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OAK BAYNEWS
Real Estate, Insurance & Property Mgmt.
2045 Cadboro Bay Rd.
250-595-1535 boorman.com
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
vicnews.com
Oak Bay honours its fathers
Recycling goes to landfill
Green committee claims sorted recycling, compost was thrown out following Tea Party
Descendants of first municipal clerk join cemetery tour
T
he role of municipal clerk isn’t exactly a glamorous job, but for the first man to hold the position in Oak Bay, it was an opportunity to leave a legacy that has held strong over the 91 years since his death. James Sterling Floyd arrived in Victoria from Ireland in 1889 and held a variety of clerical roles in Oak Bay from the time the Don Denton/News staff district incorporated in 1906 – Don Reksten, left, researcher for the Oak Bay archives and Old Cemeteries including his claim to fame as Society, Barbara MacFarlane, Patrick Floyd and Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen the first municipal assessor. stand at the Ross Bay Cemetery grave site of James Sterling Floyd, Oak Inside the Oak Bay Bay’s first municipal clerk. MacFarlane and Floyd are grandchildren of archives, Don Reksten knows James Floyd, whose grave site is included on an upcoming Oak Bay all too well the impact of founding fathers cemetery tour. Floyd’s work. Reksten, a Saanich. In 1913 he resigned from his volunteer with the archives, prepared the research for a tour of the position to become municipal auditor is transcribing every entry in grave sites of Floyd and other early Natalie North Oak Bay’s first assessment roll and two men were hired to take over municipal leaders laid to rest in Ross Reporting his previous position. – a ledger Floyd prepared by Bay Cemetery. “He was overworked and weakened,” hand in 1907 – long Floyd first worked for the Reksten said. “Just look at the number before the days of simply searching Hudson’s Bay Company “He was of properties he had to enter into the through assessments in an online before he became a clerkassessment roll – and he did the same database with the ease of a few scrupulous, accountant for E&N Railway kind of work in Esquimalt and Saanich quick keystrokes. (with offices at Broughton conscientious and and Wharf streets), where “He was scrupulous, conscientious “Then he did the same work it accelerated his he worked until he was and it accelerated his death,” he said. for other municipalities, because When Barbara MacFarlane hears the he had become an expert,” said officially appointed Oak Bay’s death.” stories of the grandfather she never Reksten, who sees no end in sight municipal clerk, treasurer, - Don Reksten met, she feels a huge sense of pride for completing the tedious task. “He collector and assessor at the and respect. was really driven, hard-working and first council meeting in 1906. so busy.” He then set up shop in Bastion Square, Reksten, also a volunteer with the Old in an office that would become a hub PlEASE SEE: Cemeteries Society, became an expert in his of activity, with Floyd also performing Take a stroll down memory lane, own right, unravelling Floyd’s story, while he assessment duties for Esquimalt and Page A9
OAK BAY tomf@vreb.bc.ca
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The morning following the Oak Bay Tea Party, the co-chair of the green committee received an email from a Victoria MP, curious if the group had reached its goal of diverting 50 per cent of the waste generated by the event. Days later, Terri Hunter still couldn’t bring herself to respond to that message from Murray Rankin, after she learned that much of the recycling collected and sorted by volunteers at the Oak Bay Tea Party somehow wound up in the municipal garbage. Hunter spent weeks co-ordinating volunteers – who during the Tea Party, spent 22 hours, collecting and sorting recycling – and was ready to hear the final tally on how much recyclable material was saved from the landfill on Monday morning (June 3). Instead, she received a call from distraught committee member Noreen Taylor, who was told by employees at the public works yard that the bags of recycling she was planning to count, had already been thrown away, Hunter said. PlEASE SEE: Volunteer blames lack of leadership, Page A9
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