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October 27, 2011
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E N T E R T A I N M E N T chilliwacktimes.com
Trustee won’t be ‘bullied’ School chair slams trustee for talking about surplus
Ken Goudswaard/TIMES
Chilliwack Times reporter Tyler Olsen won the Jack Webster Award for Community Reporting at the annual awards night held at the Hyatt Hotel on Monday.
Olsen wins a Webster C
BY CORNELIA NAYLOR cnaylor@chilliwacktimes.com
A
Chilliwack trustee has said she will seek legal counsel after being “slammed” in the press by school board chair Doug McKay for releasing information from a meeting he
said was closed and meeting, it looked confidential. like the school district “I take great had charged $35,000 more than it needed exception to in busing fees but being bullied and that staff was still threatened and I verifying that data. want an apology,” In his release, said trustee Silvia Mc K a y s a i d t h a t Dyck at a board of Doug McKay Silvia Dyck information should education meeting not have been made Tuesday. In a press release Monday, public because it was discussed McKay had chastised Dyck for at a “closed and confidential” talking to the Times about a meeting. He added Dyck’s comments were finance committee meeting that dealt with the district’s $6 million not fully accurate and that they don’t represent the opinions of the board. accumulated surplus. In an interview with the Times, Dyck had told the Times that, according to data presented at the McKay wouldn’t comment on how
See BULLIED, Page 4
Tension rising Cultus Lake election could turn nasty
hilliwack Times reporter Tyler Olsen has pulled off one of community journalism’s rarest feats by winning a Jack Webster Award for his series “Growing Concern” to cap off a triple crown of newspaper industry awards. Olsen previously won both the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and the British Columbia and Yukon Community Newspaper Association’s top news story awards for “Growing Concern,” a series that looked into marijuana grow operations in Chilliwack. “The Chilliwack Times couldn’t be prouder of Tyler’s amazing feat,” Ken Goudswaard, Times editor, said. “It’s indeed rare that a journalist wins all three of the top honours in a single award season, which is a true testament to the quality of the ‘Growing Concern’ series.” Times Publisher Nick Bastaja See WEBSTER, Page 4
Dyck’s information was inaccurate because the details have yet to go before the board, but he did say he is concerned about incomplete information getting out to the public when trustees release information discussed at closed meetings. “This board is open and transparent, but it’s also respectful of our community that we don’t want to send them scrurrying and worrying when they really, probably don’t have a reason to be; and if they do, we will share that once we have all of our information,” he said. But Dyck disagrees with McKay’s
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
B
eneath the calm waters of Cultus Lake churns an election conflict that risks getting nasty in the coming weeks. A number of long-time Cultus leaseholders—some of whom have been anonymously posting online comments and sending near-slanderous messages—are taking issue with current park board members Sacha Peter and Owen Skonberg. Peter and Skonberg are the two sole incumbent candidates out of five running for re-election on Nov. 19. The other two positions on the Cultus Lake Park Board (CLPB) are File/TIMES
The calm of Cultus Lake could be disturbed during the park board election as candidates are singled out for criticism.
See CULTUS LAKE, Page 6
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