morse Center opens, expanding capacity for students in welding and automotive programs. Tom Eckert is named president of Bellingham Technical College.

2008: BTC celebrates its 50th anniversary.

SOURCES: Bellingham Technical College, Bellingham Herald archives

College Fits Courses to Needs of Industries

Bellingham Technical College student Casey Reynolds, right, goes over his exam on amplifiers with Instrumentation Instructor Dave Starkovich , on May 9, 2008. “It’s all hands on, I like hands on,” Reynolds said about Bellingham Technical College.

May 11, 2008 Education Bellingham Technical College turns 50 College Fits Courses to Needs of Industries BELLINGHAM — Over the last 50 years, Bellingham Technical College has grown up, moving from a single building with a handful of programs to a state-of-the-art campus that makes instructors from other schools jealous.

But one constant remains: the school’s dedication to preparing people for employment.

“Bellingham Technical College has been remarkably true to its mission forever,” said Desmond McArdle, who was director and president of the school from 1982 to 2001.

BTC is celebrating its 50th anniversary this school year. Over the decades, some program offerings have changed as demand for them declined: Custodial, commercial fishing and fashion merchandising programs are no longer offered. But other programs have withstood the test of time, producing employees for local companies.

Jeffrey Callendar, spokesman for ConocoPhillips, said Bellingham Technical College has not only produced quality students over the years for the local oil refineries, but has kept up with changing technology by working with local industry employers. For example, the school partnered with local businesses to develop the process technology program, which trains people for jobs that turn raw materials into products.

“BTC has been very responsive to ConocoPhillips, as well as our industry peers, in terms of continuing to develop and evolve the curriculum. … That makes it even more effective and more valuable to the students and helps them prepare and evolve the skills they need to come work in our industry,” Callendar said. “They also keep up with industry trends and automation. … It’s really sort of a leadingedge school when it comes to technical education.”

THE HISTORY
Vocational education has been offered in Bellingham since 1912, when the first “Industrial School” opened near Whatcom Middle School, under the supervision of the Bellingham School District.

Over the decades, vocational classes made their way into the high schools, and by the 1950s, district officials decided a technical school was needed.

Bellingham Technical School opened in 1957 with 16 programs, including the long-standing welding, automotive and culinary programs.

Throughout the years, the school’s enrollment flourished. The school was so well-respected in the community and the state that it survived two attempts by the state to change it: in the 1960s, when all but five technical schools in the state rolled over into the community college system; and again in the 1980s, when some officials tried to merge Whatcom Community College and BTC.

By the 1970s, busloads of Whatcom County high school students arrived on campus daily, McArdle said. The school, which was renamed the Bellingham Vocational-Technical Institute, was still run by the Bellingham School District, and classes were filled with teens and adults.

Then the federal government called for education reform in the 1980s, and the culture of the technical school changed.

“When ‘A Nation at Risk’ came out … it resulted in higher standards and more classes in English, more classes in math, more classes in science, so we had fewer buses coming in,” McArdle said. “That was a bad time.”

THE FUTURE
More attention is turning to technical and vocational education these days as schools statewide consider reviving some programs dropped in the 1980s and many blue-collar industries start facing a shortage of workers.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, retirements of baby boomers in oil and gas related industries are “expected to create excellent opportunities for welders.”

The retiring baby boomers also will affect the health-care field, because more people will require care. The health-care industry “will generate 3 million new jobs between 2006 and 2016, more than any other industry,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“We are certainly in that group of companies that has an aging work force and anticipate seeing many retire over the next decade,” said Callendar of ConocoPhillips. “We’re looking for programs, like BTC, to help provide a larger pool of trained workers … who have the technological know-how to come to work in our industry.”

Officials at BTC hope to fill the work force gap by increasing their presence in local schools and the number of opportunities people have to take courses at BTC.

“There used to be in history a time when a high school diploma was all you needed to walk off the street and into a factory and start working,” BTC President Tom Eckert said. “A lot of those jobs were shipped overseas. What remains is highly trained positions.”

Over the next five years, Eckert hopes to expand enrollment by 1,000 full-time students, offer 23 complete online programs, create online formats for 100 sections of existing courses, increase the number of weekend and night courses and expand the Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language programs to help immigrants find work.

