THURSDAY MAR 22, 2018 VOL. 44, NO. 11
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LOST AND FOUND
Islanders come through to help locate missing cash near Legion
BOWEN BEAT
Everyone has a bit of Irish in them on St. Patrick’s Day — especially on Bowen
GOLDEN GRAFFS
Local artists’ stunning art installations have global appeal
BIM holds budget open house — and no one comes
Federal funding for abandoned boats gives hope to Mannion Bay
CHANTAL EUSTACE
MARIA SPITALE-LEISK
EDITOR
CONTRIBUTOR
No one showed up to the municipality’s second open house last Thursday to review its budget, including a 7.7 per cent property tax increase for 2018. “No, we didn’t have any attendance,” said Raj Hayre, chief financial officer for the Bowen Island Municipality. Two people did attend the first open house March 13, he said, adding they’ve also received a few emails from the public. All feedback will be reviewed by the finance advisory committee, said Hayre, with recommendations to council proposed for March 26. According to the proposed budget, property tax would increase by an estimated $359,000, he said. Why so much of an increase for 2018? “The increase is substantial because past years have had very small increases which have not kept up with the operating costs,” he said. Most of the proposed 7.7 per cent tax increase – or 6.2 per cent – would go towards the operating budget, said Hayre, to things like wages, utilities, supplies and so on. Continued page 3
Mannion Bay is on its way to being in shipshape order again. Bowen Island Municipality has applied for $10,000, under a federal abandoned boats program, to remove and dispose of two derelict vessels from Mannion Bay. The problematic boats in question have been in the Bay for more than two years, says Bowen manager of parks and environment, Bonny Brokenshire. She is optimistic the federal funding will come through. The money would add to the abandoned boats education work and cleanup efforts already underway in Mannion Bay. “It may be a positive sign that all the money and time invested over the last five years is actually working …,” Brokenshire said last week. “That’s a testament to the direction of council that it has deemed the issue important enough to deal with out of municipal funds.” The federal government announced last week the first funding recipients under its abandoned boats program, but Bowen is still waiting to hear where it stands. Continued page 3
Rhiannon, 13, and Taliesin, 16, Van Lidth de Juede Roemer co-created this vending machine, which offered such gems as pet rocks and compliments. PHOTO SUPPLIED EMILY VAN LIDTH DE JEUDE
Budding entrepreneurs don’t feel boxed in CHANTAL EUSTACE EDITOR
It’s not easy to surprise people nowadays, especially in a good way. But two Bowen Island youth did just that on the weekend, with a mysterious, cardboard vending machine, parked on the sidewalk in the Cove. Fifty or so people stopped to investigate, said Rhiannon Van
Lidth de Jeude Roemer, 13, who cocreated the machine with her older brother, Taliesin, 16. “We didn’t really do it to make money,” said Rhiannon, adding it was a lot of fun. How did it all come about? “We had the box. We started cutting holes in it,” said Taliesin, laughing. “It was to have fun and make people smile.” The vending machine itself took
a few hours to make, he said, with cutaways for inserting coins and a menu bar with selections. People could choose from a pretty diverse range of items, like 25-cent jokes, $1 oranges, $600 “genuine Bowen Spring Water,” a $1 pet rock, or more obscure options – like $3 for nothing. A dog or a seal puppet was on hand to help with the order. Continued page 3
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