E-cigarettes
Electronic smokers sidestep new CRD bylaw Page A11
NEWS: New light shed on 2001 Oak Bay death /A4 ARTS: SNAFU Theatre kicks off Phoenix season /A19 SPORTS: Twin sisters pack a hockey punch /A22
OAK BAYNEWS Wednesday, October 16, 2013
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Food for thought Willows elementary kindergartners Tyler Marshall, left, Ben Vallance, Hazel Rees and Jailyn Ringland sort food their class collected for World Food Day last Wednesday. Kindergarten classes are collecting non-perishable food until today (Oct. 16) when Oak Bay Fire fighters will pick the donations up and drop them off for the Mustard Seed’s Great Canadian Food Fight. The classes are hoping to beat last year’s total of 700 items. Food can be dropped off at the school on Musgrave Street where the classes will count, sort and categorize food as they learn skills through helping others. Sharon Tiffin/News staff
Oak Bay to consider new off-leash area Committee to consider making Oakdowne Park more dog-friendly Elodie Adams Special to the News
Oak Bay residents love their dogs. Dog owners are fortunate to have access to 12 parks within the municipality, designated as off-leash parks with no restrictions, and four parks with sea-
sonal restrictions to let their dogs run free. At the municipality’s next Committee of the Whole meeting, on Oct. 21, the committee will deliberate recommendations made by the Windsor Park Dog Group to fence Oakdowne Park and designate it as an offleash park. They also would like to see the restrictions for dogs in Carnarvon Park changed. “Parks are for people, first and foremost,” writes Lesley Ewing in a letter to the editor (see Page 9). Ewing, who lives in Oak Bay near both Oakdowne and Car-
narvon Parks, wrote in after giving some thought to what she read in the report. “I just want to bring the issue to the general public, and specifically to the people who live around the Carnarvon and Oakdowne area,” Ewing told the Oak Bay News. Ewing says she feels this recommendation is “flying under the radar.” “Unless people go to the municipal website they wouldn’t even know this was happening,” she said. “This is a big deal; to take a whole park and fence it off
OAK BAY tomf@vreb.bc.ca
250-360-4821
and say, “this is now for dogs,” is a big deal, and I think it’s going to upset people.” Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen, himself a dog-owner, is aware of the issues surrounding the off-leash/on-leash and seasonal restrictions in the municipality’s parks. He says council will be looking at a variety of options in order to make Oak Bay dogfriendly while maintaining a balance for all residents of the area. “We found that when you allow dogs in parks, they tend to be much cleaner than when there are dog restrictions,” he
said. “Fenced-off areas are used in other communities with great success. It provides appropriate measures of safety for the people using the park, and allows for a longer period of time of dog use.” Ewing points out the expense fencing Oakdowne Park would incur, as well as increased traffic to the area, an issue that also concerns Oak Bay resident Greg Mahonney, who lives right across from the park.
PLEASE SEE:
Dog park could alienate, Page A2
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