Issuu

Our Community in Review PART 1

of 5 ~ 1982-1987

Your Community Newspaper since 1982

We are pleased to share our beginnings right here in 1982!

B2 30th www.pqbnews.com Anniversary Series

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 The Parksville Qualicum Beach News

Community in Review ~ 1982 TOP STORIES • January 1982: the Coombs ﬁre department got the go-ahead for a new ﬁre hall to be built. The new hall, to be sited at Hilliers Road, would replace a garage. • February: What to do with urban deer in Qualicum Beach? Mayor Art Skipsey had an idea. Since firing guns within town limits was illegal, he suggested perhaps a professional bowman could be hired. • March: Parksville alderman Anton Kruyt was mad as heck about the new roof applied to the historic Knox United Church, saying it look too new.

Welcome to our 30th anniversary edition This incarnation of The News is part of a long history of talking about you

elcome to the ﬁrst instalment of our look back at 30 years of covering the issues and events that matter to residents of Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Bowser, Coombs, Errington, Nanoose Bay and Deep Bay. While perusing the pages of our shared past, we realized that the cur-

rent staff of the PARKSVILLE QUALICUM BEACH NEWS are just the latest collection of dedicated and hard-working professionals whose work has graced these pages over the past three decades. That’s humbling in a way, but also reassuring, as we know that even as we give our all to covering the community, selling advertisements to help local

Fear of nuclear war a hot topic

• April: • Bowlers at the Sunset Lanes in Parksville got some good news when an application for a liquor licence at the establishment was approved.

1982 sees call for city, RDN to declare opposition to weapons

• May: The Cheekeye-Dunsmuir power substation in Qualicum Bay was the target of a bomb in May. A group calling itself Direct Action claimed responsibility for the blast. • June: Parksville’s budget shortfall to the layoff of 10 municipal workers. • July: The Town of Qualicum Beach f ofﬁcials had to revoke the license of a young lad who sold ice cream at the beach because were contravening their own zoning bylaw. • August: The naming of Bill Vander Zalm as Minister of Education in August didn’t sit well with the Mount Arrowsmith Teachers’s Association. • September: More than 2,500 pounds of wet marijiuana was seized by Parksville RCMP when they conducted a raid of Lasqueti Island. • October: Gas wars in Parksville saw gas prices j dipping as low as 42.9 cents per litre. • November: More than 120 people jammed into the Little Qualicum Hall in December to discuss the formation of a class three fire protection district. • December: Over 85 per cent of those polled about the need for an indoor swimming pool said it was a good idea.

businesses or deliver the ﬁnishd product to your doorstep, we know we are part of a proud tradition in the area that will continue long after all of us have moved on. We hope you ﬁnd lots to read in this peek into the past and that you t you enjoy reading it even half as much as much as we enjoyed producing it.

Even as the structure for the new high school took shape in Qualicum Beach, controversy was raging about what it should be named, with the school board opting for Kwalikum and others calling for it to be named Qualicum.

Hospital call for mid-Island A special ad-hoc committee was formed in November to discuss the feasibility of locating an acute care hospital in District 69. Parksville alderman Audrey Anderson was appointed to the committee and met with Qualicum Beach Mayor Art Skipsey and various representatives of community

organizations to discuss acute care needs in detail. Anderson added that, alternatively, a few acute care beds could be added at Trillium Lodge. “It’s wrong that people in this area have to travel all the way to Nanaimo to receive proper care,” she said.

Watch out for the rabid bats Residents in the central Island got the word from the Central Vancouver Island Health Unit in May that they should be on the lookout for bats. Dr. Peter Reynolds said rabid

Parksville’s Premiere Event on the Beach!

bats may be found in the district. “No bats found in daylight should be handled with bare hands,” Reynolds said. Parents should advise their children not to pick up any bat at any time.”

Fears of a possible nuclear war were very much on people’s minds in 1982 and Parksville was no exception. While the city opted to hold a referendum on nuclear disarmanent placed on the 1983 election ballot, local peace activists were not satisﬁed, calling for a much earlier vote on the matter. Although council argued holding an extra vote would cost taxpayers $4,000, Maureen Curle said the issue was far too important to be put off for a year. “To wait until the November 1983 election as suggestedby Alerman Audrey Anderson does not acknowledge the urgency of this opportunity that Canadians have to demonstrate the inﬂuence of public opinion in a democratic country,” she said. Alderman Anton Kruyt agreed to meet with Curle following his visit to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities meeting in Ottawa in June. Organizers held a rally to drum up support for the referendum in June. In the meantime, disarmament supporters fanned out to pass out literature to Parksville shoppers. Curle gave up on the separate referendum plan, conceding it was too expensive, but urged that it be included in the 1983 election ballot. The call for a bomb ban resolution didn’t go anywhere in the Regional District of Nanaimo however. Board chair Paul Smith said he liked the idea it espoused, but it was well beyond the board’s jurisdiction. Board members agreed and the issue was dropped.

