The Coast has been blooming with spring, so I decided on the holiday weekend to hit the pavement for a walk. It turned out that the pavement wasn’t a good place to hit. It wasn’t even there, at least not on the southwest corner of Fisher Road and Central Avenue in Granthams Landing.
The pavement had fallen into a sinkhole about a metre in diameter.
The hole has been opening up for a year, Fisher Street resident Drew Ward said, when I stopped to gape at the gap. The depression expanded from a small nuisance into a large hazard during the last two weeks of March, he said. Ward’s home is two doors from the sinkhole.
Around the time the sinkhole expanded, someone shoved a head-high branch into the crevasse. The small tree is blooming with dark-red buds, possibly thanks to a stream under the road. The sinkhole may have sunk because of untended culverts along steep Central Avenue that allow water to run beneath the road, Ward said.
In late March a highways crew placed warning pylons around the hole, but as of last weekend, it remained unfilled. The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure used to clear out the drainage path but hasn’t been doing so for the past couple of years, Ward said.
Holes have also appeared along the Twin Creeks stretch of Port Mellon Highway, and area resident Chris Wilkinson wants them fixed. Ian Winn, SCRD director for Area F, explained to her that under a contract with the ministry, Capilano Highway Services maintains the roads in SCRD rural areas.
Winn advised that anyone who notices a road problem should call Capilano’s Wilson Creek office at 604-740-0667. Wil-kinson doesn’t need to do that because Winn took the initiative and made the call.
In another initiative, Winn has been working with the West Howe Sound Community Association (WHSCA) in its application for a grant-in-aid. The application, which asks for $1,452 for a community composter, is one of 45 that arrived at the SCRD office last month. A review panel will meet to discuss the applications on May 3.
If the WHSCA gets the funding, Winn said he will donate an old utility trailer with wheels and an axle that came from a Model T Ford. The hand-operated, multi-family composter would be bolted to the trailer. It would be moved regularly to different neighborhoods in Area F, so each area could try turning kitchen waste into soil.
Discussion of composting will be part of the solid waste topic at the WHSCA’s next general meeting. Janette Loveys, SCRD chief administrative officer, will be there to present the district’s outlook on the matter. The meeting coincides with the SCRD’s Compost Awareness and Drinking Water Week.
Another topic at the meeting will be the West Howe Sound Community Association’s survey of topics of concern to the community. The most popular topics will be addressed at future WHSCA general meetings.
After combing through 189 surveys, WHSCA director Maura Laverty reported that the fixed link garnered the most votes. Notably, Keats and Gambier Island residents asked that the association look at island-specific concerns. The full survey results will be discussed at the general meeting on Wednesday, May 10, at 7 p.m. in Eric Cardinall Hall at Shirley Macey Park.
I hope to see you at the meeting. In the meantime, if you have any news about Area F, you can reach me at [email protected]
