I originally planned to write about buses this week, but messages I had left for transit officials at the Sunshine Coast Regional District were returned too late. Lucky for me, a more colourful vehicle than a bus rolled along the streets of Gibsons and cruised into this column.
It was a Dirty Rotting Scoundrel. It was colourful because its green metal casing was festooned with skewers of decomposing vegetables and flowers, too.
The West Howe Sound Community Association (WHSCA) named its new community composter the Dirty Rotting Scoundrel, and it was the centrepiece of the association’s float at the Gibsons Sea Cavalcade on July 29. As the float trudged along Gibsons Way and into Lower Gibsons, association directors and volunteers handed close to 200 leaflets to parade viewers.
The leaflets announced the official launch of the composter, which took place on Sunday at the WHSCA’s first community composting location on Langdale Road. The unit stands on the west side of the road, between Wharf Road and the mailboxes.
Nearby residents are urged to bring their food waste to the composter. Instructions on the canister advise what to and what not to drop inside.
The composter, capable of turning a neighbourhood’s organic waste into healthy soil, had been purchased through a $1,450 grant-in-aid from the Sunshine Coast Regional District. The money and composter arrived just in time for Sea Cav.
Langdale resident Maura Laverty organized the decoration of the float. She was acclaimed president of the WHSCA last week.
Laverty moved with her husband to the Coast a year ago after a 15-year stint in retail banking. She was born in Vancouver but says, “I’m a small town girl at heart.” Her term as president continues until the association’s next annual general meeting at Eric Cardinall Hall on Oct. 12.
In the meantime, the association will be working out plans for the composter, including how to distribute the garden soil it creates and how to schedule its trips to different West Howe Sound neighbourhoods. The particulars will be covered in a future column – and so will buses.
A bus from the Sunshine Coast Regional Transit System motored along, two floats back from the composter in the parade. I assume Transit delayed responding to my calls because of float-bus decorating fun and frenzy.
Just as I started to write this line, transit and fleet manager Gordon Dykstra got back to me. The transit story will be in this column soon.
Also coming soon is a ferry tale about a tiny rescue horse. West Howe Sounders, if you have your own odd ferry tale, please email me at Elizabeth@Rains.ca
