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Editor’s note: This past year has been a busy one around Cowichan Lake. Here’s a look back at some of our top stories from the Gazette for 2023.
January
Lori and Jason Hamilton were going to have a baby for decades. Their wish came true at 1:40pm on January 1, making them the proud parents of Cowichan District Hospital’s first baby in 2023.
“It’s been a long road,” said Lori, the new mom. “It’s an IVF baby, I’ve been looking for it for a long time. “
Weighing 7 pounds, 14 ounces and 49 cm long, Jasper Hamilton was born by cesarean section after an induction by his mother on the morning of Jan. 1.
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Most precinct administrators in the Cowichan Valley Regional District receive a pay raise.
At CVRD’s Special Election Services Committee on Jan. 11, directors voted to propose to the board that $100,000 be added to the district’s 2023 budget to accrue pay for the nine election domain directors.
The current salary for election directors, which has seen an increase in more than eight years, is approximately $35,000 per year.
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The BRI Security U15 Lakers hosted an eight-team hockey tournament from Jan. 6-8, with seven from across Vancouver Island visiting the home team.
“We had a lot of family, friends and network members come out to cheer on the Lakers,” tournament coordinator Kari McKinlay said.
This was felt within the team as after 3 round-robin games, the Lakers found themselves in the gold medal game on Sunday against Juan de Fuca’s Grizzlies, who won 4-1.
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The median price of Youbou’s waterfront homes is up 28 cents from last year, according to BC Assessment, the largest building in the Cowichan Valley.
Youbou’s average waterfront properties are now assessed at approximately $2,155,000 as of July 1, 2022, compared to $1,680,000 last year.
In the assessments released in January, 2022, waterfront properties in Youbou saw a 19 per cent increase in value from the previous year, making the increase a total of 47 per cent in two years.
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Mayor Tim McGonigle says Lake Cowichan City Council needs to be proactive when it comes to two infrastructure issues in the city.
First, facing a fire protection water flow problem, the town’s committee of the whole has recommended that the town charge all developments for newly developed lots or multi-family units a fee of $1,200 per unit to undertake upgrades to the water main supply line.
“It’s because of the twinning of the water supply line that’s proving deficient for the flow of home in some of the new developments,” McGonigle explained. “We make sure that rights and lives are protected and if we don’t have an adequate flow of housing, it can affect all citizens in their insurance costs.
“We need to be proactive,” he added.
In other infrastructure maintenance news, the City Committee of the Whole called for the City of Lake Cowichan to seek investment for the removal and reconstruction of the pedestrian bridge from Ohtaki Park to Riverside Park (Duck Pond) through the Rural Economy and Infrastructure Diversification Program.
The existing bridge is nearing the end of its life.
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Everyone had a wonderful time throughout the day at the Lake Cowichan Minor Hockey Jamboree, held at the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena on January 21. Games began at 8 a. m. with the March Meadows U9 team and ended with the alumni game at 7:10 p. m. M. With a break for the entire program by participating in the midday skills event. The event celebrated 52 years of the Lake Cowichan District Minor Hockey Association and the first jamboree to date back to the post-pandemic.
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February
Work continues unabated at North Shore Estates residential development on North Shore Road, with workers in the process of making their way through phase 2 of the three-stage project.
North Shore Estates is part of a plan by the Ts’uubaa-asatx First Nation to transform that waterfront area on Cowichan Lake at North Shore Road into a fully developed residential and recreational area.
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A.B. Greenwell school is finally being demolished.
In February 2007, the school closed due to a mold infestation and students and staff were moved to the empty Yount School in Youbou, which then closed in June 2006.
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The conservationist demonstrated that he spends a lot of time on the domain dealing with bears on the shores of the lake.
City Manager Joe Fernandez told the council at a recent meeting that the British Columbia Conservation Service was not satisfied with this either.
“They’re satisfied with this area,” Fernandez said. They made that very clear. “
Lake Cowichan Mayor Tim McGonigle demonstrated that at a recent meeting, the council voted in favor of much harsher fines for those who don’t dedicate themselves to throwing away their trash only on collection day.
