JULY
• A feral peacock was spotted in Roberts Creek in an area ranging from Gulfstream Road near the waterfront to the mountain bike trails off the B&K logging road.
• Splash ’n Shine Car Wash prides itself as a water-efficient car wash, said operations manager Joan Wetmore. The business uses barrels to harvest rainwater that hold enough to wash about 200 cars. The water saving efforts became a moot point when Stage 3 water restrictions took effect, because residential and private car washing were banned by the Sunshine Coast Regional District. Directors voted not to give Splash ’n Shine an exemption at a recent board meeting.
• Cowrie Street was awash in red and white on July 1 as thousands of spectators lined the sidewalks of downtown Sechelt to watch the Canada Day parade. Festivities began with a pancake breakfast and about 3,200 people went through the gates of the beer garden.
• A nearly $1-million expansion project continued at the Sechelt Seniors Activity Centre. The interior was gutted where the renovations were taking place, and the popular lunch program was suspended. On July 10, the centre came closer to its fundraising goal because of a $100,000 donation by the Clayton family.
• Garry Nohr, SCRD director for Area B - Halfmoon Bay, officially opened the 52nd annual Halfmoon Bay Country Fair on July 8. Nohr, who is retiring this year, was honoured with a cake celebrating his years of service.
• Four people were rescued on July 4 after becoming trapped on a 76.2-metre cliff in Halfmoon Bay in an attempt to rescue two young deer, according to Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue. The mission involved 22 SAR volunteers and took six hours to execute the rope rescue.
• Gibsons councillor Silas White announced July 10 that he would be running for mayor at an event at the 101 Brewhouse and Distillery.
• Sechelt Mayor Bruce Milne announced he would run again for mayor in the fall, and planned to formally launch his campaign after Labour Day.
• The SC101 group, composed of members of the registered non-profit Davis Bay Parkway Society and spearheaded by Robin Merriott, was collecting signatures for a petition asking the Legislative Assembly to “urge the government of British Columbia to consider a bypass and help find a solution for the community of the Lower Sunshine Coast regarding the many issues of Highway 101.”
• A single-engine Piper Cherokee went down in a ravine about a half-kilometre from the northwest end of the Sechelt Airport runway June 28. The male pilot died at the scene. A second man, a teenaged girl and a three-year-old boy managed to get out of the plane and walked along the Suncoaster Trail, emerging from the bush at the top of Selma Park Road. The Transportation Safety Board was investigating.
• Another version of the Coopers Green Hall replacement project emerged, and with it a climbing budget. The new estimated cost of the project was $1,895,000, up from $1,650,000.
• Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) was finalizing plans to open 12 short-stay beds at Sechelt Hospital to create more capacity for other patients requiring acute care.
• July 14 was a perfect day for the Davis Bay Sandcastle Competition. Hundreds came to the annual event, hosted by Sunshine Coast Lions Club.
• Bill Beamish, a veteran local government administrator, announced his intention to run for a seat on Gibsons council.
• The Sunshine Coast Community Forest elected a new board at the July 23 annual general meeting of Sechelt Community Projects Incorporated.
• A new neighbourhood association combined forces with Elphinstone Community Association to lobby local government for changes to what they call a dangerous portion of the Sunshine Coast Highway. The group, which collected 500 signatures for a petition for improved highway safety, brought their concerns to the transportation committee at the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) on July 19.
• The Town of Gibsons was working with local agencies to help a group of homeless people who’ve been camping at the public works yard at 722 School Road. Chief administrative officer Emanuel Machado told council’s committee of the whole on July 24 that anywhere from three to 10 people have been camping in an area just outside the fence surrounding the works yard.
• An alternative approval process for a bylaw that would have authorized the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) to borrow nearly $6 million over a 20-year term to pay for water meter installations in the Sechelt area failed. Angie Legault, the SCRD’s senior manager of administration and legislative services, made the announcement July 25. George Goudie campaigned against the authorization of a long-term loan to fund the installation of water meters in the Sechelt area.
• Brad Benson, a long-time Sunshine Coast resident and noted environmentalist, died July 29 in Sechelt at the age of 78.
AUGUST
• Officials with the Gibsons Public Market said they expect more than 80,000 people will have been through the doors by the end of the year. The market now has seven merchants as well as a bistro, and the market and Marine Education Centre support 52 year-round jobs.
• On a hot Friday evening Aug. 10, hundreds of classic and vintage vehicles set off from Hackett Park, cruising up the highway to Halfmoon Bay and back in the 23rd annual Sleepy Hollow Rod Run. The following day, Cowrie Street in Sechelt was lined with hundreds of classic vehicles in the Sechelt Show & Shine, the second day of the motorsports extravaganza.
• Master weaver Shy Watters started her cedar and wool blanket design entitled Paddling Together on Saturday, Aug. 11 at Sechelt Library, the first big artistic collaboration for the syiyaya Reconciliation Movement, called Weaving Reconciliation: The Fabric of Our Lives.
• A beached yacht was successfully refloated in Sechelt last weekend with the help of local residents. The yacht Exuberance washed ashore on the incoming tide in Trail Bay after she broke from her mooring in high winds on Aug. 10.
• Wildfires across B.C. triggered a string of air quality advisories, including on the Sunshine Coast, where a smoky skies bulletin was issued by Environment Canada.
• Bill Elsner, the Sunshine Coast’s long-serving emergency program coordinator, resigned in early August.
