Page 14 - Customs Today Winter1984-OCR

Lynden. A neat and precise town, Lyn- den has a yearly tulip festival. Lawns are
well maintained and the street signs are so carefully lined up that a surveyor would be proud. The Customhouse, a small brick building, has blackberries
growing next to it. On May 24, 1979, In
spector Kenneth "Jerry" Ward was shot to death there as he was making a TECS
query. His killer, an escaped murderer, was captured some 10 hours later after a
massive manhunt.
The Customhouse at Suma, Wash
ington, another 20 miles further east, has two chimneys, one of which is false.
Swifts have selected the false chimney as a place to roost. The building will become a museum, because of the birds, if a new facility is built. Plans for a new Customhouse have been presented sev eral times during the past 15-20 years.
Blaine, Wash., is the main gateway to Canada and to the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. It is the third largest port on the Canadian border and num bers eleventh nationally. The Peace Arch celebrates the open border between the United States and Canada. Erected in 1814, following the War of 1812, the Peace Arch was built with pennies col lected from school children on both sides of the border. A plaque states "May these gates never close."
In addition to a high volume of pas
senger traffic, Blaine gets an enormous number of containers trucked down from
Vancouver. Blaine has a full complement of import specialists to deal with
importations.
Enforcement results at Blaine differ
from the southern border and reflect to some extent the difference between the
northern and southern borders. Blaine seizures tend to be for currency violations, like money undeclared and going from Canada to the United States. While the U.S. views Mexico as a drug source and transit country, Canada views the U.S. as
a drug source and transit country.
Port Townsend, located on a penin
sula on Puget Sound, is a pleasant two-
hour journey from Seattle, first by ferry
and then over one long tollbridge, near a
Naval submarine base, and finally
through some heavily forested Northwest
country. The port appears to be a small
paradise. The Customs office is located
in a large building, erected in 1896. Its
initial cost was $250,000. In the early
days, the tonnage of cargo cleared came
close to that of New York. That was the
justification for such a Customhouse. The town itself is picturesque and rich
with tourists. It is going through a renew al, back to its late 19th Century ways.
Brick buildings are being sandblasted and the town is growing with shops and restaurants.
Dennis Atkinson, Port Townsend Port Director, has been there for one- and-a-half years. He says, on balance, that the job is excellent. The community is nice and he can walk to work. He is able to spend time with his family. The
port includes two marinas, which have sailboats for Vancouver, and an interna
tional airport that averages 100 flights each year. An occasional commercial
shipment of wood pulp chips from Canada and military clearance for the
Naval base round out his routine.
As is true with all paradises, the job
has some negative aspects. The port di rector is "the Customs Service" in town and is very visible. Atkinson is subject to weekend phone calls and very limited relief for vacations and time away from the job.
Seattle, the District Headquarters,
was described by someone as being a
small San Francisco. In front of the Fed
eral Building was a vendor selling ex-
presso and cappuccino coffee from a
butane-powered machine. Last year, the district collected $409 million in duty;
$300 million of that came from Seattle. It is a prototype district with a major sea
port, airport and land border crossings. There are also small airports and small
Canadian border ports. And there is,
throughout, the beauty of the Northwest. It is a Region of extremes. It is a
Region of history.
The first Customs Office to be es
tablished on the Pacific Coast was Astoria, Ore., on April 3, 1849. This
Inspector John Lupien clears a traveler at Anchorage
International A irport.
Port Townsend, Wash., Port Director Dennis Atkinson listens to
a woman's complaint about a missing
package. He offered to call New York to help trace the missing parcel.
date preceded Oregon's statehood by some seven years. In 1849 this area was known as the Oregon Territories. Astoria lies at the mouth of the Columbia River, the second largest river in North Amer ica. It was here that the Lewis and Clark Expedition ended in 1806.
Today, Astoria is a one-man port, run by Inspector Newton E. Smith, who
has been there for 19 years. He recalls the events of May 18, 1980, when Mount St. Helens erupted, sending some four bil lion cubic yards of debris and volcanic ash into the sky. The pyroclastic flows
and mudflows produced deposits so ex tensive and enormous that they blocked the shipping channel of the Oolumbia
River, 70 miles away.
Cargo destined for Portland and other inland ports couldn't move beyond
the mouth of the River. For 10 days, Mr. Smith was unable to leave his office. He had to remain and clear the vessels loaded with automobiles and steel. Mr. Smith slept, when he could, on a wooden settee in his office. His wife came by occasionally to visit and drop off some food.
As it usually is with one-person
operations, he is subject to call 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. He clears some 15-20 aircraft a year at the landing rights
airport and inspects 24% of the vessels
entering the Columbia River. Last year he inspected 443 ships.
In 1976, Mr. Smith was involved with a major smuggling case involving 8-1/2 tons of marijuana in a 75-foot fishing vessel. The case was originated by an Oregon State Game Commission of ficer who discovered a large amount of
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