The fines are now $250.
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While the number of elk crashes in the Cowichan Lake area may be remaining consistent, local officials say that number is consistently high, and something needs to be done to protect both the animals and humans involved.
It may appear that there have been more interactions between moose and vehicles this winter along roads in the Lake Cowichan area, but the numbers are a bit misleading, according to police.
The Const. de Lake Cowichan RCMP, David Prak, said it may seem like there have been more incidents lately, but that’s just because of the pandemic.
In 2022, there were the same number of incidents involving moose vehicles as in 2020. In 2021, there were 13, but this decline is an anomaly and only because there were far fewer cars on the roads given the COVID-19 protocols in place. . Despite this, the council continues to look for tactics to limit this type of harmful interaction.
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The Lake Cowichan Kraken hosted the Saanich Predators on Sunday, February 5 in front of a record crowd of 352 at the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena.
Sponsored through Dominion Custom Fabricating Sheet Metal, it was a “Huck a Duck” night at the track with a $100 first-place prize up for grabs.
Attendees also enjoyed a very good display of Vancouver Island Youth Hockey League hockey, with the two groups betting on a 2-2 draw before the Predators won the game in overtime.
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Floyd Augustine was stunned when BC Assessment valued his waterfront assets in Youbou at $2. 1 million this year, a spectacular $500,000 accumulation from last year.
Augustine, who is 85, bought his property, which is a little less than an acre, for approximately $4,000 60 years ago.
He said his home, where he lives with his son, is old and there has been no major work on it recently, so he has no idea how his assessment has increased so dramatically.
Augustine, who has a steady income, worries that his estate taxes will also go up especially this year.
“The assessments on my property have gone wild over the past three years,” he said.
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Sunfest Country Music Festival has announced more of its all-star lineup for the August 2023 long weekend. Billy Currington, Lainey Wilson and Jade Eagleson will take up the tier with previously announced headliner Blake Shelton.
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For the first time in the franchise’s two-year history, the Lake Cowichan Kraken finished the season out of the playoffs, until their expansion partners, the Port Alberni Bombers, clinched the final playoff spot in the 11th hour.
The Kraken had to beat the league-leading Oceanside Generals and the basement-dwelling Nanaimo Buccaneers to keep their hopes alive, but their postseason goal ended with a 10-1 loss to Oceanside in Oceanside after a snowy road. Island on February 22.
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About 15 centimetres of snow fell overnight in many places around the Cowichan Valley from Saturday, February 25 to the morning of Sunday, February 26, but much of the snow had been cleared off the roads by Monday. But the snow fell again on Monday night. , making that dream a dream for many young academics.
It wasn’t a ton of snow, but it was enough to impede the movement of the buses. As a result, the Cowichan Valley School District declared Tuesday, Feb. 28, a snow day.
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Members of the new Honeymoon Bay Dance Studio participated in their first Cowichan Music Festival in late February and owner/instructor Abbey Helliwell couldn’t be prouder. The 20-year-old opened the studio in September 2022 and has been training young dancers since then. “I’m so proud of all those dancers who worked so hard, leveled up and gave it their all,” Helliwell said in a social media post. “Most of those dancers just danced this year, and the expansion I’ve noticed in the last five months has been incredible. “
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March
Carmen Nickell, of Lake Cowichan, appeared before the City Council’s Committee of the Whole on Feb. 14 to speak about accessibility in the city. “Personally, I’ve noticed a lot of problems. . . similar to living with other people with disabilities and accessibility in the city. I’ve noticed that they have a hard time getting on sidewalks or just walking on a sidewalk because it’s hard for them, and if it’s not properly maintained they can’t do it,” Nickell explained. “There’s also other accessibility in the stores. Can you go into this store if you can’t walk on your legs?If they are in a wheelchair? Nickell said many of the street’s top merchants have raised sidewalks and no ramps.
