Open House Bellingham

Local residents deal with storm aftermath

Struggling through their second day without power following Tropical Storm Irene, Milford residents Jim and Judy Burke sat on lawn chairs on their Harding Street lawn, reading books and listening to the buzz of chainsaws.

"It's like living in the old days," said Jim Burke, 65. "There's no refrigerator, no air conditioning. You can't cook."

National Grid reported more than 240,000 customers statewide without power and Nstar reported 162,000 customers in the dark last night. National Grid serves most Milford area communities while Nstar serves Medway and Millis and other communities in eastern Mass.

National Grid representatives warned power may not be fully restored until the weekend.

Twenty of the company's transmission lines - high-voltage lines that bring power to substations - were still out yesterday, National Grid Chief Operating Officer Ellen Smith said.

Irene started as a hurricane but passed over western Massachusetts as a tropical storm Sunday, bringing 60 mph winds and gusts that topped 80 mph, the Associated Press reported.

"For a storm that was downgraded, it really raised some havoc," Medway Fire Chief Paul Trufant said.

Medway's Village Street was hit especially hard Sunday as large trees fell on power lines in several spots. A tree limb fell at the corner of Holliston Street and Virginia Road knocking over four telephone poles. And firefighters had to free people from a car on Lovering Street that was hit by a tree. No injuries were reported, Trufant said.

In Franklin, Fire Chief Gary McCarraher said 40 to 50 percent of the town was without power yesterday afternoon but sewer and water systems were functioning.

"The downtown Franklin restaurants are all open for business," McCarraher said. "We're pretty confident our people can get access to food."

Residents without water can bring containers to the Department of Public Works, 257 Fisher St., or either fire station - 40 West Central St., or 600 King St.

Territorial Courthouse in Bellingham renovated, open house ...

A public party is planned Saturday, Aug. 27, to celebrate restoration of the old Territorial Courthouse at 1308 E St. It's the oldest brick building in Washington and possibly the oldest north of San Francisco.

How old is it? It was built in 1858. That's three years before the Civil War and a full quarter-century before Dirty Dan Harris platted Fairhaven. Now, thanks to donations and a lot of volunteer help, the building is in as good a shape, or better, than it has been for well over a century.

"It's just gorgeous," said Janet Oakley, a Bellingham historian on a new committee the Whatcom County Historical Society set up to oversee the building. "I'm just blown away."

Carl and Nickie Akers, former owners of the building who used to house their taxidermy business in it, donated the structure to the society in 2004. Since then, members have planned the restoration; acquired more than $550,000 in grants, donations, labor and materials; and organized the slow, detailed and sometimes messy job of bringing a decrepit, 153-old-building up to snuff.

"The difficult thing was to get everything square and level and plumb," said Rick Tremaine, the retired banker with a passion for old buildings who led the effort.

The shell of the 2,500-square-foot building is done and nearly all of the interior is finished, too. Landscaping is still on tap, and a chairlift for disability access must be installed before the building can be used by the public.

Two brothers and a business partner from San Francisco erected the building near the Bellingham tide flats for use as a store and a bank. Their goal: make money serving the flood of prospectors headed to the Fraser River gold rush in British Columbia. But the flood soon dried up when Canadian officials required prospectors to obtain a permit in Victoria before entering the gold fields.

Short of customers, the two-story brick mercantile soon closed. In 1863, Whatcom County - which at the time also encompassed what is now San Juan, Skagit and Island counties - bought the building for use as a courthouse. The building's courthouse days ended in 1888 when it was declared unsafe.

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