Monday morning, mayor Murray Skeels chaired one last regular council meeting.
“You exceeded my expectations,” the municipality’s chief administrative officer Kathy Lalonde told Skeels, jokingly adding, “because I didn’t really have any.”
“And if I also may say how much I’ve enjoyed working with this council and I say that on behalf of staff,” said Lalonde. “Our next council has a high bar there.”
The following are brief reports from the Oct. 22 regular council meeting.
Reaching for the high bar: Council will consider issuing a temporary use permit for Bowen’s new proposed pot shop (the Happy Isle Cannabis Company) at its November 26 regular meeting. The matter came up Monday as a matter of procedure, so as to give BIM staff permission to notify neighbours and community members about the upcoming meeting. The shop is to be on the outside edge of Village Square on Dorman Road, immediately beside the Village Baker. Among the restrictions for the shop, opening date unconfirmed, is that no cannabis be consumed on-site and no one under 19 enter the store.
Industrial effort: After months of discussion and pushing the matter to a future meeting, council adopted the contentious lot one of the Community Lands rezoning. Councillors Sue Ellen Fast, Melanie Mason and Gary Ander voted against passing the bylaw. Lack of planning and public issue with the inclusion of “light industrial” in primary uses has been the consistent critique of this bylaw.
Leaving poop for the next council: A bylaw adding a latecomer fee for sewage hookup on Miller and Senior Roads came before council. The idea is for the municipality to recoup some of the money it put into the infrastructure, including a million-dollar lift station (used to pump sewage between lower and higher elevations.) Council pushed first, second and third readings to a future meeting.
Not putting this one off: Council unanimously approved a collaborative agreement between the municipality and proponents of a disc golf course in Veterans Park. There’s now a design for a 1.2 hectare, nine-hole course with two tees at each hole meaning that players could play a round of 18 holes. The agreement says that the disc golf course should be open to the public by fall 2019. The agreement says that the Bowen Disc Golf Club is prepared to fundraise and pay for the entire project, an estimated $25,000. BIM’s annual maintenance budget for the project (mainly for tree removal) is $1,500.
No recounts needed: Councillor Maureen Nicholson, who sits on the Metro Vancouver board, said that only 15 of the current 40 directors were re-elected. Re-election doesn’t mean that that directors will be reappointed to the metro board. Nicholson was re-elected. Councillor Sue Ellen Fast, re-elected to Islands Trust last weekend, said that 12 of 26 of her colleagues are returning to that council. Bowen has turnover as well as councillor Michael Kaile replaces councillor Alison Morse on the Islands Trust, though Morse remains on council.
Skeels closed the meeting by addressing councillors-elect David Hocking and Rob Wynen sitting at the back of the audience space. “You guys are going to be a great addition to council, ” he said.
“I feel great leaving things in such great hands,” he said. “The community is so happy.
“I’m really proud of how I’ve left this.
“Congratulations to you all.”
The inaugural council meeting will be 7 p.m. November 1 at Cates Hill Chapel, where the new council will be sworn in. A few days after that Michael Kaile and Sue Ellen Fast will be sworn in as Islands Trust Trustees.
The first regular council meeting of the new council will be 7:15 p.m. November 13, 2018.