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Thursdays were a little more exciting at Lake Cowichan. A new coffee club has been formed and meets at the Riverside Café inside the Riverside Inn from 10 a. m. to 10 a. m. 12 p. m. to chat and have a hot cup of tea from Joe. The value of the ticket?” A friendly personality,” said organizer Michael Hammond, who hails from the United Kingdom. “It’s all about encounters,” he explains. I came here from Cariboo five years ago and there’s definitely one thing that other people say that it’s very hard to meet other people. “You could argue that a global pandemic that has taken up much of the last five years helping either. “
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Located at 92 South Shore Rd. Owner Jonathon Hood said the shop will provide all the basics one would expect from a generation repair shop, adding knowledge recovery and backups, tweaks, viruses. Removal, portion replacement, and troubleshooting for maximum customers. Obscure questions.
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The Cowichan Lake Ambassador Program, formerly known as the Lady of the Lake Program, has officially announced its applicants for 2023. A slight decrease from last year’s six, this year there will be four applicants vying to constitute the Cowichan Lake domain next year. Candidates for the 2023 Cowichan Lake Ambassador Program are: Mason Macpherson, through Eds Coffeehouse, Megan Bell, through B. P. O. Elks, Olivia Youmans, through Royal Canadian Legion Branch 210, and Lara Court, through Lake Cowichan Country Grocer.
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The volunteer firefighters at the Honeymoon Bay fire department could soon be getting new portable radios, at a cost of $18,000. The Cowichan Valley Regional District’s electoral area services committee recommended to the board at its meeting on March 15 that the fire department’s old portable radios, with some of them having been in use for more than 25 years, be replaced. A staff report by Robb Schoular, the CVRD’s fire rescue services coordinator, said the Honeymoon Bay fire department has experienced recent portable radio failures. He said firefighter safety depends on effective radio communications. “Two-way radio use for safety, operations, paging, dispatch and incident-scene management are a critical element in the firefighter’s tool kit,” Schoular said.
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A fire nearly destroyed a home in the 10000 block of Ruskin Road in Honeymoon Bay shortly after 3 a. m. March 14. A statement from Lake Cowichan RCMP says the fire temporarily spread through the home and fire crews at Honeymoon Bay, Mesachie. Lake and Lake Cowichan fire services were called in to put it out. “The apartment was particularly damaged,” said Const. David Prak, a spokesman for the Lake Cowichan RCMP. “However, we are grateful that the space was empty at the time and that the firefighters who were on the scene were not injured. “
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Music lovers will flock to the Lake Cowichan domain during the Canada Day long weekend to attend the Laketown Shakedown festival at Laketown Ranch and hear from superstars like Portugal’s Third Eye Blind. Organizers of the three-day festival, which runs from June 30 to July 2, say Han has combined programming designed to appeal to others of all ages and combining other musical genres.
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April
The Cowichan Lake Trail Blazers Society signed a land-use agreement with Mosaic Forest Management in 2021 to build and maintain trails in the area, and a member of the corporation and former Lake Cowichan mayor, Bob Day, told the city committee that all volunteers have created trails since then. As part of this process, Trail Blazers, Mosaic and Community Futures Cowichan have been operating for the more than two years on a master plan for the structure and maintenance of non-motorized trails in the Fairservice and Christopher Rock outdoor spaces of Lake Cowichan. Day said up to 100 miles of trails have been developed so far and the company has signed another four-year agreement with Mosaic, the forest land manager for TimberWest and Island Timberlands, which will allow the trail network to expand further. for about 1,000 km. Area of one hectare of forest land.
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The RCMP stopped a vehicle traveling at about two hundred km/h on Highway 18 near Lake Cowichan on the evening of Thursday, March 16. An officer saw the vehicle traveling westbound at 194 km/h, nearly twice the posted speed limit of one. The driver drove straight toward another officer who had been alerted and stopped the 20-year-old resident who only had an amateur driver’s license.