• Valerie Morris, 67, went missing after she and her husband Tom, also from Sechelt, were caught in a mudslide Aug. 11 while travelling on Highway 99 to Kamloops from Vancouver.
• BC Emergency Health Services presented the Good Samaritan Award to 12-year-old Spencer Greig and the Vital Link Award to Nancy Ashton for their actions during a crisis when Erin Burton (Spencer’s mom) became unconscious after choking. “What was so critical was that her family started CPR,” said paramedic Christine Borley. “And it worked.”
• Al Holt was the third contender to come forward to run for mayor of Sechelt in the municipal elections.
• Smoky skies continued to cause air quality and visibility concerns on the Sunshine Coast, and staff at Sechelt Hospital said they’ve seen an increase in the number of people presenting to the emergency department with respiratory issues. The smoke was also creating problems for air transport.
• Sechelt councillor Darnelda Siegers formally launched her campaign to be the district’s next mayor on Aug. 29. More than 100 supporters were at the Blue Ocean Golf Club in Sechelt to hear her outline her Courage to Lead platform.
• On Aug. 29, the provincial state of emergency was extended to Sept. 12. About 3,200 people have been affected by 34 evacuation orders and another 21,800 people are on evacuation alert as 534 wildfires burn across the province. Firefighters from the Coast were supporting BC Wildfire Service crews as fires continue to rage in B.C.’s interior.
• Stage 4 water restrictions for all regions south of Pender Harbour were declared by the Sunshine Coast Regional District, effective Aug. 31. “Our water supply is at risk due to prolonged dry weather,” stated a release by the SCRD. Stage 4 restrictions entail a ban on all outdoor tap water use.
• Vancouver-based producer Ivan Hayden headed up a crew of more than 75 people who were on location throughout Gibsons shooting a Hallmark Christ-mas film currently going by the titles Christmas Carousel and A Godwink Christmas. Canadian actors Paul Campbell and Kimberly Sustad will star in the film, as well as Kathie Lee Gifford.
• An Aug. 30 groundbreaking ceremony celebrated the arrival of Tim Hortons to the tsain-ko Village Shopping Centre – the first tenant to be built in the third phase of the mall’s construction. Shovels broke ground Sept. 4, and Tim Hortons was expected to open by Dec. 21.
SEPTEMBER
• Highway improvement group SC101 was making headway with its petition urging the B.C. government to address “the many issues of Highway 101.” Since launching in July, the group collected approximately 4,000 signatures.
• Outside experts took a fresh look at the autopsy evidence in the death of Myles Gray. The 33-year-old Sechelt man died Aug. 13, 2015 in an incident with Vancouver police.
• Students returning to school in Madeira Park, Halfmoon Bay, West Sechelt, Davis Bay, Roberts Creek, Elphinstone and the Sechelt Learning Centre were greeted with fewer places to play after shredded plastic and shards of glass and ceramic were discovered in the schools’ sports fields.
• Stage 4 water restrictions were in effect for the majority of Sunshine Coast residents since Aug. 31. The complete ban on outdoor watering left Coast farmers without clear direction on how to keep their crops alive. There was no exemption from Stage 4 water restrictions for farms.
• The Sunshine Coast welcomed a new RCMP commander. Staff Sgt. Poppy Hallam took over at the detachment on Monday, Sept. 10.
• Pender Harbour was working on a new Official Community Plan for the first time since 1998, but some residents weren’t satisfied with all of the proposed changes, specifically how the shíshálh Nation Strategic Land Use Plan is integrated into the bylaw. They spiritedly voiced their discontent at a public hearing in Madeira Park on Sept. 5.
• After just three days at Stage 2 water restrictions, and following a two-week period at Stage 4, all water users on the Coast were back to Stage 1. “The recent rains have replenished the lakes to support Stage 1 supply,” read a Sunshine Coast Regional District press release.
• Sechelt Mayor Bruce Milne launched his re-election campaign Sept. 18 and offered support for the incumbents seeking to retain their council seats.
• Gibsons Coun. Silas White withdrew his candidacy for mayor, citing health and personal reasons, and council candidate Bill Beamish announced he would run for mayor. White launched his campaign on July 10 under the theme “Moving Forward, Together” and was, as of the Sept. 14 nomination deadline, the only candidate for mayor.
• Water availability in Edwards and Chapman lakes, which feed the Chapman watershed, dipped below 30 per cent when Stage 4 water restrictions were in effect in the summer, and the siphoning system was deployed for two weeks.
• Four candidates were in the running for mayor of Gibsons after Coun. Silas White withdrew his candidacy, citing health and personal reasons. Candidate Bill Beamish withdrew his council nomination to run for mayor instead, along with Blake MacLeod, Les Thomson and William Moysey.
• Const. Ben Stewart of the Sechelt RCMP detachment and 35 other law enforcement officers gathered in Gibsons on Sept. 20, on the second day of the Cops for Cancer Tour de Coast, an 800-kilometre cycle through southern B.C. that raises money for childhood cancer research. By the time the riders reached the Coast they had raised $440,000 and as of Sept. 25 they had surpassed their fundraising goal of $525,000 by more than $6,000.
• Louis Legal of Sechelt was presented with the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers in Victoria at Government House. B.C. Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin presented the silver medals to Legal and 40 other British Columbians.
• Sunshine Coast residents suffering from severe depression or Parkinson’s disease were expected to receive electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments after Sechelt Hospital acquired an ECT unit in September.
