Tuesday News Wrap

It's all about the local Municipal Election in today's News Wrap

In your Williams Lake Tribune today:

1) WL Indian Band explains their decision to endorse current WL Mayor Kerry Cook for her re-election bid.  See here, but I think it's safe to say that Walt Cobb will not be receiving any First Nation endorsements but will Scott Nelson's campaign receive any, like Kerry Cook's, prior to November's vote?  Time will tell.  Also - WL Indian Band Ann Louie said:

"If you don’t endorse a candidate you’re not included in anything.”

I don't share that view - I would hope and expect that anyone who doesn't endorse a candidate, either for Mayor or Councillor, will be treated on the same level as those groups or individuals who decided to actually endorse a candidate, again either for Mayor or Councillor, and this would also apply to First Nation Band Chief or Councillors, School District Trustees and Regional District Rural Directors

2) The Tribune announced that letters to the editor on the municipal election will be allowed but with a few rules in place.  See here.  I'm glad to see that the Tribune will be doing this as it'll allow for a good community debate for the municipal election race as I believe this municipal election will be the most important one that this community has had in some time

3) Letter writer Micheal A Jones of Williams Lake says crime has dropped under Kerry Cook's leadership  See his letter here

4) I've received my local BIA Newsletter for June 2011 and local business owners are being asked to register for "Business Watch" (program to let business owners' know when/where crime is occuring) and are requested to provide the following information (if you want to participate in "Business Watch") to Dave Dickson at david.dickson@rcmp-grc.gc.ca or fax it to 250-392-8707.  The information provided will be held in confidence:

Name of Business
Address
City, Province, Postal Code
Phone Number
Fax Number
Email Address
Any additional comments

5) City of WL Fire Chief announced why a recent fire on Dog Cr Road took place.  See here but it was very lucky that the fire didn't get out of control any more than it did.  If the weather over the past little while had been hot/dry inside of wet - I'm sure the story could have taken a much more dramatic turn (just like last August forest fires)

6) Over at Welcome to Williams Lake - Nara Riplinger says more people should visit Scout Island.  See her letter here.  See also a story on a recent visit from WL Seniors Village to Scout Island.  See that here.  With regard to this - I think perhaps the time has come to debate openly whether or not Scout Island Nature Center should be directly funded out of the CRD's Recreation Function, given so many people do visit it (City of WL and CRD Rural Areas).  Instead of making volunteers dig and claw for a measly few dollars, let's ask them to provide a budget for the operation of Scout Island for each year. 

I believe that this would be supported by the majority of taxpayers' who pay into the CRD Recreation Function (all taxpayers' in Williams Lake and portions of CRD Electoral Areas D, E, F).  Finally - food for thought, a recent recreation survey suggested that 90% of those survey used Scout Island so no strange of logic would tell you that these people may very well support using their recreation taxation to ensure a strong, vibrant Scout Island as a recreation area and a tourist location


7) Going for a walk this morning - I run into some people who questioned why the City did line painting in the area of 3rd Ave and Oliver St, given the construction going on in this same area.  I certainly can see their point of view that perhaps the City should have waited to do line painting until the on-going Oliver St construction was done .  In fact - this reminds of the unfortunate decisions that were made on 3rd Avenue when Ivan Bonnell was Mayor of Williams Lake during the 1999-2002 term which saw Third Avenue torn up twice because water infrastructure was upgraded, immediately after the street was just paved and in fact, then WL City Councillor Rick Gibson used that event as part of his reason to run for Mayor in the 2002 Civic General Election