JANUARY
• Some 83 daring swimmers gathered at Armours Beach in Gibsons on New Year’s Day for the annual polar bear swim.
• Tony Greenfield was awarded the Governor General’s Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers. The medal recognizes “exceptional volunteer achievements of Canadians,” according to the Governor General website.
• Langdale Elementary, Davis Bay Elementary and Pender Harbour Elementary/Secondary School harnessed the power of the sun to reduce electricity costs and their reliance on fossil fuel. The solar array at the Pender Harbour school was expected to be the largest of any secondary school in B.C., with 324 panels.
• The Sunshine Coast’s first baby of 2018 was born to Desiree Metcalfe and Ryan Ryder on Jan. 2. Their son, Sage Wolf Ryder, arrived at Sechelt Hospital under the super “wolf moon” of 2018.
• Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) director Lorne Lewis said 2018 would be a critical year for the future of one of the last stands of large, old trees in Elphinstone. The property (DL 1313) is part of the BC Timber Sales (BCTS) tenure on the Sunshine Coast. The SCRD board voted to indicate its opposition to logging on DL 1313 as part of its feedback on the BCTS five-year plan. Lewis said BCTS is still looking to auction the cutting rights on the 48-hecatre (118-acre) plot this year, and the community remains “quite strongly opposed.”
• Trellis Seniors Services was hoping to break ground on two long-term care facilities on the Lower Mainland this year, but there was still no clear timeline for the company’s planned facility on the Sunshine Coast. In a letter to Health Minister Adrian Dix in early December, Protect Public Health Care Sunshine Coast, an umbrella group of opponents of the Trellis-VCH agreement, tried to convince the minister to abandon the deal.
• Brianna Deutsch, producer of the popular U.S. newsmagazine show Inside Edition, visited the Sunshine Coast on Jan. 15 to shoot scenes for an upcoming episode featuring researcher and Elphinstone Secondary teacher Glen MacPherson and his investigation into what has come to be known as the Worldwide Hum. The Hum is described as a persistent low-frequency noise similar to an idling vehicle and it is usually only heard at night. More than 17,000 people have attested to hearing the unexplained phenomenon. See www.thehum.info.
• Clint and Irene Davy of the Gibsons Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre had a call Jan. 10 about a raccoon lying motionless in a yard in Elphinstone. Clint was able to get the animal to the Sechelt Animal Hospital, where the vet discovered the unresponsive animal wasn’t physically hurt – it was feeling the effects of drugs. A screen turned up traces of marijuana in the raccoon’s system. The critter also tested positive for benzodiazepines, a class of tranquilizer that includes Valium and is often used in treating anxiety disorders as well as insomnia.
• Chris Hergesheimer of Roberts Creek was hired as Sunshine Coast Regional Economic Development Organization’s program manager.
• Construction began on a pavilion and a community garden on School District No. 46 property next to Roberts Creek Elementary School. “The idea is to take what was just an abandoned lot covered in invasive weeds and convert it into something that is serving as a vibrant centre for community members,” said Sheila Wilson, Roberts Creek Community School coordinator.
• BC Ferries’ smoking ban kicked in Jan. 22. The move was announced last summer, but the start date was set to coincide with National Non-Smoking Week.
• Ceremonies were held Jan. 24 to mark the opening of the new Ambulatory Care Unit at Sechelt/shíshálh Hospital, completing a $44.3-million expansion project that’s been underway for nearly a decade. The biggest part of the expansion was the new tower, which houses the ER and patient rooms. The new Ambulatory Care Centre is in the renovated section of the older building.
• Dozens of people showed up in Roberts Creek on Jan. 20 for the first anniversary of the Women’s March, a global demonstration to protest the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president.
• “Not many of us get to know and prepare for the day of our death,” said Laurie O’Byrne, who on Jan. 28 hosted the medically assisted death of her friend, Syd Valentine, in O’Byrne’s home on Beach Avenue in Roberts Creek. Valentine, 59, was known to many on the Sunshine Coast as the owner of Sid’s Vids in Wilson Creek. She closed the store in the summer of 2017 after being diagnosed with cervical cancer.