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Little B, the popular tubing destination on the Cowichan River, has committed to the Cowichan Valley Regional District as a public park. Little B is an approximately 600-foot stretch of waterfront assets on the river that is used as a shelter for thousands of root vegetables found in the river in summer and also provides year-round access to other recreational users, such as anglers and paddlers. Sports enthusiasts and serves as an educational whitewater floor for local lifeguards. Landowners Janice and Ken Hiles generously donated the land to CVRD.
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The Lake Cowichan Fire Department hockey team took on the Lake Cowichan U18 Lakers in their annual fundraising game on April 1st, and through all accounts, we really had a blast. In addition, $800 was raised for the Lake Cowichan Food Bank.
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For the first time since before the pandemic, the Kaatza Lakeside Players will bring theatre back to Lake Cowichan with Honk!”We are very excited to bring network theater for the first time since 2019,” said the vice president of players. . We miss being able to come together to create something beautiful and we are grateful to all the volunteers who were left worried about the pandemic and took the first opportunity to return to the stage. “
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Laketown Rock, the annual rock concert held every July at Laketown Ranch near Lake Cowichan, has been canceled for this year. A post from Laketown Ranch, Canada’s largest permanent stage, says that “despite our most productive efforts for 2023. . . We haven’t been able to recruit the quality artists we consider mandatory to announce this year’s event. “
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Power
Concerns are being raised about a new aggregates quarry the Ts’uubaa-asatx (Lake Cowichan First Nation) are building on Youbou Road, the First Nation has stated it is doing everything through the e-book and is disappointed by the information incorrect and discrimination. spreading the word about the company on the internet.
Neil Merrick, a neighbor of the assignment whose house is about nine meters from the quarry, said that locals had received no indication that a quarry was planned at the site and that many did not find it easy to get the Ts’uubaa-asatx to hold a public forum to source supplies. data and answer questions.
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Cowichan Search and Rescue is being hailed after the rope rescue of two young men at dusk on Tuesday, May 2.
Jamie Tudway-Cains, search manager for Cowichan Search and Rescue, said his organization won the call around 7:40 p. m.
The children were swimming in the Cowichan River with friends but found themselves separated. The cold, damp couple had appeared on a river plain at the foot of a cliff.
In the end, the resolution was made to get the duo out of the most sensitive than water.
“The darkness came here very quickly; we didn’t need other people on the river,” Tudway-Cains said. “We dropped the rope gear over the edge and pulled it out that way. ”
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This May, sixth and seventh graders at Lake Cowichan school will be hard at work to ensure the community, and all visiting outdoor enthusiasts have future happy trails to enjoy.
Teacher Hailey Bergstrom reached out to Cowichan Lake Trail Blazers Society President Bob Day and met in late April in hopes of leading the way with a new program, which would not only give her students the opportunity to contribute to their community, but also to learn. . Forest and trail building capabilities along the way. The first consultation began on the morning of 8 May and other dates are planned for the end of the month, 15 and 29 May.
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The first in the Triple Crown of Gravels series, the sixth annual Cowichan Crusher Gravel fund, went smoothly under normally sunny skies on Sunday over Lake Cowichan. “We definitely got lucky. I didn’t mean to be that nice,” said race director Dean Stanton. “The weather is nice. ” Around 250 runners participated, totaling no less than 14 Cowichan Valley-based runners, a welcome sight after less-than-ideal registrations since the 2020 pandemic cancellation.
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While most Vancouver Island homeowners saw an increase of about 10 to 20 per cent in the asset price of their homes when BC Assessment released its most recent assessments, homes, i. e. , those facing the water, in the Lake Cowichan domain, They’ve noticed a bigger build. UPS.
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June
In partnership with Cowichan Food Hub and West Coast Seeds, Duncan’s Cowichan Library has teamed up with several branches to provide seed libraries, and officially opened theirs on April 28. This is the time when a seed library is founded through Customer Service Librarian Dalia Levy of the Cowichan branch.
