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 From the Desk
of the Editor.
It’s a new year. A year they told me I would not see. God has many blessings and we never know
what they are going to be until they happen.
One of those blessings is
the Scottish Rite Temple of Bellingham.
When the members of Bellingham Bay Lodge No. 44 decided to build a
building for their use in what was probably the late 1890’s they had the
foresight to build a three story building with a full basement.
When I took over as
building manager in 1996 the Temple Corporation was losing $1000.00 a month
and we had only one non-Masonic renter in the building that used part of
the basement dining hall. The
Scottish Rite had just cashed its last CD and there were no more cash
reserves for the Valley to use to cover the building’s losses.
We were approached by
Aikido of Bellingham who had lost their space and wanted to rent our unused
upstairs lodge room that Bellingham Bay Lodge had moved out of several
months before.
There was quite a fight
in the lodge because no one wanted to lose the largest lodge room north of
Seattle. However, it was lose the
lodge room or lose the building. We
ended up renting the second and third floors to them changing our monthly
net loss to a net profit.
We now have the two
renters in the basement, the Aikido renting the second and third floors and
Fools Onion Catering renting the main floor kitchen.
This year we reached my
long term goal, the Scottish Rite Temple of Bellingham is free to Masonic
events and we are still very profitable.
It was a great pleasure to tell Bellingham Bay Lodge No. 44 that
they no longer had to pay rent. The
Scottish Rite Bodies have not paid rent for several years.
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The Valley News
is a publication of:
Scottish Rite
Valley of Bellingham
1101N. State Street #100
Bellingham, WA 98225-5066
360-733-1103 voice mail
Editor (Temporary)
Steve Cronkhite, 32°KCCH
Grand Commander
Ronald Seale, 33°
SGIG of Washington
William Miller, 33°
Personal Representative of SGIG
G. Winton Smith, 33°
General Secretary
Charles Anway, 32°KCCH
Treasurer
Charles Anway, 32°
Almoner
Byron Swedberg. 33°
Degree Director
James Moen, 33°
Valley Officers
Venerable Master
Steve Cronkhite, 32°KCCH
Wise Master
Chuck Anway, 32° KCCH
Commander
John Stafford 32°
Master of Kadosh
Ronald Fine, 32°KCCH
Scottish Rite
Temple of Bellingham, Inc
Jim Moen, President
Wayne Deming,
Vice-President
Steve Cronkhite,
Secretary
Chuck Anway, Treasurer
Ron Fine
Byron Swedberg
Winton Smith, Personal
Representative
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