• Councillors in Gibsons and Sunshine Coast doctors pressed Health Minister Adrian Dix for action on the continuing shortage of long-term care beds. In a letter to Dix, deputy mayor Silas White said the Town is “offering Vancouver Coastal Health a solution to address long-term care now” with a site that’s “shovel-ready to address this crisis.” The doctors urged Dix and VCH to move forward with the 2016 contract with Trellis Seniors Services to build a new facility. After delays getting approvals for a Sechelt site, Trellis made a deal with the Town of Gibsons last July to buy land beside Christenson Village.
• One of the biggest single-day rainfalls in the past decade kept Capilano Highways and municipal public works crews busy Jan. 28 and 29. Environment Canada said 40.9 millimetres of rain fell in the Sechelt area Sunday and Monday, and as much as 177.3 mm was recorded in Port Mellon. The heavy precipitation led to flooding and small mudslides.
• On Jan. 20, amateur astronomer Scott Tilley of Roberts Creek was searching the skies in one of his routine scans, when he landed on IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration), a NASA-owned half-ton satellite that was supposed to be dead. The $154-million satellite mission was launched in 2000, and five years later the signal went silent. Tilley kept monitoring and soon realized the spacecraft was transmitting data. After some Googling, he surmised the long-dead spacecraft had managed to reboot itself. After Tilley informed NASA of the find, the space agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center used Deep Space Network satellite dishes to confirm the satellite signal is from IMAGE. Now NASA will need to determine whether it’s possible to reboot the mission.
• More than 70 people packed the basement of the former Church on the Rock at 599 Gower Point Road Jan. 22 to hear details of a proposed homeless shelter in that building. The Sunshine Coast Homelessness Advisory Committee applied for funding from BC Housing and was working with RainCity Housing, operators of the shelter in Sechelt, to get it up and running.
FEBRUARY
• Simon Hayter and Ketchup, a five-year-old “aggressively affectionate” Belgian Malinois, became the newest dog team addition to Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue (SC-SAR), giving SC-SAR two search and rescue dog teams. The other is Joyce Tattersal and her dog Echo, who have been working since 2013.
• With expansions in the works at established businesses and new players entering the field, the Sunshine Coast’s craft beverage boom showed no signs of slowing. At least four companies were in full operation locally: Gibsons Tapworks, the Bricker Cider Company in Sechelt, the 101 Brewhouse and Distillery in Gibsons and Persephone Brewing in West Howe Sound.
• The revelation Feb. 7 that Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), Trellis Seniors Services and the shíshálh Nation were close to an agreement on a site for a long-term care facility was getting mixed reviews, despite assurances from Health Minister Adrian Dix on jobs. Dix confirmed the deal was in the works, nearly 20 months to the day after the original 2016 announcement of a Trellis/VCH contract and the planned closure of Shorncliffe and Totem Lodge in Sechelt.
• Forget the Chapman Lake expansion project and move ahead with the reservoir. That was the advice from Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) chair and Sechelt mayor Bruce Milne at a charged board meeting on Feb. 8. “What we’re suggesting is that we move the plan on the engineered lake one year forward, maybe two, and eliminate the need for a drawdown and $5-million expenditure,” said Milne to a room packed with members of the public and of the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association.
• Representatives of the consortium that built Sechelt’s Water Resource Centre (WRC) joined councillors and staff Feb. 7 to formally present the facility’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certificate. The $24.9-million facility was commissioned in 2015.
• A winter storm came on Feb. 17, bringing with it record-breaking freezing temperatures, snowfall and power outages across the Sunshine Coast. Sechelt broke the record for greatest snowfall amount for that day, at 6.8 cm, beating the 6 cm record set in 1989. Some 5,000 customers in the Sechelt area lost power at the peak of the storm. After the snow came the cold. Sechelt and Gibsons both broke deep-freeze records. On Feb. 19, Sechelt experienced an unprecedented overnight low of -7.5 for that day, while Gibsons broke its 1990 -5 C record with a -6 C freeze.
