WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013
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VOL. 17, NO. 44 | $1 + GST
Circle Route part two? Good intentions pave road to Nitinat PAGE 3
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www.lakecowichangazette.com
Palsson school needs just seconds of your day: Chasing a grant for playground PAGE 2
Lakers Midget Hockey Tourney: Players take to ice this weekend PAGE 15
A light emerges from the dust cloud At long last: Timberwest says Youbou should have a truck wash by early next year Malcom Chalmers
LAKE COWICHAN GAZETTE
Malcolm Chalmers
Lorrie and Leah Fjeldstad in costume at the Riverside Inn’s Halloween dance on Oct. 26 celebrating their 34th wedding anniversary.
> See page 15 for community Halloween events
Are the days of dusty whiteouts and splattered mud finally over? Youbou residents have been promised a truck wash by the end of December or early January of next year. Even though the CVRD rescinded a $5,000 contribution to help build the truck wash earlier this year, TimberWest along with the other logging companies that use Youbou Road have decided to build one on their own. TimberWest has confirmed construction of a closed-loop truck wash on their land approximately two kilometres west of Youbou. Despite a long battle to get to this point, or perhaps because of it, some are still taking a wait-and-see position. Youbou resident Trish Waddington said she remains tentative about starting any celebrations. “It took a long time coming,” she said. “Anything is better than nothing but it has to do the job, if it doesn’t do the job
then we are back to square one.” Pat Weaver, director for Youbou/Meade Creek, however, is elated, and said the news comes with a bonus. “Because the logging trucks are not the only vehicles using the road they (TimberWest) will continue to seal-coat four to five kilometres of their road and sweep Youbou Road when needed,” she said. The proposed closed loop system should be environmentally sound, it will be able to recapture the used water and contaminants washed off the trucks then filter and reuse it. That will keep oil and greases from contaminating the lake and use much less fresh water. TimberWest declined comment prior to a media release that had yet to be issued by press time. The issue of summer logging truck dust billowing and winter mud splattering on Youbou’s main road and residential properties has been plaguing Youbou since the closure of its sawmill more than 10 years ago.
Council refuses switch to water averaging Mike D’Amour
LAKE COWICHAN GAZETTE
They listened, they discussed, they said no. That was the answer from Lake Cowichan town council to citizens who wanted to see their monthly water allowances averaged over the course of a year, rather than monthto-month. Council agreed to take a look at
Declined: Council decides to stay the course in order to protect summer supply
averaging late last month after a presentation by former mayor Jack Peake. “We did look at it a few weeks ago and decided we would not be averaging, for quite a few reasons,” said Mayor Ross Forrest. “The main reason is the summer
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months give the hardest hit to our water system,” he explained. “So if everyone were allowed to average, the hit in the summertime would be very detrimental to our system at a time when the lake level is at its lowest (and) the river is at its lowest.”
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Water meters were installed in the town during the past few years and council allowed each household 35 cubic meters of water — 35,000 litres, or 7,700 gallons — per month. Once the meters had been installed and some initial numbers had been crunched, council looked
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at provincial and national usage numbers and arrived at the current allowance. “Thirty-five cubic meters is on a very high threshold of all the municipalities, ours is probably the highest — probably too high,” said Forrest. “We want to work our way down and will gradually lower it,” he said, without giving a target number. > COUNCIL page 14
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