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30thwww.pqbnews.com Anniversary Series B3

The Parksville Qualicum Beach News Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Community in Review ~ 1983 TOP STORIES • January, 1983: Students come out in droves to sign up for Malaspinia College courses on offer in the spring in the Parksville and Qualicum Beach area. • February: Business is growing in the backwash of recession, as local real estate company Golden West Realty rides into town with up-and-comers Diane Fulmer, Betsy Davies, Frank Fairley, Tony Baker, Ian Lindsay and Kevin Clayton. • March: Parksville and Qualicum Beach grocery stores in a low price war. Parksville’s Foodmaster, K&R Foods of Parksville and the new Qualicum Foods in Qualicum Beach have stepped up competition. • May: By a margin of 230 votes, NDP candidate Karen Sanford defeated George Smith of the Social Credit party for the area’s MLA in Victoria.

The News-Advertiser asked folks in District 69 about their predictions for 1983.

• June: The News-Advertiser marks its ﬁrst anniversary with a newspaper redesign and a commitment to better coverage and community service. • July: Port Alberni mayor Paul Reitsma wants Howie Meeker to move his hockey school from Parksville to Port, but Meeker says he won’. • August: After two years in planning, the Fairwinds residential and 18-hole golf course development in Nanoose Bay is announced. • September: The Island Hall hotel, worth an estimated $4.5 million, goes up for sale. Owner Tom Sutherland says the owners need capital to improve the resort. • November: Island ﬁsherman picket the Parksville Royal Bank branch, who they say is partially responsible for a potential loss of $2 million when the Cassiar Packing Co. was placed in receivership, which could lead to job losses. • November 22, 1983: Allen Hustwick is reelected Parksville mayor. In Qualicum Beach, Art Skipsey ran unopposed. • December: District 69 residents donated more than $19,000 to the Society of Organized Services’ Christmas campaign.

The threat of nuclear war loomed large in the pages of the NewsAdvertiser in the early to mid-1980s. Throughout the ‘80s, there would be protests and court cases with the Canadian Forces base in Nanoose Bay.

As far back as 1983, the people of Qualicum Beach had a pretty specific vision of their community — a vision that continues today.

Congratulations to our downtown business neighbour Parksville-Qualicum Beach News on 30 years of publishing excellence and community service. Thank you for your ongoing support of Parksville Downtown. —The Board, Staff and the more than 240 members of the Parksville Downtown Business Association

B4 30th www.pqbnews.com Anniversary Series

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 The Parksville Qualicum Beach News

Community in Review ~ 1984 TOP STORIES • January, 1984: Parksville municipal ofﬁcials are grappling with the question of what will their town be — a tourist resort, retirement community, a commercial-industrial centre, or something more — as they work on the ofﬁcial community plan. • January: The News-Advertiser was been sold from Island Publishers to Cariboo Press and its owner David Black. The new company will still be called Island Publishers. David Black still owns both papers today (2012) under the company name Black Press. • February: The last of District 69’s little red school houses, the Horne Lake School and old Bowser School, will close this month, as students will now attend the new Bowser School on Faye Road. • May: A special report from Lasqueti Island details residents’ concern over a lack of police presence — unless it’s the annual marijuana round-up. “People feel on guard and not very well protected,” said Island community association president Dan Rubin.

Parksville council urges downtown business owners to clean up their properties and show some civic pride.

• June: Malaspina College announced that it will remain in Parksville, after earlier rumblings that it could close its local campus. Funding for the Parksville campus remained a big issue at the time. • July: Nanaimo engineer Brian Chatwin and developer Ken Tiderington propose a $2.5 million waterslide at Craig’s Crossing in Parksville. • August: For sale: Everything. Local hotels are up for sale — Schooner Cove Resort, Sand Pebbles Inn, Island Hall, Bayside Inn and Quallcum Beach’s George Inn.

The last of the district’s little red schoolhouses plans to close in 1984.

• September: As Parksville council pushes for a four-lane highway through town, Qualicum Beach council would rather see the money spent on a bypass.

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Merchants’ group logo in 1984.

The News-Advertiser took notice of special people who made an impact on people’s lives in the community.

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• October: Picketers were in front of the News-Advertiser this week, on strike to support a demand for the reinstatement of reporters John Nolan and Walter Franczyk, terminated, said the paper, for economic reasons. The Graphic Arts International Union and Island Publishers were in the middle of negotiating their ﬁrst contract.

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The Parksville Qualicum Beach News Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Community in Review ~ 1985 TOP STORIES • January, 1985: A bypass of Qualicum Beach and Parksville is proposed, as residents complain of the difficulties in crossing Highway 19. The B.C. highways ministry created a study, calling such a route the Qualicum North Bypass and local debate has just begun. • February: Parksville city council approves the site for a new post office building on Corfield Street. Some 500 residents signed a petition against the site, citing it was to far away from the downtown core. • March: Malaspina College again says it’ll close its Parksville campus due to budget constraints, eliminating a staff of three. Public pressure in March of 1984 kept the campus offices open. • March: The Regional District of Nanaimo okays a referendum on the proposed aquatic centre in the Parksville, Qualicum Beach area. While the final location had not been finalized, the cost was estimated to be $2.9 million. • May: Nanoose Conservation Campaigners camping at the entrance to the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Range (CFMETR) are told to move on by the Regional District of Nanaimo. The campers are protesting Canada’s involvement in the nuclear arms race; the RDN wants them to stop camping in public places. • June: The B.C. government has passed on a bypass of Parksville and Qualicum Beach. • July5: The old District 69 school board office may become an art gallery by next year if all works out as planned by the District 69 Arts Council. The building, on Fern Road in Qualicum Beach, was left vacant when the district moved its offices to Parksville. • September: Parksville has applied to Victoria to change its status form a town to a city. • October: Qualicum Foods had acquired Parksville’s Robertson’s Food Master grocery store. The new store will be renamed Quality Foods. • November: Allen Hustwick returns as mayor of Parksville in the election.