• A Sechelt man accused of killing his mother in 2014 pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder. Donovan Penner, 49, was arrested Oct. 1, 2014 at the Selma Park home where his mother, 67-year-old Esme LaChance, was found dead. His trial opened Feb. 13 at Vancouver Supreme Court. On Feb. 26, Penner was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 10 years.
• The Sechelt Public Library’s new, more open and accessible entrance area was officially opened Feb. 23. The entrance includes a new glass door, a pair of automated check-out kiosks, First Nations inspired wall decorations and a custom-made shelf to display the First Nations collection. West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky MP Pam Goldsmith-Jones was on hand to cut the ribbon with the help of chief librarian Margaret Hodgins, shíshálh elder Willard Joe and dignitaries.
• The Gibsons Butcher was named People’s Choice at the Small Business BC Awards gala Feb. 23 in Vancouver.
MARCH
• A $5.9-million water metering project for the District of Sechelt and shíshálh Nation was to be paid for with a Gas Tax Strategic Priorities grant, but the application was unsuccessful. Directors instead voted March 5 at the second round of budget talks to get a long-term loan to continue with the installations.
• Ten businesses took home top honours at the Business Excellence Awards held March 2 at the Sunshine Coast Golf and Country Club. More than 100 nomination submissions were made, and the following businesses took home honours: Upland Agricultural Consulting, Weber McCall Electric, Sunshine Coast Air, Euspiria Café, Hangar Climbing Lounge, Insightful Visions, Coast Wide Flood and Fire Restoration, Jasper Marine, Konzuk Jewelry, and Gibsons Building Supplies.
• A Municipal Insurance Association (MIA) review called the driftwood hut that’s been a fixture in Davis Bay for years a high risk. “We recommend that the structure be removed or properly secured by a qualified contractor to ensure structural integrity,” the MIA said in a report to the District of Sechelt. “The [driftwood] structure has been taken down by staff in the past but was reconstructed within days of its dismantling,” according to a district staff report.
• Staff Sgt. Vishal Mathura, the detachment commander of the Sunshine Coast RCMP, was given a promotion to inspector and regional duty officer for the Lower Mainland E Division. The promotion took effect at the beginning of April.
• The future of a large property in East Porpoise Bay was in doubt after Sechelt council turned down first reading for the Sechelt Sustainable Community (SSC) project in a 6-1 vote March 7. The development proposal for the 169-hectare (417-acre) property was based on a housing mix with 1,360 units as well as agricultural areas, a hotel, a waterfront shopping district and a private school campus.
• Freda England arrived on the Sunshine Coast when she was 96 and stayed long enough to become its oldest resident. On Saturday, March 10, she celebrated her 107th birthday at Christenson Village in Gibsons, surrounded by four generations of family.
• Councillors in Gibsons voted March 20 to support turning the former RCMP detachment office on School Road into a site for transition and supportive housing. The property at 739/749 School Road is still owned by the federal government, but could be available for one dollar under the Surplus Federal Real Property for Homelessness Initiative (SFRPHI).
• The cost to repair St. Hilda’s Anglican Church in Sechelt ballooned from $200,000 to more than $900,000. Rev. Clarence Li and Bruce Morris, deacon of St. Hilda’s, launched a fundraising campaign, Spread the Light, which they hope will raise $1 million. The church faced structural problems – including a roof that’s pushing out its walls – and lots of rot. Local contractor Spani Developments was in charge of the renovations.
• Liz Williams, the owner and head gardener of the well-known flower barges moored at Gibsons Harbour, decided to let one go this year. Williams had been “fighting town hall,” as she calls it, since BC Assessment declared her houseboat and two floating gardens and added them to the Town of Gibsons tax roll. Williams said she didn’t want to deal with the aggravation of the tax dispute and the barge was towed off by its new owners March 20. It took about six days to dismantle the 400-square-foot garden that was created over 15 years.
• Garry Feschuk, a shíshálh Nation hereditary chief, and Cam Reid, former mayor of the District of Sechelt, appeared at the March 21 Sechelt council meeting to outline their vision for a community reconciliation project called syiyaya.
