Welcome to Lake Flashback. Reporter Sarah Simpson has been combing through old newspapers with the assistance of the Kaatza Station Museum and Archives so we can jog your memory, give you that nostalgic feeling, or just a chuckle, as we take a look at what was making headlines this week around Cowichan Lake in years gone by.
This week around the Cowichan Lake area…
10 years ago
“Lock it up, local thieves busy” was a big headline on the front of the Feb. 26, 2014 edition of the Lake Cowichan Gazette.
“There’s thieves on the loose in Lake Cowichan and RCMP officers are emphasizing the importance of locking up. A number of thefts have taken place in the Cowichan Lake area recently, not only involving vehicles, but break-ins on residences, sheds and outbuildings as well. ‘Most of the offences are occurring in the early morning hours between midnight and 5 a.m. however three residences along Grant’s Lake Road were broken into during the day… when the homeowner was out of the house,’ said Sgt. Wes Olsen in a press release. ‘Thieves are targeting small change, electronics and tools from the unlocked vehicles, hand and power tools from sheds and outbuildings and cash and jewelry from the residences.’”
In other news of the day, “Decisions need to be made on South Shore Road priorities” was a page 2 headline. “Improvements are likely coming to South Shore Road. It’s just still up in the air exactly which improvements, and when. Lake Cowichan council is still debating work to be done along South Shore Road, with various changes set to continue over forthcoming months. Councillor Bob Day outlined his concerns at a Feb. 4 Lake Cowichan public works committee meeting. “Items that are unfinished are the sidewalk by the Cowichan Lodge — as it’s been discussed as dangerous and difficult to walk on — the west-end boulevards across from the arena and the centre of the roundabout. My reason for asking these questions is I’d like to see South Shore Road complete,” said Day. Town superintendent Nagi Rizk responded.
25 years ago
“Town Council heads to Burnaby ” was the front page headline on the Feb. 24, 1999 edition of the Lake News.
“We wanted answers to questions asked for months: Which is best for getting rid of garbage —incinerator or landfill, from a viewpoint of cost, efficiency and kindness to the environment? Must an incinerator serve a large area, like the Burnaby one?
“Cowichan Lake was served for 23 years by its Meade Creek incinerator, closed by order of the Ministry of the Environment December 31 as too old and polluting. CVRD was supposed to come up with a better way to get rid of garbage. It tried to establish a landfill site on Hill 60 and, after spending some $400,000 in cash and staff time, admitted failure. Since then it has been shipping garbage, including Lake Cowichan’s garbage, to Cache Creek, a landfill on the mainland 50 miles from Vancouver, at a cost of $109 a tonne.”
In other news, “Coke in Cowichan Lake” was a second big headline and Sgt. Gerry Poitras of the Lake Cowichan RCMP spared no expense in explaining the drug in the page 2 story.
“‘Coke’, ‘Blow’, ‘Nose Candy’, all tantalizing names for a substance that is destroying lives right here at home in the Cowichan Lake Area. It is an off white powder currently selling in Lake Cowichan for $40 to $50 per half gram, $75 to $100 per gram and $250 to $300 per ‘8 ball’ or 1/8 ounce.
Poitras went on to explain what happens when a person gets hooked on cocaine and money problems and violence that often follow.
“This is not fiction. This is happening right here in Lake Cowichan, Youbou, Honeymoon Bay, Skutz Falls. To people you know — your ‘friends’.
40 years ago
“Big win for Honeymoon Bay couple” was a fun headline on the front of the Feb. 22, 1984 Lake News.
“Bob and Marian Bates of Honeymoon Bay, the second $100,000 winners in the area in recent weeks, aren’t going to do any wild and crazy things with their Western Lottery Foundation windfall. They’ll just keep on savoring the wonderful feeling that such a win represents to an ordinary working couple, they said this week. The Bates’s own and operate Honeymoon Bay Market and they will carry on basically as if nothing much has changed. Except, notes Bob, they now have $100,000 earning bank interest while they continue to work away at their general store. The only minor extravagance they’ll indulge in is a trip with their four children to Disneyland. Bob also said he likely will remodel their living quarters and get some general maintenance completed at their place. They have no intention, however, of launching into a spending spree of any kind. ‘We’re not that kind of people,’ Bob said.”
And finally, “Veteran alderman raps new council for ‘secret’ meetings” was another headline.
“A Lake Cowichan alderman took aim last week at some of his council colleagues for what called a dangerous precedent. Ald. Don Gordon said Feb. 14 that he hoped village council would immediately stop its recently-started habit of holding ‘secret’ meetings. He said that since the current council took office, two meetings have been held at which no minutes were kept at all. The first one was held immediately after the statutory meeting at which new councillors were sworn in and the second was held in January with IWA officials, he said.
“‘We’re doing the public’s business here,’ he said. ‘Let’s do it out in the open.’”