The more things change ... like the price of gas.

Sandcastles were playing a prominent role in the social life of Parksvillians more than two decades ago.

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B6 30th www.pqbnews.com Anniversary Series

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 The Parksville Qualicum Beach News

Community in Review ~ 1986 TOP STORIES • January, 1986: The man who tried to bring you the Oceanside Aquatic Centre and his wife were named Parksvilles citizens of the year. Clay and Lorraine Thompson were the recipients of the honour, bestowed by the chamber of commerce. • March: A bypass of Qualicum Beach and Parksville is back on the table, thanks to NDP MLAs and leader Bob Skelly, who announced they are committed to an inland route from Parksville to Menzies Bay, with a connection to Nanaimo. Unfortunately, the Social Credit Party is still the government in B.C. • April: The sign at the Rod and Gun pub in Parksville, which swam against local bylaws, was allowed to stay after a city council vote. The Famed ﬁsh sign has been atop the Rod and Gun since 1963. David Foster and Wayne Gretzky cruise into the area and were captured by an intrepid photographer.

• May 6, 1986: Parksville began celebrating its centennial with a big party in the Community Park. • June: Expo ‘86 is packing them into Vancouver, but the thousands of tourists Parksville-Qualicum motel, resort and campsite operators expected as a spinoff of the world’s fair don’t seem to be materializing. This, according to area resort and motel owners. • July/August, 1986: Two Parksville city alderman resign this summer, less than a year after taking ofﬁce. Abe de Bruyn was the ﬁrst to go, followed by John Hossack. • August: Developer Mladen Zorkin is proposing a new golf course along the banks of Morningstar Creek and was seeking the endorsement of the Regional District of Nanaimo. • September: Stan Hagen wins the nomination for the Social Credit party in the Comox Riding. • September: The City of Parksville won an election award for voter turnout, recording 83.9 per cent turnout in the ‘85 municipal election. • October: Qualicum Beach needs a community hospital, according to a report by the District 69 Health Care Task Force.

Parksville and the Rod and Gun Hotel got into a heated battle over this sign, which didn’t fit new bylaws.

Work is afoot to turn to the old school board office on Fern Road into an arts centre in Qualicum Beach.

Sharing Success

Ladysmith

Congratulations to

on their 30th Anniversary. We look forward to continuing our partnership, in printing their paper, and contributing to their success, as we move forward into the future.

30thwww.pqbnews.com Anniversary Series B7

The Parksville Qualicum Beach News Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Community in Review ~ 1987 TOP STORIES • January, 1987: Provincial court judge Edward O’Donnell acquitted the ‘Motherpeace Eight’ of trespassing on Department of National Defence property. O’Donnell ruled the eight peace supporters had not reached land above the visible high water mark during their peace flotilla to North Winchelsea Island the previous August. • February: Qualicum Beach has recorded a 19 per cent population growth during the last five years — the latest census poll stated. Parksville, meanwhile, showed a population growth of 10.8 per cent during the same time period. • May: Homeowners in Parksville were informed that they would be facing an increase of 10.7 per cent on their 1987 tax bill. The lion’s share of the increase was attributed to school and hospital needs. • June: The Nanoose Conversion Campaign erected a teepee outside the Canadian Forces Maritime and Experimental Test Range at Nanoose Bay in protest. The local group was upset with the arrival of three American military vessels with nuclear capabilities. • July: MLA Stan Hagan announced he would resign his position under a cloud of controversy and confusion. Hagan old The News he wanted to step aside until conflict of interest allegations concerning Hagan’s Comox cement company had been cleared up.

Anti-nuclear protests continue at the Canadian Forces Experimental and Test Range in Nanoose Bay. Several arrests and court cases have been heard over the years.

Making headlines in 1987 was the murder case of Bruce John James, found guilty of killing Wendy Frances Worobee of Qualicum Beach.

• August: Work continued on the Qualicum Airport expansion thanks to a $300,000 grant from the Provincial Air Transport Assistance Program. • September: Parksville council expressed concerns that sand in the Parksville Bay area is eroding. • October: Qualicum Beach jammed the Qualicum Airport to get a glimpse of visiting Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Security was tight, however, and most fans did not get the chance to get close. • November: The Nov. 21 election saw Paul Reitsma snag the Parksville mayor’s chair away from incumbent Allen Hustwick. Mayor Art Skipsey returned by acclamation in Qualicum Beach.

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B8 30th www.pqbnews.com Anniversary Series

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 The Parksville Qualicum Beach News

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