Eckert also hopes to open three remote locations around the county that would allow students easier access to BTC courses.

“There’s not a shortage of people,” Eckert said. “There’s a shortage of trained people.”

School officials also are trying to stay ahead of the curve and are considering offering courses in potentially high-demand areas such as the “green” industry, marine trades and agricultural technology, Eckert said.

No matter what programs crop up in the future, Eckert hopes the school can attract people to study some of the staple programs — auto mechanics, welding, instrumentation and nursing — because so much of people’s everyday lives relies on those fields.

“We’re all going to be in a lot of trouble if we don’t have those skills,” he said. “These are fundamental infrastructure things that we depend on, and all of it can come grinding to a halt.”

When Bellingham Vocational- Technical Institute separated from the school district and was rolled into the community and technical college system in 1991, the name was changed to Bellingham Technical College, but the school wasn’t as popular as it had been in the 1970s.

“The culture remained that a four-year college is where you go,” McArdle said. “Vocational education was a second-class education for many years.”

In recent years, the school has taken strides to keep up with changing technology, the economy and industry demands. The school has added more academic and remedial programs, increased the number of specialties available within established programs and upgraded facilities to make sure graduates are highly skilled. It now serves more than 12,000 students.

“The trades in earlier days were just trades,” McArdle said.

“You could do anything if you had a tool box. … Now you can’t.”

INDUSTRY RELATIONSHIP From the beginning, BTC has had advisory panels to help school officials keep a finger on the pulse of the various industries their graduates joined. If an advisory panel said the job outlook for a certain skill was diminishing, school officials listened.

“Our mission was preparing people for work for jobs that exist,” McArdle said. “If the (jobs) don’t exist, then we close the program. … There’s no point in educating people for unemployment.”

On the other end, if advisory committees reported a need for a new program, then the college worked with them to figure out how to implement one.

For example, St. Joseph Hospital has worked with the school to develop courses and programs for nurses and radiologic and surgery technicians.

“We have found BTC to be an incredibly valuable community resource, not only for helping people prepare for successful careers but also for addressing gaps in the work force,” said Judith Smith, the director of public relations and marketing at the hospital.

Currently, more than 300 people are on advisory committees for the college, which offers 34 degree programs and 57 certificate programs.

“We’re very responsive to employers,” said McArdle, who also served as the interim president in 2006-07.

Mike Abendhoff, spokesman for BP Cherry Point Refinery, said BTC has done a great job in keeping up with the demands of the oil industry, but that to attract more people, the school needs to make sure its name is known to everyone.

“I think they just need to focus on spreading the word about their comprehensive program offerings,” he said. “There are many fields of study that people can get into and learn skills that lead to family-wage jobs.”

Instructor Lowell Webster and students in one of Bellingham Technical College’s science labs.

1955: Bellingham School District buys five acres on Lindberg Avenue for a vocational school after running evening classes for years out of the Sehome elementary school on High Street.

SEPT. 4, 1957: Bellingham Technical School opens its doors, after construction costs of $561,980, almost half of which was provided by the state Legislature.

APRIL 13, 1958: Bellingham Technical School is dedicated with 20 instructors for 16 programs and 336 students. James E. Bowen is director.

1961: Bellingham Technical School is renamed Bellingham Technical Institute. Raymond Smith is named director.

APRIL 1967: The Community College Act passes the Legislature, turning almost all vocational and trade schools and junior colleges into community colleges.

Only five vocationaltechnical schools remain in the state, including Bellingham Technical Institute.

1970’s: Bellingham Technical Institute is renamed Bellingham Vocational-Technical Institute. Campus expands with 10 new buildings.

1972: Lawrence Belka is named director of Bellingham Vocational-Technical Institute.

1982: Desmond McArdle is named director. 1984: Lengthy discussions about merging Whatcom Community College and Bellingham Vocational-Technical Institute end, to the pleasure of its employees.

1987: Bellingham Vocational-Technical Institute celebrates its 30th birthday, with 40 programs and 17,447 students.

MAY 1991: The governor approves the Community and Technical College Act, putting the five vocationaltechnical schools under the jurisdiction of the college system, rather than local school districts.

SEPTEMBER 1991: Bellingham Vocational- Technical Institute becomes Bellingham Technical College.

MAY 1996: Bellingham Technical College begins offering associate degrees for graduates in 18 programs.