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The Cowichan Lake Community Forest Cooperative conducted two really extensive checks on the Cowichan Valley Regional District and Lake Cowichan Minor Hockey on June 6 at the Cowichan Lake Recreation Center in Lake Cowichan City.
“It’s wonderful to be able to do this, that’s who we are,” said Lorne Scheffer, president of the CLCFC.
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Sonia Furstenau said the province’s decision to extend the order deferring old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek watershed to Feb. 1, 2025 is merely kicking the can down the road. Furstenau, Cowichan Valley MLA and leader of B.C.’s Green Party, said the NDP government is not putting permanent, long-term solutions for the watershed on the table. “First Nations and Indigenous communities need conservation financing to be able to diversify their economies so they aren’t solely dependent on resource extraction,” she said. “It’s disappointing that the province will not match the funding the federal government has put on the table for conservation financing.”
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RCMP have discovered the body of 39-year-old Matthew Mueller, missing since May 30, in Kamloops.
Staff Sergeant, spokesperson for the RCMP in British Columbia. Kris Clark showed that Mueller’s body was discovered on June 6.
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British Columbia’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure will begin escorted trips between Lake Cowichan and Port Alberni four times a day to ensure goods enter certain communities in Port Alberni and on the west coast after a wildfire near Cameron Lake closed Highway 4 last week.
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BC Hydro intends to install seven metered charging stations for electric vehicles adjacent to Point Ideal Drive and Saywell Park. The stations will have four “DC fast chargers” and three “Level 2 chargers” installed with metres for usage.
At the City of Lake Cowichan Committee of the Whole meeting on May 9, it was stated that with the installation of BC Hydro’s charging stations, the city’s existing loose chargers will be dismantled until meters can be installed.
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The City of Lake Cowichan hopes to negotiate a separate Memorandum of Understanding with the Ts’uubaa-asatx First Nation. At the city’s Committee of the Whole assembly on May 9, members discussed protocol frameworks between the First Nation, the City, and the Cowichan. Valley Regional District, and it was proposed that a separate Memorandum of Understanding be entered into without the CVRD. A memorandum of understanding outlines tactics in which teams will work together over the long term on a number of issues, including social, environmental and economic development.
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Lara Court won the Cowichan Lake Ambassador Program’s main name, Lady of the Lake, while Olivia Youmans won the name First Princess and Megan Bell won the name Second Princess. Over the years, the event has grown from a festival to a transformation. I like the leadership and skills progression program that it is today.
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The Cowichan Lake Trail Blazer Society (CLTBS) celebrated the culmination of six years of committed work with the official opening of a trail near Cowichan Lake on June 11. More than a hundred cyclists, hikers, netpainting leaders, volunteers, and workers piled up at The Sun Shines. Sunday morning to explore the Fair Service Fun trail formula. The Cowichan Lake Forest Cooperative began by submitting a check for $7,000 to help build a new bridge over Beaver Creek. This grant complements the matching budget needed for the grant from the Island Coastal Economic Trust, as well as Mosaic Forest Management, the Ts’uubaa-asatx First Nation, and the Pacific Salmon Foundation. CLTBS President Bob Day then thanked other top donors, board members, and volunteers who helped make the dream of the mapped trails a reality over drinks.
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While the closure of Highway Four to Tofino, Ucluelet and Port Alberni due to the bushfires at Lake Cameron is hitting many West Coast businesses hard during the busy summer season, businesses in the Cowichan Valley are getting an unforeseen boost as a result. Sonja Nagel, chief executive of the Duncan Cowichan Chamber of Commerce, said there has been an increase in volume at the chamber’s regional guest centre since the opening of the detour to the West Coast via Youbou in the first week of June.
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Her eyes sparkled so brightly that they lit up the room when the 10 students at Lake Cowichan School learned that her presentation had captured the hearts of more than a hundred female Lakers at their June 5 meeting.
Following this approval, a check for $5,000 will be sent to the 2023 Ohtaki Group to help cover the costs of their upcoming visit to Japan.
There are no pieces to show.