IGA signs
Sechelt council voted Jan. 20 to reject a committee recommendation on new signs at the IGA grocery store in Wilson Creek.
IGA franchisee Bob Hoy told councillors the project is part of a rebranding being required by the corporate head office as part of a worldwide change for the grocery chain.
He also said installing new signs is a costly endeavour, and those costs will fall entirely on the local franchise owners. The main sign alone will come with a price tag of $15,000.
The planning committee recommended on Dec. 16 that two signs on the outside of the store at street level be done in a faux carved wood style to “create a better pedestrian experience.” Those signs would also be more expensive than the back-lit oval design Hoy plans to install.
Council voted instead to allow the original design.
Age friendly communities
The District of Sechelt and the Sunshine Coast Seniors Planning Table are going to work together to draft and implement an Age Friendly Community Plan for the District of Sechelt.
The work will be funded by a $20,000 grant announced last month by Health Minister Terry Lake.
According to Mayor Bruce Milne, the project will include “improvements to outdoor spaces and public buildings, public transportation, housing, social participation, employment/volunteerism, access to information and social/health support.”
It will be used to update various guidelines, bylaws, policies, and the Official Community Plan.
Alison Leaney, coordinator of the Sunshine Coast Planning Table, said in a release confirming the project will go ahead, that “the Seniors Planning Table – through its seven action groups and a recent service providers social mapping event – has identified a number of age friendly actions that will help inform the overall plan.”
A series of focus groups and community meetings is planned for April, May and June.
Although the Age Friendly Community Plan is being developed for Sechelt, the Seniors Planning Table has a focus on the entire Sunshine Coast and other communities will be welcome to use the results to help in their planning efforts.
In-camera decisions
Sechelt council released an unusually large number of in-camera resolutions at its Jan. 20 meeting.
There were more than two dozen, dating back to Feb. 2, 2015 and ranging in topic from a motion acknowledging receipt of a report from the Auditor General for Local Government to adopting the recommendations of an organizational and management review and delivery of the reasons for judgment in businessman George Goudie’s unsuccessful lawsuit against the District over election signs.
Almost all the issues were already in the public sphere.
Interim corporate officer Gerry Van der Wolf explained the sudden volume of releases was the result of a council-ordered review to ensure that they had released all the resolutions that could, or should, be made public.
Archives space
As talks continue on the proposed expansion and redesign of the Sechelt Public Library, the District’s archivist is raising concerns about the future of their collection.
The Sechelt community archives are currently located in a small space at the back of the library.
Council dealt briefly with a letter from archivist Ann Watson on Jan. 20. Watson noted that “the Sechelt Public Library’s expansion plans do not include space for the Sechelt community archives. I would like to know what plans the District of Sechelt has for the archives as the holdings belong to the District. We have outgrown the space here and do require larger premises.”
Coun. Mike Shanks, the liaison to the library board, said he’d pass on assurances that the archives’ needs are being considered in the planning.
