Jon Hird remembered
Gibsons Mayor Bill Beamish opened the Dec. 18 council meeting by paying tribute to Jon Hird, who died recently at the age of 67.
Hird was well known to many on the Coast as the coordinator of Speed Watch, a volunteer group dedicated to promoting road safety. His work earned him a recognition from the Sunshine Coast RCMP detachment for 10 years of volunteer work earlier this year. Beamish quoted RCMP Sgt. Mike Hacker’s comments from Coast Reporter’s April 20 story on the award about Hird’s “radar gun that can clock baseball pitches, which has been a big hit at the RCMP’s community appreciation barbecues.”
Hird was also active in efforts to clean graffiti from various spots around Gibsons.
“Jon truly was a community-spirited person,” said Beamish. “I’m very sad to hear of his passing and I wanted to honour that.”
Student councillor
Councillors in Gibsons have adopted bylaw changes that will allow a youth representative to take a seat at the council table in the new year.
The passage of the amendments to the procedure bylaw was delayed while Town officials worked out some details with School District No. 46. According to Coun. David Croal, the representative will be chosen from among the Grade 11 and 12 students at Elphinstone Secordary and the Alternative School.
“I think it’s a really exciting project,” Croal said. “When I was campaigning I really noticed how many young people felt totally disenfranchised from local government. I think this gives us a great opportunity to bring their ideas into this chamber.”
More inquiry time
Council also voted to adopt a second change to the procedure bylaw, to allow an additional public inquiry period which will be added at the beginning of committee and council meetings.
Coun. Stafford Lumley said while he supported the idea he was worried it might lead to situations where members of the public tried to address items that had already been through public hearing.
The community charter does not allow councillors to receive or consider any new information once a public hearing concludes, without calling a new public hearing.
“We would make it very clear that items relating to a prior public hearing could not be discussed,” Mayor Bill Beamish said.
Beamish also said using a sign-up sheet system where people would note the topic they wanted to ask about before being invited to speak could help avoid that pitfall.
He said the early inquiry period would be restricted only to items up for discussion on that meeting’s agenda.
