FRIDAY NOV. 2, 2012 VOL. 39, NO. 26
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Watch for more online at: WWW.BOWENISLANDUNDERCURRENT.COM
Falling from trees
Nepal fundraiser will offer hope to spinal cord injury patients in Nepal
Linking arms
Students join community members in province-wide protest
Time to fall back
Don’t forget to change the clock on November 4
What to do with food scraps SWRMAC looks at options for shipping or processing organics SUSANNE MARTIN EDITOR
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ing freeze.” Morse added that no specifics have been released to say where the $26 million will come from. In a press release, the Ferry Advisory Committee Chairs say that previous government announcements led coastal ferry users to expect consultation on specific cuts and cost-saving measures but the “ferry service consultation just launched by the provincial government appears confusing, rushed, and missing key parts of the picture” (http://facchairs.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/service-consultations-questioning-the-point/).
round 900 island residents put out food scraps to be collected by Bowen Waste Services, according to Don Marshall, chair of the Solid Waste Resource Management Advisory Committee (SWRMAC) and the committee is taking a close look at the choices of either continue to ship organics off the island or process them here. This topic was part of SWRMAC’s progress report presented at the October 22 council meeting by Marshall and SWRMAC committee members Peter Taggart and Dai Roberts. “The goal of presenting this interim report is to show our conceptual thinking,” Marshall said. “We’ve looked at facilities, we’ve reviewed documents, researched and have done a lot of brainstorming.” Marshall introduced the two basic scenarios: in the first one, all the waste is taken to North Vancouver, the second one envisions the processing of organics on Bowen. “We haven’t come up with a favourite one yet,” he added. “We want the community to let us know what they think.” Marshall covered the committee’s mandate, the current contract with Bowen Waste Services (BWS), challenges, scenarios, options and phases. “We already implemented the food scraps collection,” he said. “The next step is to develop a request for proposals (RFP) for the solid waste contract. In order to do that, we need to develop a solid waste bylaw.” Marshall explained that the current contract with BWS originally ran from 2005 to 2010. This contract was extended to 2012. “The shipments of organics have gone off the top of the charts because food waste has a lot of weight. We are on the path to achieving significant separation of organics from garbage streams,” Marshall said. “But we are sending a lot of trucks to the city that don’t have a full load. We are looking to see if we can reduce the number of trips to town.”
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Zombies roamed the island twice in the last week. On Saturday night, they practiced their moves to the tunes of Thriller. And on Halloween night, they were joined by ghouls, goblins, princesses and fairies. Debra Stringfellow photo
Province launches ferry consultation process SUSANNE MARTIN EDITOR
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owen Islanders’ interests in matters regarding the ferry are heightened at the moment, believes Alison Morse, municipal councillor and member of the Ferry Advisory Committee, and she wants to encourage them to participate in the public consultation and engagement process launched by the provincial government in response to a recent review by the independent BC ferry commissioner. Details about the process and how to get involved are available on a new website at www.coast-
alferriesengagement.ca that offers online feedback forms and lists the dates of small group meetings and open houses in several communities. The public consultation seeks input on decisions about service adjustments that are envisioned to make coastal ferry services more sustainable and able to meet the needs of coastal communities in the face of declining ridership and rising costs. Morse drew attention to a $26-million target for service cuts. “It appears to be a figure the province put into its contract with BC Ferries as a way to cap its contribution to ferries,” she said. “And the cap comes on top of its earlier fund-
R O O D T N O R F e h t T U SH of the cold and wet! ...and get out
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