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
Oh the drama. This was a major ordeal a decade ago, though. Some might call it a real dust-up.
“Dust turns to mud as TimberWest ponders next move” was the headline on the front of the Oct. 2, 2013 Lake Cowichan Gazette, and anyone who has been around the Lake for a number of years will know what the story is about.
“TimberWest is not prepared to comment yet on its next move in the great Youbou dust storm controversy. But plenty of others have no such reservations. As the rains come, and the dust problem changes to mud and water spray, residents continue to push for an answer to the problem of logging truck dust billowing and mud splattering on the main road and residential properties, local officials continue to pressure the province to do something.
“Cowichan Valley MLA Bill Routley has been actively pursuing the minister of transportation and the minister of forests, and their staffs to take action, as is Youbou/Meade Creek CVRD Area I Director Pat Weaver. Weaver has forwarded each a dust and mud video collection. Calling the situation a health concern, she has also sent letters to the Ministry of Health, hoping that may garner some results. And she is calling for residents to continue to write letters of complaint to these ministries as well.”
While the north side of the lake was dealing with dust, the south side was “Get[ting] ready to step into a new information age” as the announcement was made the new library was about to open.
“Double the books. More computer access. Comfortable sitting spaces to enjoy reading books, e-books, tablets or laptops. Even a full-time librarian. All that plus a bigger and brighter space is what you will find when the new library opens in Lake Cowichan on Oct. 8. One of the last things you will hear at this library is “shhhhh.” Today’s libraries are filled with interactive programs, guest speakers and even music.”
25 years ago
“Garbage will cost you,” was the page 2 story in the Lake News of Oct. 7, 1998.
“It’s going to cost you when you take your garbage to the Meade Creek Incinerator. The rate will be $80 per tonne, but there is a minimum charge of $3, says Bob McDonald, of CVRD’s Engineering Services department. So don’t take one garbage bag full of dried leaves. They’ll weigh very little and will cost you $3. If you take two or three bags the cost may be no different. Authorities concede that Meade Creek doesn’t have its weigh scale yet, so it will be a matter of eye-balling your deliveries. The garbage situation is, to put it bluntly, garbage right now. Every effort to close down the incinerators has so far failed.”
The Ohtaki delegates were in town for a week this time 25 years ago.
“After an unprecedented dry spell which lasted from last spring until just a few weeks ago, the annual delegation from Ohtaki, Japan arrived Friday in pouring rain. Ohtaki delegates were officially greeted at the Cowichan Lake Community Hall where they also met their host families and enjoyed a dinner hosted by the Town of Lake Cowichan. Karen Peterson offered a special welcome to the Ohtaki delegates upon their arrival shortly after 5 p.m. in the upper hall. Peterson lived in Ohtaki last year, she was on the teacher exchange program and she told the visitors and gathered local guests, ‘I will never forget their kindness and hospitality.’”
“Mayor Jean Brown officially welcomed the delegates on behalf of the Town of Lake Cowichan.
“‘You’ve come a long way and we welcome you. We have many activities planned but tonight we want you to enjoy and relax and get ready for the next few days,’ she said.”
40 years ago
Four decades ago Lexi Bainas wrote a story titled “Contracting out — ‘it’ll wreck our lives, our union” and it was a hot topic of the day.
“‘They’re attacking the way that we live,’ Doug MacDonald, camp committee chairman at B.C. Forest Products’ Caycuse operation said this week, explaining his opposition to plans by the forest industry to ‘contract out’ work in the woods. ‘It worries me that people don’t understand what’s going on.’
“A wholesale changeover to contract logging would mean the end of the woodworkers’ union and would strip loggers of all the benefits they have fought for over many years, they said.”
Finally, “A Lake Cowichan man, who claims he is alive today because he wore a seat belt in his car, was presented with a ‘Living Proof’ award from the Insurance Corporation of B.C. Sept. 27.
“Bob Thiessen, of 31 North Shore Road, was driving along Highway 18, about four miles west of Lake Cowichan Jan. 7, 1980, when he lost control of the vehicle on an icy patch of road. The car rolled into a ditch, flattening the roof, breaking the front and rear windows and tearing off the left front fender. Thiessen, who was the driver and only occupant of the car at the time, was wearing a shoulder harness and lap belt. ‘If I didn’t have the shoulder strap plus the seat belt hooked up, I wouldn’t be here right now talking about it,’ he said in his submission to ICBC.”