Skip to content

Lake Flashback Police patrols, Pee Wees, and Saywell High?

Remember these stories from Lake Cowichan?
24433581_web1_210308-LCO-Flashback-March25-ad_1
This 1981 advertisement appeared on the front page of the March 25, 1981 Lake News. Would an ad like this run today?

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

Tourists were warned a decade ago, that police would be patrolling the local hot spots, according to the March 30, 2011 Lake Cowichan Gazette.

“Lake Cowichan RCMP members are gearing up for another summer crackdown, similar to last year’s. ‘The main part of seasonal policing is on the water,’ Shawnigan Lake RCMP Sgt. Rob Webb said, during a Wednesday, March 23, CVRD meeting. With Lake Cowichan Cpl. Dave Voller away on vacation, Webb represented both areas, during the meeting. With similar situations, in that both Shawnigan Lake and Cowichan Lake flood with water-loving tourists during the summer, Webb talked to the importance of seasonal policing. ‘Your support with us the last few years have helped us in combating our pressure on the water,’ he said.”

The public was also warned that they would have to endure more road closures and delays in the weeks ahead.

“Road delays related to work on one of the town’s sewage lift stations, Wednesday, March 23, was only the tip of the iceberg for road delays in the coming weeks. ‘There will be more delays related and unrelated to the project,’ the town’s superintendent of Public Works Nagi Rizk wrote, in an e-mail to the Gazette.”

As former colleague would say, “Oh, happy day!”

25 years ago

The local Pee Wee hockey team returned from the provincial tournament with the bronze medal, this week in 1996, the March 27 Lake News reports.

“It was a tough break for our local guys when they played in the provincial competition last week in Mackenzie B.C. They played some excellent games and won some tough wins but bad luck and some questionable penalty calls didn’t help the Pee Wees when it came down [to] the crunch of who would take the provincial win.”

With the fate of the hockey squad decided, all that was left was the race for Lake Cowichan mayor, which according to the Lake News, was in the midst of “election fever”.

“If Councillor Jean Brown wants it, she just may get the Mayor’s chair by acclamation come the municipal election this November.”

Wait. Is it really “election fever” if there’s only one candidate?

“Mayor Earle Darling has confirmed he will not be standing for re-election. Coun. Jean Brown is the only one to come forward saying ‘she is seriously considering’ running for Mayor….Coun. Jack Peake is the only sitting councillor who indicated he has not made up his mind one way or the other as to whether he will enter his name for re-election nor for what position he would seek.”

40 years ago

A change to the local high school’s name? It was on the table according to the March 25, 1981 edition of the Lake News.

“The School District 66 board of school trustees decided at its March 17 meeting to investigate the possibility of changing the name of Lake Cowichan Secondary School.

“The board decided on this move in response to a request from former Lake Cowichan resident Ken Irving, who is helping to organize a high school reunion here this summer. He asked, in a letter to the board, that the name of the school be changed to Saywell — to honor Jack Saywell who served the school district for so long — and that, if possible, the name change be made at the reunion in June.

“Trustee Bob Macphee said he was opposed to changing the name of the school. When A.B. Greenwell and Palsson schools were named, there were comments from members of the community who felt other, perhaps more-deserving people had been overlooked and should have been honored instead, he said. ‘I think we should put an end to this practice of naming schools after people. It causes bad feeling,’ he said.”



sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter



Sarah Simpson

About the Author: Sarah Simpson

I started my time with Black Press Media as an intern, before joining the Citizen in the summer of 2004.
Read more