The City of Bellingham is open for business on Wednesday, Jan. 15, after significant snowfall last night.
Some City facilities may have limited hours or be closed due to minimum staffing requirements. City Hall, the Bellingham Public Library, and the Whatcom Museum are open, however.
The Bellingham Public Library Central Library will open at its regularly scheduled time of 10 a.m. today. Any library schedule changes or cancellation of individual programs will be announced via the library website and social media; Library website, Library Facebook, Library Twitter.
Several park facilities are closed today or on limited hours. Arne Hanna Aquatics Center is closed for the morning and may reopen this afternoon. Civic Stadium and Civic Skate Park are closed all day and preschool open gym and volleyball are canceled. Big Rock Park, Bayview Cemetery, and Lake Padden Golf Course are closed. The Mayor's Neighborhood Advisory Commission meeting this evening has been canceled.
City trucks have been plowing according to normal snow routes for most of the night, with heavy snow showers starting around 1 a.m. During heavy snowfall, crews stop applying sand and salt because it is quickly buried by the falling snow. At around 4 a.m. this morning, the snow showers let up and crews resumed the application of sand and salt.
The City currently has four large trucks and three small trucks with plows and sanders all operating on snow routes. By 8 a.m. this morning, crews had spread a total of about 600 tons of salt, a little over 1,000 tons of sand, and 18,000 gallons of salt brine during this storm event. Residents should be aware that trucks will not get to any residential streets in the next 24 hours except to assist emergency vehicles.
Additional snowfall is expected throughout the day. Forecasts call for an additional 2-4 inches of snow by this evening with temperatures climbing into the upper 20s. City crews will continue to plow city streets through this storm event.