2001: Gerald Pumphrey is named president of Bellingham Technical College.

2003: Haskell Center, the first of several new stateof-the-art buildings, opens. School receives state Center of Excellence designation for the Process and Control Technology programs.

2004: The Northwest Technology Center opens. The building will be renamed the Desmond P. McArdle Center on Saturday, May 17.

2006: Desmond McArdle is named interim president after Gerald Pumphrey leaves for a job at South Puget Sound Community College.

2007: The Morse Center opens, expanding capacity for students in welding and automotive programs. Tom Eckert is named president of Bellingham Technical College.

2008: BTC celebrates its 50th anniversary.

SOURCES: Bellingham Technical College, Bellingham Herald archives Bellingham Technical College through the Years

Then he realized the law of gravity was pulling the prank — the computer chairs were rolling across a floor that had developed a slant because the building was sinking.

A slanted second floor is only one of the structural problems plaguing the home of the Bellingham Technical College Fisheries Technology Program. A leaking roof, seismic instability, outdated electrical systems and inadequate program and storage space round out the list.

Because of the dismal state of the building, the college is starting a $2 million fundraising campaign for a new facility at the hatchery.

“At some point, we need to vacate the building because it’s not safe,” said Patricia McKeown, vice president of instruction at BTC.

“In order for the program to survive, we need a new building.”

If the college can raise the money by July 2009, it will receive $2 million in state matching funds to cover the full cost of the proposed project.

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PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Thousands of people fish Whatcom Creek and thousands of students join with Bellingham Parks and Recreation for field trips each year, but few people realize Bellingham Technical College is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the hatchery and its eggs.

“We’re Bellingham’s best-kept secret,” joked Steele, the director since the program’s beginning. “Bellingham Parks and Rec runs tours, but they’re touring what we’re doing.”

The fisheries program was started in 1979 after a wastewater treatment plant was converted into the fish hatchery. Students in the two-year program spawn, monitor and release salmon and eggs into creeks across Whatcom and Skagit counties.

When the program started, Whatcom Creek was a “dead creek” without a natural fish run, Steele said. But the hatchery and fisheries program has brought back salmon to Whatcom Creek, as well as helped restore wild salmon runs in Terrell, Squalicum and Oyster creeks.

Students run the day-to-day operations of the hatchery, with oversight and approval from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

But the program isn’t just to train hatchery workers for Whatcom Creek. The curriculum includes restoration and monitoring of creeks, streams and tributaries all over Whatcom and Skagit counties, as well as hands-on work at an acre of oyster and clam ground in Samish Bay.

Steele usually has about 25 students each year in various stages of the program, and graduates can find jobs with state, federal or private hatcheries, research groups, organizations that do habitat restoration, shellfish farms, water quality agencies and more.

“Right now there are so many jobs available, it’s mind-boggling,” Steele said.

BTC seeks funds for new hatchery facility Fisheries technology building in disrepair BUILDING WOES The current building was built in the 1940s as the wastewater plant control building. There has been at least one addition for extra space for hatchery trays, but little structural work has been done on the building since it was remodeled for the BTC program in the 1970s, Steele said.

The city of Bellingham owns the building and land and leases them to BTC, McKeown said. The city doesn’t want to pay for a new building, but the program can’t relocate.

“In order for this program to operate, we need to operate adjacent to the stream,” McKeown said. “Pulling away from here is not possible.”

Because the college doesn’t own the land, the state won’t fund the whole project. But by receiving state matching funds and signing a long-term lease with the city, BTC can stay at the location.

The planned facility, called the NW Center of Environmental, Fisheries & Aquaculture, will allow the program to expand in enrollment and scope.

“Fisheries and maintaining our natural resources is more of a growing field than a declining one,” McKeown said. “It would be a really big loss for this community, this park, for this fishing access to not be available.”

HOW TO DONATE
To donate money for Bellingham Technical College’s proposed NW Center of Environmental, Fisheries & Aquaculture, contact Mary Humphries, executive director of the BTC Foundation, at 752- 8378.

For more information about the foundation, go to www.btc.ctc.edu and click on the “BTC Foundation” link.

LEARN MORE
For more information about the Fisheries Technology Program, go to www.btc.ctc.edu, click on the “Degree and Certificate Programs” link, and then click on the “Fisheries Technology” link.

