Welcome to Lake Flashback. Reporter Lexi Bainas has been combing through oldnewspaperswiththeassistance 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 weekaround Cowichan Lake in years gone by.
This week around the Cowichan Lake area…
10 years ago:
“Lake Cowichan taxes to go up by 3 per cent in 2008 with a $5.792 million budget” said the Lake Cowichan Gazette of April 30 of that year.
“For the second year in a row, Lake Cowichan property taxes will go up an average of three per cent. Town council last week introduced its financial plan bylaw that shows a $5.792 million budget for 2008.
“The town will cut the residential tax rate by 16 per cent to compensate for the average property tax increase while allowing for the required three per cent increase in taxes.
“That means some property owners will see their taxes go up more than three per cent, while others will see theirs stay the same or even drop.
“It all depends on how much your property assessment changed over the past year. For example, a property value that increased by 16 per cent will be neutralized by the town’s drop of the tax rate, but the property tax will go up three per cent because of the tax increase. Another property in which the value went up only 10 per cent will then see a drop in the property tax.”
25 years ago:
“Cowichan Lake teachers’ strike ends” was the headline on the front page of The Lake News of April 28, 1993.
“Last week Lake Cowichan Teachers’ Association was threatening complete strike action and this week they are back in the classrooms with a signed, agreed contract good until next June.
School District #66 prepared a press release in which district officials stated that the mediation period lasted 25 hours, after which union bargaining committees concluded a two-year agreement. The agreement covers the period of July 1, 1992 to June 30 of 1994.
“Both parties agree that the new collective agreement is fair and constructive,” a spokesman for the district said.
Brian Hoole, superintendent of school district #66 told The Lake News that the specific information regarding the new contract will be made available to the press after it’s been ratified which should be sometime this week.
40 years ago:
It’s been quite a while since there was any brouhaha about 2,4-D but 40 years ago that chemical mixture was frequently the subject of news stories, even protests so it was no surprise to find it in a front page story in The Lake News of April 26, 1978.
“Pacific Logging Co. will use the herbicide 2,4-D on a stump treatement program near here,” the paper reported.
“Ken Hart, Pacific’s chief forester for the Cowichan Division, said the company will use small quantities of he herbicide on less than 100 acres of land in the Lens Creek area of the San Juan drainage basin south of Mesachie Lake.
“Hart said 2,4-D would be used to control alder growth by a small forestry crew later this week.
“He said the herbicide would be applied directly to the stumps of freshly cut alder about one to three inches in diameter. The 2,4-D will be mixed with diesel oil.
“We’ll be doing it by direct application to the naked stump,” Hart said.
The herbicide will be used to retard growth of alder.
However, Hart said, Pacific Logging crews should be considered “just backyard gardeners”.