BTC grad would like to own her own shop someday

Nicole Long calls herself “the girliest tomboy you’ll ever see.”

The 5-foot-5, 130-pound woman isn’t afraid to do heavy lifting, or to work in an otherwise all-male environment in auto body repair.

Long is a 21-year-old graduate of Bellingham Technical College’s auto collision repair technology program. She will speak Friday at the college’s annual Road Less Graveled program, for women interested in nontraditional careers.

Long, who graduated from Bellingham High School, is proud that few BTC graduates are as nontraditional in the work world as she is. She’s the only woman employed in repair work at Richey’s Auto Body and Collision in Bellingham.

Comment: For someone your size, you have an amazingly firm handshake.

Answer: I’m a lot stronger than I look. To work in auto body repair, you need to be able to lift at least 50 pounds or so. I can lift 100.

Q: When did you become interested in auto body repair?
A: I saw a special program on the Discovery Channel when I was in high school. I had always been around cars with family members, and I realized how cool it would be to create a “monster car,” a “Frankencar.” I love the era of muscle cars. My favorite car would be a 1965 Mustang.

Q: Were you the only woman in your auto body classes?
A: I sure was. They had one or two through the program long before my time. The guys would joke with me and I would joke back. At first, they were surprised to see a girl working with them. But you know what? One of my favorite songs is “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better,” from “Annie Get Your Gun.”

I’m accustomed to competing with the guys, because I grew up with two older brothers. And I got a lot of support from my teacher at BTC, Bruce Evenstad.

Q: Did you have any worries about entering a male work world?
A: My only real worry was that potential employers wouldn’t want to hire such a small girl. But I’m pretty ambitious and active. Bruce put me in touch with John Richey, the owner at Richey’s. When I began job shadowing there, I wanted to jump right in and work. I showed them that, and that’s just what I did.

Q: How did the fellows with experience react to such an unusual co-worker?
A: The guys actually seemed pretty excited when they saw how much I really wanted to contribute. Here was this cute little girl who could pull her own weight. They were really giving me the thumbs up. But I’ve always been proud of that all my life — I could pull my own weight. I don’t want to ask for any special favors.

Q: Would you like to own your own repair shop someday?
A: You got it! That’s my longrange goal. I’d love to have my own shop.

NONTRADITIONAL CAREERS
What: Road Less Graveled, a free program for women interested in nontraditional careers, with speakers, demonstrations and more.

When: 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Where: Bellingham Technical College, Building G, 3208 Lindbergh Ave.

Details: Chris Eder, 752-8483.

Bellingham Technical College and three other northwest Washington colleges will share a $1.85 million federal grant to expand programs in the advanced manufacturing industry.

The three-year Department of Labor grant will be shared by the members of the Pipeline to Advanced Manufacturing Careers part nership, which includes BTC, Grays Harbor, Olympic and Penin sula colleges and several northwest companies.

BTC, which leads the partnership, will receive about $750,000 to expand programs including process operation, mechanical en gineering, instrumentation, electrical and mechanical maintenance and shipbuilding, according to Patricia McKeown, vice president of instruction at BTC.

“I think that this is really a win-win for Whatcom County and the state of Washington,” McKeown said. “I think we’ll have some im pact in a really broad way here.” The group of schools applied for the grant because the region has a large manufacturing industry — shipyards, refineries, food processing, smelter, and more — but there is a shortage of people who have the advanced training to do the work, according to the grant application.

As the lead in the partnership, BTC will be developing curricu lum and materials in several programs that can then be distributed to schools without those programs.

“People in Whatcom County are going to benefit from what we’re doing,” McKeown said. “And beyond that we’re going to cre ate some materials we can share with other colleges so they can provide these courses across the state.” The goals of the partnership include increasing the number of students in advanced manufacturing programs by 25 percent, de veloping distance learning courses that can be shared by all four partner colleges and increasing recruitment and outreach for ad vanced manufacturing programs.

BTC is working on providing options for students who live in an area that makes daily travel to campus a hardship. For example, remote labs might be set up in areas of the county for computer training so students would only come to the Bellingham campus once in awhile, McKeown said.

“This really helps Bellingham Technical College move forward with a lot of different initiatives we have on the table,” McKeown said.